Hi all,
This series is about obstacles that stand in the way of healing, not so much about how to be healed. I do have a series called 'Healing School' for those interested. 
 
Learning of possible obstacles is helpful, though there is no one 'magic key' that unlocks healing for all. As we've seen with the Corinthians, issues of the heart can be a reason the body gets an illness, something only recently 'discovered' by medical science. 
 
Ignorance isn't protection
We've also seen that sins against the body stay in the body, meaning it is our responsibility to deal with, not God's. The trouble is, ignorance does not prevent us from suffering injury, sickness, or disease. In the late 1800's 'radium pills' were offered for health, and smoking was promoted as healthy. It wasn't until people started dying they realized they were wrong - but that ignorance didn't prevent many good people from being sick and dying early.
 
That means today in our realm we may have things which make us sick or give us a chronic physical ailment, but we are ignorant about what caused it. It leaves us wondering how God could let this happen. But we live on a fallen earth in bodies that are of that fallen earth. That means genetics and environment and things we eat and breathe and touch and smell can all play a role. 
 
And because we procreate which is passing on our genes to our offspring, anything flawed in those genes gets passed on. It isn't always the devil or a curse, sometimes is just basic procreation. 
 
It isn't that God isn't around, it is that we are on a fallen earth in bodies of that earth (which are therefore temporary and transitory), so there are things here which afflict us. When we add in a very evil devil walking around looking for whom he may devour, it further complicates the issue.
 
Don't be in fear and hide behind 'faith'
I've also known many people who proclaim faith because in truth, they are afraid to go to the doctor because of what they might say. Or perhaps they suspect they would need surgery or procedures that would mean a massive change to their lives. So in fear, they proclaim faith - but that's not faith, that's foolishness. I've never seen God heal someone who used so called faith to hide behind their fears. I have seen Him walk with a person through surgery and procedures as He asks them to deal with their heart. Always be honest with the One who knows your thoughts before you form them in your mind. 
 
And there is spiritual pride at times too - I've known several people who were diagnosed with cancer but chose no treatments at all, choosing what they called 'faith' because people looked to them as examples of 'faith people' so to speak. But God resists the proud, and when they rejected medical treatment they took their lives into their own hands, and died early.  
 
When our boys were young we followed this general guideline: We'd lay hands on them for healing, but if they weren't improved by the next day we went to the doctor. I'm not being a good father if I'm letting my child suffer just because I want him healed by faith but its not happening. We follow that general rule with ourselves as well. 
 
I got this condition before I knew the Lord - can I be healed?
The question of the 'old football injury' or other condition received before you knew the Lord, that stays with you or rises up in later years to require surgery or other treatment begs the question, would God heal me? 
 
Consider that not a single person healed in the gospels was born again. Whatever they needed healed of, the condition was acquired before they met Jesus. Upon meeting Jesus those conditions were healed. So why cannot a believer upon meeting Jesus expect healing? Yes, a believer can expect healing to be available to them for a 'before Christ' condition. 
 
But from what I've seen, once we choose a medical route, God's grace is there to walk with us. And He seems to move in the same way over years with a person. Each of us have patterns in our lives of how the Lord deals with our hearts, our bodies, our emotions - If He healed you 1 way a few years ago, from what I've seen, He is likely to do that same thing this time. If it is no surgery and slow recover, it will repeat. If it was surgery but full recovery, it will repeat. Just an observation - learn how He deals with you, look for patterns over years, and go that route for He will often be there. 
 
Drawing the line between aging and believing for healing
As I mentioned above, our bodies are of the earth, therefore on their way to assuming room temperature. Scientists tell us after about age 35 the body starts declining and anyone over that age can testify to that fact. So where does healing enter the scene if part of what is going on is a natural decline in a bodily system? 
 
I've shared before how in years past I would get vertigo when I got very tired. Not dizziness, but vertigo, which is very different. In dizziness the room spins, in vertigo you don't know which way is up or down, left or right. It happened during an EU conference in the Netherlands a few years ago. I could feel it starting on Thursday the day before the conference started.
 
