The Greatest Mystery of All: Part 6; Benjamin, Greater Works Shall Ye Do

Now we will look at Benjamin who signifies the great end-time ministry that will come forth out of the followers of Jesus who have been willing to give up all in order to be conformed to his image and come into his fullness. We will also read an account of a 1971 vision of this Benjamin company at work. These are the ones who will do the works Jesus did and even the greater works he promised we would do in John 14:12. However, before this great ministry commences, there are some changes that must take place for these ministers to be conformed to the image of Christ.

In order for them to be entrusted with the great power and giftings that will be manifested through them, they must be free of the sin nature. As we have seen time and time again in some of our more famous evangelists, prophets, and ministers, (and even some not so famous), power and fame can corrupt. These have brought great shame to the name of Christ and his body, the church. However what is coming will be greater than anything the world has ever seen outside of Jesus himself. Those involved in these end-time ministries will have been freed from their sin nature and therefore will not succumb to the temptations that come with power, notoriety and success.

Some persons have been granted a preview of what is coming through dreams, visions and prophecies. I would like to share now the account of a vision a lady had in the church my brother served as associate pastor. I have previously published this on my website but towards the end of an article.  It is also in one or more of my books. Knowing that many people never finish reading articles, especially ones as long as mine, it seemed appropriate to repost it here so more can see it. Afterwards we will look at several accounts from Scripture that reveal that Benjamin does indeed represent this great end-time ministry. The following is from my book, The Four Living Creatures: Entering God’s Kingdom in the Age of Terror, based on Chapter 1 of Ezekiel.

The Vision

Pastor Bob and his wife were just finishing up at the church for the day when one of their new converts, a young woman named Sue Anne, knocked on the office door. She seemed excited and said that God had told her to come to the church and ask Bob to pray for her with the laying on of hands.

As the young pastor and his wife prayed for Sue Anne, she suddenly dropped to the floor under the power of the Holy Spirit. It was obvious from things she would mutter and the movement of her eyes that she was having a great vision. The pastor’s wife quickly set up a tape recorder to ensure that no details of Sue Anne’s account would be forgotten. The following is what was recorded that day in 1971. Surely the time for these events is very near.

Sue Anne: Please pray for me again; I want to go back to where I was.

Bob: No, you cannot go back. The Lord won’t let you go back.

 Sue Anne: Please, Bob, I want to go back to where I was.

Bob: No, you can’t go back. What did you see?

Sue Anne: I was there in the end times, but I wasn’t the only one there. There were other people there…people I know. The earth was brown. Everything was brown. The sky was brown. The trees were brown. They looked like they were burnt but they hadn’t really burned. I don’t understand. The air was dirty and it was real thick. It was hard to breathe. Demons were everywhere—funny looking little things. You could see them. They were hanging onto the buildings and onto the people. We were white. We were absolutely perfect. We didn’t look old. We looked just like we do now only we were perfect. The people would look at us and burn up. It seemed so cruel.  I saw heaven and God was in heaven. I went through three rooms and God was in the third room. It must have been like the tabernacle. I’ve never seen one but that’s what it must have been. 

Bob: What did God look like?

 Sue Anne: (Long pause while groping for words.) He looks like love. God looks like love. God wasn’t alone. There were other people in the room with him but they didn’t look like us. I don’t know how to describe it but they had this round shape.

Bob: It must have been their spiritual bodies.

 Sue Anne: God said he was going to operate on the world and the world wasn’t going to live. He said to tell you that these people who were perfect were going to have more power than the world has ever seen.

Next in the vision she was shown hell which was a terrifying experience causing her to cry. She said there were a tremendous number of people in hell. There were so many who were not going to go to heaven. She said those who do go to heaven were a great minority. (I was unable to transcribe this part about hell because of damage to the tape rendering it unintelligible.)

