Eph.1:14 – The Spirit is the guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own [purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory.
Have you ever stopped for a moment and given serious consideration to what heaven is like? Some have done that but heaven is really impossible for human words to describe, especially if you have only an idea of what heaven is like and no personal experience. You may be thinking, “now just wait a minute, how could I possibly have a personal knowledge of what heaven is like if I have never died?” That is one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Spirit is a foretaste, a preliminary taste of the things to come. This foretaste is the best experience in this life but it is still just a little taste pointing to the real. Healing in this life is a little taste of heaven. There will be no more death and no more sickness, healing miracles are pointing to that great day now. Here is how Kathryn Kuhlman describes the nearness of His coming.
“When an individual receives a tremendous outpouring of the blessing of God upon his heart, he or she is receiving “a foretaste of glory divine.” Also, when one is healed in answer to the prayer of faith, they are receiving a foretaste of the glorious resurrection. For, at the time of the resurrection, or the return of Christ, our bodies will become perfectly whole—with no marks or blemishes. There will be no sickness, disease, or death.
Through Christ’s redemption we may all have, as a part of the “earnest of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:14), the “life also of Jesus made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:10) until our work is finished.
Because our eternal destiny is both spiritual and bodily, our redemption must be the same. We do not receive our full inheritance until the coming “Day of Redemption,” but we can now enjoy the earnest or down payment of it.”
Life on the other side will be quite amazing. It’s hard to imagine no sorrow, anger, regrets, poverty, and no more sickness. So apparently the things we taste of the power of God in this day and time is just a foretaste of life to come. Just as Lazarus was raised from the dead when he heard the word of the Lord reaching out to him and came up out of that tomb, we too have felt the Lord calling out to us and pulling us into a place of intimacy and communion. We were once wandering in darkness but the Lord has come and opened our tombs and called us out into the light. He calls us from our sicknesses to a place of healing. Healing is clearly a foretaste of the resurrection, at the coming of the Lord we will put these new bodies on in the twinkling of an eye.