According to
Scripture, we are living in the last days and we have a choice to make. We can
casually live our lives, blending into the darkness around us, or we can press
into the Kingdom of God with all our time, resources and effort and be overcomers. I can’t help but wonder if we are not wasting
precious time that could be used for Jesus. Are we busy entertaining ourselves
and securing our present and future comfort instead of living the gospel and making
it known to others? Or have we accepted the challenge to accelerate and make
the final seconds count? We are facing
an intimidating foe, but we already have the assurance of victory if we follow
Jesus Christ to the end.
Are we giving
Him our all, or have we become caught up in the spirit of this world? There are
a few minutes left in this dispensation of time and it is crucial that we
examine how we are spending it.
In these last
days, we have at our disposal the Spirit of the Living God Who has chosen to
enable us to do the work of His kingdom by placing in us His power and His
wisdom. When the Holy Spirit was poured
out on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and explained what was
happening. He said, "But this is
that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the
last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I
will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy." (Acts
2:16-18)
We are still
living in the last days. His Spirit will still work in us and through us, so
why isn't He? Could it possibly be because we are too full of the world to
allow Him in? That we are just going
through the motions of religion, instead of being empowered by the Spirit? When we make the decision to lose our lives so
we can gain His, we will learn the value of depending on Him and obeying Him
even when it doesn’t make sense to us. It will change everything about our
lives and will cost all our time and effort.
We become powerless when we are not willing to surrender everything to
gain Christ.
Another passage
of Scripture concerning the last days describes this dilemma in detail. 2 Timothy
3:1-4 in the Amplified Bible depicts the moral and spiritual condition of our
times. "But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in)
perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to
bear]."
Think about it.
Most people are so stressed that they are like a rubber band stretched to the
limit and ready to break. There is trouble everywhere we turn making life in
general hard to bear, not to mention all the catastrophes. Trying to juggle all the responsibilities and
chaos in our own strength is stressful.
Let’s read on.
"For people
will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused
by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and
contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing),
disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane. [[They will be] without natural [human]
affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or
appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers),
intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of
good. [They will be] treacherous
[betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of
sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of
God."
Pick up a
newspaper. Watch the news on television or check it out on your mobile device. Just take a look around you. It is incredible how accurately this portion
of Scripture describes our world today. How
did we get here? Verse five gives us the
answer: "For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they
deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the
genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from
them]." He says those who should
have the power of God active in their lives have turned to a form of religion
and do not have His Spirit working through them.
When we lose the
power of God in our lives, we fall into the same pattern as the world. We begin
to view salvation as a transaction made with the organized church instead of
the genuineness of the powerful transformation the Holy Spirit brings in our
lives. We talk fondly about the power our forefathers had in their lives but
are strangers to the power of the Holy Spirit in our own. So, we struggle to
carry on His work without Him.
There is a
downward spiral to this kind of life. We
are at a loss as how to handle our own spiritual struggles or those of our
brothers and sisters in Christ. We are
at a loss because we lack the power of God to give us His wisdom and to guide
and empower us.
When we are in
charge of the gospel, we begin to make changes to our beliefs and God's
commandments so that they accommodate our "form of religion".
That’s why so many preach a cheap, easy gospel that fits well into our busy
lifestyles. It is a neatly packaged gospel that doesn't offend anyone, doesn’t
cost us anything and that we can manage and control. That is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The essence of His gospel is total surrender
and total freedom; persecution and blessing; spiritual warfare and perfect
peace; meekness and power; losing and gaining.
When will we get
tired of being defeated in our prayer life, our relationships, and trying to
micro-manage God? It is not our
responsibility to figure out everything.
God doesn't need our help. He desires
our surrender and for us to get close enough to hear Him. If we can figure it out and control it, then
it is not God!
We cannot save
people by manipulating the mood and atmosphere. We cannot change people's
hearts by coercing them to repeat a prayer. If God is not drawing them, they
cannot come to Him. We need the power of the Holy Spirit if we are to do the
work Jesus commissioned us to do. That’s
why Jesus sent Him.
2 Peter 3 speaks
of the last days with its "scoffers, walking after their own lusts"
and wasting time with unbelief. It says
"the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be
burned up." But he calls for those who will hear to draw close to God and
stay faithful, to look for the "coming of the day of God" and for
"new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Then he tells us, “But grow in grace, and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now
and for ever. Amen."
The more we
allow the Spirit of God to develop the nature and power of Jesus Christ in us,
the more He can accomplish through us.
Now is the time for the true Church, the Body of Christ, to rise up and
be the Church, without spot and blemish, completely sold out to Him. Until we know Him intimately, we will remain
strangers to the power of the Gospel and the Spirit Who has been given to us.
The church in
Galatia had become confused about the true gospel and was following after false
teaching. Paul wrote to them and said, “I am surprised and astonished
that you are so quickly turning
renegade and deserting Him Who invited and called
you by the grace (unmerited favor) of Christ (the Messiah) [and that
you are transferring your allegiance] to a different [even an opposition]
gospel. Not that there is [or could be]
any other [genuine Gospel], but there are [obviously] some who are troubling and disturbing and bewildering
you [with a different kind of teaching which they offer as a gospel] and want
to pervert and distort the Gospel of Christ (the Messiah) [into something which
it absolutely is not]. (Galatians 1:6-7
- Amplified Bible)
We are in the last days.
There are many false teachings and false spirits that claim to be
Christian, but if they are not following the teachings of Jesus, they are not
Christian. They are proclaiming a
man-made teaching in His name, but are without His power. We cannot afford to be slack in these last
days. We need to read His Word for
ourselves and believe what it says no matter who offers a different gospel. Now is the time to accelerate. Now is the time to live and move and have our
being in the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are in the “last seconds”.
What are we going to do?
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