"But I do not want you to be ignorant, (uninformed) brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." 1 Thess. 4:13, 14

Dead believers are not asleep taking a long nap. Their souls, in personality and function, are "present with the Lord," which the Bible teaches "is far better." They would not be better off were they sleeping. Sleep in the Bible is a reference to the body at rest, never to the soul. Unless angels sing a funeral dirge over the grave of God, we are destined to live as long as He lives! Paul is writing to the believers at Thessalonica to assure them that those who have died in Christ will not miss the rapture. God will send them back with Jesus so that both the resurrected dead and the then living believers can be "caught up together to meet the Lord in the air." Dead believers, whose spirits are now in heaven, do not currently have their glorified bodies. That transformation event awaits the rapture of the church. Just think of the joy of being caught up together!