Our New Bodies of Our Eternal Habitation
II CORINTHIANS 5:1-4
1 ¶ For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (An eternal body – this body we are in now is temporary)
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: (Paul knew that he had a another body in that third heaven waiting for him, and he was desiring to put on that new body like putting on a new set of clothing, because like Brother Branham, he had been beyond the curtain of time and felt what that new body felt like to wear)
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
(A spirit is not meant to wander around without a house to live in, because a spirit without a body is a naked spirit, like a body would be without clothing. So the house of a spirit is a physical body. A dog’s spirit lives in a dog’s body, An elephant’s spirit lives in and elephant’s body – it is the same for all animals)
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Amplified Bible
4 For while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened [often weighed down, oppressed], not that we want to be unclothed [separated by death from the body], but to be clothed, so that what is mortal [the body] will be swallowed up by life [after the resurrection].
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.
PHILIPPIANS 3:21
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
LUKE 24:38-39
38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
Notice – “a spirit does not have flesh and bones”, but a spirit does live in a physical body of flesh and bones.
This is why when a believer’s dies, it is only their physical body that dies, their spirits go directly to another body that is just as real as the one they had on earth. When we leave here, we are not just spirits that float around in some dream like paradise place called heaven, like having a vivid dream, we are in real bodies.
Our New Bodies of Our Eternal Habitation
I have recently been asked some good questions about this subject and felt that it would be good to look into this and to share what I understand of these things from my years of studying the scriptures in the light of the message of the hour.
*If there is a bible question, then there is also a clear bible answer, and so by the help of the Lord we want to look into this subject a little deeper than maybe we have focused on this before.
***Firstly – it is very important to know that there are certain scriptures that God has ordained to intercept our lives at certain points along our life’s journey, and these scriptures (that by predestination are ordained to intercept with our lives) will unlock events in our lives that will interpret the word prophesied for the season that we live.
**Like Isaiah 7:14 (a virgin shall conceive), that scripture intercepted with Mary’s life at a certain specific point in her life – the supernatural intercepting with the natural – two worlds coming together to fulfill the word of God – the word of God becoming flesh in people. When the two unite together, it then produces the word in flesh in real time.
**And often we don’t recognize this because it seems to us just like a natural course of our lives like random events happening in our lives, but we need to recognize that that is the word of God being interpreted in our lives for the age that we are living in.
II CORINTHIANS 5:1 Opening scripture…
1 ¶ For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (This scripture will one day interpret with each one of our lives)
We know that the ones under the altar in the fifth seal are to be given white robes (new bodies) at the great white throne judgement, so we know for sure that they did not have a theophany body to go to when they died.
**If these souls under the alter (of what the 5th seal speak of) were in a theophany body, then they would be a part of the first resurrection, because their theophany body would unite with their earthly body of the dust of the earth to form a glorified body – because that is how the glorified body of Jesus was formed at the time of His resurrection (we will see that later by the help of the Lord)
The message of the hour has unlocked our understanding of these things.
I CORINTHIANS 15:39-54
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. (God makes bodies different to fit the spirit that is in the body)
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial (celestial is heavenly – so Paul here is referring to our theophany bodies that are in that third heaven in comparison to our earthly terrestrial bodies on earth): but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. (The splendor of the celestial body is greater then the splendor of the terrestrial body)
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. (This is why we are all born with the same human bodies, and yet some have greater glories of abilities and strengths etc. than others – and we can all understand that here in this world, but then it is the same with the glory of the celestial bodies also – there will be different glories of different talents and strengths and abilities – God has designed it that way so that each person will be able to fully express the gift of God that He has placed in them – in other words, your new body will be tailor made to perfectly fit your spirit like a tailor would make a set of clothes to fit your natural body – God has a body designed for you to perfectly accommodate you and to express your spirit of what he made you to be)
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonour (Old and wrinkled and worn out and sick and weak – talk about the dishonour of a life); it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (Your first body came by the sex desire between your mother and father – your body from heaven came from the spoken word power of God)
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (In other words, if you have a theophany body there, then before your spirit can put on that body, you must first put on the earthly image of that body here on this earth – a body on earth that looks almost exactly like that body that is already waiting for you in heaven. This earthly body bares the image of the heavenly body - an image is what you see, in other words, one is the mirror reflection of the other – only the one over there will have all the imperfections removed)
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
51 ¶ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (Notice - your body on earth is not replaced but changed)
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (If you die before the rapture, then your earthly body goes to the grave and turns back to the dust from where it came from, but then at the rapture, your theophany body (that you are cloth with on the other side) comes down to earth and picks up and unites with the dust of your earthly body, it is your heavenly and earth bodies uniting together that form your glorified body, just as a husband and wife unite their bodies together to form a completely new body – and this is what Paul is referring to as “putting on” the new body that is incorruptible).
