And when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. Acts 1:9
Last time I established the fact that it is in the cloud. That it is in Christ that we can enter the Holy of Holies, that all our promises are in Christ. Everything. In fact, that we are Christ and therefore the cloud, if we are connected in a life relationship with Jesus, the head.
I also said that in the old covenant, the cloud was Jesus. God’s presence in the desert, for example, was in the cloud. But in the new covenant, Jesus opened the core – or tore the curtain – to enable us to have a relationship with the Father again. He restored oneness.
Oneness was lost in the fall there in paradise, where Adam and Eve learnt to count. Adam, Eve, and God – 1,2,3. Before, they were one. Now, we are one again – in Christ. It’s in the cloud.
If we now take this picture, this metaphor to today’s verse, something extraordinary happens. It would sound something like:
… and Christ received him out of their sight.
or – what a daunting thought:
… and we received him out of their sight.
It is believed that Jesus plundered hell during the time he was “dead”. He took with him all saints of former times.
Paul tells us that all the people that have gone before us do not loose out on salvation, no, but that they will come alive again and meet Christ coming back just before us meeting him.
And the angels told the disciples that he would come back just the way he left.
OK, could it be that the cloud Jesus disappeared in were the saints of old, and in Pentecost, shortly thereafter, the cloud was enlarged? He was received in the Christ, he the head, we the body.
Therefore, whenever a man or a woman decides to follow Jesus as their savior and lord, they are received in the cloud – or dare I say – they meet him in the cloud and come back with him? That moment they are fully taken in by Christ (raptured in the purest word sense) and lifted up to sit with him in heavenly places.
We live our lives to bring him back to earth. To manifest him. To represent him here on earth. To bring down heaven to earth. To accomplish that his will is done on earth just as it is in heaven. How? By doing his will. By living out the Christ. Thus expanding the cloud.
What will this look like? Look at the mount of transfiguration experience of Jesus. Nothing earthly about him. Again he was enwrapped by a cloud in that experience. And he again was called son by his Father.
We are to become sons of God after the pattern of Jesus. Growing into maturity, we manifest the Christ to this earth. Thus we bring him back, from the cloud.
We are the cloud. He is right in the cloud. He will manifest through the cloud. He will come back in, through, and from the cloud.
Any thoughts?