The application of the Lord's power to our bodies is, in a sense, the rapture. When the Lord Jesus will catch us away into the air, He will not only move us positionally from the earth to the air, but He will also change our vile bodies into glorious ones. Our vile bodies may be likened to ugly worms and our changed bodies to beautiful butterflies. Do not ask me what kind of glorious bodies we shall have. I do not know. But I do know that this vile body will be changed into a glorious one. I do know that our bodies will be like His resurrected body. After the Lord Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected, His physical body, the flesh, was transfigured into something which was still physical, yet mysterious and glorious.

At His coming back this troublesome physical body will be transfigured into a wonderful, mysterious, and beautiful body. At that time it will no longer be ugly. Both the brothers and sisters will be so pretty. At that time we will be as pretty and glorious as the Lord Jesus was after He was resurrected. That glory will be simply the Lord Himself. Christ within us is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). He Himself is the glory. When He comes back, He will be glorified in us. This means His glory will come out of us. Today the glory of Christ is hidden and concealed in our spirit and even confined within our soul. But at His coming back His glory will spread from within and saturate our whole body. This saturating of our body with the indwelling glory of the Lord Jesus will be the changing of our body. Do not think that the Lord Jesus will simply come from the heavens to change your body and catch you away. It will not occur in that way. Rather, the Lord Jesus will transfigure your body from within. He has already entered into your spirit and has begun to transform your soul. But there is one part of you which He has not yet saturated; that is your physical body. When He comes back He will saturate your body and be glorified in you. This is the rapture. The rapture is not merely a kind of catching away into the air, but a catching away with the transfiguration of the body. At the time He comes to catch us away, He will also come out of us and swallow up this body of death. Our body is subject not only to illness and disease, but also to death. The Bible even calls it a body of death (Rom. 7:24). At the Lord's coming back this body of death will be swallowed up with life. According to 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, our physical body of flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. To inherit the kingdom we need another kind of body, a glorified body. Our body must be transfigured by being swallowed up by the Lord's life. Today the Lord within us is our life and our glory. One day this life will swallow up our body of death. Our whole body will be saturated, fully possessed, and fully transfigured by the Lord Jesus as our life and glory.

Many Christians consider that the rapture will occur as a kind of accident and a great surprise. Their thought is that while we are working here on the earth, suddenly the Lord will come back and snatch us away to the heavens. They would exhort people not to go to the movies lest, when the Lord Jesus comes to snatch them away, He find them there. Rather, they would encourage people to be praying and reading the Bible and worshipping the Lord. This thought neglects the subjective side of the rapture --that the Lord Jesus will come out of the spirit and the soul to swallow up the body. This is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, which says that death will be swallowed up by victory. He will be glorified from within us. He will do two things at once: while He is taking us away to the air, He will come from within us to swallow up our bodies. Then we will be changed! Our bodies will be transfigured, and we will be fully and absolutely the same as He is (1 John 3:2). Inwardly and outwardly we will match Him.