Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord's Coming - 5

Message Title: Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord's Coming by Having a Revived Living and a Labor of Shepherding

we do believ that the Lord's coming is very near. but we need to be careful not to be distracted by outward things, like the signs of the Lord's coming. the Lord is coming back for His bride. if the bride is not ready, the Lord will not be able to come back. right now, the Lord is preparing His bride, and as part of this bride, we have to ask ourselves whether we are ready? are we preparing ourselves for the Lord's coming? if we are not prepared, no matter how many signs or prophecies we have studied, it is meaningless. 

to prepare ourselves to get ready, is a matter of our entire person, not just how many times we have read the bible, or how many people we have brought to salvation. 

I. In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord's coming, we need to maintain our victory by having a revived living, a living of being renewed day by day; this renewal has to be refreshed every morning.

we are not trying in ourselves to be victorious, because Christ has already won the victory. the matter for us now is whether we are able to maintain in the victory of Christ. our victory is based upon Christ's victory. when the Lord comes back, do we want Him to see this corrupted and defeated condition? while in the midst of the defeat and corruption, we hope that, at His coming, the Lord can see a group of believers living a victorious and revived living, caring for God's interest. this group of people are standing on the position of death, so that God's move and will can be accomplished through their living. 

Habbakuk 3:2 O Jehovah, I have heard the report concerning You and am afraid. / O Jehovah, revive Your work / In the midst of the years; / In the midst of the years make it known; / In wrath remember compassion.

Habbakuk 3:3 God comes from Teman, / Even the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah / His splendor covers the heavens, / And the earth is filled with His praise.

the revival here does not mean how successful we are in our working for the Lord, but that the Lord manifest Himself, His splendor. the central work of God is to work Himself into us, that Christ will fill us and shine forth through us. this is how God will revive His work, to work Christ into His people, to manifest Himself in His people. 

Malacai 4:2 But unto you who fear My name will the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings, and you will go forth and leap about like well-fed calves.

God shows us this principle of our spiritual life by ordaining night and day in the nature. God does not ordain a super long day or night, but in 24 hours everyday, there is evening and there is morning. therfore, we can have a new start every morning, every day. though we have a book called "Holy Word for Morning Revival", it does not mean that we are revived by reading this book in the morning. how can we be revived? it is by the Lord rising up within us the first thing in the morning. the first thing we should do to start our day, is to come to touch the Lord, to let the Lord shine in us not just as the morning star, but even as the sun of righteousness with healing in His wings. we are revived, refreshed by touching and being touched the Lord Jesus. the Lord should be the first person we meet, contact and speak to everyday, before anything else comes to us. 

in order for us to have a revived living, we must be those who live the life of the altar and the tent. God's appearing to us issues in our consecration, causing us to build an altar; an altar is for worshipping God by offering all that we are and have to God for His purpose; building an altar means that our life is for God, that God is our life, and that the meaning of our life is God. we are finished with all that we are and have, but taking God as our life, and our everything. to live the life of the tent is our declaration that we are strangers and sojourners on the earth who are seeking a better country and eagerly waiting for the God-built city, the New Jerusalem. we should just be sojourners of the eath. we are just travellers to pass by. we are waiting for the New Jesusalem as our eternal dwelling. this means that we should not root too deep into the earth, the world; otherwise, when the Lord comes, we will not be raptured because we are rooted too much into the earth. 

to have a revival that is renewed daily is to have a transformation that is fresh daily; if we remain in this transformation our whole life, we will grow in the life of the Lord until we are matured. 

we are renewed day by day through four items:

1. the cross: not for us to suffer, but to terminate us. we need the cross to do a deepened work to break our outer man, so that our inner man can be renewed. 

2. the Holy Spirit by which we are recondintioned, remade, and remodeled with the divine life: 

3. our mingled spirit: 

Ephesians 4:23 And that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind

4. the holy word of God

Lamentation 3:22 It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, / For His compassions do not fail;

Lamentation 3:23 They are new every morning; / Great is Your faithfulness.

while we are in the midst of suffering, we need to receive the Lord's new compassions every morning so that we may experience His renewing; otherwise, we will remain the same, and the suffering we pass through will be in vain. if we are open to Him, turn to Him in our sufferings, we will receive and experience His renewing. but if we are not willing to open, instead, we complain and murmur to the Lord that He causes us to suffer. then the issue is that we will become more bitter, still remain the same, and even become more hardened and stubborn. 

II. In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord's coming, we need to maintain our victory by participating in Christ's heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in order to take care of God's flock, which is the church that issues in the Body of Christ. 

in John chapter 21, the Lord asked Peter three times if Peter loves Him. when Peter said he loved the Lord, then the Lord charged Peter to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep. this shows us that shepherding is a matter of love. 

in Luke chapter 15, there are three parables of the shepherding seeking for one lost sheep, the woman seeking for one missing coin, and the prodigal son. from these three parables, the Lord shows us that our not having the Father's loving and forgiving heart, and the Savior's shepherding and seeking spirit is the reason for our barrenness. we need to cherish people in the humanity of Jesus; we need to nourish people in the divinity of Christ.