First Joseph and then Benjamin

Benjamin and Joseph were Jacob’s two youngest sons, both born of the same mother—his beloved Rachel. The previous ten sons had been born by Jacob’s three other wives who signify the old order of the law and servanthood. Rachel, who signifies grace, had been barren for many years and once the others quit bearing, God opened her womb and she was able to conceive. The first son she brought forth, Joseph, is a perfect type of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by God’s grace that he sent us his Son, Jesus, to deliver us from the law and bring us into the great rest of salvation we have in him. No longer do we have to strive under our own efforts to live up to the demands of the law, but we are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit who grants us his strength and wisdom to live by his life.

Joseph was his father’s favorite and his brothers hated him for it. And not only that, Joseph had dreams from God that showed the hand of God was upon him for rulership which only increased his brothers’ resentment.

The story of Joseph has long been a favorite for children and adults alike. We all know the story of how his brothers sold him as a slave to a caravan traveling to Egypt, took his coat of many colors (which was actually a robe signifying Joseph was the priest of the family), dipped it in the blood of a slain animal and then reported to their father that his beloved Joseph had been killed.

Meanwhile in Egypt Joseph was sold again and became a slave in the home of Potiphar. God was with Joseph and blessed all that he did. Potiphar’s wife tried to entice him into adultery and when he refused, she falsely accused him to her husband who had him thrown into prison.

God blessed him in prison and soon he was in charge of all the other prisoners. While there, two other prisoners who had once worked for Pharaoh had dreams. Joseph correctly interpreted those dreams as meaning that one of them, the baker, would be executed and the other would be restored to his position as Pharaoh’s cupbearer.

Two years after the cupbearer had been restored to his position, Pharaoh also had dreams and could find no one with the ability to interpret them. At this point, the cupbearer remembered Joseph, told Pharaoh about him, and Joseph was released from prison and brought before Pharaoh. God gave Joseph the interpretations of the dreams that were warnings of a great seven-year famine that was to come upon Egypt. Pharaoh believed Joseph and placed him in charge of storing up food throughout all Egypt in preparation for the great seven year famine that was to come. Joseph was second only to Pharaoh in the throne and Pharaoh gave him authority over all things. Pharaoh even removed his signet ring from his finger and placed it on Joseph’s finger.

I’m sure the reader can see from this brief synopsis of the story of Joseph the similarities between Joseph’s life and Jesus’. Both were the beloved of their father. Both were hated by their brethren. Both were falsely accused and thrown into prison. Both were released from prison and raised up to be at the right hand of all power and authority. Wherever Joseph went in the chariot given him by Pharaoh, the shout was heard that everyone was to bow their knee to him, which immediately brings to mind the scripture that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.

Back in Canaan

The famine was so severe it even reached into Canaan where Joseph’s family lived. Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to purchase food for their families. However, his youngest son, Benjamin remained at home with his father.

Benjamin had been born to Rachel and Jacob when they were traveling from Bethel to Ephrath on their way back from Paddan-aram to see Jacob’s father Isaac. Her labor was hard and she only lived long enough to know she had a son and to name him Benoni which means son of my sorrow or son of my strength. But Jacob named him Benjamin which means son of my right hand.

Now here is something very interesting which should thrill your soul if you will bear with me as I explain this type. Just before Benjamin was born when Jacob and his family were preparing to leave Shechem, Jacob had everyone go through a process of purification. Everyone was to give him their idols, wash themselves and change their clothes. People did this wholeheartedly and even gave him their earrings. All these things he buried under an old oak tree near Shechem.

In this act of purification, a change of clothes would signify leaving behind all the old and moving forward with God into the new. In addition to this purification, Jacob had another spiritual experience where he wrestled with the Angel all night long and his name was changed from Jacob (meaning schemer, supplanter) to Israel (meaning he shall rule as God). This name change was confirmed when God appeared to him again and affirmed that his name had been changed from Jacob to Israel. This happened at Bethel (house of God).

Just after this, Rachel went into hard labor and gave birth to Benjamin. Thus Benjamin was born of parents who were both purified. Symbolically this speaks of one born without the inherited sin nature. Since Benjamin was the only son born after this purification, he alone can signify the powerful ministry that will come forth out of persons in the fullness of Christ in these end times. This signifies what it means to be fully born again into God’s kingdom.

