Asleep

1Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Being asleep takes on a new and different meaning when we consider it from the Christian standpoint. We can be asleep from a spiritual view, even dead, while we still walk around on this earth.

Our bodies can be "asleep" in the ground for years in the earth, yet we are alive with Jesus in that everlasting moment which is eternity. We were transferred into the kingdom of God when we placed our trust in Him. We share in His resurrection if we share in His life. I believe this is the first resurrection, for we are blessed and we do not participate in the second resurrection. The dead in Christ are still alive for we have been reborn, now waiting to join with immortal bodies to fully be like Jesus.

Here Paul says those preceding us in passing will come with Jesus when He returns. Jesus will descend from heaven. The bodies of the dead will rise first into their glorious and immortal bodies. We who are still alive in mortal bodies, who have undergone that same rebirth, will join them in the clouds.

Clouds in the Bible usually are associated with the power and glory of the Lord's presence:
In the desert
Tabernacle
Temple
With Jesus
On the mountain with Moses.