Dear Mike,

This is my first time writing to you, although I’ve been visiting your website and reading some of your letters and writings (and there is a lot) on Is, Was and Will Be for about three years now. Although the treasures that I have found there have been truly a great blessing to me, the ings I now am beginning to see and understand and speak have put me into a very lonely place because I don’t know how to present what I’ve learned to everyone. Very, very few people can even begin to understand the things I can now see, and it makes me very sad and lonely. No one to share it all with. Please pray for me.
There’s still a lot of things I don’t understand. Mike, does flesh being sown into the ground mean that the physical body dies or falls asleep in Christ? Is the ground they are sown into physical ground? If so, how do these scriptures apply?

1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

It doesn’t appear that those who are alive and remain have been sown into the ground. If you would, please bring some clarity to this for me. I know that you are very busy, but if you would please take a moment to read this and respond, I would be most appreciative. Thanks for your patience!
May you continue to be a blessing to so many.

A____

Hi A____,
Thank you for your questions.

I am thankful that the Lord has led you to iswasandwillbe. com and has now led you to write to us.
Your experience of attempting to share your new found Lord with others is typical of us all, and the rejection we experience is also common to us all. As you put it “Very, very, few people can even begin to understand the things I now see”, and yes, it is very sad and lonely walk.
You are indeed in my prayers.
You ask if being “sown into the ground” is physical, and the answer is absolutely not! If it were physical, then none of us would be able to “bring forth fruit in the sense to which Christ refers when He tells us this:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

When Christ is working in our lives and He is burning out all that will burn up, we sometimes wish this were physical death, but it is not.

Rev 9:6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

The ‘death’ we die is daily, and the ‘ground’ into which we are sown is the people, events and cares of this world. It is our families and friends who are estranged by our new understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of God which they have not been granted eyes to see or ears to hear. That is the ground into which we are sown. That is the cross on which we are being crucified with our Savior.

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them [ the multitude who come to Christ] in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [ the multitudes of Christianity] it is not given.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

You say:

It doesn’t appear that those who are alive and remain have been sown into the ground.

It does not appear that we are crucified, but we are. It does not appear that we are seated with Christ in the heavens either, but we are.

Eph 2:6 And hath raised [ us] up together, and made [ us] sit together in heavenly [ places] in Christ Jesus:

Likewise those who are “alive and remain” until the actual coming of our Lord will have “fallen to the earth and died” before they are “changed in a moment”. But that “change” will be the death of this flesh, even if it is done “in the twinkling of an eye.”

1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive [ and] remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The day will come when God’s sovereign hand will cause the kingdoms of this world to be given to the children of that kingdom and to the children of the resurrection. At that time all who have lived lives of being “crucified with Christ” and “dying daily” in Christ will be rewarded for their faith in “the things of the spirit”.
I hope this has answered your questions concerning being caught up together with Christ if we are alive and remain. I pray that the holy spirit will give you to understand that we already are crucified, have already “fallen into the ground and died… nevertheless we live… by the faith of the Son of God.”
Your brother in Christ,

Mike