We opened the meetings that Friday, and in the evening worship I was fighting it. Suddenly my eyes were opened to His realm and I saw the Lord. Others either saw or felt Him as well. He came over to me and told me some personal things, direction for life sort of thing, and went around to the others. 
 
By Saturday morning I could hardly stand up, but made it through breakfast and the morning session. I was to have a Q&A session that afternoon, but could barely get out of bed, so I asked Barb and Brian to take that session. While in bed I asked the Father what was going on, telling Him: "The Lord was here last night and He could came over and talked to me, He could have healed me, why didn't he?" 
 
The Father responded: "You did this to yourself. I've been dealing with you for some time about taking a day off each week, but you've ignored me. Barb has been telling you too to take a day off each week, and you've even disobeyed your own wife. Your body is going the way of the earth; you need to learn to adjust. You've done this to yourself."
 
As I said, this series has been about possible obstacles to healing, intended to provoke thought and introspection. I must have been about 40 years old before I realized there were some things that I just wouldn't know this side of heaven. Resting in that, combined with resting in His faithfulness, have given me so much more peace than what I had earlier in my walk with Him. 
 
Verses like Deuteronomy 29:29 bring peace now instead of a drive to push the limits: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things revealed belong to us and to our children..." (Which is a great verse to pray for your children, that He will reveal to them what they should know). But I'm content that there are secret things I won't know until being on the other side. 
 
And Acts 1:7: "It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put within His own authority." 
 
There is peace in that - peace is ceasing from our own works, to rest in Him. Next week some things the Lord shared in visitations about healing and Him dealing with us. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and meal me at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
Last week I shared how healing is first and foremost a confirming sign of the resurrection of Jesus. But what about we believers? Doesn't healing belong to us? 
 
Healing questions - down to the nitty gritty
When we move from healings being a sign to unbelievers to confirm the claims of Jesus, to healing being one of the 'benefits' of being a believer, the responsibility for healing shifts from God to us. But many believers are still mentally looking to God for a sovereign move as He would for an unbeliever. Often they end up having a crisis of faith, not understanding what is at work. Let us examine elements of our responsibility.
 
The prejudice and strife of the Corinthians
In I Corinthians 3: 3-15 Paul reveals there are some in Corinth living in envy, strife, and divisions. He tells them that is wood, hay and stubble that if they carry it in their hearts all the way to death, when they stand before the Lord all that will be burned away from them. He says they will be saved, but as ones having been through a fire. 
 
Later in I Corinthians 11: 17-31 he reveals some have such envy, strife and divisions that they won't have the Lord's Supper nor meet with other believers. They met off to themselves first, and then came together for the main meeting. He tells them they have their homes they can eat and drink it, but they need to come together with everyone else instead of being off by themselves, rightly discerning the body of Christ, who made us one in Him. 
 
The background of the church in Corinth is told in Acts 18, where we see Jews, Romans, and Greeks all meeting together in the house of the Roman, Justus. We know historically that Corinth was a sea port with a wide range of social levels, from ship owners to sailors, from store owners to clerks and all of various races. Culturally the upper Roman classes did not meet with lower classes, and Jews would never mingle with Gentiles - and then they came to Jesus and started meeting in Justus' home. So they had a lot in their hearts to deal with. 
 
When Paul addresses the prejudice - racial and socio-economic - of some, he said because they had not "discerned the Lord's body, many of you are weak and sickly, and many have died early." We would say today that their immune systems were compromised because of hate, strife, and prejudice, and that made them weak, sickly, and even many had died prematurely as a result of illnesses their now weakened immune systems couldn't handle.
 
But if your friend, say a Spirit-filled Roman who took sick, you would not immediately think of relating their hatred for Jews as the reason they got sick. You would pray for them, you might lay hands on them, command some unknown demon out just in case one was the cause, and offer prayers for your friend, wondering why God wasn't healing them. You might even anoint them with oil, wondering where is healing?
 
