Ashton Nichols: Caught Up In The Truck

Caught Up in the Truck: How a Greek Word and a Modern Miracle Exposed the Truth About the Rapture

​We often read the scriptures through the lens of what we’ve been told, rather than what is actually written on the page. For years, I viewed the “Rapture” as a physical exit from this world—a literal flight into the clouds. But what if we’ve been missing the most beautiful part of the mystery? By diving into the original Greek and reflecting on a life-changing encounter in the passenger seat of my truck, I’ve come to realize that being “caught up” isn’t about leaving the earth—it’s about a spiritual awakening that is available to us right here, right now.

​The Mystery of the “Air”

​I recently learned something I was previously unaware of while reading John Noe’s book, The Apocalypse Conspiracy. Specifically, it concerns the Greek word used for “air” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

​Most people who focus on the Rapture emphasize being “caught up,” but they often overlook the rest of the verse or fail to examine the original Greek meaning of the word “air.”

​1 Thessalonians 4:17

​”After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

​There is no mention here of being in heaven or at God’s throne; it simply says we are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. In the New Testament, there are two primary Greek words used to translate “air”:

• ​Ouranos: This refers to atmospheric air, where birds fly, or higher.

• ​Aer: This refers to internal breath, derived from a verb meaning “to breathe unconsciously.”

​Aer is the specific word the Apostle Paul used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Interestingly, the corresponding Hebrew word is “spirit,” which aligns perfectly with John’s description in Revelation 1:10, where he says, “I was caught up in spirit on the Lord’s day.”

​This is also reminiscent of Paul’s own experience described in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4:

​”I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows… he heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.”

​Paul didn’t even know if he was in his physical body or out of it; he simply knew he was “caught up” and heard things he couldn’t describe.

​What About the Clouds?

​The original Greek word used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is nephos (νεφος). While it can mean a physical cloud, its metaphorical meaning is a “dense crowd” or a “multitude.” This same word is used in Hebrews 12:1: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…”

​It seems Paul was not referring to the literal clouds in the sky. This mystery is spiritual. It has nothing to do with physical death or being sucked into the sky; it has everything to do with being caught up in your spirit into God’s presence. This applies to all believers, here and now.

​My Personal Experience

​I want to share an experience that happened to me a little over three years ago.

​I was in a dark place, feeling that God didn’t love me or want me. My husband and I were driving down the road in our truck, and I was staring out the window, consumed by negative thoughts. Suddenly, something happened that is honestly hard to put into words. I heard the words, “I do love you!” very clearly.

​Not only did I hear it, but my body felt strange. An unexplainable peace washed over me—something I had never felt in my life. I heard that I would see miracles, along with a few other things that I curiously cannot remember. Tears streamed down my face. I wasn’t sad; I just couldn’t stop them. It felt as if time stopped and my body was frozen.

​While this was happening, my husband was apparently trying to get my attention to see what was wrong. I was unaware of this. When I finally “came to,” it took a while for my speech to return. When I finally told my husband, the look on his face was one of pure shock. I will always remember that He said He loved me. That experience changed my life.

​One of the miracles that immediately followed involved our home. We were about to lose our house because work had been so slow. That very same day, God used one of our clients to pay off our debt entirely. We also ended up with extra jobs that caught us up on everything else. We were completely out of our financial pickle! It happened so fast it was unbelievable.

​God said “miracles,” and since that is plural, I assume there may be more to come. I haven’t had an experience like that since, but I have been changed ever since. I was “caught up” with the Lord that day, and I didn’t even fully understand it until recently.

​A Call to See with New Eyes

​If this study of the Word and my personal testimony has opened your eyes, I hope you see that this has nothing to do with the traditional rapture. That teaching often keeps people waiting for a physical escape that isn’t coming, causing them to miss the spiritual reality available to them right now.

​When we stop looking at the sky and start looking at the Spirit, we realize that “meeting the Lord in the air” is about the internal breath—the Aer—and being caught up in the overwhelming love of the Father.

​Please share this with someone who needs to hear it. If this has resonated with you, help others move from carnal confusion to spiritual clarity. Let’s remind them that they don’t have to wait for a future event to be “caught up” in God’s presence; they can experience His miracles and His love today.

