Birth Is Not the Beginning – Death Is Not the End: Capt. Dale Black

“But [God’s grace] is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” – 2 Timothy 1:10

Do you sometimes wonder what it will be like when you die?  What will it feel like when your body dies and you, as a believer in Jesus, go on to heaven? Well, according to the Bible, when your time comes, this flesh and blood earthen vessel, the “tent” that you currently live in, will indeed die, but you won’t feel a thing. It will be a lot like taking off an old jacket. You’ll remove the cloak of your flesh, lay it down and go to a better place. Your spirit and soul are eternal and continue in a spiritual body.

Believers who have died and come back say that they have no sensation of loss—no sting. Their minds stay intact (their soul), and they feel like they even have arms and legs, but they are spirit and not flesh. In my own case, after an airplane crash, I couldn’t tell I wasn’t in my body. I felt pretty normal at first. It wasn’t until I looked down and saw myself (my physical body) crushed up against the cockpit instrument panel that I realized what had happened. Later I  tried to grab one of the falling bank checks floating down from above but my hand went right through any material object. It’s obvious to me now how and why this was happening. Detached from my body, I was spirit and not flesh. I was living and functioning in another dimension–but I had never felt more alive. This will happen to you too someday. Some of you already know from firsthand experience what I’m trying to describe.

According to the Word of God, to be absent from the body is to be present with God. “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.” 2 Corinthians 5:1. So, when the Lord brings you home, you’ll simply abandon your fleshly body and go to be with Him forever and ever.

Do you think it’s interesting that God doesn’t refer to our old, abandoned bodies as being dead? He says they’re just asleep. Why, do you suppose? Because He knows that just as sleep is temporary, so is the death of the body. He’s planned a day when our sleeping bodies will be awakened and raised up in glory just like Jesus’ was when He was resurrected and glorified. God can and will do it regardless of how a person died, or how damaged their body was or has become. God will reunite the spirit and soul of a person with their body once again at His return. When that occurs we will have a glorified body.

There is coming a day when not only our spirits have victory over death, but our physical bodies will also!

I’m sending this message to you, reminding you that death is not the “end.” It’s only a change to a better place! Birth is not the beginning either. When did your beginning commence? That’s right… at conception.

*For further reading take a good look at: 2 Corinthians 5:1-9.

Remember, with God Nothing Is Impossible!