Preparing for the Return of Jesus Christ...

Chapter Seventy-five:

The expectation of Christ's return is at the very center of Christianity. The Book of Revelation is written to those of us who are His, those who have been forgiven of their sins, who hear and keep His Word.  It is not written for those who have refused to accept Christ's sacrifice for their sins, it is not for those who think there are many ways to heaven, and it is not for those who walk in unbelief and unashamedly disobey and mock God's Holy Word.

To be clear, this chapter is not about the specifics of the end times, as believers can study those for themselves. Scripture verses such as Matthew 24:3-44, Second Thessalonians 2:1-12, and Luke 21:7-28 tell of the signs of the times leading up to Christ's return. For the believer, it is a fine line we walk. We are to live as if Christ's return could happen at any moment, but we are also to live as if it could be after we have died.  I see Biblical prophecy as more of a warning from God that we must put our efforts into being prepared for Christ's return. And Jesus is returning!

Scripture warns us in Matthew 24:21,22  that "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened." God is giving us ample warning about how terrible the times will become, that even those who are walking closely with Him will have a difficult time enduring, so for their sake He will shorten the days.  So we need to ask ourselves the question, if Christ does return in our lifetime how well will we have prepared ourselves? 

Some of us will be further along than others in how to listen to and follow the Holy Spirit, and that is to be expected, but the time has come where there can no longer be any excuse for any true believer to stay where they are, spiritually speaking. If the Holy Spirit shows us that we are not living our lives as we should, our only choice is to get on our knees, before a Holy God, and ask the Holy Spirit to create a new passion in our hearts for following Christ.  In addition, we have got to be willing to cut ties with this world. Those who are of this world, and those of us who have come out of the world,  are walking in two totally different directions. We can no longer live with one foot in both camps. We are either believers or worldlings, we cannot be both. It is to the serious believer that the Holy Spirit will give direction and guidance. 

Even now many of us are facing extremely challenging times in our lives, times of uncertainty and trials the likes of which we have never endured. I believe the Lord is allowing these things to happen to us now, so that we begin to learn how to really follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, before the times become even more turbulent in the world.  There are several things we must do. We must look for and reduce the unnecessary daily distractions that we allow into our lives. These distractions not only have the potential to increase our levels of stress and anxiety, but they often affect our ability to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. 

Remember, when we take that step of obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit, our mind and body (flesh) may not always be in agreement. Recently I have found myself in a very unexpected and stressful time. While praying about it, during a time when my body had already been affected by the stress, which resulted in a bad headache and very painful stomach issues, I heard the Holy Spirit speak three small words to me..."I've got this.".  He was giving me reassurance that He knew what was happening to me and was telling me I could rest in trusting God. Even though my headache and stomach issues didn't automatically go away, I kept reminding myself of those three small words. It took several days before my body calmed down, but whenever I started to worry again about the situation, I immediately reminded myself of those three small words. During difficult times, ask the Holy Spirit to give you something to cling on to, whether it be just a few words, a Scripture verse, a favorite song/hymn, anything that will give you hope and not allow fear to control you.

 Even if you find yourself brought to tears due to the circumstances, continue to trust in what the Holy Spirit has told you. Even if it has to be as frequent as minute to minute, hang on to what you know to be true. Do not look upon this as failure on your part if your feelings do not line up with what you are believing and clinging to in your spirit. The important thing is that you continue to follow and obey the prompts of the Holy Spirit, in spite of how your body is reacting.  It may be similar incidences like this that that God will allow to happen in all of our lives so that we learn, even more, to put our trust in Him and what the Holy Spirit tells us, rather than on what we are experiencing. We need to learn now how to walk in trust and obedience, and that comes by listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I also believe this is one of the reasons we are told in Philippians 4:8 that we must focus on those things that are true, those things that are honest, etc.  If we focus on those things that are not true, not honest, not just, but focus on disheartening and worldly things, it quickly puts us into a state of inner turmoil, which causes us to be less able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and our flesh can quickly take over. It is very difficult to hear the voice of the Spirit if we are allowing our flesh (anxiety, frustration, anger, self pity etc.) to have its way. Scripture tells us that we can, and must, learn to control our flesh.  If we allow our flesh to run our day, then any direction or leading coming from the Holy Spirit is very easily drowned out. We have to make a choice, will we allow our flesh to have precedence in our day or will we allow our spirit to be guided by the Holy Spirit.    
         
As we continue to spend time in the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit will teach us what we need to know. As we spend time in prayer, we will sharpen our ability to hear from the Holy Spirit and learn how to distinguish between His voice from other, unholy sources. As we put effort into becoming even more spiritually mature than we are at present, we will learn to walk in keener discernment.  We are reminded, "But solid food belongs to those who are mature, that is, those who by reason of practice have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." (Hebrews 5:14).  

While spiritual discernment is simply the ability to be able to tell truth from error, the ability to walk in discernment will be vital to our staying close to God.  We are living in a time when there is an unprecedented rise in the amount of erroneous and deceptive teachings within the Church, so we must prepare ourselves to live in these times so that when we have fought the good fight and finally stand before our Lord and Savior, He will look upon us and say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."  What a wondrous day that will be!