The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. (Joel 3:16)

Here is a picture of what will take place when the Lord Jesus returns. God will "roar out of Zion" in fulfillment of the blowing of the trumpets.

The physical bodies of the saints will be raised, and then the newly raised and the living will be changed from mortality into immortality.

Now will the Glory of Christ, and God in Him, blaze forth from the saints as the lightning shines from one end of the heaven to the other, just as the light from the torches blazed forth when Gideon's three hundred broke their pitchers.

But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. (Zechariah 14:7)

The enemy will panic and flee. Satan will be crushed under the feet of the saints.

The "three hundred" who are ready to be revealed in glory with the Lord are the firstfruits of the Wife of the Lamb. They have been selected carefully. They will stand "every man in his place round about the camp" (Judges 7:21). They are being prepared today for the supreme manifestation of God's Glory.

In that Day the forces of darkness will flee in terror. God will crush Satan under the feet of the saints. All resistance to Christ's rule will crumble. The saints will take the Kingdom. The kingdoms of this world will come under the authority and power of the throne of God and His Christ.

In that Day the light-filled saints will be lifted from the face of the earth into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

Slowly, majestically, the Body of Christ, to the consternation and horror of its enemies, will be gathered to the Lord, to the "carcass" on which the true saints feed and live.

God Almighty then will have set a table before us in the presence of our enemies.

Here is the fulfillment of the parable of the ten virgins. The Christians who possess the "oil," that is, who are filled with the Spirit of God and are living by the Life of the Lord Jesus, are ready at every moment to be filled with exceedingly glory and to rise to meet the Lord in the air.

The believers who have the "lamp," the Christian testimony, and then have chosen to walk in the flesh, who are not filled with the Spirit at all times (and the fact that at one time we spoke in tongues does not mean we are walking in the Spirit today), will not be prepared to be filled with the Father and the Son.

The nominal Christians will not be given a trumpet. They have no light in their pitcher. They cannot be counted on to stand in their place. They know neither the sword of the Lord nor the sword of Gideon. They understand nothing of the art of fighting alongside the Lord.

There is spiritual darkness today and it will become increasingly dark as the days go by. Already there is much deception among Christian believers. Many Christian people are coveting material treasures rather than the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Few have put the seeking of the Kingdom first in their lives.

At the same time, Christ stands at the door of each heart. To those who hear His voice and open the everlasting door of their soul, the King of Glory will come in. The Lord of armies will enter and prepare the individual for the Day of the Lord.

The conflict of the ages is upon us. Unprecedented tribulation is at hand. Unprecedented glory is available.

It is time now to take the Kingdom. Let every true saint arise and enter the fullness of God. The coming of Christ is at hand. He shall divide the spoil with the strong. (from Tabernacles, and the Coming of the Lord)