Healing is available, but their prejudice, envy, strife, hatred, or other condition of their emotions and heart, prevent them from receiving. If they died you might never know why God didn't heal them. Paul urged the Corinthians to "judge yourselves, for if we judge ourselves we won't be judged of the Lord." The Lord allowed them to die early rather than have their hatred carry them off into deeper sin. That is His judgement on the matter, according to Paul.
 
Summary: We are responsible for walking in love, and to hold onto sin is to open ourselves to illness that God won't heal, because our heart is our responsibility. To heal a person in bitterness and hatred would only enable them to continue deeper in sin, and God won't be a part of that. So He lets them experience the consequences of their heart.
 
Another example: Sins against the body. 
Paul says in I Corinthians 6:18 that sexual sins are sins against the body, and are manifest in the body. That is a general principle he lays out in the larger context: Sins against the body stay in the body. 
 
Francis Hunter, who along with her husband Charles, were well known back in the charismatic outpouring of the 1970's for their healing ministry. She told the story of the woman who came to her frustrated, saying: "I cast the calories out of my desserts, but I've still gained 10 pounds (5k), what am I doing wrong?" Francis told her we can cast demons out, but calories are our responsibility. A moment on the lips is forever on the hips - that sin against your body stays in your body.
 
The same is true of abuse of drugs or alcohol, overwork, smoking, or even over exercising. Running or jogging or lifting weights too much as well. Whatever sin against our body we do, that sin stays in the body. That means it is our responsibility. You can't be 110 pounds (50 kilos) overweight with sore feet and joints and look to God to heal those feet and joints - He can give grace, but you over-ate so you must take that weight off. Otherwise, to heal you God is enabling the abuse of the body and enabling you to add still more weight to those overworked joints. 
 
An orthopedic surgeon told me for every 5 pounds (2.2k) extra a person weighs, it exerts 100 pounds (45k) of force on each knee with every step. That means 50 pounds overweight (22k) adds 1000 pounds additional (453k) force with every step taken. That's our responsibility not God's. 
 
Jesus healed people who needed healing through no fault of their own. 
What we see in the gospels is Jesus healing injuries not caused by sins against the body. The man with the withered arm in Mark 3: 1-5 was no doubt an injury for it was described as 'withered', meaning it had been whole, but something happened to make it unusable. In Matthew 15:30 it says Jesus healed the maimed, which is injury. We see healings of the man born blind, the lame, deaf and dumb and so on, conditions caused through no fault of their own. We don't see Jesus healing people who caused their own illness by neglecting or abusing their body. 
 
Faith is not something we hide behind because we are afraid to go to the doctor. Nor can we claim faith when healing by doing some practical things is within our ability. A missionary friend once observed the reason for the many miracles they saw was simple: There were no doctors, pharmacies, or medicines where they lived so God healed them. But when all those things became available to the people, the number of miracles became fewer. How do we balance medicine and God and our fears, and is there healing for conditions received before we knew the Lord?
 
We'll pick up there next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

Hi all,
Prayers for healing are probably the single most common type of prayer request I receive, along with questions as to why God doesn't heal x loved one, or why doesn't He heal the person who is asking me the question. This 4 part series will answer some of those questions, but the topic is too large to cover in detail.
 
For those interested in learning how the Lord does heal, how He maneuvers us into position to be able to receive healing, you may be interested in my teaching series called 'Healing School' and the follow up to that, 'The Most Important Thing I've Learned about Healing', available in CD or MP3 formats.
 
Why healing? 
In the largest sense the healing of a body or soul (emotions) is because God is working to restore the wholeness the earth had before Adam and Eve sinned. Sickness, disease, wrong thoughts and wrong emotions entered the world with sin. The cross and resurrection started the movement if you will, back to wholeness, making God's wholeness available to all mankind. 
 
Also, He designed the human body to heal itself - we can see the whole earth is geared towards healing. Land that had been abused is 'reclaimed by nature' and restored to abundant life over a period of time. So in that sense the whole of creation was made to heal, to return itself to a natural order and balance. In that general sense our bodies, being of the earth, seek wholeness, seek restoration, seek that balance and the peace that comes with it. 
 
