Looking for the Rapture

Hebrews 11:14 (KJV)
¹⁴ For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

Hebrews 13:14 (KJV)
¹⁴ For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.

Today, many are accusing those who believe in a rapture as escapists who are turning a blind eye to the present needs of humanity. That somehow, if you believe this concept of a rapture that you instantly become a spiritual recluse who is selfishly looking for an escape, with no feelings for the lost who remain.

However, the opposite is true. The rapture – the unannounced soon coming husband in the air for his bride – actually will quicken the heart to be motivated to win the lost.

Looking at the two verse above tells us that both the patriarchs and the early church were intense in their focus on Heaven and reaching its shores. This unrepressed desire was the motivator in living out the plan of God for their lives and in the early church, it was what propelled them forward in their winning of souls. 

2 Corinthians 4:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul is explaining what kept him going during times of hardship, persecutions, and afflictions. It was the spiritual sight that concentrated on the hereafter. This unbroken focus fueled his will to keep going in spite of the trials of this temporal life.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)
¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
¹⁸  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The famous scripture on the rapture concludes with Paul saying that the knowledge of such an event provides a comfort to those who are being persecuted. The Thessalonians were persecuted for their faith, however, knowing that a better tomorrow was approaching would be something to comfort them.

If you are going through something today that is a hardship and you are a believer… I’ve got good news, it wont last forever. Jesus is coming and where he is taking us there is no more

• pain
• death
• sickness
• hardship

It will be worth it all!!!!!

Colossians 3:4 (KJV)
⁴ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 (KJV)
¹⁰ And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

The Prayer Burden

Attending church in Kentucky, we watched an especially verbal and boisterous child being hurried out, slung under his irate father's arm. No one in the congregation so much as raised an eyebrow -- until the child captured everyone's attention by crying out in a charming Southern accent, "Ya'll pray for me now!"  - Jean McMahon (Dyer, Ind.) in Reader's Digest, April 1980.

I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of ten thousand men. - Mary, Queen of Scotland

The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel. - Thomas Watson

Psalm 55:22 (KJV)
²² Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

We must be able to discern and accept the burdens of the Lord. “Thy burdens” are they which we are not designed to carry which he has already borne. Just like a wagon designed to carry 100lbs and we put 200lbs on it… what happens? If we attempt the same fate, of carrying more than we are designed to, we will break down. These burdens consist of

• trying to live someone else’s life for them
• carrying someone else’s responsibilities
• worry about tomorrow
• worrying about things you can’t physically change

However, there is a “burden of the Lord” we must ALL carry.

A. Ezekiel 22:30 (KJV)
³⁰ And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

He’s looking for co-laborers to carry His burdens.True God assigned prayer begins in the heart of God and is transferred to you. His burden in prayer will not promote worry or anxiousness. If I am worried in prayer, then it’s my burden and not God’s burden. God’s burden will promote zeal to accomplish change in someone or further the plan of God with passion. Some call it a spirit of prayer. Have you ever had a person laid on your heart to pray for and it was strong? It wasn’t the result of just thinking about them, but it happened suddenly, and with it came a surge of inward boldness to pray. This is what we call the “burden of the Lord.”

Prayer is so powerful that as we exercise this privilege, it not only changes things and people, but it changes our own perspective. We go from impossible to a convincing that all things are possible.

Let’s accept the transfer of God’s burden of seeing souls saved. Allow the spirit of prayer to envelop your life with a sacrificial anguish of soul for the lives of people who know not the Lord. The rewards are out of this world!!!!

Remember – Prayer changes things and people!!!!

Watch out!!! Don’t be Deceived

Satan will lull you into a false sense of security that everything is going ok even though you have left off reading and praying. However,  you are getting weaker and weaker and when something hits, you are too weak to overcome it. Then their is a rush to prepare, or go to counseling, and all of it could have been avoided if we wouldn't have been relaxed into laziness.

As darkness increases, the less of the dirt that sin is creating and depositing in our lives will we be able to see. If I live in a room without little to no light, I will not see the dirt accumulating and pay no attention to it. When someone walks in and turns the light on I will be shocked at what I have been living in. I simply didn’t know up to the point of the light being turned on – in other words I was ignorant of it. The whole world lives in filth and the depravity of sin but they don’t realize it because they live in darkness – ignorance.

Ephesians 4:17-18 (KJV)
¹⁷ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Knowledge of truth is equated with light in the bible while the absence of it is synonymous with darkness. Notice the following:

John 1:4-5 (KJV)
⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
⁵ And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The threat of deception is ever present everyday of our lives. It’s the only weapon Satan has to defeat a Christian. Knowledge coupled with acting upon what is known will set people free from all bondage perpetrated by darkness or ignorance.

