Mt. 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Mt. 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

There is a small gate that a person must pass through in order to begin the journey towards the rapture of the sons of God. After passing through the small gate, one must go through a narrow road in order to reach the point of adoption of sons of God. The sons of God will be snatched up to heaven (Re. 12:5) in the rapture. Jesus Christ is the small gate (Jn. 10:7) and a person enters the journey to adoption of sons of God by being baptized into Jesus Christ in water and in the Spirit. We want to take a good look at the narrow road that leads to adoption of sons of God.

Ep. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Ep. 5:26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
Ep. 5:27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Ep. 5:25-27 summarizes the road to the rapture of the sons of God. The road begins in v.25 with being united with Jesus Christ in his death (Ro. 6:3-5). The narrow road that leads to adoption of sons of God is described in v.26 and it is the process of seeking for perfection by the washing with water (Ez. 36:25-27) through the word. V.27 shows the condition of Christians who qualify for adoption of sons of God. Such Christians are perfectly holy and blameless. Do not be deceived by any doctrine; the condition for a Christian to make the rapture is that the Christian must be holy and blameless.

You look around in the world today and you do not see any Christian that is perfectly holy and blameless. Does it mean that no Christian will make the rapture? God is doing a new thing that will enable Christians to rise up to perfection.

Ez. 36:23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the
LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

Ez. 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
Ez. 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Ez. 36:27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Ro. 11:15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
Ro. 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

God is about to do a new thing through the Jews. God says that He will show Himself holy through the Jews before the eyes of the people of the world. The time for God to accept His chosen people, the Jews, back to Himself has come. It will lead to the resurrection. Once the firstfruits of Israel (the 144,000 Israelites) become holy, Christians from all countries of the world will start becoming holy.

In Ez. 36:25, God says that He will sprinkle clean water on Israelites (and the Church) and they will become clean. After all their impurities and idols have been washed away, God will put the fullness of His Spirit in them and they will become holy and blameless.

Ep. 5:26, which I have already described as the narrow road that leads to adoption of sons of God, explains how God will wash away all impurities and idols, as He promised in Ez. 36:25-26. It says that the washing with water of Ez. 36:25 is actually through God’s word. How does this work?

Is. 55:10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
Is. 55:11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God’s word cannot return to Him empty or void, but will accomplish the purpose the word is supposed to achieve in the life of a human being. Being perfect simply means to always do the will of God. The will of God is stated by God’s word. So, if we want God’s will to be done in our lives, we constantly be returning God’s word to Him, since God says that His word will always accomplish the purpose for which He sent it, any time the word returns to Him. For example:

Mt. 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Mt. 22:37 Jesus replied: “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Mt. 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
Mt. 22:39 And the second is like it: `Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Mt. 22:40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

By your grace, Holy Father God Almighty, I shall be perfect, even as you, our heavenly father are perfect. In the name of Jesus Christ.

By your grace, Glorious Father God, I will always love you with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength. I shall love my neighbor as I love myself. In the name of Jesus Christ.

The above example shows two words that God gave to us through Jesus Christ and how I return those words to God. I do this every morning and evening. As I continually return God’s words to Him, I see my heart becoming cleaner and cleaner. God’s righteousness is increasing in me. In Ez. 36:27, God says that when all my impurities and idols have been washed away by the washing with water through the word, He will put the fullness of His Spirit in me and I will become like Jesus Christ.

Col. 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him.

1Jn. 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn. 3:3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Anyone who becomes like Jesus Christ is ready for the rapture.

Ro. 1:3 Regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David,
Ro. 1:4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

God adopts anyone who becomes like Jesus Christ as His son, by the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:51-52). The resurrection will happen shortly before the rapture.

The Deeper Life Bible Church has this teaching, which I learnt that Pastor Kumuyi got from The Apostolic Church. The teaching is about spiritual progression of a born-again Christian.

Salvation ⟹ Sanctification ⟹ Holy Spirit Baptism

Salvation apparently refers to when a person enters through the narrow gate (Mt. 7:13), which is baptism into Jesus Christ in water and in the Spirit. Sanctification should be the process of washing away all impurities and idols by the washing with water (Ez. 36:25-26) through the word (Ep. 5:26). When a person has washed away all blemishes, wrinkles and spots and has become holy and blameless (Ep. 5:27), God is pleased to let all His fullness dwell in her/him (Col. 1:19) and then puts the fullness of the Holy Spirit in her/him. The person becomes like Jesus Christ. The person can walk on water and can translate instantaneously without any vehicle. The person now waits for the time appointed by God for the resurrection.

Mt. 25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Mt. 25:2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
Mt. 25:3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.
Mt. 25:4 The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.

The wise virgins go through the narrow road that leads to adoption of sons of God and receives fullness of the Spirit. The foolish virgins do not take time to purify themselves so that God will be pleased to have all His fullness dwell in them.

What about the dead in Christ?

1Th. 4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

1Co. 15:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed —
1Co. 15:52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

The dead in Christ were not perfect before they died. How come they will resurrect first, before the living perfect human beings are transformed from mortal to immortality? Will God make imperfect souls His sons and allow them to enter heaven?

He. 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,
He. 12:23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.

He. 12:23 talks about “spirits of righteous men made perfect”. This talks about human beings who were righteous during their days on earth. These human beings believed God and feared Him in their dealings. They did not attain perfection in the land of the living, but because of their righteousness, God somehow makes their spirits perfect after they have died.

I’ve heard Christians who say that at the point of the resurrection or rapture, Christians who also believe in God through Jesus Christ and who fear God will suddenly be made perfect. Unfortunately, that cannot be because just before the resurrection, God will release so much knowledge about how to be perfect. Anyone who does not utilize maximally the light of God has no excuse for possessing some darkness in her/him. Those who will make the rapture from the land of the living must attain perfection in the land of the living by making use of the grace of God.