Last night I had a conversation with Jesus. The conversation
was born out of several circumstances with the prominent one being that I was
awake attempting to cuddle a baby back to sleep at 3 A.M. Several memories of my childhood and fears born
out of those memories led me to pray for my children, that they would not go
through the same things that I did and In my prayer I expressed to Jesus
something that is not typical of my prayer life or even my personal
inclination. I told Him that the best answer would be His return, His second coming.
I immediately was aware of the statement I made and I had a thought flood my
mind which was “prepare them”. I believe with certainty this was the voice of
God expressing urgency about His return not only to me and my children but to
anyone who will listen.
While I was awake I pondered the urgency I felt and
several ideas and motivations began to form in my mind. I began to recall
stories and parables of Christ that dealt with His return. Specifically the
parable of the ten virgins (Matt 25:1-13) and the parable of the wedding banquet
(Matt 22:1-14) came to my recollection. I, also, began to sense a general purpose and message for
my own life, as a teacher and equipper of the saints, being formulated. The question of my
personal message had been on my mind since I shared my teachings on John the Baptist
which you can read in earlier posts on this blog.
So with the Biblical evidences presenting themselves
and a personal motivation being fulfilled I began to try to gather a feeling
or emotion behind God’s urgency. I began to recall the Apostle Paul admonishing the Thessalonians
to expectancy of the return of Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:3-5). I believe that
God is challenging me to live with the expectancy of His return in the
forefront of my life which has not always (or ever) been the case. I have
fallen into a trap of complacency, living day to day with a far off hope for
the return of Christ or simply the belief that I will live out my life and meet
Jesus after death. Living with a new expectancy will change my life and currently,
I am not sure how much. I want to be
careful and clear about my experience so far, while I felt urgency, I did not
feel condemnation or even correction. I felt that God was replacing one ideal with
another.
I don’t know how this will work out or how life will
look as this ideal takes root and grows but I do know that I now have a new
desire to live with the expectancy of Christ’s return and I know that I was
suppose to share my experience and thoughts even as newborn as they are.
Hopefully this post resonates with you in your walk with God that we should
live with an urgent expectancy of the return of Christ. we can bring His coming to the
forefront of our minds and motivations and see how life changes. I am looking
forward to continuing to post on this topic as God reveals more about my
experience last night and I pray that God will also encourage you through it.
