SATURDAY August 20, 2022

Coming in the Clouds

Now when He [Jesus] had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
Acts 1:9

While the disciples were looking up at Jesus, He was taken up and a cloud received Him until He could be seen no more. The angels asked the disciples, “Why are you staring up into heaven? Jesus came once; He is coming again!”

Clouds look like cotton balls in the sky. When flying in an airplane at about 33,000 feet, have you ever imagined jumping out of the plane onto a cloud to bounce from one cloud to another? We actually would fall straight through because they are only vapor. But it is nice to imagine floating around on a cloud as if relaxing on a cushion.

The word cloud used in Acts 1:9 is interesting, because this was not an ordinary cloud. It is the same cloud that covered the tabernacle in the wilderness with the power of the Shekinah glory of God: Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34).

It is the very same cloud and power of the Shekinah glory of God that took the Savior away into heaven. This same cloud led the children of Israel through the wilderness and gave them shade. The cloud was a symbol of the protection and presence of God over His people’s lives.

Today we have the Holy Spirit within and upon our lives. We belong to God and have been anointed and sealed by His Spirit:

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Jesus also declared that He is going to come again the same way He left––in a cloud: “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27). Amazing! Amazing!

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
~Revelation 1:7~

For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!