If we’re Serious about awaiting the Lord’s Coming, we need to Grow in Life unto Maturity

It is a great help for us as believers in Christ to realize that, if we’re serious about waiting for the Lord’s coming back, we need to grow in life unto maturity, for He’s the real Farmer waiting with patience our maturity in life as the firstfruits and the harvest of the field.

Amen, Lord Jesus, may we grow day by day unto maturity to bring You back!

This week in our morning revival we focus on the topic of, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s coming by Growing in Life unto Maturity.

We are thankful that the Lord is opening to us the matter of His return and how can we make ourselves ready for His coming.

Almost all the apostles who wrote the epistles in the New Testament clearly spoke concerning the Lord’s coming.

The Lord Jesus Himself spoke to us concerning His second coming.

This subject is known even by new believers. The first epistle to the Thessalonians is a short epistle with only five chapters, but at the end of every chapter, the Lord’s coming is mentioned.

One of the last verses in this short epistle is that the apostles’ prayer was that the Lord would preserve the saints’ spirit, soul, and body complete, without blemish, at the Lord’s coming (1 Thes. 5:23). Amen!

We not only need to know about the Lord’s coming but also make ourselves ready for His coming.

On one hand, the Lord told us that He is coming back; on the other hand, He didn’t tell us the date of His coming.

It’s almost as if you go to the airport to pick up someone, but you don’t know the time of the arrival of that person.

The Lord told us He is coming back, but He did not tell us what day, what year, and what hour He will come.

He told us what are the signs of His coming, and we can sort of derive what is the right time of His return.

But what we need to do is not try to figure out what is the year or the month of His coming but rather, we need to make ourselves ready for His coming.

We need to await the Lord’s coming by making ourselves ready for His return.

On His side, God is preparing things for the Lord’s coming; on our side, we need to prepare ourselves for His return.

In Luke 15 we see that the prodigal son returned to his father, but the father was not waiting passively; he had already prepared a fattened calf, the best robe, and everything – they only needed to be brought out when the son returned.

As we await the Lord’s coming, we shouldn’t just pay attention to the outward world situation but even more, because we love the Lord, we need to make ourselves ready every day.

We should not just be curious about the subject of the Lord’s coming and study it but even more, make ourselves ready.

First, we make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming by loving Him and loving His appearing, and by not loving the present age.

This week we want to see that we can make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming by growing in life unto maturity.

God as the Real Farmer is Waiting with Patience for our Maturity in Life for the Lord to Return

In his epistle, James uses the illustration of a farmer awaiting with long-suffering the precious fruit of the earth (James. 5:7).

The Lord’s coming, our preparation, and the growth in life unto maturity are related.

The Lord’s coming depends on our growth in life.

We need to be long-suffering until the coming of the Lord, for He as a farmer eagerly awaits the precious fruit of the earth, exercising long-suffering over it until it receives the early and late rain.

While we’re awaiting the Lord’s coming with long-suffering, He as the real Farmer (Matt. 13:3) is also waiting with patience as the firstfruits and harvest of His field (Rev. 14:4, 14-15).

The Lord is the real Farmer, and He is waiting with long-suffering that we grow in life unto maturity and be ripened to be His firstfruits or His harvest so that He can return.

Our waiting for the Lord’s coming is with long-suffering; His waiting for our growth in life unto maturity so that He can return is also with long-suffering.

A farmer is waiting for the crop growing in the field to ripen; he doesn’t sit idly, but he is preparing the soil, tilling the ground, sowing the seed, watering the seed, nurturing the plant, and taking care of it until it ripens.

This is a process of long suffering, and endurance is needed.

A plant does not grow overnight, nor does it take merely a day or a week for a crop to be harvested.

The Lord Jesus is the real Farmer, the unique Farmer, and we are His cultivated land, His field, on which He works so that we may grow in life unto maturity for the Lord to return.

On our side, we need to cooperate with the Lord’s work by growing in life unto maturity. we need to be prepared.

We need to take every opportunity to prepare ourselves.

Not only do we need to have oil in our lamps but also have oil in our vessels so that, if the bridegroom comes and we are asleep, we would go forth to meet Him, having oil in our vessels for our lamps (Matt. 25).

We need to seize every opportunity to make ourselves ready; we need to be the prudent virgins who do not miss any opportunity to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s return.

We want to be part of the firstfruits, those who ripen earlier and are brought into the house for the Lord’s enjoyment.

The firstfruits will be raptured into the Lord’s temple, on Mount Zion, at the Lord’s coming, and then there will be the three and a half years of great tribulation.

Those who are not ready to meet the Lord, because they have not reached maturity, will go through the great tribulation and will be matured by the end of it, being raptured by the Lord later.

We desire to be the firstfruits, we want to meet the Lord earlier, and we want to be raptured at His coming before the great tribulation.

When the Lord returns, two will be working in the field – one will be taken and the other will be left.

The one who is taken will not be surprised, for he lived in the Lord’s presence continually, and he was growing in life unto maturity to the extent that it was a normal next step for him to be raptured.

Similarly, the one who is not taken is not surprised, for he was not growing in life properly and was not making himself ready. Oh Lord.

We do not know when the Lord comes back, but we want to be those who are the firstfruits who are ready, ripened, for the Lord to pick and bring with Him when He returns.

We need to pay the price all throughout the day, following the Lamb wherever He may go (Rev. 14:4).

Our mouth is restricted – we can’t speak what we want, but we speak words of grace.

We live under the law of the Spirit of life, and guile is not found in our mouth.

As we live in the world, we are separated from the world, for we are virgins betrothed to Christ on the earth.

We live such a life of separation and preparation so that we may grow in life unto maturity day by day until we are raptured by the Lord as the firstfruits to Mount Zion for His enjoyment!

