Joseph Prince - Look Forward to The Blessed Hope

This is an excerpt from: Much More Restoration Is Coming!

Praise God. Hello, church. Greetings with praise and mercy on you. First, I just wanna, on behalf of my family also, to thank all of you for all your precious condolences and especially your prayers for me and my family during this time of my mother's homegoing to be with the Lord. She is in a far better place than any of us, okay? And of course I missed her very much. She was the one that talked to me about Jesus when I was a small boy and not fully understanding everything, but she kept on talking to me about the Lord. So I told her to buy me a cross, but the only thing is that, you know, she also brought me to see vampire movies and all that. And I asked her to buy me a cross because vampires are scared to look at the cross.

Anyway, that started me going on a journey where the cross of Jesus Christ became more and more preeminent in my life, amen. And when she looks down with all the cloud of witnesses, she is among family, amen? My dad is there, and my grandfather is there, grandmother is there. They have all had a good time, good party up there, amen. She's young, younger than me, amen. And forever young, never again to experience pain or anything like that. You know, I got a strong feeling it will just be temporary, very temporary, because the Lord is coming back soon. And the Bible says, amen, give Him praise. Praise the Lord. You know, that's one of the things that's missing in the preaching and teaching around the world today, the emphasis on the coming of the Lord. And the Lord will bless any ministry that talks about the Rapture because they are preparing their people, amen. That is the blessed hope.

And the Bible says when he comes again with the shout of the archangel, the last trump, the dead in Christ will rise first, amen. My mother is gonna have a brand new body before me. And we who are alive, I said we who are alive, again, our Christian position is not to look to the grave. It's to look to the sky, amen? And when He comes, the dead in Christ will rise first. They will get their bodies first, and then we will get our bodies. The Bible says this mortality will put on immortality. Our bodies become instantly, the word there used in the Bible is, "In the twinkling of an eye". Real quick. In the Greek, atomic second. Our bodies are transformed to the point where we are forever young, forever healthy, forever strong to be with the Lord. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

So we are looking, that is the blessed hope. If you tell me the Rapture will happen when Jesus comes back, there's no Rapture when Jesus comes back, it's referring to Jesus at the end of seven years' Tribulation, that's not the blessed hope for the church. How is that the blessed hope when we are going through the worst seven years of Tribulation that the world has ever seen? No, the blessed hope is Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many mansions. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself so that where I am, there you may be also". You see, there's no Tribulation, no waiting for Tribulation. No, church. There is no mark of the beast around, anyone make you afraid, amen? Jesus Himself said that when you see all these things happening, wars and rumors of wars, pestilences, earthquakes in various places, what did Jesus say? What did Jesus say? "For God so loved the world that He..." No, what did Jesus say?

All right, Estée, give them that verse up there. All right, oh, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars". What is the difference between wars and rumors of wars? Now we have a war, right? Russia, Ukraine. We, us, we are in the midst of it. What are rumors of wars? New Living Translation says, "Threats of wars". We hear about threats of wars, right? But what did Jesus say? "See", let's all read that, "See that you are not troubled". Look at your neighbor and say, "See that you're not troubled". Are you troubled? So if anyone preaches in such a way that tell you that, you know, this is gonna happen, and we are entering a great Tribulation, and this is the mark of the beast, don't take this, don't take that, don't take this, we are not there yet. Let me continue. He says, "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences".

We saw that, right? Pandemics, plagues, "Pestilences, and earthquakes, earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows". The word "sorrows" there is the word "odin," which is used for a woman about to give birth. She has birth pangs, all right? It comes in waves, birth pangs. It's not the birth yet. It's birth pangs. So these are signs that the earth... God does not send these things. When God made the heaven, He made the heaven perfect. These things are happening because of man's sins, all right? The Bible says, "The earth responds to man's sin," all right, in a way that's, you know, like for example, there's a large country, one of the largest countries in the world. For many years, they cannot even have a proper wheat crop. I can tell you nations that have spilled blood, innocent blood, persecuted Christians, they are having problems with poverty, lawlessness, and they can hardly have a good wheat crop. They have to depend on imports, why? The earth is rebelling.

So all these are signs that the earth is rebelling, amen? We call it climate change. The Bible calls it, "All creation is groaning". But when Jesus comes, everything will be set right, amen? And you know what's the best of all? I'm glad I will see my mom. I'm glad I will see my dad. And you will see your loved ones. But we get to see Jesus face-to-face, the altogether lovely One, the Bright and Morning Star, amen, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the One the Bible calls the desire of all nations. He's all lovely, so beautiful. We're gonna see Him face-to-face, amen? Now we can sense His presence with us. Even right now as I speak, you can sense His presence. But His presence is here by the Holy Spirit, but there we'll see Him face-to-face because He did not rise spiritually. He rose bodily, and He went up to heaven bodily, and He will come again bodily. Look to the skies. Your redemption draws near.