If you study the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus, you’ll see that God has a timetable where He’s concerned, too. There’s nothing spur of the moment about Jesus’ first and second comings. He always keeps the Father’s schedule.
He was born on a certain day.
He was crucified on a certain day.
He was resurrected on a certain day.
And He is coming back on a certain day!
He isn’t sitting up in heaven right now thinking, I wonder if this would be a good time for the Rapture. No, that date has already been set. God has put it on His calendar, and when that day arrives Jesus will appear to us in the clouds. He’ll keep His appointment and come back for His Church.
What He finds us doing when He gets here will be our choice. But the New Testament makes it clear that before He arrives, Jesus will have a group of people on this earth who have consecrated themselves to Him. He’ll have a group of obedient, faithful people who are walking in the power of God, doing signs and wonders, and bringing in the great end-time harvest of souls.
I intend to be part of that group, don’t you?
I don’t want Jesus to come back and find me born again but still thinking and talking and acting like the world. I want Him to find me separated from the world and living for Him—spirit, soul and body. I want Him to find me fitting the description of the Church in Ephesians 5:27: “glorious…not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but…holy and without blemish.”
“Well,” someone might say, “that’s a nice goal but it’s not realistic. As long as we’re living in this fallen world, none of us can really be holy.”
Yes, we can! In fact, as believers, we already are holy. Our old, sinful inner man has died, and we’ve become partakers of God’s holy nature. We’ve been cut out from the world, redeemed by God, and set apart unto Him.
* * * * article continues on p. 28 * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Points to Get You There:
1) Holiness is one of the marks of the glorious Church in these last days.
Eph. 5:27
2) As a believer you are already holy on the inside because Jesus made you holy when you were born again.
1 Cor. 1:30
3) All you have to do now is act on the outside like who you already are on the inside.
1 Pet. 1:15
4) The more you draw near to God, the more He can manifest His glory and His power in your life.
Jas. 4:8
5) Today, God is telling us, as believers, to get ready for Jesus’ second coming. And He’s saying much the same thing He said to the Israelites before He came to meet them in the wilderness.
Ex. 19:11
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
BVOV : 27
