The appearing of Christ must be a basic factor in our daily living; we must live today in the light of the Lord’s appearing (Matt. 24:45-51; 25:14-30).
What should our attitude be when we see the vision of the imminent return of Christ? As we see that Christ with His overcoming bride will return as a corporate smiting stone to smash the totality of the human government and become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, we need to be those who love the Lord and His appearing!
If the vision of the great human image in Daniel 2 becomes a controlling vision to us, we will be kept from the world and we will be prepared for the Lord’s coming. We will not be slothful in zeal nor will we wait until the last week to become the overcomers…
Rather, we will love the Lord with our first love and we will do our best to be prepared as the bride of Christ, His overcomers, His precious ones which He will steal when He returns…
Every day will be precious to us, enjoying the Lord’s grace and loving Him to the uttermost, desiring and loving His appearing. All we want is to grow in life daily, prepare ourselves, love the Lord, and yearn for His return!
Come, dear Lord Jesus! Grow in us until maturity today! Keep us enjoying You as grace every day until You return. Lord, we give ourselves to You to love You, grow in You, and take Your coming as an encouragement and incentive. Dear Lord Jesus, our desire is to be raptured by You at Your return!
Loving the Lord’s Appearing
The Lord’s appearing, His coming back, is a warning, an encouragement, and an incentive to us; we should love His appearing and look forward to it with earnest expectation and joy (2 Tim. 4:1-8).
On the one hand, the Lord’s coming is very soon – the prophecies in the Bible are being fulfilled in front our eyes; for this, we need to be prepared and have oil in our vessel for His imminent return!
On the other hand, the Lord will not necessarily return tomorrow, so we need to live a proper human life under the divine dispensing, not neglecting our daily preparation for the Lord’s return by being slothful.
Don’t think that you can love the world now and enjoy it for a bit, and when the last week of this age will come, you will love the Lord. The Lord is to be feared, and we cannot play with Him in this respect.
We need to see that every day is the Lord’s grace to us, and as long as we have today, we should love the Lord and His appearing! As long as we have breath, as long as we are alive, and as long as we have this day, we need to love the Lord, enjoy Him, and await the Lord’s coming (Phil. 3:20).
We should not be discouraged or backslide, we should not be slothful or become weak, but we should remain faithful until the end (2 Tim. 4:8; John 14:21) as we have a living that loves the Lord’s appearing.
We may love the Lord, but do we love His appearing? Do we love His return? Since we see that the Lord’s coming is so precious, we need to be serious with the Lord and have a living that loves the Lord’s appearing!
Watching, Loving, and Being Ready
When the Lord Jesus returns in secret to rapture His overcomers, He will come for the precious ones, for those who desire His appearing, for those who love Him to the uttermost.
We need to be those loving the Lord, being filled with Him, and watching and being ready! Daily as we do this and that, we need to exercise to watch and be ready for the Lord’s coming.
Paul charges us before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing in His kingdom (2 Tim. 4:1). He had the assurance that he fought the good fight, he finished the course, he kept the faith, and God will award him the crown of righteousness at His judgement seat!
God will give the crown of righteousness to all those who love His appearing, those who are not discouraged or backslide but remain faithful to the end! We should not allow the things in this world to weigh us down, neither should we be set, settled, and occupied with the things of the present age.
We need to be filled with the heavenly breath by breathing in the breathed out word of God (2 Tim. 3:16), and we need to have oil in our vessels (Matt. 25:1-13).
Remember Lot’s wife: one last look at the things of this world means that she loved the things of this evil world which God was going to judge and destroy! If we love the world today, the Lord will leave us here to pass through the great tribulation that we may be put to shame until we become mature and are raptured.
Growing in Life Unto Maturity Daily
We need to be watchful at every time, beseeching that we would prevail to escape all the things which are about to happen and stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:36).
We can’t “pull ourselves up to grow”, neither can we become mature in life overnight. Growing in life unto maturity is not something that can be accomplished in a short period of time. It is a lifelong process, and this process is intensified as we see the vision of the end of this age.
For the Lord’s coming we must prepare ourselves – we need to love Him and grow in Him so that at His appearing we would be ripened and matured to be raptured by Him and receive the reward (Heb. 6:1a; Luke 21:34-36; cf. Rev. 12:5-6, 14).
For this, we daily need to grow in life unto maturity by eating the Word of God. We need to receive grace and desire the Lord’s coming. We need to proclaim the word by allowing Christ to come out of us as we meet others.
As we enjoy Christ, we will be filled with Him and we will minister Him to the others around us. We need to be one with Christ to allow Him to flow into others so that together we may become His Bride.