The evidence the Father God provides that He will bring a day where we all will be healed, including creation, is the life and times of Jesus Christ. He is the Father God's proof of His love for us, of His good will towards men, and His promise to make all things right. 
 
The New Testament makes clear it is not the cross that is that proof, but the resurrection that is the proof. The resurrection proves the Lordship of Jesus, containing therein the assurance God will judge the world and make all things right. (Acts 17: 24-31)
 
A claim requires witnesses to verify such a claim
If someone is accused of shoplifting there must be evidence, there must be a witness against them. It can't be just their word against the clerk's word. Besides the clerk catching them perhaps store security guard caught them with items in their pockets, perhaps surveillance video recorded their actions. But there has to be a witness or two before that person can be brought before a judge. If not, it is just their word against the store clerk and nothing can be proven. No one can be brought before a judge on the basis of 'he said, she said' - there must be other witnesses. 
 
God the Father is dealing with eternal life, therefore such a claim requires that He provide proof, that He offer eye witness testimony to substantiate (support) the claims of His Son, Jesus. It would be unfair that a person's eternal destiny be decided without evidence to support His claims. 
 
We have the Word and the Spirit. God is not a mind that we should reason with someone into eternal life. You can't argue a person into believing. But Jesus said in John 4:24 that God is a Spirit - He is real, solid, but in the Spirit realm. Therefore it is both the Word and the Spirit that agree and work to provide evidence to the claim of Jesus and eternal life. The Spirit provides Life to God's Word, and the claims of the True Word, the Person of Jesus Christ.
 
Who is the eyewitness for us, some 2000 years after the resurrection? 
In Acts 5:32 Peter is giving a defense before the Jewish leaders about the life and ministry of Jesus, saying this: "We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, who God gives to those who obey Him." 
 
The Holy Spirit was an eye witness - at the cross. At the resurrection. He came on Pentecost to fill believers. He is the timeless eye-witness who saw it all. That is why some 2000 years later, in our time, when you heard of Jesus something burned in you, something wouldn't let it go, you sensed something, somehow, was real and genuine about the claims of Jesus.
 
That 'something' was the eyewitness, the Spirit of Truth bearing witness that the claims your friend or that preacher made about Jesus, was true. You acted on that sense not realizing you were heeding an eyewitness account of the life of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and gave your heart to Him. That was the first instance perhaps of you aware God was dealing with you, and communicating to you - because the Spirit was an eye-witness to the life of Jesus. 
 
In Acts 2:33 and 3:15 and the aforementioned 5:32 and elsewhere, Peter and the others say they were witnesses of the resurrection from the dead by Jesus - and my point is that by the Holy Spirit, you and I are also witnesses of His resurrection. We have the Holy Spirit in us who was there, who testifies and 'bears witness' with our spirit that we are His children and that all the claims of Jesus are true. We have Him inside us as proof, for the Father does not want anyone to believe without providing proof of His claims.
 
The foundational reason healing...
The Father supports the eye witness of His Spirit about Jesus by providing healings, signs, and wonders. In Acts 4:33 it says, "With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord...."
 
In Acts 3:15-16 Peter gives another defense of his faith concerning the healing of the lame man: "...and God raised Him from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this, therefore it is through faith in His name this man stands before you whole." (He also restated it in 4:10)
 
Peter said the healing of the lame man is evidence that God raised Jesus from the dead. Healing is evidence. 
 
In Acts 8: 1-12 we are told the persecution that arose after Steven's death (in chapter 7) was so intense that every single disciple of the Lord moved out of Jerusalem, except for the apostles. The amazing year of love and miracles during the year between Pentecost in Acts 2 and 8:1 had come to an abrupt end as they all moved out of the city for fear of their lives, most of them to Judea and Samaria. 
 
Based on the family they continued meeting in their homes, and Philip came up to Samaria to preach Jesus among his friends, and also for the local people who were overrun with all the new people moving into the region and wondering what it was all about. Acts 8: 5-8 tells us Philip 'preached Christ' to them, and they believed 'hearing and seeing all the miracles he did', and v12 says, "...they all believed the things of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ..."
 
