Luke 21
34“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
Always watching^^^? Not just watching on Feast days^^^? What does "always" mean? It means watching every day. He told us this same thing in multiple different places through multiple writers in the Bible. Same idea. Its going to be a regular day, an ordinary day. What does the warning in verse 34 point to? Stuff people do on ordinary days.
Todays writing is to encourage you to persevere and be patient.
Rev 3:10
10Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
Matt 25
1“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
Taking extra oil is a precautionary, preparatory step in order to wait while still maintaining readiness. All the things that need to be in place are in place for the Lord to begin the time of Jacob's trouble, and yet He waits.
2 Peter 3
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. a
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. b That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
When the Restrainer is removed this world plunges into deep darkness. Today is the day of salvation. The Restrainer is at work on the face of the earth today. We are part of that Restraint-we are salt and light in this world. Salt restrains rot and decay and light restrains or drives out darkness. Our presence here means salvation for thousands and millions who would perish in their sins otherwise. There is a revival taking place right now outside the walls of the Nicolaitan, Babylonian churches. That revival must run its course.
While we are anxious to be with the Lord, our primary concern as servants is to carry out the Will of our Master. His desire, His Will before our will. This will require patience. We understand that yes, the Lord can come back today or any day of His choosing and we must be ready for that. At the same time we must be prepared to wait however long it takes for the Lord to do all He desires in this earth before He pulls His people out of here.
The Lord knows how to adjust the timeline to make it work to perfection. The tower of Babel is an appropriate example for our day as the last Kingdom on earth is revived Babylon-not revived Rome:
Rev 18
1After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2With a mighty voice he shouted:
“ ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ a
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
3For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
We read nothing, zero, nada about "revivied Rome" in the book of Revelation. Rome is not mentioned at all. Babylon however, is. Now, back to our example of the Lord's restraint at the tower of Babel:
Gen 11
1Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2As people moved eastward, a they found a plain in Shinar b and settled there.
3They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
5But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9That is why it was called Babel c —because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
And this exact same push is at work today. In fact the EU pariament building is a revived tower of babel:
The people of this world would have had nothing impossible for them, that is until the Lord stepped in and sent them packing. The enemy is up to the same thing again and our Lord's bag of tricks to send them packing is endless. So, even though it looks like they may be successful at any moment implementing their new world demonic Babylonian world order-our Lord has an ongoing veto on those plans that is the Restrainer, of which we are part.
We need to take a time out from time to time to see things from the Lord's point of view.
So, yes we need to be watching and ready today for the Lord to arrive. We also need to have the patient endurance the church at Philadelphia had so we can do our job here on earth at the highest level. Which brings us to todays final point that is the constant consistent thread the Spirit of the Lord has woven for years. We are to finish strong. We have been in the process of leveling ourselves up into the highest, best versions of ourselves for the purpose of serving the Kingdom. We are not hiding in a basement somewhere watching the world burn down around us.
We are to be engaged. We are to be a mobile weapons platform for spiritual warfare, carrying the payload known as the Spirit of the Lord who can break every chain, set captives free, raise the dead, etc etc. We bring that payload wherever we step foot. Our mission field is the grocery store, the gym, the workplace, and wherever else we step foot on a daily basis. Who is going to shine the light of our Lord Jesus Christ in these places we step foot every day if it is not us?
We yield our will to His Will, every day. We refill ourselves in prayer every day, topping off our oil stores. We are prepared in season and out of season:
2 Tim 4:
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
Can your "pastor" preach to the lost everywhere you step foot every day? No, they cannot even if they wanted to. That is why you were sent to walk in those places. And that is both the sin and the condemnation of the Nicolaitan Babylonian centralized suppress the sheep system that is condemned to the pits of hell.
Matt 9
35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
So, in summary today be ready for the Lord to return at a moments notice and be about the Lord's work on this earth while we wait. It will help us in this patience to adopt His love for the lost as we do our work- which leads us back to 1 Cor 13 and 1 John 4. Love is both the foundation and the captstone of our Lord's Kingdom.
Glory to God
Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.
Glory to God
grace and peace
