Be Prepared to meet Thy Lord SECOND COMING
Warm Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In these end days, our Lord has provided us with many teachings, deep thoughts, the yet to happen events and matchless treasures in His truthful book, the Bible. It is our immense duty to pray fervently to Him who will make us understand the deep Spiritual treasures in the Bible as we read it every day. If any of us lack knowledge, let us ask of Him who gives generously to all without finding fault (James 1:5). How will our Lord withheld all the good gifts, the Word, the meaning and secrets of the Scriptures, when we ask of Him? Let’s ask Him with prayers and get from Him with mercies. In this article let us make out a clear understanding on our readiness and how to be prepared to meet our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes in His second coming with the great and splendid archangels, with loud blast of the trumpet sounds, and descending in His glory amidst the clouds. Remember, all our eyes, our own eyes will see the Son of Man coming openly. Are we prepared to meet the Lord in the skies?
Are We Prepared? The foremost thing is to self-analyze that are we prepared to meet our Lord in His second coming. After we are well prepared for the second coming, let us prepare others and help them to get ready on their toes to meet our Lord. None of us were there in Jesus’ first coming. The prophesies in our scriptures that were proclaimed for over 3000 years came true and fulfilled in its right time. He became man, being born into this world, worked out miracles to reveal the glory of God, taught us the way of truth and life that would be pleasing God, and lived among men. We did not know that He was the Messiah and killed Him crucifying Him on the Cross. God raised Jesus on the third day from the depths of death. We already are confessing these and we are well aware of these things that we believe in Christ. Jesus’ first coming, and the salvation He purchased on the Cross came true at the very right time, God’s time. When Jesus left to heaven, it was told by the Angels “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1: 10, 11). This was the greatest prophesy of all times foretold about Jesus’ second coming, about 2000 years ago. Not only that, ever since 4100 years, from the times of Job, the final coming of the Son of Man was prophesized as this: at the end of this world, He will eventually come in public with the heavenly hosts in the mid skies with the great thunderous blasts of trumpets. As was the first coming of Jesus as Messiah did happen at the right time, so will His second and final coming will happen at the right time. We believe it or not, or we deny it with our worldly knowledge, Jesus will come, and He will
come very soon. Are we ready and prepared? How can we be prepared to meet our Lord? Here are some of the things we ought to do.
Make yourself Holy: We are all sinners before God. He is holy. If we ought to meet Him, we must make ourselves holy before Him. Unless we are holy, we cannot worship God (Hebrews 12:14). How can we be made holy? Do this: There is no big thing than to confess all of our sins, again all of our sins - little or big, small or great (2 Timothy 3: 2-5, Galatians 5:19-21), with a weeping heart and a heavy burdened soul. If we confess our sins, our Lord is gracious enough to forgive our sins and wash us in His precious blood, and will make us pure. Then comes the most difficult and dangerous thing: going back to the same sins. This is more pathetic than the first state of life. We try not to sin again, but our flesh is weak, and goes back and does it again. Restrain the inner crave for getting back to the pleasures of sin. This is what we call ‘getting prepared’. For example: wrath, anger is sin. We have confessed to God this sin and promised not to sin again. God forgives. Now, if there comes a situation, and you are angered by someone, or something angers you, you are not supposed to fall back into it again. We must not and should not. This is just an example, and we have numerous sins in the list. This act of not going back to your previous sinful life is the first step to holiness. Jesus never casts away any kind of sinner that comes to Him (John 6:37). God sees into our innermost heart while we are confessing our sins. Nothing is hidden from His sight. Does not the omniscient Creator know about His creations? If we confess our sins with a broken and a contrite heart that really wants pardon and forgiveness, God in His greatest mercies and love on us forgives ‘all’ our sins through the redeeming blood of His Son Jesus Christ. When we confess, we literally mean that we nail our old-being on the Cross with Christ, and the old sinful self should die, so that when God forgives our sins, we are raised in Spirit with a new being along with Jesus Christ. This is the only explicit process of salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He gives us the confirmation of the salvation from sins. The external and the internal assurance of salvation that we are clothed with are joy, peace, the beginning of a new life with the new being, new strength in our soul and spirit. Shall we bend ourselves on our knees and receive this supreme gift of redemption?