Notice the name of Jesus and their believing was tied to hearing and seeing the miracles that were done. The testimony in Acts is that healings and deliverance is first and foremost evidence of the resurrection of Jesus to the unbeliever. 
 
Long time ago I knew a man named Les who owned a furniture store. He had a back injury that prevented him from lifting, so one day he hired 2 college students to load a truck full of tables and chairs he had bought for his store. As they loaded they told him about Jesus, concluding with: "If what we said it true, God is willing to confirm what we told you about Jesus. If He heals your back as a confirmation that what we said of Him is true, will you believe?" He was a man of his word and agreed. As they laid hand on him, his back was instantly healed, and he kept his word, praying the prayer of salvation. His Jewish wife became a believer as a result as well. I worked for him about 1 year.
 
But there are accounts in the New Testament of God healing believers...aren't there? What provision is there for healing for those of us who already believe? Is healing available as a 'fringe benefit' of believing? We'll pick it up there next week. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
 

Hi all,
Hebrews 11 is often called 'the hall of faith' because it lists so many Old Testament 'heroes of the faith'. Among those people we find named or known by events in their lives: 
 
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, 'the prophets', Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach, Abednigo. And many others: "Escaped the edge of the sword, routed foreign armies in battle, women who received their dead back to life, others tortured, in chains, in prison, put to death by being sawn in two (Isaiah)", and so on.
 
The writer continues: "Seeing then that we have such a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight that hinders us and of sin that would hold onto us, and run the race set before us with patience, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." Hebrews 12: 1-2
 
These people are not asleep for he calls them the 'cloud of witnesses', not dormant, but alive and well. The use of the phrase 'cloud of witnesses' indicates they are in heaven. The use of cloud paints a perfect picture of heaven, for if they were not in heaven he could have said 'their lives provide a testimony to us', or something else to say they are in 'soul sleep' or otherwise unaware of our own lives. But he didn't, instead saying they are a 'cloud' floating above us so to speak, witnessing our lives. 
 
The word 'witnesses' is the Greek word 'martus' (where we get the word martyr) and means "eye witness as a spectator" or "one who can confirm what he has seen, witnessed, or knows". 
 
Of those in Hebrews 11, it says they are now witnesses to our lives like spectators at a sporting event, which is why the author said 'let us run the race set before us'. They don't know everything going on in our lives, but they know the basics of what is happening in the body of Christ: Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus to talk of His approaching death on the cross, and in Revelation 6 John saw martyrs asking the Father who long until their deaths are avenged.
 
My opinion and observation, for thought
Satan only perverts the true, and we all know that in the world there are many who focus on ghosts, spirit guides and such. But the existence of a counterfeit proves the existence of the true, otherwise there is no need for a counterfeit. 
 
Therefore the real and true are those who have died in Christ being witnesses of this life. Certainly Jesus visiting people all over the world after His ascension is true - not a ghost, not a spirit guide - but the real Jesus. From Acts 9 appearing to Paul and Ananias, to Acts 18 in Corinth giving instructions to Paul, down through the centuries, people have seen and do see in the Spirit realm and are aware of that realm being in turn, aware of this realm. Moses and Elijah appearing to Jesus in Luke 9 talking of His approaching death on the cross should be mentioned too. 
 
But many of us have at various important times in our lives, had an awareness in our spirit that 'mom and dad' or another close family or friend are spiritually present and/or aware and witnessing that event. We often hear that at the birth of a grandchild that someone felt or just knew down inside that so and so in heaven was watching. The same could be said of weddings and even funerals. Many if not most of us have had times in our lives we were aware but dare not say for fear of sounding weird, that we felt someone we love now in heaven, was watching as one of those among the cloud of witnesses. 
 
Yes, there are the counterfeits, and it is forbidden to initiate contact with those who have died, but there are times heaven initiates it and lets us know someone near and dear to us though departed, are in fact witnessing what is happening in our lives here on earth. 
 
