ARE YOU READY?

“And that servant, which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself… shall be beaten with many stripes. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh”, Luke 12:47, Mat 24:44

Jesus may come in many ways. We may die as well; yet, Jesus may come by revival fire, He may come to interview someone one on one, or He may even end the world and come to take His to meet Him in the clouds. It is wrong to link these verses to Jesus’ second coming alone. I believe this was not the intention of Jesus at all. Jesus may come and visit us in many a way. Perhaps He shall visit us just as He visited Isaiah, Is.6, and burned his lips. One never knows how or when He shall come and from which corner, and for what purpose. Those who expect Jesus to come to end the world alone, are foolish enough to be outcasts at any of His comings. The connotation, however, which is alluded towards the coming of Jesus, is not that we know all about it, but rather that we be ready to meet Him – no matter how He comes or when! We should all, without exception, be ready for such an event today.

I want to dwell upon the coming of Jesus which relates Him to come and do a work among us. I believe it deserves and requires the same kind of preparation from all of us as would judgement day.

Seldom do people believe they have to prepare themselves for that. People often pray for revival, they bow down and say “Lord come down to us”, not knowing what it means that a people should be ready and fully prepared to receive Him in such a way – not as a guest, but rather to be King among them all. God sent John the Baptist to prepare a people unto His coming at first; that’s why we read about John being said once upon a time “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest, for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,  (77)  to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins”, Luke 1:76-77 and “Behold, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Jehovah. (6) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and the heart of the sons to their fathers, that I not come and strike the earth with utter destruction”, Mal 4:5-6.

All kinds of comings of Jesus are related to simultaneous destruction and blessing – we cannot avoid that being so at all. But, seldom do people relate it to preparation. Usually it is seen as a magnificent event which they must know all about and when and how it will take place. I went through Scripture because, in my heart, I just knew people who talk and know so much about the second coming of Jesus are wrong and have always had a wrong approach towards it. Then, I came to acknowledge that the most Jesus came to reach with the explanations of His comings, even about the last one eventually, was to say that people should have it in mind in order to prepare themselves and not to know all about how it shall take place. He just wanted them to be sure it would happen anytime. He even said that none would know anything about His coming, so people would not go too deep into that sort of knowledge at all. The point was preparation and not knowledge about the whole of it.

The nowadays doctrines do not permit that, for they preach once saved always saved as easily as a cup of water is drunk. So, to prepare for the coming of Jesus will be just an absurd doctrine to all such and to know how it shall take place will be considered wisdom from then on -in some circles, the only kind of wisdom there is. The fact remains that, if Jesus comes and His servants are found impatient, not doing what they were left to do, whether it be sanctification or cleansing, if they are found beating and gossiping because they are angry and impatient because their Master is taking too long to come unto them, whatever they are found doing besides that which Jesus personally gave into their hands to take care of personally, will bring wrath upon such on the spot, right at the gate of His entrance. But one may ask: “shouldn’t one talk about the word of God to know all about the last events at all?” Well, if you were given confession of sin to do, sanctification to carry out without which none shall see God, why are you discussing things which are not related to your holiness and the holiness of your loved neighbor alone? It should drive you to haste your cleansing above wanting to know how that event will take place. Jesus' coming should frighten you to the point of preparing yourself rather quickly, having it done with enough oil. If you are not clean, your lamp will not burn.

To receive revival, one needs to be prepared. And, if one is fully prepared for Jesus's second coming, one is surely ready enough to experience genuine revival. This preparation is not a knowledge preparation but rather a life and a living kind of preparation. A conduct has to be fully settled and be made natural, a heart gained which determines the conduct, miracles should not be able to deviate our minds from the main issues of sin and repentance when and even if they take place, one should have and be able to breed a steadfast heart again and again, able to discern all things and keep whatever is good. Are you prepared to receive your Lord as He is then? (READ HERE).