The death of his mother, Rachel, symbolically tells us the old order of the church age will die. Rising out of this old order will be a people who have overcome and entered fully into the Promised Land. These will have been born of God free from the curse of inherited sin and death. The “son of his right hand” prophetically speaks of Jesus, the one who sat down at the right hand of the Father after he conquered sin and death forever for all humankind and creation. These people will be sitting with him at his right hand. The right hand is the hand of power, and this Benjamin company will minister in the power of God. Just as Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, these people will minister to the “lost” church to bring it up into the fullness of Christ. In this way all persons who love Jesus can be fully born into the kingdom of God also freed from the curse of sin and death.

Folks, this is what we have to look forward to if we have faithfully followed God and left behind all our idols (buried them under the oak tree). As we do so, we find ourselves moving forward with a new name and nature that enables us to follow Jesus right into the Promised Land of our fully redeemed soul and body prepared to rule and reign as kings and priests.

Benjamin in Egypt with Joseph

As the famine increased and Jacob’s family had no more food, Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy food. He kept Benjamin at home lest harm should come to him as had befallen Joseph. When the sons arrived in Egypt, Joseph, unrecognizable to them, had been expecting them knowing they would have to come for food. He accused them of being spies and questioned them thereby learning that his father was still alive and Benjamin was at home with his father.

In order to ensure that the men would return and bring his cherished little brother with them, he imprisoned Simeon with the promise of releasing him only upon their return with his little brother. Additionally, he only gave them enough food to sustain them and their families for a reasonable length of time until they could return. He also instructed that the men’s silver, used for the purchase of their food, be returned in the mouth of their food bags.

When the brothers returned with Benjamin, Joseph instructed the steward of his house to take the men to his house and prepare a meal for them. A while later, when Joseph returned to the house and saw his little brother with the men, he was so overcome with emotion, he had to withdraw briefly to another room so no one would see his tears.

When the meal was served, the Hebrew men were at a separate table from the Egyptians because to eat with a Hebrew was detestable to the Egyptians. The brothers, to their astonishment, were seated at their table in birth order from the eldest to the youngest with Joseph presiding. When the food was served, Benjamin was given five times as much food as his brothers.

Then Joseph instructed his steward to fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they could carry and put their silver in the mouth of their sacks. In the mouth of Benjamin’s sack they were to put Joseph’s own silver cup along with the purchase price for his grain. The men were to spend the night and then leave early the next morning.

The next day when the men had traveled only a short distance away from the city, Joseph instructed his steward to quickly pursue the men and accuse them of stealing his silver cup. The steward did as instructed, overtook the men, accused them of the theft and inspected each man’s food sack beginning with the eldest to the youngest. When the silver cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, they returned with the steward to Joseph’s house.

Joseph was still at home when the men arrived there and they fell to the ground before him. Joseph declared that the one who had stolen his silver cup must become his slave and the others could return to their homes. At this point, Judah passionately interceded for his brother declaring he should be the one to remain as his slave, for if Benjamin did not return home, his father would surely die of sorrow.

At this point, Joseph could no longer control himself before his attendants and cried out for everyone to be sent away from him. Once alone with his brothers, he revealed himself to them. Overcome with emotion he cried so loudly the Egyptians heard him and it was even made known in Pharaoh’s household.

Pharaoh was delighted that Joseph’s brothers had come and declared they should bring back their families and their herds and he would give them the finest land in Egypt for their home. Joseph gave them wagons and provisions for their journey as Pharaoh had instructed. He also gave them new garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes.

Benjamin’s Food

When looking at this scene through spiritual eyes, we see that Joseph is a type of Christ. His brothers typify Christians, and Benjamin a Christian living in the end times who comes into the fullness of Christ. Egypt is the world. There was a great famine in the world at that time and great famine is even now coming upon our present world. Geoengineering, resulting in bizarre weather patterns, and governmental mandates are ruining farmland and hindering the farmers’ ability to earn a living by producing the food that keeps us all alive. Add to that the closure of many food processing plants and slaughterhouses along with high gas prices impacting the trucking industry and unnecessary Covid mandates, and we have the recipe for disaster.

