1. You’ve done all the dying you’re going to do.
Of all the things you have ever done in your life—and of all the things you will ever do—leaving this earth will certainly be the easiest. I assure you, going from here to heaven will be the smoothest transition you’ve ever made because God will just take over. He will literally take charge of your move. In fact, He’ll send His angels to escort you into glory!

“Gloria, what exactly are you talking about?”

I’m talking about dying. Too many people are afraid of dying, but if you are born again, you’ve done all the dying you’re ever going to do.

When I think about it, I’ve not heard many sermons on this. I believe it’s because too many people don’t understand death. They’re afraid of it, and they just don’t want to talk about it.

But God never intended for us to be afraid of anything, including death. Jesus defeated death for each one of us so we could be free from such fear. Hebrews 2:9 says, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

Death is a defeated enemy, and personally, I know I’ll never see or taste death. If you’ve been born again, you won’t either. But that won’t stop Satan from harassing you. He will do his best to hold you in bondage to the fear of death as long as you’ll allow him.

2.  You will live forever.
When I made Jesus the Lord of my life more than 35 years ago, the part of me that was born again was my spirit—or what is also called the inner man or the heart. When I made that life-changing decision, I (my inner, natural man) died, and there was put into me a new life—what Jesus called eternal life. This eternal life is the very life of God, and it is this life inside each one of us that has overcome death.

Galatians 2:20 explains this very well: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing, the very life of God] liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

So my inner man (and yours if you are born again) died and a new spirit created by God after His righteousness and holiness replaced that “sin” man. We are now full of the life of God. Colossians 3:3-4 says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

When you bring God’s life face to face with death, death is abolished. That is what happened when Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus took on death for us, and when the resurrection life and power of God raised Him from the dead, that life defeated death and made Jesus alive…eternally!

In the same way, if my natural body were to die today, and my family were to have a funeral, someone who doesn’t understand death might look at me and say, “We are so sorry she’s dead.”

But if they said that, they’d be wrong. I wouldn’t be dead. I’d just be gone!

As a believer, I am a spirit being. I am eternal because I have been born of God and have His eternal life inside of me.

You know, even the doctors might say of me, lying there in that box, “She had heart failure. She had liver failure. Even her kidneys quit.” Well, no kidding! When I leave, everything is going to quit because I AM THE LIFE OF MY BODY! My body is just an “earth suit.” It has no life in it, and when the real me—my spirit—leaves, it will be an empty suit.

My point is this: I have already died. I died when I was born again. So I can’t die again—and neither can you. We have been crucified.

To a natural-minded person, dying means losing one’s life. But from the Bible, you know that’s what happened when you were born again. Your old man died, and you were born again into a new life. You passed from death into the life of God. The Greek word metabaino, translated passed in I John 3:14, means “to remove, up and over.” When you were born again you went “up and over” death, never to see it again! So, what we need to do now is renew our minds to think like God thinks. We need to see death the way He does. Psalms 116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” He doesn’t take our homecoming lightly.

 Excerpt permission granted by Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries