The Resurrection Body

Today I dust off another very old archived teaching from my collection of unusual teachings in my vault that I have come across over the years.

This one comes to us from 1975.

As usual, like Lonnie Frisbee advised me, "Eat the meat and spit out the bones" if any of today's featured teaching goes against your own understandings or doctrinal beliefs etc...

I present these teachings merely to share with you things that I myself have enjoyed over the years.

Add to that the fact that I have never heard Christian teaching like this from any other church pulpit that I have ever sat under.

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 When God made man out of the dust of the earth, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Adam then became the first of an entire soul race.

When you accept Christ, He becomes the second Adam, the head of a whole new creation, a life-giving Spirit.

You were dead in your trespasses and sins.

This means that your spirit was largely a non-entity.

It did not perform.

It had no function.

It was not alive unto God at all.

But when you accept Jesus Christ, you are born again; your spirit comes alive.

What happens to the soul?

It immediately begins to participate in the great work of salvation.

We read in Acts 2:47 that God was adding to the Church day by day those who were being saved.

When they accepted Christ, their spirit immediately became alive to God, it was their soul life that was being saved.


  The soul represents your emotions, the function of your mind, that which enables the physical body to interpret.

My eyes may see someone scowl at me, but it will mean nothing except the fact that he is wrinkling up his forehead, unless the soul reaches out and interprets it.

And so the soul becomes a kind of switchboard to interpret what the physical senses receive, as well as what the spirit receives.

Once the spirit becomes alive to the Lord, it reaches out and tunes in to God and this is often a great blessing.


  There is a great difference between what God is bringing in this walk with God and the Pentecostal movement, where they worked up through the soul level to reach God.

That is never effective.

In this walk with God, we worship God in spirit, and the blessing reaches the soul level through our spirit.

The process is absolutely reversed.

We are not saying that we are not blessed or that we do not have wonderful feelings- of course we do.

But we do not approach God through feelings; we approach God through a spirit that is alive to Him.

In worship, when our spirit rejoices in the Lord, it reaches even to the physical level, and the signs come to us through soul and spirit.


  Do not get the idea that you are made of three components - body, soul, and spirit - that are completely separate like bolts rattling around in a jar.

There is an overlapping from the physical into the soul, from the soul into the spiritual.

God deals with a person's spirit when he is not even conscious of what is happening.

But after several days it seems to work through and it reaches his conscious mind.

When God reaches your spirit, you are not always alive to it.

The thing we are working for now is to get perception so the gifts of the Spirit operate.

Then that which the Holy Spirit brings to your spirit reaches the level of understanding almost immediately.


  In some way the things of the old Adamic nature come through and we find revelation of it coming.

That is because we have inherent within us that heredity and nature.

But we have another nature, that which came to us when the second Adam, Jesus Christ, fathered the spirit within us in a born - again experience.

Now we are waiting for our redemption, the redemption of our bodies.

Paul says that this vile body will be fashioned like unto His glorious body by the power whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself ( Philippians 3:21 ) .

This means that whichever nature comes up strongest could shine through and influence whatever body you have.

If we are still in the natural body, which we are, or if I were to break through to that resurrection body, it still would be true that the Spirit could come through to that nature in a very outstanding way.

This means that as you walk with the Lord and you worship the Lord in your spirit, it can have a very profound effect upon your body.


  Do I mean that what is in my spirit could come and affect my body?

I believe it can.

The processes of health and strength and uplift could come.

Paul wrote to Timothy, "Bodily exercise profiteth a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life which now is and the life which is to come" ( I Timothy 4:8 ) .

Timothy had poor health, but he was told that as he walked with God, it would have a profound effect on the physical life, every aspect of it, and on the that is to come.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could learn how to take care of our bodies and bless them through our spirits being in tune with God?


  Through hypnosis, suggestions can be planted that reach down to affect the physical capacities of a person and enable him to do things that he would not be able to do consciously, such as exercising greater strength.

This was demonstrated in a negative way by men who were devil-possessed and so strong that no man could chain them (Mark 5 ).

We see a positive illustration of this in the story of Samson.

There was no explanation for Samson's physical strength except that it came from a spiritual source and anointing, as the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.

Think of the tremendous strength required to kill one thousand men with the jawbone of an ass.


  The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will quicken our bodies, according to Romans 8.

I wonder if we are really believing for enough blessing?

Or do we have some kind of built-in unbelief?

The people out in the world believe that they can get in tune with something that will bring forth fantastic potentials.

Why can't we believe that the Spirit of Christ with in us can begin to produce more, that godliness is profitable for all things, that everything within us - natural, physical, and spiritual - will respond to the Holy Spirit making alive our spirit and bringing another heredity, with new capacities and new life?


  When the body is dead and has gone back to its elements, the spirit is alive, relatively alert with an awareness on it.

But it must remain ineffective, for it is incomplete because the soul is asleep.

Under this consideration, you realize that your prayers to the saints to help you would be absolutely worthless.

I think it is pointless for you to pray to people who are limited in their capacity to help.

Look to the Holy Spirit to help you. Look to God.


  Be aware that the cloud of witnesses is very close.

Do not be afraid to feel very close to Peter, James, John, Paul, to all of those who have gone before.

Do not be afraid of that; that is not spiritualism.

