ayoku777: First and foremost, death is not the ticket to heaven -Faith in Jesus is. People die and go to hell everyday; and there are accounts of people who went to heaven in their bodies -Enoch, Elijah and Jesus. Paul himself also hinted that "he knew of a man who was taken to the third heaven" before dying.

That being said, there are many immature, ignorant and mundane reasons why christians fear death or don't want to die. I know a few but I can't speak for other christians.

As for me, if I don't want to die yet, it would be because I know I won't hear from the Lord "Weldone, thou good and faithful servant." Because I've not done much for Him and His kingdom, much less being faithful at it.

Relative to the many things He has placed on my heart to do, I'm so not ready to meet my Lord yet. I've not even begun to start to scratch the surface of my calling.

We need to understand that its not just about making heaven. Making heaven is good; but what about the kingdom? There are rewards and positions in the kingdom. There will be the greatest and the least in the kingdom of God. And these positions are not given out by God arbitrarily -or handed out based on His mood.

They are given relative and according to christlikeness and what you did with it. By how much of the glory of Christ you behold, how much of the image of the glory of Christ you're changed into; and how much of the glory of Christ you brought forth.

Not many christians have done or are doing things that are moving them beyond just being heaven-worthy to being great in the age to come.

Some christians will cry and smote their b.reast, even in heaven; when they see the crown, the throne and the authority they forfeited -despite that they made it to heaven.

That's why I don't want to die yet, coz I won't be great in the kingdom or hear "welldone good and faithful servant" with what I've done for God just yet.

I don't fear death; but I want my Lord to be proud of His investment in me when I see His face. And I've not justified or done much with that investment just yet.

dis ur heaven story get as e be...so dem dey play politics for heaven too?

@OP, I think the issue here is that any one can call himself a christian, believer etc. But they do not have a real relationship with God.
They do not have faith (hear a spoken word from God, submit to the word and obey it). They believe instead in the written word which
does not work (And they know very well it doesn't work the way our pastors have made us to believe), So they are not also sure they will go to
heaven when they die.

e.g, The bible says ""you will be the head and not the tail"",''I am a king, kings do not beg"", ""I am a god, i have the live of God in me"" etc.
You confess this daily as requested by your pastor (the power of life and death is in the tongue) and you find out that it is not working, which you will certainly not tell your brethren or pastor for fear they will accuse you for lack of faith. Then how sure are you that heaven will be your home at the end, when the most basic things have not worked as your pastors thought you and as you have read in scripture?

My Short Story: I was in church one day, to be precise CEC and we were doing mass prayer when suddenly i had an excruciating tooth ache. There was no way to hint any body because the mentality we all had was that if a bro/sis is sick etc it means he/she lacked faith, so i continued to pray, spoke in tongues, confess the word, speak faith words etc to no avail, when service was over i went home pretending all was okay ""no one in Zion shall say i am sick"", but for how long will the false pretense last? I had to sneak my self to the hospital for medical attention. So @OP i can assure you that from my experience with ""religion"" i would be in the same shoe with those who fear to die.

^^^^ .

I personally blame the false teachers for this unfortunate situation rattling the church. Many have become hypocrites, and some tend to just believe the lies.

Many have made themselves slaves to sowing seed, tithing, doing good, praying, fasting, positive confession and all other religious rites without a sniff of change. They know within themselves these things are not working but they have lived too long with what they know, debunking it for the truth becomes an uphill task.

We must go back to the book to draw truths and stop depending solely on men who say candy coated things we love to hear.

frosbel:

When did Jesus go back to the Father , after Death or after Resurrection ?


Don't forget this scripture :

"Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" - John 20:17

Let me shine a light on the path i think you should tread.

The subject should be if he knew or not ...

If you agree that he knew he would return to the father; and with a glory, without the pain he went through, why was he in agony?

So, the issue is not about "When" he went back to the Father , after Death or after Resurrection

Mod has hidden two quotes directed to me and I don't know if it was you response.

