Our Spirit

Phil,
So as I understand it, when we all die on this earth, we will only have a spirit that will go to heaven and will only get new bodies when we come back to rule for the 1000 years with Jesus.
So what can our spirits do, as we can’t say anything because we have no vocal cords. Do we communicate through spirit minds and worship the same way and would we recognise and have friendship with other people as spirits in the same place?

Before getting to the main question we need to get the timing right – we get our new bodies on earth when Jesus returns to earth for the Rapture. This MIGHT be just at the start of the 1000 years, or it could be three and a half years before that, or even seven years before.

These three possible timings are called (in the same order) Post-Tribulation Rapture, Mid-Tribulation Rapture, and Pre-Tribulation Rapture. “Phil’s Best Guess” says Mid-Trib is most likely, but I don’t think we should require that as an article of faith.

If we have already died by then, our spirits will return with him “in the air” and our new bodies will rise from the earth to meet us.

If we are still alive, our existing bodies will be instantaneously changed to Resurrection bodies.

Now on to the Main Question:
BUT – your question actually concerned what happens to those who die before Jesus returns.

They are in the presence of God, but are (temporarily) deficient in the Body Department – to the tune of one. That implies an equivalent deficiency in the Voicebox Department.

And that means that in terms of sound output – we will be sadly lacking – even me!

So, how can they communicate – whether in worship or with each other?

Think about praying to God What is happening?
Your mouth MAY be moving. Sound MAY be coming out. (Or not.)
What does God “hear”?

At this point I should point out that God (at least God the Father) does not possess ears. He is a Spirit, not a Body.

So he can’t have his eardrum tickled by the soundwaves coming from your mouth.

So what does he “hear”?

He hears the sound of your heart.

How?
Yes, in one sense, because he knows everything, but there’s more to it than that.

From your point of view, if you are a Christian, your spirit has been brought back to life by the action of the Holy Spirit when you accepted the Lord.

And your spirit both senses and affects what is happening in the Spiritual World.

A good picture of this is your computer. When you bring it home and it stands on your desk, it can do stuff, but it is not connected to anything outside itself.

Imagine you then plug it in to a modem, with the mains plug out.

It still is unconnected because the modem is “dead”.

Then you give life to the modem by switching the power on at the plug.

All of a sudden your computer can reach outside of itself, to a world it has never experienced before. It can sense the outside world (receive input) and affect the outside world (send output).

So, coming back to you praying, it is what is going on in your newly switched-on SPIRIT which is connecting with the spiritual world, not primarily the sound waves coming out of your mouth.

So, coming back to you in heaven, seeing as your spirit will be there in the presence of God, it will carry on just as before – communicating with Him.

On the subject of “will we recognise each other”, I have written before, but I am sure we will know who we all are – even without bodies.

For more on this, see the Question “What would Heaven be like”.