I anticipate with the greatest joy seeing the King crowned on the Temple Mount, and then being sent out to take charge of people who have survived the onslaught of Armageddon. Here will be a whole new family of human beings to guide in the righteous ways of the Lord.

I really look forward to a thousand years of taking care of the people assigned to me, for they are the Lord's inheritance, and also mine because I along with you am a coheir of the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth.

I am anticipating a full life of ministering to people. There will be no cross to carry and no dread of financial loss or sickness. But I look for increasing responsibility and pressure that will move me to new levels of the image of Christ and a deeper rest in God's perfect will. I hope I will pass through many more stages of life until I am truly in the image of our Father. How about you?

I know the Lord Jesus is coming to take control of our earth. This is what I want—to be with Him ministering to the needs of the peoples of the earth, and also to the needs of my fellow Christians as I am doing today.

I am old and tired, but not so old and tired as to want to have Jesus come and then return to Heaven with me so I can rest!

Think of it! Before we ascend to meet the Lord in the air we shall have been raised from the dead and clothed with immortality. There will be no need to flee to the spirit realm in order to rest or to be protected from Antichrist or the Great Tribulation or our bills or whatever else is of concern to us. The idea is to descend with Christ to the earth. This is where the excitement, the adventure, the wonder will be.

Then too, think of those who have been with the Lord for hundreds or thousands of years. They are waiting for their opportunity to govern the nations of the earth.

And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:9,10—NIV)

Do you think these saints who have been waiting so long to return to the earth are going to want to be resurrected and then turn around and go back to Heaven so the living saints can get rested up? I don't think so.

No, they won't want to and neither will you.

Search your heart. It is very important what you desire, for God's Word has promised you the desires of your heart and the Scriptures cannot be changed in any manner. They are eternal. So if what you really want is to remain in Heaven with the angels, resting on a golden couch in your mansion, then this may be your destiny.

But as for me, I want to be with the Lord and the people God has given us for our inheritance.

To be continued.