​Thank you for taking the time to read my story. 💕

Spiritual Gifts – Miracles

Spiritual Gifts – Miracles

The gift of being able to perform or work miracles is easy to understand, but much more difficult to exercise. It should be realised that this is not a gift for the super-spiritual. Like all of the gifts in this passage, the gift of miracles is available to all believers. The only qualification is that we are available for the Holy Spirit to use.

To understand the gift, we need to understand what a miracle is. A miracle can be defined as any situation where God intervenes and changes the normally understood laws of nature. In this sense, healings are in the same category as miracles. Other miracles described in the Bible include Jesus turning water into wine, Jesus walking on the water, Jesus stilling the storm, Peter and Paul and Silas being released from prison, Elijah setting fire to a saturated sacrifice, Elisha floating an axe head, and many more, in both the Old and the New Testaments.

The phrase “signs and wonders” is often used to describe miracles because they are meant to be signs of the Kingdom directing attention to Jesus.

Excluding healing, there are four broad types of miracles:

1. Resurrections- people have been raised from the dead throughout history. In the Bible we have several examples of this, including Jesus Himself. If God is the Lord of life, then we should not be surprised when He turns death to life. Livestock have also been raised form the dead on occasion, particularly in poor communities.

2. Nature miracles- these include walking on water and diversion of disasters. People have been known to order tropical storms such as cyclones to turn away from the coast. John Alley tells of how a potentially disastrous flood in Rockhampton was moderated by the hand of the Lord. Some years ago a huge bushfire in the Pilliga Forest was extinguished by rain that was not predicted in response to prayers.

3. Provision of money and other resources. For over a decade our family drew very little salary, and yet God provided more than enough for us. Those who looked at our finances deemed it was impossible for us to survive. Almost everyone in ministry has a story to tell of a time when they were desperate for money to meet a need, and then the money came in.

It is not only ministry where God provides needs. During the recent long drought, a member of our church who has an agriculture related business stated that God provided just enough business for him to keep going at a time when there should have been no work for him.

4. National and international interventions. At the last Australian election the polls and the conventional wisdom was that the Labor Party, led by someone from the Left wing of the party would win the election. It turned out that the Liberal- National Parties won. The re-elected Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, noted in his acceptance speech, “I have always believed in miracles.”

During the coronavirus pandemic there have been several occasions when public health experts feared an outbreak but it was averted. Recently, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said “It was a miracle” that security guards associated with quarantine hotels had not previously been infected and taken the virus out to the community.

Billy Graham in his book “Angels” recounts eye witness stories from the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. According to these accounts, British fighter planes continued to fly and participate in the battle after the pilots had been killed. Some saw a second figure in the cockpit actually flying the plane.

Miracles take many forms, but are always associated with a gift of faith. A miracle takes at least one person who is desperate for God to intervene in a situation that seems hopeless.

Again it should be noted that miracles, by definition, are a gift from God. To the sceptic, they will always appear impossible or subject to other explanations, but to the follower of Jesus “Nothing is impossible with God.”

To learn to walk in miracles, it is necessary to pray. When we lay our heart’s concerns before the Lord, and see prayers answered, then our faith grows to a place where we can believe for the impossible and see God working in every situation.

Mike Willesee: A premonition, plane crash and testing miracles

From the ABC:

Mike Willesee: A premonition, plane crash and testing miracles

Updated 

Veteran journalist Mike Willesee has revealed how miraculously surviving a plane crash changed his life forever, kick-starting a journey back to his Catholic faith.

It is this faith, and the support of his family, that has sustained Willesee through his current battle with throat cancer and a debilitating course of radiation therapy that ended only recently.

The legendary current affairs presenter and reporter was too unwell to attend his induction into the Australian Media Hall of Fame on Friday in Sydney.

In a pre-recorded acceptance speech he said: “To be a journalist, for me, has been a gift that just keeps on giving.”

If it wasn’t for an extraordinary twist of fate 20 years ago, Willesee’s career could have been cut short well before now.

In 1997 he and his cameraman Greg Low were about to board a twin-engine Cessna plane in Nairobi, Kenya, bound for Southern Sudan to film a documentary.

But before they took off, Willesee said he had a premonition the aircraft would crash.

“I couldn’t understand it. I had this fight in my own head before I got on the plane. How do I tell Greg that it’s going to crash?

“I don’t believe in premonitions. Did I believe it was going to crash? Absolutely.”

Media player: “Space” to play, “M” to mute, “left” and “right” to seek.

VIDEO: Everyone aboard the Cessna aircraft was unharmed. (ABC News)

The plane took off in a tropical downpour and shortly after began experiencing problems.