Along with the natural famine there is a spiritual famine in the land. Churches are shutting down all over America. The world has basically invaded the church until one cannot tell the difference between a  confessing Christian and an unbeliever.

This is the outward picture, but down through history, God has always preserved a remnant—a people who faithfully love and serve him. And out of these people will come a Benjamin company in the end times—people filled with the Holy Spirit who have been especially prepared for such a time as this. As we look at the special gifts Benjamin received from his elder brother Joseph, we can see in a figure that these ministers will receive some powerful gifts from God that will be necessary for the functioning of their ministries.  These gifts will only be entrusted to those who have been willing to lay down their self-life in order to come into the fullness of God such that he can live and move and have his being in and through them.

The first thing Joseph did after Benjamin arrived in Egypt was to order a feast prepared for his brothers at his own house. When the food was served, Benjamin was given five times as much food as his brothers. We know Benjamin was the youngest and he may have still been growing, and we all know that teenage boys eat a lot of food, but not five times as much as the other adult men!

Behind this biblical narrative lies a spiritual significance for us in these end times. Spiritually food signifies the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word and the Truth. Jesus said:

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. (John 6:48-51)

Comparing Benjamin’s food with Jesus’ words about food in John, we can see that Benjamin, a type of the end time ministers, receives far more of Jesus’ Spirit and revelation of his Word than his brothers. The number five being the number of grace and unmerited favor shows that he has done nothing to deserve this gift. However, he has responded to God’s call and favor in order to receive the gift. Jesus said, “Many are called but few are chosen.” The chosen ones are the ones who respond to Jesus’ call by giving him their love and obedience. These are the ones who have overcome over all things because they loved not their lives unto death.

One more thing about food—Jesus told his disciples when they questioned him about food at the well where he talked with the Samaritan woman, “I have food to eat of which you do not know…My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.” This, too, will be the food of the Benjamin company of end time ministers. They will only be satisfied when they are doing the Father’s will.

The Silver Cup

The silver cup found in Benjamin’s sack immediately brings to mind Jesus’ reference to the cup of suffering he would have to endure when the mother of Zebedee’s sons asked that her two sons be permitted to sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom. As so typical of Jesus’ way of responding, he answered her question with his own question directed at her sons, “Are you able to drink from the cup that I am to drink?”

This is what all must face if they are going to minister as Jesus ministered. Suffering is the only way into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). All the Adamic nature in us, also referred to as “flesh,” “carnality” and “the old man,” must be crucified, otherwise we would be tempted to take credit for the works of God or in some way try to benefit personally from it.

Three Hundred Shekels of Silver

He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. (Gen 45:22)

Before the brothers left to return to Canaan and bring back their father with the rest of the family, Joseph gave Benjamin gifts the other brothers were not given. First we will examine the 300 shekels of silver. According to the Code of Hammurabi, around the time Joseph lived which was around 1800 BC, a year of unskilled labor was worth ten shekels. Therefore 300 shekels would have been worth what a common laborer could have earned in 30 years of work. Therefore, Benjamin would not have had to work. In type, this is when we cease from our own labors in ministry and Jesus himself does the work through us.

The number three stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete and entire. When zeros are added after a number, they increase the value of the number. Thus Joseph gave Benjamin something of incredible value for doing absolutely nothing to earn it, thus signifying full redemption.