Baptism of the Holy Spirit: After confession and repentance, and the receipt of forgiveness is gracefully granted, it is very important and compelling to have the anointment of the Holy Spirit who will in all divinity help us to not to fall back into those older sins of yester days and years. In our traditional Churches confessions of sins are supplicated every week, and the Priest seconds it by reading out the prayer of repentance. However, the prayers in our liturgy lack the necessity to plead for the anointment of the Holy Spirit. But in independent denominations they emphasize on
the filling up of the Holy Spirit every week, to strengthen their believers. Anyway it is thoughtfully implied that some such Churches are deviating from the core Christian ways of life and values. We will need the divine presence of the Holy Spirit in our spirits and souls to not to fall back into our older sins and not get caught up in newer sins. The condition of looking back would be very pathetic, even worse compared to the previous state. Jesus says ‘The Holy Spirit will lead you in all truthfulness’ (John 16:13), which doubtlessly indicates that His Spirit will hold our hands and minds from falling down and also will lead us in the way of truth, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. If we ought to fight with our own will and flesh against our old shameful world of sins, we cannot overcome it, and there is going to be a definite loss in the battle. This is the ultimate reason why we need Holy Spirit who will lead us and strengthen us do all things in Christ (Phili 4:13). When the Bible says ‘all’ things, it includes this battle of overcoming our inner sinful enemy, with the strength of Christ. ‘The one comes after me will baptize you with Holy Spirit’, John the Baptist says (Mark 1:7, 8) about the baptism of anointment of the Holy Spirit which our Lord Jesus Christ will pour out on us. This divine anointment of the Holy Spirit is the mark or the symbol of Jesus Christ put forth on us to make us eligible for the Kingdom of heaven. This is the second step in getting ourselves ready for His coming. It is with earnest yearnings the most precious gifts can be gotten. Our gracious God is so merciful to provide to all whose pleadings are genuinely and tirelessly petitioned for this highly esteemed gift and heavenly blessing, the anointment of the Holy Spirit. So let us pray and ask for this profound and eternal gift of God to make ourselves strengthened in Him, and prepare ourselves for the eternal Kingdom of God.
Proclaim the Gospel: Is it not a joyous privilege to share the happiness that we received by the trustfulness of salvation, fullness of the Holy Spirit and its immeasurable anointment, and the strength that is the result of the receiving of the highest ever gift from God? Yes, sharing the Gospel is the most compelling command Jesus gave us when He left this world (Matt 28: 19, 20). Will it not be counted as sin for us if we don’t follow this command? Before ever preaching the good news, we must be impeccably clear in understanding the Gospel, and then it would be accurate to preach others. It was some 30 to 40 years back; many missionaries and evangelists dedicated themselves to proclaim the Gospel sacrificing their lives, their profession and their wealth. When they preached there were numerous people who heard them and gave their hearts for Christ. Also when they shared the Gospel personally one on one, people received the Gospel and repented and accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. It is not the same today, in this highly intellects’ world. Because, people have enriched themselves with worldly knowledge, and are equipped with a powerful weapon of reasoning, which they claim is an influential necessity to discern between good and bad. Nevertheless, the poor thing is that they aren’t able to discern right and wrong, but have developed a very ruinous attitude to resist to hearing the Gospel. They will begin to argue, claim illegitimate, unspiritual statements and sometimes it would even end in strife. Sharing the Gospel to a neighbor or to a colleague has become a very arduous challenge.
We cannot deny the fact that the missionaries and evangelists of those days also had a very tough time handling the hurdles in proclaiming the Gospel. They overcame those battles of the dark through their untiring prayers with fasting. Prayers helped them. If we too pray to our Lord to break away all these chains of resistance and hindrances, He is powerful enough to cast them out of our ways. Neither a podium nor a pulpit is an essentiality in proclamation of the Gospel, it is also equally strong and worth mentioning that even sharing the Gospel with the God given talents is also the divine task of evangelizing the good news. Moreover, just sowing with tears is our only prime duty. It is God who makes the yield. If only we sow, will He water it and make the yield, and the harvest will be plenty. Finally, we need the presence and the anointment of the Holy Spirit to help us preach the Gospel without fear and with clear mind well authenticated with power from His presence.