Cheers

Elijah78: @OP, I think the issue here is that any one can call himself a christian, believer etc. But they do not have a real relationship with God.
They do not have faith (hear a spoken word from God, submit to the word and obey it). They believe instead in the written word which
does not work (And they know very well it doesn't work the way our pastors have made us to believe), So they are not also sure they will go to
heaven when they die.
e.g, The bible says ""you will be the head and not the tail"",''I am a king, kings do not beg"", ""I am a god, i have the live of God in me"" etc.
You confess this daily as requested by your pastor (the power of life and death is in the tongue) and you find out that it is not working, which you will certainly not tell your brethren or pastor for fear they will accuse you for lack of faith. Then how sure are you that heaven will be your home at the end, when the most basic things have not worked as your pastors thought you and as you have read in scripture?
My Short Story: I was in church one day, to be precise CEC and we were doing mass prayer when suddenly i had an excruciating tooth ache. There was no way to hint any body because the mentality we all had was that if a bro/sis is sick etc it means he/she lacked faith, so i continued to pray, spoke in tongues, confess the word, speak faith words etc to no avail, when service was over i went home pretending all was okay ""no one in Zion shall say i am sick"", but for how long will the false pretense last? I had to sneak my self to the hospital for medical attention. So @OP i can assure you that from my experience with ""religion"" i would be in the same shoe with those who fear to die.

I came here barely glossing across posts when I stumbled unto yours and it piqued my interest. In some other thread you talked about 'seeking' God for months yet you have heard no word from him. Why didn't you conclude that it is unscriptural and impossible to hear from God?

The truth is that many of God's children live in unbelief and they always look for means to spiritualize it. We want to still stay in faith without necessarily acting faith; we assume it is safer to walk like so. It is not.

Jesus spoke a parable about the word being sown to a good soil but the thorns of life choked the word. Jesus interpreted that aspect of the parable to mean that when pressures of life via many sources e.g persecution showed up. . .some of those 'christians' denied the word. I could be wrong but I am sensing it from your post.

I wait for the time when you would conclude too, that hearing from God is impossible as I am certain you don't hear from God already.

Those of us who walk by faith understand that there's a faith aspect and there's a 'patience' aspect. Hebrews 6:12 says that via faith and PATIENCE many of the fathers (Abraham and co) obtained promises.

BTW, the aspect of 'if I say I have a toothache they will say I am not acting my faith' is especially funny and untrue. I personally believe you had an inferiority complex (considering how you saw others act their faith and you could not) so you concluded that many 'pretend' like you.

Maybe God encouraged Abraham to 'pretend' that he was a father of many when he really had no child and should have maintained his Abram name. Just maybe.

mbaemeka:

I came here barely glossing across posts when I stumbled unto yours and it piqued my interest. In some other thread you talked about 'seeking' God for months yet you have heard no word from him. Why didn't you conclude that it is unscriptural and impossible to hear from God?

The truth is that many of God's children live in unbelief and they always look for means to spiritualize it. We want to still stay in faith without necessarily acting faith; we assume it is safer to walk like so. It is not.

Jesus spoke a parable about the word being sown to a good soil but the thorns of life choked the word. Jesus interpreted that aspect of the parable to mean that when pressures of life via many sources e.g persecution showed up. . .some of those 'christians' denied the word. I could be wrong but I am sensing it from your post.

I wait for the time when you would conclude too, that hearing from God is impossible as I am certain you don't hear from God already.

Those of us who walk by faith understand that there's a faith aspect and there's a 'patience' aspect. Hebrews 6:12 says that via faith and PATIENCE many of the fathers (Abraham and co) obtained promises.

BTW, the aspect of 'if I say I have a toothache they will say I am not acting my faith' is especially funny and untrue. I personally believe you had an inferiority complex (considering how you saw others act their faith and you could not) so you concluded that many 'pretend' like you.

Maybe God encouraged Abraham to 'pretend' that he was a father of many when he really had no child and should have maintained his Abram name. Just maybe.

Thank you for your observation. Yes i started seeking God as you rightly saw in other threads some few months ago. The short story is something that happen long ago and i was trying to let the @OP know why as a christian i could fear to die at that time. As you can see i addressed my response to the OP.

True christians aint scared of dis earthly death @frosbel.
Hweva dt doesnt mean one shud commit d sin of suicide/living reckless lyf witout care.