Hosea 4:6 (KJV)
⁶  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Notice the rest of the verse deals with a people who possessed knowledge but rejected it. They turned the light switch off and yielded to darkness. This brings me to the next point: People can choose to believe a lie... i can shine the light but they have to accept that which makes free. I can’t force people to change, nor can I simply rebuke the devil out of their lives and command them to live spiritually. They must want to change and by achieving it they must first accept the the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (KJV)
⁹ Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
¹⁰ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
¹² That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

God has the light turned on but many people like their darkness better than light. When we witness to our family members, friends, and co-workers, the fact that must be remembered is that just because you spoke the light into their lives doesn’t mean they will automatically be saved. Some of them unfortunately has chosen to re,main alienated from God by rejecting the truth. Do not take it personally, its not you they hate – its God.

John 7:7 (KJV)
⁷ The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

What we can do is pray against the spiritual forces that harass them and maintain a bondage in their life. We also can live a righteous life before them which means we are glowing with the light of truth every time we get  around them.

One Generation Away

There is difference between how you were raised and why you were born. David was raised to be a shepherd but he was born to be king. How many times do we resort to the excuse making of “that’s the way I was raised” so we can excuse our not fulfilling the plan God has for us?

Even though David was not raised or groomed by man to be king;God used his circumstances to develop character and trust. The lion and the bear were smaller conflicts building up to the day of his match with Goliath. This means that in spite of how we are raised God will break through and be involved with the destiny of a person if they merely remain yielding and obedient.

However, That’s Not To Excuse Parents From Fulfilling Their Responsibilities 
 
We as parents are to raise our children into being moral reflections of God’s Word. Parents have the greatest responsibility in the world.

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)
⁶  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
The word “train” means to

• initiate
• discipline
• structure and form as a building
• construct 

“The way” is referring to the way of wisdom which is submission to the Lord. The question is – who’s responsibility is it?
First we must understand that children are born with no

• Values
• Morals
• Love for others
• concept of others not to be used for one’s own satisfaction

This sounds harsh but it is the truth. Children are born in sin and so instinctively they are debased in attitudes and thought. Children cannot be left to themselves or their generation will become extinct from the total depravity imploding them out of existence. We are always one generation from total chaos and barbarism.

The parents have a huge responsibility to mold, shape, and change them, or the next generation will be barbaric.  The only reason success and the perpetuation of the human race continues is because of the previous generation fulfilling its responsibilities.

New Converts Need The Same Principle of Parenting

1 Corinthians 4:15 (KJV)
¹⁵ For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

The church is one generation away from no authentic connection with God. Though young converts have been born with a new nature, a new inclination and tendencies, that doesn’t mean they are to be left to themselves. Their life which is compared to a building needs to be constructed and formed. Yes, their decisions ultimately have the last say, but like children, they need the parent to lay out the blueprint and design of what is expected.

There are always exceptions to the rule which is rare, but the norm is that parents are the ones who form, shape, and construct the life, into that which the Spirit can lead and carry the legacy through them.

I can’t give what I don't possess. I cant instill values in my child if i don't possess them. I must first be in possession of the things needed to impart into the child.

Jude 1:12 (KJV)
¹² These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Nothing worse than someone saying they have something they don’t! How many parents demand a standard out of their children that they themselves do not adhere to. When a person speaks something their life doesn’t back up – what’s said loses impact. It can also create an atmosphere of rebellion. Why? What’s said or demanded is spoken in rebellion since the speaker is not listening to it either.

Let’s be

• authentic
• responsible
• willing
• involved

Let’s present the next generation the best possible opportunity to go beyond we ever thought or dreamed of. In other words, be ready to work, but God said our labor will be rewarded. How? By another generation carrying the torch of the Gospel and representing Him in all things.

Going for the Pillars

Matthew 17:1 (KJV) And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

Now, look at the below verse on how these three were viewed in the early church. Not only Paul thought so but the church at Galatia and all churches at the time.

Galatians 2:9 (KJV) And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

These three were pillars of the early church. Pillars are the support of the building, platform, or multiple stories. Their condition and strength have everything to do with whether the building stands or not. If you wanted to conserve your weaponry in a a war you would not have to hit the building per say but hit precisely the pillars and the building will collapse.

Notice what happens in the following verses and watch the strategy of Satan at work.

IActs 12:1-3 (KJV)
¹ Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
² And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
³ And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
⁴ And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

Satan orchestrates behind the scenes an attempt at collapsing the church. He does not go after just anybody but he precisely targets the pillars. He kills James and immediately goes after the next pillar. In these verses we see a

• plan (1,2)
• process to carry it out (3)
• purpose (4)

The purpose of Satan was to publically humiliate Peter and destroy him before the eyes of all the people.

In the natural, this looks inevitable. The plan so far has succeeded and the pillars are going to fall like dominoes. However, the church is not left without recourse, it has something in its arsenal that is more powerful than any plan, process, and purpose, that Satan has. Its called PRAYER!

Acts 12:5 (KJV) Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
⁶ And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
⁷ And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.
⁸ And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.
⁹ And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.
¹⁰ When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.
¹¹ And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.

As Herod readied to take him out and execute him, God sent an angel to break Peter out of jail. There is NO weapon, plan, or purpose, of the devil that is able to overcome the power of God in his response to intercessory prayer!! God will disappoint the appointments Satan has designed for you.