The Lord God Promises: Our Father Almighty God speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, makes us a promise.
EZEKIEL: 37: 12-14; "Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that, I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it saith the Lord."
Here we see that the Lord our God promises to the people of Israel that a time will come when the graves of the dead will be opened, to free the spirits of those died. God goes on to tell the people through this prophesy, that at the time of their rising up, God’s spirit and the spirit of the dead will become as one, and that the spirits of the dead will live again. God would not and could not make such a promise, if he could not and would not keep it. God also would not permit any lie from His mouth, neither would God permit any lie to be recorded in His Holy Word, The Holy Bible. Let’s take a look ahead and see what happens and how this promise is kept by God.
Before God fulfills this promise, God give us a little glimpse of His awesome power over death and the grave, when Jesus, the Son of God visits the town of Bethany. Lazarus, Jesus cousin had died 4 days earlier, and now lay decomposing in his tomb. This doesn’t worry Jesus though for he purposely came 4 days late to prove that God’s promise would be fulfilled.
In JOHN: 11: 25-26;
Jesus consoles Martha and Mary the sisters of Lazarus saying;
"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever livieth and believeth in me shall never die."
And further we read from Jesus as he continues talking with Martha; (Verse 40) "Said I not unto thee that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the Glory of God."
Then infront of all who were present for Lazarus funeral and burial Jesus prays to The Father Almighty God asking God to raise up Lazarus from the dead, which of course God does.
This display through Jesus proves the Father’s Power over the death and the grave. It also serves to prove Jesus as God’s Son, and that God answers Prayer and Keeps His word. Let us also remember the story of the daughter of Jiarus whom God through Jesus also raises from the dead.
We are told in the gospel scriptures that Jesus was crucified, buried, and that on or by the third complete day that God resurrected Jesus from the dead and that He was seen as resurrected by hundreds of others, prior to his physical holy ascension back to The Father and His throne at the Father’s right hand, and through our faith, our faith in God we accept and believe and hold this to be true.
I will now divuldge to you a personal belief through faith, that I cannot substantiate through scriptural proof in God’s Holy Word the Holy Bible, yet I feel it in my heart and I cling to it as "Truth" through faith.
It is my personal belief, that while Jesus was laid to rest, after being crucified, that Jesus by His Holy Spirit, visited satan as proof of His power over both sin and death and the grave, and then visited the graves of the dead, from the time of Adam up to and including the days his body lay in the grave and caused the dead to rise up to be with God.
My one and only scriptural reason for this strong belief we can read: Jesus speaks to one of the thieves crucified with him: "Verily I say unto thee, Today, shalt thou be with me in Paradise." (LUKE:23:43;)
Now let us get back to Almighty God’s Promise. God tells us that God’s Spirit will dwell within us.
Jesus, after his resurrection joins up with His disciples. God through Ezekiel had promised that they would receive God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus turns to His disciples and says to them;
JOHN: 20: 21-22; "Peace be unto you: as my Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed upon them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit."
The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are spirit and that God’s Holy Spirit is with us in the following scriptures:
ROMANS:8: 9-11;
"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead, dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead will quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you"
Paul is telling us that though our bodies are dead, dead to sin, Christ and God’s Holy Spirit dwells within us with our Spirit.
Since we know that God cannot lie, and we know that God’s Holy Word the Holy Bible cannot hold lies to deceive us we can conclude that God has kept His word with man, and that our spirit and God’s Holy Spirt, dwell together within us until our bodies die and we revert back to our spiritual beings once again, because we have accepted Holy God as Our God, and accepted Christ Jesus as our saviour and redeemer through our belief by faith in His crucifixion and resurrection and our acceptance of God’s Holy Word as truth.