It is true - you cannot see them, not because of the great distance, but because the physical senses of this natural body are not tuned in to them.

Tune in with your spirit and you will never feel alone again.

They are not going to help you, but they surely are going to watch how you run the race.


  Your five physical senses are limited to operate on one plane.

Therefore you do not see God or the angels.

The more spiritual you become , the more of an ability or a capacity can be given to you to break through the limitations of the natural senses and come into an awareness of the spirit realm.


  Throughout all eternity you will have a body, a soul, and a spirit.

If I thought that I would be only a spirit in a long white robe floating on a cloud playing a harp, I would just as soon sleep it out, wouldn't you?

There must be something better than that.

The Bible says there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

We were made to be creatures of both heaven and earth.

We will not be creatures who live in heaven alone, but we will be creatures fulfilling upon this footstool the pleasure and the will of God.

We will be eternal creatures upon an eternal earth, and as eternal creatures made in God's own image, we will still retain a triune expression even as He does.


  As He is a trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so we will be a trinity - spirit, soul, and body.

But it will be a resurrection body, fashioned like unto His glorious body.

And our spirits will be fully developed, for whom He did foreknow them also He did predestine to be conformed to the image of His Son ( Romans 8:29 ) . 

Whatever Christ is in the realm of spirit, we know that is our future too.

It is unlimited, the most fantastic thing you could ever think of, to be like Jesus Christ in spirit.

He is the first-born among many brethren.


  In Revelation 20:6 the Scripture refers to the first resurrection: "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; upon him the second death hath no power."

This is what is often called the "rapture" or the second coming of Jesus Christ.

But it is not the great revealing and unveiling of Christ when every eye shall see Him; do not be confused about that.

In the great time of His presence, the days which we are approaching now, the first resurrection will be one of the events.


  Our critics often make the remark that we do not believe in the second coming of the Lord, in the rapture.

Of course we do.

It is just tat we have placed it at the last trumpet.

You can count on it that there will be a number of events taking place and the last event - which probably projects itself well into the Kingdom age - will be the last trumpet.

It is more likely that the first resurrection will take place many years into the Kingdom, rather than at the beginning of the tribulation.

That I give you only as my conclusion ( The teachers own thoughts) .

If you want to think a little more conservatively, you might say that at the end of His presence, when He establishes the Kingdom, the first resurrection will take place.

But do not be confused on that either, for the first resurrection is not an event limited to one time.

There will be succeeding waves, just as the restoration saw many different companies come out of Babylon.


  People will sucessively be breaking through.

We have the symbol of this in the two witnesses spoken of in the book of Revelation.

They witness for a time and are slain.

After their bodies lie in the street for three days, they are resurrected and caught up, so strong are the judgments that have been given to them.

We believe that many people will do this.

I do not believe that the martyrs of the tribulation period will remain dead very long, at least not the ones who are chosen for this ministry of witness.

There will be almost an immediate resurrection after just a short period.


  I believe this happened in the early Church many times.

Many of the thing you see in some of the old pictures have a meaning.

We have become aware of the auras about people, and it was during the time of the early Church that they began to paint little halos around people's heads, symbolic of the aura ad the glory they had.

Paul talks about Moses having a glory, but they had a glory that fades not away.

The stories that come to us about the early martyrs tell that sometimes they would be slain, only to be immediately resurrected and caught up.


  The day that Jesus died on the cross, the graves were opened and many who slept arose and went into the city of Jerusalem.

The first resurrection must not be considered just an event.

If you want to know what the resurrection is, you will have to read John 11:25.

Jesus said," I am the resurrection and the life."

Stop divorcing these things from Christ.

In Him all the fullness lies.

Everything is in Him.

He is the life.

He is the way.

He is the resurrection.

We cannot reduce this to doctrines.

It is a living thing.

God Himself, in His Son, is our resurrection.

The minute I give way fully to Jesus Christ, I am giving way to resurrection; I am giving way to life.

And I will respond to it.


  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

But when this perishable will have put on imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. 

O death, where is your victory?

 O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The minute God begins to give you victory over sin, you are getting victory over death.

It is all tied together.

How do you know you are going to live?

Because He has forgiven your sins and delivered you from the curse of the law.


  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:53-58.

In other words, your persistence in walking with God has a direct relationship to your resurrection body.

It is not just because you have a hope; it is because you persevere in doing the will of God, walking in the righteousness of God, steadfast and immovable, abounding in His work.


  Everyday that I live in faithfulness to the Lord has a relationship to my resurrection.

Hebrews 11 even talks about those who refused deliverance at a moment when they could have compromised or found a way of escape.

They refused deliverance from death that they might attain a better resurrection.

That is why the early Church was willing to die.

They were not afraid, for they knew they were forging right into the perfect expression of God's victory over death, sin, and the law, and into the hope of resurrection.

It was burning within their hearts.


  I do not think we have in us yet the real hope of resurrection life that we should have.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Colossians 3:1.

When you are born of God, the resurrection takes place first in your spirt.

After your spirit is alive to God, you persistently seek those things which are above, and then it has to take place in each succeeding level.

Your soul comes alive to God and then your physical body comes alive to God.

If it pleases God that the physical man die and the soul sleep, at least you have the promise of the better resurrection.