In the Bible silver is the metal signifying redemption. With Joseph being a type of Christ and Benjamin a Christian living in the end times, this prophetically reveals that these people in the Benjamin company will receive something from God that has not been given to others down through the ages. Benjamin will receive not only the redemption of his soul, but also the redemption of his body as revealed in the spiritual meaning of 300 as being complete and entire and silver meaning redemption. Yes, the other brothers, as types of believers who lived before the end-time Benjamin company, would have had the salvation of their souls, but real, complete and entire redemption has to include the physical body also which is reserved for those alive at the return of Christ. The Bible tells us that the last enemy to be destroyed is death:

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. (1 Cor 15:25, 26)

…the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:21-23)

In the account of Joseph and his brothers, Rachel groaned and labored to give birth to Benjamin and then died. As we look forward to the spiritual fulfillment of this, we see in Romans that the entire creation is groaning and laboring with birth pangs in anticipation of the birth of this Benjamin company of believers who will represent the beginning of the deliverance from the curse of death upon all creation. The old creation under the curse will die. The fleshly sin nature in us will also die.

Five Changes of Garments

When we think about the spiritual meaning of the word garment, most of us probably think of the garment of praise, most likely because we used to sing a scripture song that encouraged, “Put on the garment of praise for the spirit heaviness.” There are other places in scripture that speak of garments as having spiritual significance such as salvation and righteousness:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness… (Isa 61:10)

And the virtuous woman in Proverbs:

Strength and honor are her clothing…(Prov 31:25)

However, for Benjamin to have been given five changes of garments indicates something far greater, especially in the light of his brothers having been given only one change apiece. With Joseph as a type of Jesus, his brothers in type as Christians, and Benjamin signifying a Christian in the fullness of Christ living in the end times, Benjamin is given salvation and righteousness that amounts to perfection as seen in the spiritual definition of “five” given by E. W. Bullinger. Bullinger tells us that the number one signifies God the Father; two is God the Son; three is God the Holy Spirit; four is the number of creation; and five is the number of redemption. He goes on to say:

If four is the number of the world, then it represents man’s weakness, and helplessness, and vanity, as we have seen. But four plus one (4 + 1 = 5) is significant of Divine strength added to and made perfect in that weakness; of omnipotence combined with the impotence of earth; of Divine favour uninfluenced and invincible.

 A Most Important Benjamite

Now let’s look at what Paul the Apostle, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, has to say about being clothed:

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (2 Cor 5:1 – 5)

Paul isn’t just talking about what happens when we die here because if mortality is swallowed up by life, then we didn’t die. Let’s look at this in the NLT:

While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.

The Contemporary English Bible has an interesting translation that I believe makes it clear:

These tents we now live in are like a heavy burden, and we groan. But we don’t do this just because we want to leave these bodies that will die. It is because we want to change them for bodies that will never die.

The Good News Translation:

While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a feeling of oppression; it is not that we want to get rid of our earthly body, but that we want to have the heavenly one put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life.

The Weymouth New Testament:

Yes, we who are in this tent certainly do sigh under our burdens, for we do not wish to lay aside that with which we are now clothed, but to put on more, so that our mortality may be absorbed in Life.

As Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 1, we all struggle with the weaknesses of our physical body which is like a tent that we live in, and in 1 Corinthians 15, he explains more about how this will come about:

 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

This is why we need that new body, that house not made with hands from on high that Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 5. This flesh and blood body of ours is corrupted by the sin nature we inherited from our parents and they from their parents and so on all the way back to Adam and Eve. Then he begins to tell us how this will happen:

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep,

In other words, we are not all going to die. My husband and I are at the age where our friends of similar age sometimes ask us the question, “Do you want to be buried or cremated?” Our answer is and has been since 1972, “We’re not going to die.” At this point our friends are usually at a loss for words.

We have known for all these years that we are going to be changed. We are not going to leave the physical earth in a rapture. We are going to stay right here and be changed and minister to our brothers and sisters in Christ and help them come up into this realm as well. This message is all through the Bible, but mostly hidden in types and shadows because it is a mystery—a mystery that we are even now beginning to unravel.

but we shall all be changed

We have to be changed to enter because God will not allow any of the sins of the carnal nature to enter this realm and corrupt what God has planned for us. As we are admonished in Galatians 5:

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

These passions of the flesh in us must be crucified if we are to enter this next stage where we shall be changed:

—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Down through the ages Christians have believed that “the dead will be raised imperishable” refers to people who have died and their bodies have been buried. This is why most cemeteries bury their dead facing east so that when Christ returns from the east, they will be brought back to life and can meet him face to face. The problem with this understanding is that the people are not in their graves. When they died they went immediately into the next life where, if they were Christians, they were with Jesus. Remember Jesus said to one of thieves dying on a cross, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” Also in Jesus’ account of the rich man and Lazarus, Lazarus died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man died and went to Hades where he was in torment.

