“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26:41)
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” (1st Cor. 15:50)
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1st John 3:2)
The flesh is what we battle against, although our battle is in the Spiritual realm, against those powers of Spiritual darkness, our day to day, even at times moment to moment battle is against our flesh, our sinful nature. You must understand what that word “nature” in this regard means, it is in a sense similar to the word “instinct” that the animals have, it is our default setting, it is not normal for mankind to be holy, righteous and true.
With our flesh we serve sin, that which is opposed to the will of God, with our mind we attempt to override the desires of the flesh in those sinful wants. Flesh and blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God, and when we see the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be like Him, but that does not mean that we will in that moment be holy, for all who have been born again are already hid in Christ.
You must take the truths of the Scriptures as they are given, and although not all is revealed yet, in this case much is. Speaking just in the context of the rapture at this point, those who will meet the Lord in the clouds, both those who are still alive and the risen dead, will be in their bodies, the body you are in right now, but unless you were not aware of this, it is far below freezing and there is little oxygen to breath up there, your body would not last but a few moments, and so by needs it must be changed.
Jesus appeared and disappeared at will, in this respect we will be like Him, He never had a sin nature, but as a man, He also battled against the flesh, or He could never have been fully God and fully man, that battle for Him ended at His last breath, as ours will when we are made like unto Him, but that does not mean for us that we will have all understanding, that at that moment you will be holy, recall that we are already in the Beloved, that we are already the righteousness of God in Christ.
Just because you are no longer flesh and blood does not mean that all of a sudden you will have the entire Scriptures memorized, that you will know all things pertaining to God, that you will be like Christ in regard to the full knowledge of righteousness, holiness and truth.
We will for all eternity recall who we were before Christ, we will always know why He bears those scars in His hands and feet, we will always understand why and how we came to be in heaven, but we will no longer be burdened with the flesh as we know it today.
The freedom to worship the Lord as we desire to is hindered not by Satan, but by ourselves, he is but a tool of temptations, our free will offers us the choice of who we will serve. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1st Cor. 13:12)
But we can catch a glimpse of it today.
The glass will no longer be dark, we will be freed from the burden of the flesh for all eternity, but the changes that some are expecting to be instantaneous will not be so, we have much to learn in heaven my friends. Grow in His grace and knowledge today and expect to do so forevermore.
It will be quite an adventure.
