Hello brothers and sisters of Spiritual Q&A,
Nowadays disasters are getting worse and worse all over the world and the situation in every country is very tense. The prophecies of the Lord’s second coming in the Bible have basically been fulfilled, yet I have still not welcomed the Lord. I’m afraid that I will be abandoned by the Lord. Therefore, I’d like to ask your advice: What should I do to greet the Lord’s second coming?
Hello Sister Jingxing:
The question that you asked is exactly the same one that all the brothers and sisters who have been waiting desperately for the Lord’s return are concerned with. If we want to welcome the Lord’s coming, the crucial point is to pay attention to hearing God’s voice and recognize His voice from His words and work. Only then can we welcome His appearance and follow the Lamb’s footsteps. The Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). And it says many times in Revelation, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev 2-3). The Lord Jesus also said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jhn 10:27). From these prophecies, we can see clearly that when the Lord Jesus returns, He will speak again, and that God’s sheep will hear His voice and come out to welcome Him and be raptured before His throne.
Let’s look back at Peter. From the words and work of the Lord Jesus, he recognized that the Lord Jesus was Christ, the son of God, so that he was able to know the Lord Jesus and follow Him. And the woman of Samaria, according to the words spoken by the Lord Jesus to her, knew that He was the coming Messiah. Nathanael didn’t acknowledge the Lord Jesus at first, but when he interacted with the Lord, he recognized through His words that the Lord Jesus was Christ. As we can see, all of them could follow God’s footsteps and know that the Lord Jesus is God because they recognized God’s words and work.
We believers in the Lord all know that the way which the Lord Jesus preached, the words He expressed, the mysteries about the kingdom of heaven which He revealed and the demands which He made of man were all the truth and all manifestations of God’s life disposition and all that He has and is. The miracles He performed—healing the sick, casting out demons, calming the storm and the sea, feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and raising the dead—were all manifestations of God’s authority and power, which can’t be possessed or obtained by any created human being. At the time those who sought the truth, such as Peter, John, Matthew, Nathanael and so on, recognized from the Lord Jesus’ words and work that He is the promised Messiah and thus they followed Him and received His salvation. Whereas the Jewish Pharisees, despite hearing the Lord Jesus’ sermons and seeing Him perform miracles, still clung to the letters of the Bible, thinking that when God came He should be called Messiah and He would come to rule and lead them to break free from the rule of the Roman government. However, when the Lord Jesus came, He wasn’t called Messiah, wasn’t born in the palace and didn’t act as their king. Moreover, from the outside, He was just an ordinary person with no power or stature, not in line with their conceptions and imaginations. Thus they denied the Lord Jesus, wildly condemned and resisted Him and even committed the greatest of sins in nailing Him to the cross. The lesson of the Pharisees calls for deep reflection.
Those who truly believe in God and love the truth don’t pay attention to the external formalities and instead they focus on listening to God’s voice. As long as they hear God’s voice, they will seek and examine immediately, recognize God from His utterances and follow Him. Such people will thus attain God’s praise. Conversely, those snobs who only seek bread to satisfy hunger and focus on power and status, when seeing that God’s appearance and work is not in accordance with their conceptions, refuse to hear God’s voice and even wantonly condemn and resist. Such people will never welcome the Lord’s return.
The Lord Jesus warned us, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Mat 25:6). We don’t know the way the Lord will knock at the door. Maybe from the internet or through hearing the gospel from the brothers and sisters around us or our relatives and friends, we will hear God’s voice and see Him speaking to all the churches. So, if we want to welcome God’s appearance, no matter what way the Lord knocks on our doors, no matter whether or not the way is in line with our conceptions and imaginations, we should be the wise virgins and humbly seek and investigate and listen out for God’s voice. We must not hold on to our conceptions and imaginations or blindly listen to rumors and thus refuse to investigate. If doing so, we will miss the chance to welcome the Lord and be raptured into the heavenly kingdom. God is faithful. Those who long for His appearance will surely be able to hear His voice, be raised up before His throne and attend the feast of the Lamb.
Sister Jingxing, I hope that my fellowship can help you. If there is anything you don’t understand, we can fellowship again. May the Lord lead us to welcome the appearance of God soon.
Xiaona,
Spiritual Q&A
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