What my friend saw, who he spoke with
A friend of mine went to the hospital for what he thought would be a simple procedure, but something went horribly wrong and he suffered a heart attack and died. They worked on him about 40 minutes to bring him back. During that time he was in heaven he spoke to people that he didn't know, but who he found out later, knew people that he knew. And to his amazement, they knew what was going on in the lives of some of their relatives on earth. 
 
After he recovered and over the next weeks he would just go about his business and then cross paths with someone who he realized was the person mentioned by someone he met in heaven.  
 
One example is a woman he saw in heaven who told him to tell 'James' to work hard and he will get through it, to complete his education. My friend didn't know the woman so didn't know who 'James' was. But one day about a week later he was talking to his neighbor who mentioned his son Jimmy. As they talked, my friend steered the conversation and discovered they had lost the neighbor's mom, Jimmy's grandmother, about a year earlier - and that Jimmy was in college but thinking about quitting. He was able to relay the story directly to Jimmy, confirm his grandmother always called him James, tell what she looked like, and all agreed that really was his grandmother.
 
One family
I've shared several times about my 'tour' of heaven and how I saw a little girl and boy sitting under a tree while over a dozen relatives from several generations were with them in what appeared to be some sort of family picnic or gathering. When I noticed the several generations of family present, the children's parents were not. 
 
When I asked 'my' angel who was walking with me, he said: "These children died in a car accident, but their parents are still on the earth. When possible, children are raised by relatives in heaven." I told him I needed chapter and verse on that, and he responded: "Have you not read Ephesians 3:14 where Paul said he 'bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named'. There is only one family, it doesn't matter if some are now on earth and some are in heaven, you are all one family." 
 
The earth-suit we have
When I was new in the Lord and getting to know the Father, He told me something that erased any doubt in my young mind. I had been reading and thinking on Colossians 1: 12-13: 
 
"Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to be able to share in the inheritance of (all) the saints in the light, who has delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." 
 
I was thinking on the difference between authority which is used here (though erroneously translated 'power' in some translations). Power is the gun on the hip of the policeman, authority is their ability to raise a hand to stop traffic. A police officer has authority to stop traffic, and has power in their gun to back up their authority.
 
I was thinking how it says I had been delivered from the authority of darkness - that Satan had no authority on me anymore - which meant I am a citizen of heaven now, and I have the right to command spirits away, I had the right to not sin, and so on. And that I had been translated, transferred, into the kingdom of the Father's Son, made able to partake of all therein. Amazing. 
 
The Father spoke to me as I thought on these things: "Your body gives you authority on the earth. But when the body dies, your spirit and soul automatically become subject to the kingdom you're a citizen of." 
 
It made clear the fact there are exactly 2 kingdoms in the universe: God's and Satan's. Light and dark. Legally and spiritually, being in Christ meant Satan had no authority over me in any way, for I became a citizen of the kingdom of Jesus. In Him I have authority over the darkness. 
 
But that little sentence He spoke to me also made clear every single person walking on the earth is right now a citizen of one of those 2 kingdoms. Because their spirit and soul are temporarily housed in a physical body it provides them the ability to choose which kingdom they want to be part of as long as that body is alive in this physical realm. I also realized every person who has ever lived and died, is right now alive in one of those kingdoms. 
 
Jesus detailed in the afore mentioned story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man that human beings live on once their bodies die, and retain all our memory and senses, functioning fully in that realm which is unseen to the physical eye. But that realm created the physical world, and is just as real and solid and functioning as this natural world. 
 
We don't die and then enter eternity, we are right now already living in eternity. One day each of us will join the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 11. If we think like that and hold that truth close to your heart, you'll find the cares of the world, the pains and hurts suffered in this world, lose much of their sting. The presence of the Lord in your spirit will become just that much more noticeable and His grace will carry you through. 
 
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
 

Hi all,
Daniel 12:2 is a verse that confuses people over whether a person 'sleeps' when they die, or go to heaven: 
 
"And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt." 
 
To our modern ear this seems to be in direct contradiction of Paul's statement that 'To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord', in II Corinthians 5: 8. 
 
