PREPARING FOR THE 2ND COMING OF CHRIST
I remember several years ago, during the month of December, when my dad would promise to take us out for Christmas shopping. He would ask us to dress up and wait for him while he goes to attend to some urgent business in the office. We would dress up and wait expectantly. I remember looking to see his pick-up van among the fleet of cars going pass our frontage now and then. Our confidence on his promise would be so profound we would refuse to give up, believing that he would always keep to his word.
This is the kind of attitude that the Lord wants us to have towards the second coming. He wants us to believe and expect His soon return. Jesus has said in several parts of scripture that He is coming again to receive us to Himself, so that where He is we shall be also – John 14:1-3. Jesus is coming again but we must be ready and prepared for His second coming. It is only those who expect His coming that He would appear to in His second coming. Hebrews 9:28, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Acts 1:10-11 says, “And while they looked stedfastly, towards heaven as he (Jesus) went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go unto heaven.”
Jesus is coming again, but the question is, are we prepared to receive Him? Jesus Christ emphasizing the importance of preparedness for the second coming gave a parable in Matthew 25:1-13 of the ten virgins. Virgins as used in this contest actually represent the church which is the bride of Christ – Revelations 14:3-5. But Matthew 25:2-4 said something about these ten virgins thus, “And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil, in their vessels with their lamps.” My prayer for you is that you will be among the five virgins in Jesus name. What the scripture above is simply saying is that, five of the virgins were prepared for the coming of Christ while five never prepared. Dearly beloved, are you prepared for the coming of Christ, or are you one of those who live as though there is no tomorrow? You may be called a Christian or believer etc. but if you are unprepared for Christ’s coming you will be left behind.
1st John 3:3 says that, “…every man that have this hope (the hope of His second coming) in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” In Luke Chapter 21, Jesus told us what to do to be prepared for His second coming. He said, Luke 21:34 & 36, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (excess of worldly cares), and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unaware. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Jesus said in Luke 21:36 that the solution to staying focus, awaiting His second coming is to watch and pray always. To watch is to be awake, it means to be sober, it means to be spiritually alert so that we can resist, counter every deception or strategy that Satan may deploy against us and our faith. 1st Thessalonians 5:4-8, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”
This is the kind of attitude that the Lord wants us to have towards the second coming. He wants us to believe and expect His soon return. Jesus has said in several parts of scripture that He is coming again to receive us to Himself, so that where He is we shall be also – John 14:1-3. Jesus is coming again but we must be ready and prepared for His second coming. It is only those who expect His coming that He would appear to in His second coming. Hebrews 9:28, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Acts 1:10-11 says, “And while they looked stedfastly, towards heaven as he (Jesus) went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go unto heaven.”
Jesus is coming again, but the question is, are we prepared to receive Him? Jesus Christ emphasizing the importance of preparedness for the second coming gave a parable in Matthew 25:1-13 of the ten virgins. Virgins as used in this contest actually represent the church which is the bride of Christ – Revelations 14:3-5. But Matthew 25:2-4 said something about these ten virgins thus, “And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil, in their vessels with their lamps.” My prayer for you is that you will be among the five virgins in Jesus name. What the scripture above is simply saying is that, five of the virgins were prepared for the coming of Christ while five never prepared. Dearly beloved, are you prepared for the coming of Christ, or are you one of those who live as though there is no tomorrow? You may be called a Christian or believer etc. but if you are unprepared for Christ’s coming you will be left behind.
1st John 3:3 says that, “…every man that have this hope (the hope of His second coming) in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” In Luke Chapter 21, Jesus told us what to do to be prepared for His second coming. He said, Luke 21:34 & 36, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (excess of worldly cares), and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unaware. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Jesus said in Luke 21:36 that the solution to staying focus, awaiting His second coming is to watch and pray always. To watch is to be awake, it means to be sober, it means to be spiritually alert so that we can resist, counter every deception or strategy that Satan may deploy against us and our faith. 1st Thessalonians 5:4-8, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”
Secondly, Jesus said to us to pray, and pray always not sometimes or once in a while. 1st Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing.” Luke 18:1 says, “….men ought always to pray and not to faint.” Prayer is our alert button as Christians. It is the means by which we contact heaven and heaven contacts us. A life of prayerlessness is a life of powerlessness and a sealed heaven. Heaven is the believer’s spiritual headquarters from which we receive information on how to deal with the affairs of life on earth. Prayers continually open our ears, eyes and hearts to the free flow of heaven’s conversations. To be prayerless is to be blind and deaf; it is to be cut off from heaven’s supply. But the kind of prayer that the Lord is employing us to have with Him in this end time is not the type he taught the disciples in Matthew 6:9-13. The prayer people term, our Lord’s Prayer. No! That isn’t the kind of prayer. We can’t pray such prayer in our dispensation and say we’ve prayed. That prayer was for spiritually dead people, it was for those who weren’t born again and therefore were not spiritually alive. It is a prayer from man’s mental capacity and that cannot be significant in our dispensation.
Jesus said to the woman at the well that, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” – (John 4:24). Because God is a Spirit, therefore we must contact Him with our spirit and not our minds or flesh. Our prayer in this dispensation must be spirit based. Hence Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying always with all prayers and supplications in the spirit…” Not in the flesh or in our understanding or intellect alone. If we really want to be alive spiritually, we must pray with our spirit and not just our minds alone. 1st Corinthians 14:14-15, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth…” What is it then? "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also…”
Why is it important to pray in or with your spirit? 1st Corinthians 2:11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the spirit of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit is of God.” Your spirit knows the things that your head or mind does not know because your spirit is in contact with the Holy Spirit. When we pray in the spirit, the Holy Spirit gives our spirit information from God which are eventually transferred to our minds for onward use on earth. This is how John 16:13 is fulfilled on earth.
Beloved, I pray for you that you will be among those that would be duly and fully prepared for Christ’s coming in Jesus name – Amen!
See you next month. May God bless you richly.
Jesus said to the woman at the well that, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” – (John 4:24). Because God is a Spirit, therefore we must contact Him with our spirit and not our minds or flesh. Our prayer in this dispensation must be spirit based. Hence Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying always with all prayers and supplications in the spirit…” Not in the flesh or in our understanding or intellect alone. If we really want to be alive spiritually, we must pray with our spirit and not just our minds alone. 1st Corinthians 14:14-15, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth…” What is it then? "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also…”
Why is it important to pray in or with your spirit? 1st Corinthians 2:11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the spirit of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit is of God.” Your spirit knows the things that your head or mind does not know because your spirit is in contact with the Holy Spirit. When we pray in the spirit, the Holy Spirit gives our spirit information from God which are eventually transferred to our minds for onward use on earth. This is how John 16:13 is fulfilled on earth.
Beloved, I pray for you that you will be among those that would be duly and fully prepared for Christ’s coming in Jesus name – Amen!
See you next month. May God bless you richly.
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