If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

Perhaps we have never considered physical death to be an enemy that must be overcome. Perhaps we have thought of the resurrection to eternal life as an experience that will happen to all who take the "four steps of salvation." We may never have viewed the redemption of the body as a land of promise that must be gained by war.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (I Corinthians 15:26)

We are not implying here that a Christian is to try to overcome physical death by prayer, holiness, or any other means. This is not what Paul is teaching. Rather, we are to prepare ourselves spiritually today so when the trumpet call sounds and our body comes forth from the grave, it then will be clothed with a body of eternal life from Heaven.

We prepare ourselves by seeking the Lord every day with a whole heart, confessing and renouncing our sins, praying, reading our Bible, gathering with the saints, and doing all else associated with wholesome Christian living.

When we do this, God brings us through situations that weaken and frustrate our natural abilities so we are guided into the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Christ's body and blood become the source of our inner life. Then, when the Lord returns, our transformed inner nature will be competent and eligible to be clothed with a glorious house from Heaven.

Paul was seeking to attain the resurrection (Greek, out-resurrection), the first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection to glorious life and authority.

Paul did attain his goal, as we notice in the following:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (II Timothy 4:8)

God has promised that He will change us into the image of Christ, that He will bring us into untroubled union with Himself through Christ, and that He will raise our flesh-and-bone body from the dust and clothe it with a body like that of Christ, thus completing our transformation into His image.

Each of these three aspects of the goal of the spiritual area of the rest of God is a terrifying threat to the kingdom of Satan. Satan and his followers will do everything in their power to prevent the Church, the Body of Christ, from attaining the image of Christ, untroubled rest in the Father, and a glorious body of eternal life.

We have to fight our way into each of these three areas. The time for advance is now. Do we have the courage and willingness to follow the Lord of Hosts into the total destruction of the enemy?

And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them. (Deuteronomy 7:22-24) (from Entering the Land of Promise)