So clearly these people are not in their graves. The whole misunderstanding comes about because people have not known that they have a spiritual body that is sleeping or dead, and that that is what will be raised (awakened/resurrected) incorruptible as Jesus returns. Along with this, the natural body will be changed as the curse of sin is removed from it.

It has always bothered me that newscasters refer to a dead body, which is really just the house the person once lived in, as being the actual person. They say something like, “John Smith, who suffered mortal wounds in the most recent skirmish in Afghanistan, returned by plane to Andrews Airforce Base today. He will be buried in Arlington cemetery.” They could have just as easily and more truthfully said that his body was returning and his body would be buried. This kind of rhetoric only perpetuates the myth that the body is the person rather than the house the person lived in.

Most people believe the second coming of Christ will occur in an instant in a certain location. A common teaching is that he will return to Jerusalem and sit on a throne from which he will rule the nations. This would be a great decrease in his awesome power to rule because he is already ruling from heaven. How would he communicate with the world in order to rule? Would be notify everyone on their cell phones? Would he send emails to our computers? Use Twitter, Instagram or Facebook? A special television presentation? Of course these suggestions are ridiculous, but this is to point out that people believe a lot of things they are told without investigating and studying the Scriptures for themselves.

I submit to you that Christ will rule all over the world IN HIS BODY, IN HIS PEOPLE, and we are the New Jerusalem—the new church without spot or wrinkle. This is the great mystery. First he will rule in you—not as an overbearing monarch but in deep rapturous love because you have willingly relinquished all your selfish ambitions and carnal urges to him. You will be like him in character and thus the entire body of Christ worldwide will be in unity and power.

Will we hear the loud, piercing sound of a trumpet heralding his return? The answer can only be Yes if we interpret this spiritually. In the Old Testament literal trumpets were used to instruct the people with certain commands such as “Prepare for war” or “Prepare to move.” But we aren’t living in Old Testament times. Jesus has come. As believers we have his Holy Spirit living inside. As we mature in him we experience ever greater manifestations of his presence as we walk before him in obedience.

Here is what a spiritual trumpet sounds like. I know because I “heard” it when the dead was raised in me when Christ awakened my spiritual body in February of 1992. I quote now from my book, This Mortal Puts On Immortality: A New Unraveling of the Mysteries of Revelation 4, 5 and 6:

Rev 4:1  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.

We cannot help but read this verse and imagine it according to our own earthly understanding. I know what a trumpet sounds like. I can imagine words spoken with a voice that sounds like a trumpet. Trumpets are usually loud and can be piercingly high. It almost seems a little scary that one could hear something like that speaking out of another realm. I would imagine heaven having harps and soft flute sounds. However, the kind of hearing John is describing here has nothing to do with our natural ears. This is entirely new. This is spiritual hearing that doesn’t require a certain language, e.g. English, French, German, etc. be spoken. This language is perceived in an entirely different way because it is “like a trumpet.”

When we look at the Greek word for “trumpet,” sal’-pinx, we find it is defined as “through the idea of quavering or reverberation; a trumpet.” The key here is found in the similar words of “quavering” and “reverberation.” Webster’s Dictionary defines “quaver” as “tremble.” Tremble denotes movement back and forth. Reverberation also has to do with back and forth movement made by sound waves in the air. When I describe my experience of going through the open door, you will see that it involves repeated, undulating movement although the movement is not fast as one would expect in the words “tremble” or “reverberation.”

