Unless we die suddenly and unexpectedly, this is a prayer we will all need to pray someday. Perhaps you know someone right now who could use encouragement and strength as he or she faces death. Whether this is for you, the reader, or someone you care about, please take these words to heart.
Death is the final enemy, the last struggle, and the threshold into a greater reality. Jesus promised us that, if we believe in him, we will actually never die! Dying is not death.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 (ESV)
Martha, Lazarus’ sister, responded to Jesus that she believed, but she was only thinking of the distant future, which is what most of us do. We postpone the inevitable as long as we can, missing out on the glorious reality that Jesus is the Resurrection right now! Eternal life is right now and will never end! Physical death ends the body and soul life we have known and loved, but our spirits will seamlessly transition immediately into God’s presence, and one day our bodies will also be resurrected!
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:1-6 (ESV)
Physical death will bring us to the point of our greatest weakness, when we will have to rely 100% on our Savior and his promises. Either he is truly the Lord of life and death, or we are in big trouble. But the Bible clearly teaches us that God is sovereignly and ultimately in charge of our lives while we are breathing oxygen and our physical deaths, as well as our transition into his manifest presence. The problem is that we, in a similar way as Martha above, have doubts lurking in our hearts. We believe, but not as surely and strongly as we should. This is where we need the help of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said that the Spirit lives inside and through us and will never, ever leave or forsake us. Most assuredly he will not bail on us when we are facing and experiencing physical death.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:16-18 (ESV)
Many people fear being abandoned at death. The popular concept of ghosts is that they are disembodied spirits wandering hopelessly in a kind of tormented limbo-like existence. Jesus made it clear that no such thing will ever happen to us. One can only imagine what “ghosts” really are, but most likely they are demonic spirits posing as ghosts to deceive and enslave gullible humans.
Believers are joined to the Spirit of God by an indissoluble fusion – spirit to spirit.
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (ESV)
This amazing union with God through the Spirit is a most precious secret of the New Covenant. It is what makes us children of God. It is why we have eternal life. It is the reason we are able to fellowship and communicate with our God. In fact, the Bible tells us that even while we are still living in these physical bodies, we are actually seated right now in the heavens in the spirit with Christ.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (ESV)
When our bodies die, our spirits will instantly be in heaven, which is where we are right now joined to Christ.
I know this is probably taxing your brain. Don’t try to figure this out. Simply believe. You are right now in heaven in Christ. His Spirit is joined to your spirit. You and I are one with our God. He lives in us and through us, and we in him. This will never change. It is true whether our physical bodies are alive or if they temporarily die. (Don’t forget we will be resurrected!)
Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. John 14:19-20 (ESV)
The question is, do we really believe this? Is it settled in our hearts?
Death is an enemy. It is not part of God’s original design. It brings the first part of our existence as a human being to an end, but it is a conquered enemy that has lost its sting because our Lord rose from the dead and is the Resurrection living inside of us.
We all have the promise that Jesus will personally raise us from the dead.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:39-40 (ESV)
Paul was granted the amazing experience of going to heaven while he was still living in his physical body. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) What he saw there convinced him that death is not to be feared. He wrote that death is actually gain.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Philippians 1:21-23 (ESV)
Paul experienced no ambivalence regarding death. He was eager to pass through the portal of physical death into God’s glorious presence.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 (ESV)
God wants to work in us a similar desire to pass into the heavenly realms. No, we are not in hurry to leave behind our loved ones and what we know, but we can have a genuine joyful expectation of what lies ahead on the other side of physical death. Jesus certainly lived (and died) that way. He was earnestly yearning to return to his Father and the heavenly glory that he had left behind.
You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. John 14:28 (ESV)
Perhaps our greatest challenge is that we haven’t yet glimpsed what is on the other side. This is where we need help from the Holy Spirit, who is able to give us revelation about the hidden things of God.
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (ESV)
The prayer that follows asks the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the glorious realities of eternal life in God’s presence that will continue from now to eternity. Physical death is merely a “bump in the road,” a gateway into glory, the door into an eternity spent with God!
Prayer
Lord, I am facing death and really need your help. Thank you for being patient with me. You know my struggles to truly believe. You struggled yourself in the Garden of Gethsemane, but you maintained your confidence in your heavenly Father and your determination to bring glory to him through life and death. That is what I want, too. Holy Spirit, you are the one called alongside to help me. Thank you that you will never abandon me. You will walk this walk with me and through me. I ask you now to strengthen me in my inner being, in my spirit, with your strength and power. (Ephesians 3:14-19) I ask you to reveal to me personally what I need to know from your word and through opening my spiritual understanding, so that I can gloriously, peacefully, joyfully, and lovingly pass through death into your manifest presence. Into your hands I commit my spirit. You gave me life, have sustained me all my days on earth, and will continue to be my Life and Source for eternity. Jesus, I believe you will be there for me when I take my last breath. You will welcome me into my new heavenly home, introduce me to your Abba, and reveal to me your fabulous glory! Help me to look forward to this as I should. Help me to be an example to all those who know me and observe my life. I want my death to bring glory to your name. I want to show others how to trust you in death; so that, when their time comes, they will be helped by remembering how you helped me. Glorify yourself through my life and through my death. I surrender to your will and care. In life and death I am more than a conqueror through you! Amen.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39 (ESV)
