Article

Not Ready to Go
An article by Jeff Rouff
Posted by Joey Kelly

The Bible teaches that the second coming of Jesus will be at an unexpected time. In Matthew, we read that if a homeowner had known at what time a thief was coming to break into his house, then he would have been watching to make sure his house was safe, secure, and protected. The point being, we as believers need to be ever mindful, ever watchful, and ever ready for the Lord's coming. We need to be ready and prepared, or we may be overtaken when that day comes, and find ourselves in a mess that we won't be able to withstand. We must keep a constant vigil to keep our eyes upon Jesus.

In Revelation 19:7 it states, Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. The wife or bride has made herself ready for Jesus when He returns. This is because we are uncertain as to the precise time of the Lord's return. We do not want to be unprepared for this awesome event. We do not want to be unprepared and unable to be with Jesus, when He returns for a church that is without spot or wrinkle. We do not want to be like the five foolish virgins, who missed their opportunity to be with the bridegroom. So the nagging question here is, how do we prepare ourselves to be ready for Jesus when He returns to planet earth?

First, the sad fact is that the majority of the professing church is not ready for the return of Jesus. This is because they are not denying themselves and following Jesus. There is an anything goes attitude in the professing church today. There is no apparent problem mixing the sacred with the secular. Holiness has become a dirty word, and living like the rest of the world is now the norm rather than the exception. The end result is that we are seeing a great falling away from the true Christian faith, exactly as the Scriptures have prophesied. The vast majority of the professing church is like the five foolish virgins, unready to be in the presence of the bridegroom.

When I was in the sixth grade I won both the grade and the school spelling bees. Determined to win, I studied the words. Over and over, my mother would drill me on the words on the list, until I could spell them just as quickly as she could get the words out of her mouth. I literally spent hours upon hours in the study of these words, so that when I heard the word, I could actually see the exact spelling of it in my mind. After winning both of these competitions, I then proceeded to the district spelling bee. I did not take this one very seriously. I was more interested in going to the movies the day before than studying all the words. I ended up losing on the third word I was given to spell. It was a miserable failure, because I failed to prepare adequately. This is what will happen to most of the professing church when Jesus returns. They are more interested in playing than preparing. They are more interested in carnal pleasures than exercising spiritual disciplines. When we make an effort to prepare and do whatever is necessary to sacrifice, we can be sure we will be ready for success.

We must begin to develop a deep and meaningful relationship with Jesus. To do this we will have to discard our fascination with worldly entertainments and other things which take up much of our time and energy. We are going to have to develop a love for spending a great deal of time in the Lord's presence. There we will be able to learn to discern His voice and recognize His leading. In His presence, we will learn to love His Word, and grow to desire to have more and more of it in our lives. The more His Word fills us, the more we will be changed into His likeness. The more we become like Him, the more we'll find the attractions of the world having less and less of a hold upon us.

The more we hear and see Jesus in the Scriptures, the more we will desire to have Him shaping every area of our lives. We will begin to pray more. We will begin to fast more. We will begin to study the Word more. We will begin to pray in tongues more. The more we pray in tongues, the more our flesh is filtered out, the more the Spirit takes over, and the more the Spirit brings Jesus into focus. The stronger we become in the Spirit, the more we will be able to put our flesh to death. So the more serious we are about developing ourselves spiritually, the more prepared we will be for Jesus when He returns. The more ready we are when Jesus returns, the more likely we will hear Him say to us, Well done. This will be because we have given ourselves to our Lord to follow Him, and to become like Him.

Jesus must affect us so greatly that He captures our hearts, invades our every thought, proceeds out of every word we speak, and directs everything we do. What are we more devoted to and determined to do? Are we attracted to entertainment, or to things of eternal value? When Jesus affects us so thoroughly and completely, we will have no doubt about being ready when He returns for His bride. We will not be caught unaware. We will be ready for Jesus to take us into His loving arms and hold us close!