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible (Earthly body) shall have put on incorruption (Theophany body), and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
***There is to be a people on earth at the end time of where the promise of this scripture will intercept with their lives and unlock this supernatural event of the body change of those who are alive on earth at the time of the rapture. **That is why when you respond to the word for your day by your faith, it shows that you have a word created body on the other side waiting to accommodate the word that you are inside your soul on this side.
*So when you pass on from this life, the word that you became by receiving the word for your day on this side, it has to have a literal body to go into on the other side – that is why the prophet used the term “you have heard from your theophany” because you cannot have one without the other one.
*You cannot be the word here by recognizing and receiving the word here and not have a word body over there. The word body there is for the purpose to receive the word person that you are here, of the message of the hour that you have received for your day. The revelation of the word that you have received in this day has to have a body to dwell in over there.
**So if God has deposited the revelation of the word for this hour into your spirit and soul on this side, then God has to have a body waiting on the other side for that to go into when you leave here – one is simply the evidence of the other.
This is exactly what Brother Branham is saying in the message “Who is This Melchisedec” 1965.
WHO.IS.THIS.MELCHISEDEC_ JEFF.IN V-5 N-10 SUNDAY_ 65-0221E
88 Then, after you recognized the very Word of God was Eagle Food, then you left the other thing. You have then been formed into the living image of the living God. You heard from your theophany. "If this earthly body be dissolved, we have one waiting."
**You cannot hear the word for you day here in this time and season if you do not already have a theophany body over there, because one cannot exist without the other – the word that you have received in this day cannot just be a spirit that floats around when you leave this earth.
The fact that you can receive the word here is the evidence that you have a theophany body over there.
*This is why that before 1965, we never really heard Brother Branham talk quite like this before with such clarity, because these things were not always clear to him.
**So it is important for us to understand that before Brother Branham’s experience beyond the curtain of time on the morning of the 8th of May 1960, he aways thought that a theophany body was a kind of spirit body that was like a ghost in that you could see it but you couldn’t shake hands because it was like a hologram – a hologram is formed by light so that it looks real but it doesn’t have any substance.
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.THREE_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0901M
89 Remember how we took It, the big Diamond, how It reflected the Light, how It went back to there? The... "This earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting."
And they thought Peter done died, this old body had dropped, and they'd bury it in a few days. "He had entered into his angel, or his glori-..." Not glorified body, but in his theophany, the body that's already prepared. It couldn't shake your hands. It has no hands to shake, like that, but it's in an image of a man.
**Look at how he first understood the theophany body – he thought that it was like a spirit ghost like body, and that it was not a real substance body like we have on earth.
**To my understanding, this concept that he had has got a lot of truth to it, but he is applying it to the wrong group in that he is applying it to a theophany body, but in fact this is the description of the body that people go to when they do not have a theophany body.
**We remember the bat that came out of sister Nelle, it looked perfectly real but it was just a spirit form that had no substance. We also remember the man with the overcoat – he looked real but there was no physical body.
**So this is my understanding of the condition of what these ones under the alter of the 5th seal were like, they were in a spirit type of body like a hologram which is light but no flesh and bone – and this is what Jesus said, a spirit does not have flesh and bone. A ghost can appear like it looks real, but it’s not in a real body, it’s in a ghost like image of a body.
*This is why when you hear of people talking about their near-death experiences, it seems like they have bodies, but they are not actually real substance like what a theophany body is.