For Willesee, the experience was surreal.

“When it stalled, and it stopped for this one excruciating second and then started to spiral and go down, the only thought I could get out of my head was, ‘I was right’, which is pretty freaky.

“I said my first prayer to a God who I didn’t understand and whose existence I was quite unsure of.”

That wasn’t the end of the drama. When the aircraft finally settled, the pilot and the other two passengers got out as fast as they could, leaving Willesee and Low in their seats.

“Greg’s seat buckle was jammed because he had his camera on his lap and we thought the plane would explode and burn because of the noise and incredible amount of smoke.

“So I ran back into the plane and Greg freed himself as I got in and we got out.”

The plane crash was the start of a long journey back to the Catholic faith of his childhood.

“The plane crash changed me a lot,” Willesee said.

“It still took me I think maybe two years, for me to actually say there is a God.”

Read the full story here

Muslim Woman Rises from the Dead After 2 Days in Morgue

From Christian Today

Muslim Woman Rises from the Dead After 2 Days in Morgue, Tells Family Jesus Brought Her Back to Life

Pixabay

 

This Muslim woman was pronounced dead and lying cold in a morgue in Moscow, Russia for two days already.

Suddenly, she returned to life and stepped out of the hospital gurney!

Based on her testimony, the woman, named Sabina, says while she was lying at the morgue surrounded by corpses, she had a vision of a tree growing at the top of the well, according to Assist News.

From its trunk, a branch moved toward her. The branch then changed into flesh as Sabina heard the words, “If you grab onto my hand, I will bring you back to life.”

Sabina did as instructed. She then woke up and heard the voices of doctors searching for a missing cadaver—hers.

“I’m alive. Don’t worry,” she shouted at the frightened doctors.

The medical staff offered her water, food and clothes, and arranged for her transport to a university research hospital in Moscow, where she had traveled from Central Asia to visit her imprisoned son.

Mystified hospital personnel could not explain how Sabina returned to life after spending two days in a coma and then two more days in the morgue.

When she returned to her home somewhere in Central Asia, Sabina had another big surprise for her family. “There’s somewhere I have to go,” she told her daughters.

She headed for a Pentecostal church and promptly professed her faith in Jesus Christ, leaving behind her Muslim faith.

The hand that lifted her from the gurney at the morgue, returning her to life, unmistakeably belongs to Jesus. That’s why she readily embraced Him upon returning home in gratitude for His saving grace.

After she told her six daughters and a son about how she came back to life, they all converted to Christianity.

Last year, Sabina, who is now 63 years old, saw her 92-year-old mother and a niece also embracing Jesus.

More recently, Sabina’s oldest daughter—who just this summer was highly critical of Christianity—also turned to Jesus.

Book Review- “Birthing the Miraculous” by Heidi Baker

In this book Heidi Baker shares some of her experiences in sharing the gospel and caring for children in Mozambique.

In describing the power of the Holy Spirit to work miracles and bring healing to people, she constantly comes back to the importance of the Secret Place- time spent alone in the presence of the Father. It is intimacy with God that gives us the love for people that motivates us to share Jesus with them and then connects us with God’s power to release the miracles.

At times there have been battles. She recounts how she prayed for every blind person she met. For one year not one of them was healed but every one of them received Jesus. Then there was a blind woman named Aida (the equivalent of Heidi) who had no pupils or no iris but God restored her sight, The next blind person she met was also a woman and she was healed. In fact there were three women in a row that she met who were blind and who were healed- all three named Aida. This started a remarkable outpouring of miracles.

This is a breakthrough book for me. It ministers not just to the head but the heart. It reminds us again that we can do nothing apart from God, but with Him nothing is impossible.

Head knowledge of the Scriptures will not draw us closer to God. All the programmes and preaching brilliance that the church relies on will not bring revival to our land. We need to learn to depend on God and God alone.

“GET READY TO BE TAKEN OVER BY THE SUPERNATURAL, MIRACLE-WORKING POWER OF GOD!”

Many believers will engage in power confrontations, demonstrations, and manifestations similar to what Elijah experienced on Mount Carmel. The Church will be growing in the supernatural, miracle-working power of God. Even children will be working miracles!

Healings will increase. Miracles of provision will increase. Supernatural deliverances will increase. Closed doors of opportunity will suddenly open. Miracles of household salvations will be made manifest and prodigals will return. …

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