What we have here is a failure to communicate
To our modern mind the use of sleep to speak of death presents a picture of unconsciousness, of deep sleep where you aren't aware of anything. But the Biblical use of sleep can be different. We have to work through Old and New Testaments, translations and cultural considerations, all of which can seem to contradict one another.
 
Jesus said to the ladies wailing over the untimely death of Jairus' 12 year old daughter: "Why are you crying so? The girl is not dead, but sleeps." Mark 5: 39
 
"'Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I am going that I may awaken him from sleep.' 'Lord, if he is sleeping he will be all right.' But spoke of his death, but they had thought He was talking about taking rest in sleep." John 11: 11-13
 
"For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption." Acts 13: 36
 
"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."
"Behold, I show you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." I Corinthians 11:30, 15: 51
 
"For if we believe that Jesus both died and rose again, even so those who sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." 
"Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we will live together with Him." I Thessalonians 4: 14, 5:10
 
The Bible uses sleep to mean natural sleep of course. 
And quite often the Bible's use of sleep refers to being spiritually asleep. One of my favorite album's was Keith Green's 1978 album "No Compromise", with one of the songs being "Asleep in the Light". Unfortunately that song is still as relevant to our times as it was in 1978. 
 
The third use of sleep is our subject of course; calling death 'sleep'. 
 
The ancient temple prayer which is still prayed at the Feast of Trumpets - the feast that is a picture of what we call the rapture - is about awakening the righteous dead, paraphrased by Paul in Ephesians 5:14:
 
"Therefore it says (temple prayer at Feast of Trumpets): "Awake you who sleep and rise from the dead, and Messiah will give you light..."
 
Here is the explanation: The use of sleep for death in the Bible refers to the body, not the soul. 
The body sleeps, but there is not a single scripture saying a person's soul sleeps. 
 
In Daniel 12:2 when it says 'Those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake (to face judgment)', the object being the dust of the earth, which means the body. Not the soul. 
 
In John 11:11 when Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go to awaken him from sleep", He uses the word 'kekoimatai', which means 'to lie down'. In the other words, 'Lazarus' body is lying down (sleeping)' - the subject is the body, not the soul. 
 
In Ecclesiastes 9:5 when it says; "For the living know they will die, but the dead know nothing, for they have no reward for they are soon forgotten", it is clearly talking about the body, not the soul. 
 
OT Jewish and NT Christian viewpoint
Because the Old and New Testaments teach a physical resurrection of the dead, the Bible's view of death for the body is that of a temporary condition no matter if the person is a believer or unbeliever. (Daniel 12:2 for example)
 
The idea of 'soul sleep' therefore not only contradicts Judaism and Christianity from Genesis through The Revelation, but we have chapter and verse that states we go directly to be with the Lord.
 
When Paul wrote the Philippians that he desired to go and be with the Lord in death which was 'far better', he wasn't saying his soul needed a good long nap. He was saying he is eternal and upon the death of the body he would be with the Lord. That is the only way it is 'far better' to die - that one would be with the Lord.
 
We've seen what Jesus taught in Luke 16: 19-31; the 2 men who died both went to their respective places and saw one another, spoke to one another, and were clearly not 'asleep'. The evidence of Jesus' grammar tells us this was not a parable, but a real situation. And frankly, that what He told me as well on 10/1/86 when He taught me about these things. 
 
Then we have Moses and Elijah who appeared to Him and talked with Him of his death in Jerusalem from the Law and Prophets, so they were clearly not in 'soul sleep'. Jesus told the repentant man on the cross that 'Today you will be with me in Paradise' so Jesus wasn't planning on either of them 'sleeping', and in Revelation 6: 9-11 John saw thousands of people before the Father's throne asking for vengeance for their (martyred) deaths.
 
The body 'sleeps' and that is the context of each verse in the Bible where sleep is spoken of as death. For us, our bodies may sleep, ie lose contact with the physical world, but for our eternal souls, to be absent from our body is to be present with the Lord, which is as Paul said, 'far better'. Next week, people in heaven both Biblical and some who I've seen there as well. Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com