But when Brother Branham went beyond the curtain of time, he said that they were real, just like the bodies that we have on earth.
MATTHEW 18:10-14
10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels (Theophany bodies) do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. (Jesus is teaching us here that the redeemed have angels in Heaven – Brother Branham tells us in 1961 that these angels are our theophany bodies. In other words, your theophany body is literally formed and waiting for you right now in heaven)
11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
12 How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?
13 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.
14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
The Message has made it very clear that our body is not the real us, it is only the house or tabernacle the WE dwell in – and then if this tabernacle on earth is dissolved, then we have another tabernacle already prepared for us to go into – a theophany body.
14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
*If your theophany body in heaven never had a flesh body counterpart on earth, then it could never unite with that flesh and become a glorified body.
So all these theophany bodies that are in heaven are of His sheep that cannot be lost, because all that the father hath give me will come to me on earth, and so when their counter terrestrial bodies are born on earth by sex desire, then that body on earth will show that it has a theophany body in heaven by receiving the word for its day into that earthly body. If that never took place, then that theophany body in heaven would never be able to come into a glorified condition, and so it would effectively be lost.
QUESTIONS.AND.ANSWERS_ JEFF.IN COD THURSDAY_ 61-0112
560-316 Now, now He would... If you noticed, in Matthew 18:10, He was speaking about taking little children. They was little children, little tots, three or four years old, picked them up. "They brought unto Him children, child." Children comes from the name of "child." A child is just a little--little fellow, not an infant but just between that an a teen-ager. See? It's not responsible yet for itself.
Now, He said, "Take heed that you don't despise." If you'd really take the interpretation of that word is "mistreat." See, "To mistreat one of those." Mistreat a child, you should never do that. They're children; they don't know. See?
And now notice, said, "Because they--their angels always beholds My Father's face which is in heaven." You see? In other words, "Their angels, their--their messengers, their bodies, angelic bodies that they'll go to if they die, are always before My Father's face in heaven." See?
561-329 When a baby is being--a baby is being formed in a womb of a mother, soon as it's put there... See, see? But first it's a spirit. As that spirit begins to take on flesh, a little germ of life begins to take on flesh, and as soon as it drops from its... Now, in the womb, it's a little, quivering, jerking muscles. We know that. That's cells. Just like you take a horse hair and put it in the water, it'll cap over and it'll move, and you touch it and it'll jump. That's the way a baby is.
But as soon as it's borned in this world and breathes its first breath, it becomes a living soul. See? Because as soon as the earthly body is born into the world, there's a celestial body, or a spiritual body, to take ahold of it. And as soon as this natural body is dropped, there is a heavenly tabernacle waiting for it: "If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, there is a heavenly tabernacle waiting for it." Just as soon as--as the baby's dropped into the earth in flesh, there's a spiritual body waiting to receive it. And as soon as the spiritual body--the natural body is dissolved, there's a spiritual body waiting yonder (See?), a theophany we call it (See?), a theophany.
562-330 [A brother asks, "Well, now, is that a... is that temporary, pending the resurrection of this body?"--Ed.] Yeah. See? Yeah. Oh, yes. ["That's the condition that we're going to live in until this resurrection?"--Ed.] That's right. See, see?
It's not revealed to sons of men yet. I believe... I--I know I saw it. See? But I don't know what kind of a body it is, but I could feel them just the same as I feeled your hands or anything else. 'Course this is on tape, and you may be playing it years after I'm gone. See? But... And that, whatever it was (See?), I was--I was holding those people and catching them, and it was just as real as--as you're real, and yet it wasn't... They didn't eat nor drink. There was no yesterday nor tomorrow. See, it was eternity.
562-332 And now, when that tabernacle... They left there in that body, they come back to the earth, and that type of a body they had took on immortality. The--the dust of the earth gathered into that theophany of somehow, and they become human again, had to eat like they did in the garden of Eden. See? "But if this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting."
So these little children that had no sin (See?), no sin yet, their angels, their "bodies" (the one that Peter had come back in... ) see, was waiting. "Beholding the Father's face, in Heaven," it's always before Him; "they know it," there it is.