When I went through this door on February 11, 1997, and experienced this feeling of movement, I received a message that was as loud and piercingly clear as a trumpet blast and yet absolutely silent at the same time. I knew that Jesus had come to me in a special way and I knew I was deeply loved. No specific words reached the tympanic membrane of my ears, and yet I had never understood anything more clearly in all my life. And this voice of a trumpet has never stopped talking to me in this silent language since the beginning of this experience in 1997.

My Experience

On February 11, 1997 a close and very prophetic friend of mine had, in my presence, a vision of Jesus and me together in a lovely meadow. We were sitting on a large rock talking. Jesus reached down and touched my feet and said, “These feet will never touch the earth again.” I had no idea what that meant.

That night as I was lying in bed all relaxed and waiting for sleep to come, I began to feel a very pleasant, rhythmic, tingling sensation in my feet that worked its way up my legs and spread out over my entire body including my arms, hands and fingers in just a few seconds. I immediately related it to the vision earlier that day where Jesus touched my feet and said they would never touch the earth again.

Due to the things the Holy Spirit was showing me in his Word, I was aware that I had not only a physical body but also a spiritual body that I would live in when I no longer needed my earthly body. I knew this spiritual body was with me but was in a dormant state as though asleep.  As I felt this gentle, wave-like movement deep inside, I knew I was feeling my spiritual body being awakened. Because it started in my feet, I immediately identified it with my friend’s vision. I knew Jesus had touched me in a distinct and heretofore unknown way. It was a personal and most wonderful experience which is difficult to describe. The feeling has never left but has only intensified. Because this was and continues to be a spiritual experience, it is difficult to describe in words. Now I understand why so much of the Bible is written as allegory. There would be no other way to explain spiritual things except by relating them to natural things we understand.

I will attempt to describe the feeling of the spiritual body being awakened by Jesus. It is a very gentle, slow rhythmic feeling almost like a deep massage but it doesn’t touch the skin. It is deep inside and it gives the feeling of being deeply loved. Every fiber of my being feels loved. It is like bobbing up and down on a raft resting upon gentle waves like one would experience in a bay perhaps or one of the Great Lakes. Ocean waves would be too strong. These are gentle waves. They never, ever stop…not for one second. I cannot tell my physical body from my spiritual body because my whole being feels this wonderful sense of God’s love and quickening. It is deeply relaxing and comforting.

I know I am never alone because I am able to feel God’s love at all times. It is a most wonderful and amazing experience and a necessary one for what we are about to experience as the Antichrist spirit begins his overt attempt to take over the world. No matter what is going on around us, this knowledge that we are loved and we are not alone never leaves.

It also brings an understanding that we have entered into the supernatural realm. Things will never be the same. Part of us has risen above the earthly realm and heaven is very near. This is the realm we will need to live in as our world crumbles around us.

With this understanding we can finish this quote from 1 Corinthians with a new insight into what the scripture is actually describing.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”

The Greek word for corruptible is fthartos defined as meaning “decayed” and “perishable.” So we see here that the part of us that decays and eventually perishes is going to be changed to a state that does not decay or perish as we put on incorruption.

The Greek word for mortal is thnētos which means “liable to die.” To put on immortality, as seen in the Greek word, athanasia, means “undying” and “everlasting.”

The saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory” is from Isaiah 25:8:

He will swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.

Another great scripture is found in Hosea 13:14:

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.

In Benjamin we see the great end-time ministry going forth from people who have experienced the awakening of their dormant side as seen in Zebulun (the spiritual body), Naphtali (the spiritual mind) and Issachar (the holy imagination). Jesus has removed the curse of sin and death from their natural body (Manasseh) and their natural mind (Ephraim). And now they go forth in great power doing the works Jesus did and even greater works.

Jesus, the head of the church, will be joined with his body doing his greater works through them. In this way he can be all over the world at once ministering to all people everywhere in their own language. The church will come into the unity of Spirit and faith and such as are being saved will be added to the church daily.

For the earth will be filled 
with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

Would you like to become part of this great company of believers? It will require turning loose of all temporal worldly loves and pressing into Jesus with all your might as you fulfill his command to “love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” To do so will bring you joy unspeakable and full of glory.