For this kind of living, we need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ – we need the abundant enjoyment of Christ daily! The enjoyment of Christ every day will cause us to grow in life unto maturity and will prepare us for His return!
Lord Jesus, grow in us! Make us those who are watchful and ready for Your appearing. We want to have the right attitude as we see the vision in Daniel 2. Lord, we love You! We want to love You more and to be filled with You continually. Fill us to overflowing. Keep us enjoying You as grace, and keep growing in us unto maturity every day! Lord, make us watchful and ready for Your return.
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Dick Taylor’s speaking in this message and portions in, The Up-to-date Presentation of the God-ordained Way and the Signs concerning the Coming of Christ (ch. 7), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 3 (entitled, The Vision of the Great Image—the Controlling Vision in the Book of Daniel).
- Hymns on this topic:
# I have fought the good fight; / I have finished the course; / I have fought the good fight; / I have kept the faith.
# Dear saints, just love Him. / Surely you will enjoy Him. / He is so enjoyable, / So precious and so available
# Hallelujah! Christ is Victor, / Tell where’er you go, / That the Lord is still the conqu’ror, / Over every foe. - Pictures credit: Via, Inspiration Unlimited Facebook page, HWMR Daniel and Zechariah Quotes album.
I hope that we will all see the controlling vision in Daniel 2 and that, in light of this vision, we will have a clear view regarding human government. In the eyes of human beings, there are different kinds of governments, some good and others bad. But in the eyes of God, every human government is a beast….I can testify that this view has preserved me from the world for more than sixty years….If, as God’s people, we see this controlling vision, we will be kept from the world and prepared for Christ’s coming as the smiting stone which will crush the aggregate of human government and become a great mountain—the eternal kingdom of God—filling the whole earth. (Life-study of Daniel, p. 24)
In their hearts the apostles firmly BELIEVED that the Lord would come quickly, and they also lived a life in PREPARATION for the Lord’s second coming. Since we know that the Lord’s second coming is so precious, we should love the Lord’s appearing. Every “today” that we have is truly the Lord’s grace. Therefore, as long as we have today, as long as we still have breath, we should love the Lord and His appearing, await the Lord’s coming, and always take His coming as an encouragement. In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul reminded Timothy and also us, by the Lord’s judgement and kingdom that we should have a LIVING that loves the Lord’s appearing. This will cause us not to be discouraged, not to backslide, not to become weak, but to remain FAITHFUL to the end. May we learn to experience WAITING for the Lord’s return, by redeeming the time to be FILLED with the heavenly breath and have oil in our vessels. To attain maturity is not an overnight matter. Therefore, for His coming we must prepare ourselves, LOVE HIM, and grow in Him, that at His appearing we may be MATURE to be raptured and receive the reward.
Since we know that the Lord’s second coming is so precious, we should love the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8)…The apostles firmly believed that the Lord would come quickly and they lived a life in preparation for the Lord’s second coming…If we love His appearing, we should also pray, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Every day we should pray this prayer, the more we pray the more He will prepare us for His coming.
Since we do not know when the day will be, we must be prepared… The Lord will come secretly as a thief to those who love Him and will steal them away as His treasures and bring them into His presence in the heavens (Matt 24). Hence we need to watch and be ready, by being filled with the heavenly breath and have oil in or vessels. We should not be those who lay up wealth for the pleasure of the soul (Luke 12) nor be like Lot’s wife who loved and treasured the evil word which God was going to destroy. If we love the world more than the Lord, He will leave us here to pass through the great tribulation that we may be put to shame until we become mature…To attain maturity is not only an overnight matter. For His coming we must love Him, grow in Him, that at His appearing we may be mature to be raptured and receive the reward. "O Lord, Thank You for today, that we may pay a price to love You, gain You. You must increase, we must decrease. Lord, fill us with Your riches, that we become Your fullness. Saturate us, permeate us with Yourself, make us precious."
Thanks for the website and this posting. Amen and Halleluyah to the Lord Jesus Christ.
My location is Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. And I am thankful we at this time have this liberty to fellowship through the internet. In this time of liberty let us yield the moments to Christ Jesus and abide in Him.
There are some other groups besides the Lord's Recovery network which have received teaching of such a kind as this. This is good stuff. It belongs to the Lord and not to any one brother.
Amen, brother Peter, I am glad to meet here online. Yes, this teaching doesn't belong to "a man" or to "a group" – it is for the building up of the entire Body of Christ! This is really brings us back to the Lord, to His heart's desire, and to being those who are daily watchful and ready for the Lord's return! Let's continue to enjoy Him and build up the Body together!