It should be no secret to anyone that we’re living in the last days. We don’t know when our precious and powerful Lord will crack the skies in all his glory and receive us, but we know that he’s coming back. He has charged us to have our houses in order, so that we’ll be ready when he returns. In Revelation 3:2 (NLT), Jesus Christ gives us a stiff warning. He tells us, “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.” This isn’t one of those ‘pat on the heads’ type of warnings, where we hear these words, keep doing what we’re doing and proceed with taking our own sweet time. This is a wake-up call that is designed to prompt us to open our eyes wide to what Jesus Christ is doing through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
These are perilous times, and there’s no doubt that we need to be strengthened in the Lord. There is also no doubt that God wants to do some pretty spectacular things in the lives of those who honor and trust Him. I’m not talking about the regular-shmegular; I’m talking about the truth that God has a plan to blow our minds with what He’s about to do. For so long now, people have demeaned His name, impugned His character, and defamed His pure goodness. And not only that, they have labeled the Body of Christ ignorant, unsophisticated, uneducated, and crazy for operating under the impetus of the Holy Spirit, and wanting to do so more and more with each passing moment.
It would be great if we could say that this tactic of the enemy to blind the world and make us look as if we’re all cuks for loving Jesus wasn’t working, but it looks like some of us are giving in to the pressure. We’re allowing the world to conform us instead of allowing God’s Word to transform us, and this is dangerous business. In John 4:23 (NLT) Jesus Christ said “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.” God is looking for true worshippers. He’s looking for a certain type of person, someone that He can lead, guide, and direct. This means that we need to be humble and teachable, because if we’re not, we’re going to miss out.
In Acts 2:17(NLT), Heavenly Father tells us very plainly what He’s up to. He says, “‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.” This is happening right now! God is doing some amazing things in the earth, and we ain’t seen nothing yet; things are going to get even more supernatural and powerful. Those that have been skeptical, cynical, and borderline blasphemous, God’s going to leave them with their mouths hanging open. Many of us that know His power and trust His Word will simply say, “Look at GOD!”
He doesn’t want anyone to miss out, or to make a practice of observing the greatness of His power from the sidelines, but this is what will happen if we don’t wake-up. Heavenly Father said in Hosea 4:6 that His people are destroyed because they lack knowledge; they reject it. He’s talking about Christians in this verse. We’re the ones who are in jeopardy of losing our way if we don’t put on God’s Word, so that we can live long and strong. The Lord tells us in 1Peter 5:8 (NLT), “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” The enemy is trying his level best to sow seeds of doubt in the minds and hearts of Christians. We must put on the spiritual armor that God has provided through His love, so that we’re strengthened spiritually, and so that we’ll know what’s up when it comes to the tricks of the devil.
Some of us have our eyes glued to the television, internet, or whatever else we use to occupy our attention. We’re looking for the fantastical on the outside, but God wants us to understand that He’s doing a super fantastic work on the inside of us, through the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is where the real action is! God is preparing us for what He has planned, and it is precisely because of His plan and the judgment that is to come that we will need to be strong in the days ahead. Judgment upon all those that have made a choice for darkness rather than light is imminent, but elevation and promotion for those of us that have chosen the light is also on its way. While we wait, our trust in Heavenly Father must be firmly planted, because it will be tested in ways we couldn’t possibly imagine.
We all have some issues that we must deal with, some housekeeping that we need to take care of so that our houses, our temples, are in order, but it is important for us to understand that we can’t do this work alone. Romans 8:14-16 says all that are led by the Spirit are children of God. We have been adopted into Heavenly Father’s holy family, and His Spirit lives inside of us and bears witness of our new spiritual reality. You and I don’t do the heavy lifting, because we don’t have a clue, that’s why we should be so incredibly thankful for the gift of God’s Spirit. He does all the work! If we will wake up to what the Spirit is doing and come alive to studying the Word and praying often, we will be strengthened by him and witness the glory of our destinies unfold.■
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“ Strengthening Ourselves in the Lord” written by JMack. 4theChristianMan.Com© 2018. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.