We desire to be the firstfruits who see the Lord earlier, three and a half years earlier.

We want to be ripened at His secret coming, at the beginning of His parousia (presence) when He returns, so that we may be with Him.

As the Lord’s children and as the plants in His field, we need to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s return by growing in life unto maturity so that, at the Lord’s return, He will find us mature and ripened for Him to rapture us.

Lord Jesus, we want to grow in life unto maturity so that we may be ripened and matured at Your return for You to take us. Thank You for purchasing us from among men to be firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. This is our desire, Lord, to be the firstfruits, those who ripen earlier, so that You as the Farmer would rapture us and take us into Your temple at Your return. We want to daily live under the law of the Spirit of life and speak only words of grace, not words of guile. We separate ourselves unto You, Lord, for we are virgins betrothed to our Beloved Bridegroom. May our daily life be a life of separation and preparation for the Lord’s return. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to be long-suffering until the coming of the Lord. We want to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, though we do not know the day or the time when He returns. We love You, Lord Jesus! Our desire is for You to return and find us ripened and ready for You to rapture as the firstfruits!

If we’re Serious about Awaiting the Lord’s Coming Back, we need to Grow in Life unto Maturity

Many Christians are awaiting the Lord’s coming back in an objective way, simply desiring for Him to come and rescue them from this age and bring them to Himself in paradise.

They do not think that they have anything to do with the Lord’s coming back, and they don’t cooperate with the Lord to prepare themselves for His return.

But we need to realize that, if we’re serious about awaiting the Lord’s coming back, we need to grow in life unto maturity, so that He may rapture us as those who are ready for His return.

We may pray, “Lord Jesus, come back quickly!”, but the Lord may say, “While you are awaiting My coming back, I am awaiting your maturity, for only your maturity can hasten My coming back.”

How can the Lord return if we are not prepared, if we are not mature?

Will He return to marry an immature bride?

Can He return when the harvest is not yet ready?

Our growth in life unto maturity will hasten the Lord’s return, but if we do not grow, we can delay His coming.

It’s a great help to us all to realize that, if we’re serious about awaiting the Lord’s coming back, we need to grow in life unto maturity.

We can’t just expect that the Lord’s coming has nothing to do with our spiritual condition, our spiritual growth, and our spiritual maturity.

We need to grow in life unto maturity every day, cooperating with the Lord’s life within us to allow the Lord to increase in us, spread into every part of our being, and bring us on to maturity.

If we delay our maturity, He will also delay His coming; if we can mature quickly, the Lord can come quickly.

On one hand, we need to enjoy more of the Lord’s dispensing.

On the other hand, we need to realize that the Lord uses our environment, circumstances, and all persons and things to remove anything that hinders our growth in life.

He sowed Himself as the seed of life into our hearts (Matt. 13:3), and He wants to grow in us unto maturity so that He may rapture us as the firstfruits at His return.

But we need to cooperate with the Lord’s growth in us; we need to give the seed of life the cooperation it needs in order for us to be brought unto maturity.

There are many hidden sins, desires, ambitions, and intentions in us, and there are many things in the world that we’re involved in so that the ground in our heart is not soft and nutritious for the Lord to grow in us.

So the Lord as the Farmer not only sows the seed into the soil of our heart but also tills the ground, works on the soil of our heart to make it soft, full of riches, and proper for the Lord to grow in us.

On one hand, the Lord supplies us with His light, His living water, and His dispensing so that the seed of life within us may grow in a normal way.

On the other hand, He is faithful to deal with anything in our being that hinders our growth in life.

If we have such a realization concerning the things happening to us and the people around us, we will have a positive view of our Christian life.

We will realize that the Lord as a Farmer is doing everything He needs to provide the nutrients and also remove the obstacles so that the life of God may grow in us. On our side, we need long-suffering toward those who persecute us, endurance toward afflictions, and growth in life unto maturity.

The Lord’s coming is related to our growth in life; if we fulfil the condition of growing in life, the Lord will fulfil the condition of coming back sooner.

May we grow in life every day unto maturity so that we may await the Lord’s coming back and be prepared for His return!

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to grow in life unto maturity so that we may be ripened and be ready for Your return. Oh Lord, our desire is that You come back soon. We want to grow in life day by day so that we may hasten Your return. Amen, Lord, we’re growing in life, and we want to grow faster; hasten Your return to rapture us as Your firstfruits! We are serious about awaiting Your coming back, dear Lord, so we give ourselves to grow in life unto maturity. We want to remain under Your divine dispensing, receiving the life and life supply we need to grow in life. We remain open to Your operating in us and around us to remove any obstacles to our growth in life unto maturity. Amen, Lord, may Your life in us grow little by little, day by day, until we reach maturity. Grow in us and grow in all the saints, dear Lord, so that You may obtain a mature bride as the firstfruits at Your return!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of James, msg. 11, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC), week 2, entitled, Making ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Growing in Life unto Maturity.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, You’re the seed of life; / You’ve sown Yourself into our heart, / And now You have a start; / So day by day more life to us impart— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132 stanza 2)
  – Thy word is spirit and is life to us, / By it we’re nourished, growing, Lord, in Thee; / Thus to Thine image we may be transformed, / With Thy full measure to maturity. / Impart Thyself to us, Lord, more and more, / And make us in the spirit walk and move, / That we be kept in fellowship with Thee, / Until we meet again, Thy grace to prove. (Hymns #869 stanzas 2-3)
  – Christ comes quickly for His grain, / Ripened firstfruits to obtain; / Unripe harvest will remain— / Ripen now! / From earth’s water grain must dry, / From the world your soul deny; / To mature the self must die— / Ripen now! (Hymns #1304 stanza 4)