Walking Faithfully with God: With God every day is a very personal thing. What does it mean by walking with God? A bride and a groom, after they are betrothed to each other, will always be thinking of each other, and will be waiting for that day of their wedding and the life that they would live together. Every passing day is the count down to their wedding day, and they cherish in it, waiting for that great Day. We are also the betrothed bride for the Groom, engaged to Him on the day of our redemption. We ought to be eagerly longing to hear His voice, earnestly speaking to Him without ceasing, dwelling in His Word, living with fond affection to converse with Him, and passionately look forward for His Kingdom, and very importantly carry Jesus in our hearts every day. However the practicality may seem to be strange and impossible. Nothing is impossible when we are in the counseling of Holy Spirit. It is written in a single line ‘Enoch walked with God’ (Genesis 5:22). It was 300 years that he walked with God - talking, walking in fellowship, all the time thinking, and having that intimate relationship with God. Enoch was not into monastic life. He had a family, had children, and he was also fulfilling his worldly family duties. He didn’t run away from them for God’s sake. He was in the family and at the same time he walked with God. What a stupendous spiritual blessing Enoch had? Moses is another great man who had regular conversation with God and walked in the Lord’s will and way. As well, he had a family, and he was leading millions of Israelites through the dessert to the Canaan Land. Yet he was walking with God, and it has become his way of life. King David is another great man who did only according to God’s will. He never ceased to walk with God amidst his kingdom’s affairs and he owned a large family. Whatever responsibilities we may have in our lives and whatever duties and sufferings we may go through, let us learn to walk with God, keeping His commandments and His truthful Words, praying to Him all the time – what a joyous life it would be. This is the divine calling. God wants us to be with Him and in Him. If we, the bride think and love the Groom, He is so kind and loving enough to come down to our level and take us to be with Him in that final Wedding Day.
If we will walk with God, then these worldly pleasures will be so miniscule, for we are totally immersed in the infinite pleasures of heavenly blessing, and being with the One who created us will be our ultimatum in this life.
Seek the life in Heaven: Our birth is not an accident. We are craftily made and fine-tuned by God before we are brought-forth into this world. Everyone is unique by birth, both physically and emotionally, and we have unique races to run forth. An Athlete takes up his workouts, and practices very sincerely and prepares himself for the race. If he misses out his practice sessions two or three days, he will lose his vigor, and to regain his strength he has to work harder than before, to keep him perfectly fit for the final race. We are also running a Spiritual race. Is our race just like that, or are we spiritually getting trained? We’ll become weary and tired if we try without practicing, but if we get ourselves into the training guided by the untiring Spirit of God, then we can surely win the race destined for us. The final reward waiting for me is the glorious life in the eternal Kingdom of God. I am not writing a fairy tale, or talking about something that doesn’t exist. I believe in faith that it exists because the great men of God and the Saints of the Bible have always run with this heavenly Kingdom before them. Right from Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Samuel, all the prophets, the apostles, and many more – all of them were able to foresee the Kingdom of God while they were still living in this world, and they were striving for that eternal Holy Place of God’s dwelling. Paul says “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Tim 4: 7, 8) – and he continues “it will be given to all who have longed for His appearing”. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20), and we ought to seek His Kingdom earnestly. The Groom’s dwelling place is the bride’s place which we must keenly be interested in and wait for that day when the Groom would come, take the bride with Him to that place of everlasting happiness and joy. Our thoughts, talks, actions and deeds – all that is within us should primarily be focused on the eternal life of the Kingdom. That Land is a glorious land of unending joy, and no pain, nor sorrow, no suffering, no disease, nor ailments, no tears nor agony can be found there. God himself will be the light and we will all be faultlessly and seemingly standing in front of His splendid and magnificent throne: this should be our only objective as we live in this world. Our redeemed self, who is betrothed to our eternal Groom should always long for Him and His dwelling place, where we will worship Him forever and ever.
Conclusion: Are you burdened with your family problems, personal problems, sicknesses and diseases, losses of all kinds, financials crisis, and worldly lavish lifestyles, objectionable desires and sins? Please kneel down, bend on your knees and cry out to God for help, and He’ll save you from all these annoying torments of this earthly life. Keep speaking to Him every day and seek the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and sincerely wait at His feet having yourself prepared to meet Him. If we can do this, then this world’s anguishes and ordeals will be nothing for us. I am a Christian, I go to Church regularly, I give offerings to Church and to the poor, and I lead a good sinless life, and I don’t think evil for others nor destroy anyone, then it seems that I am prepared. No. God doesn’t want good persons, He wants Holy ones. He is Holy, so those would want to dwell with Him and worship Him must also be Holy (1 Peter 1:16). Adding to it, one should be earnestly in love with our Lord. Jesus says “Love your Lord with all your heart, with your entire mind and with all your soul” (Mark 12:30). No Sharing in this divine love, it must be fully and completely given to God. You might think ‘this is all fine. But this is possible only with a monk or a hermit’. If it were so, our Scriptures would have told us about that. Bible talks about common, ordinary people like you and me that walked with God and entered eternity. What I suggest is this: try these five ways of living as your family together. Yes implement individually and then practice it in your family. Take an oath that ‘me and my household will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15)’, God will help you and your family to practice these things. I repeat these are not one day endeavors; it has to be practiced every day until it becomes your lifestyle, and until you reach His Kingdom. Perseverance and tirelessness should be your character until you’ve reached your goal, the eternal Kingdom. God will bless you and your family and help you to get prepared to meet Him. This is the mightiest, heaven’s richest blessing. God be with you all.