The LORD comes

A woman was asked one time, "Are you secure in your salvation?"

To which she responded..."Well, I wouldn't be much of a Kingdom person if I didn't trust my King."

She got a bit of a blank stare and apparently the response indicated that she needed some clarification as to what was asked. "What I mean is, do you know you are going to heaven when you die?" To which she responded. "I've already died. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

The evangelist, clearly not getting the answer he was looking for, tried again. "When you stand before God and he asks "Why should I let you into Heaven, what will your response be?"...to which the woman stated, "Well, that's a strange question... I stand before God every day and ask Him to let me in on what He's up to...He never says "Why should I let you"...I'm his Child and I've come to Him to hang out, to listen to Him, to learn from Him, to walk with Him in the good works he has prepared for me" and she finished by saying “Haven’t you read in your scriptures that in Him we live and move and have our being?”

In a last ditch effort to get the answer he wanted out of her, He said, “When your body physically dies, what is going to happen to your soul?”

“Well, assuming the Lord doesn’t appear before then…I guess it will do the same thing my body does…it will be at rest with Messiah until the End comes, you know…1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8, Revelation 21 and 22. Or like Peter says of our blessed hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 3…ummm, how does it go…New Heavens and New Earth…oh yeah, ‘Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago…’

Then the evangelist says, “All I am really interested in is if you believe in the name of Jesus or not, our Immanuel?”

“I just told you I do. I trust that YHWY saves…that He is with us. How is it that you think I was able to completely walk away from my own identity to continuously lay my rights down, to look after the poor and widow, to bring healing to the sick and dying?”

The evangelist was frustrated, his peace had left him, “That’s just it, salvation is not based on works! You just say ‘I accept Jesus so I can go to heaven when I die.’ That’s all you have to do! It’s much more simple than you are making it!”

The woman became concerned for her friend and she was filled with the Spirit, placing her hand gently on his shoulder she spoke, “Brother, it’s ok, don’t be afraid.”

“I just don’t know about you.” He said.

Speaking in the Spirit, she said, “Neither did they, but I AM with you and you are known.”

And as she placed her other hand on his other shoulder their eyes met, and there, face to face, the Holy Spirit fell upon him with great power, the demons fled and he saw for the first time… all things had become new, there is a new creation. The Lord comes.