listener24

If the oil is interpreted as the Holy Spirit, or the relationship with God, or similar things, then who are the dealers? One thing that I have experienced is that walking daily with Christian people makes a huge difference. Real Christians, obviously, not ones who sugarcoat the Gospel to make it lose all its salt. So spending time with Christians is fundamental. We don' t technically buy the oil with money. But the intentional decision to walk with God, with His Scriptures and His Church, requires us to invest our mind, energy and time. This is a way in which we can imagine the "currency" by which we buy oil. "Love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength". Every day we have 24 hours, our most precious currency. As @Michael37 pointed out (brilliant answer), at the heart of this Parable there is timing, in particular being prepared in time for the day we will meet the Lord. Will we invest it in spending time with God? Through reading the Bible, through edifying each other in the Church and to serve the unreached? Or will we spend it in the things of the world? What will be our answer daily, weekly, and of a lifetime?

It is called: the fall. Creation itself has been corrupted by sin, is tired and suffers the pain of birth until Jesus returns The new Testament keeps repeating this over and over again

We have already discussed this above, you can see the answer in the above thread. If we would think like this, we should wish the Day to never come because there will always be at any second this world goes on billions of people losing the way. So there will never be a point in history in which what you are saying would change. There will always be non Christians and it will get worse. For the increase of lawlessness the love of most will keep growing cold. That is why Jesus didn' t taught us to pray "come slowly, Lord". Instead He taught us to pray "come quickly, Lord" The bare minimum to expect from a Bride worth marrying is that she burns with desire for the marriage, not that she hopes it will be as late as possible. @Wayne222 you asked why the Lord is delaying. Now you are seeing that many even within Church wish He comes as late as possible. This is so different from the sentiment of the first Christians who were crying "Maranatha" all day long. This because they were persecuted, while today most of us in the western world have everything and don' t think about the billion people suffering in this world. Now do you see how we are delaying His return? Revelation say that the Spirit and the Bride should cry "Come!" Now, the Spirit is doing His part but the Bride seems to be crying "please not now Lord" In the persecuted countries, Christians are praying "Maranatha" all day long. Will the Western Christianity join?

Amen dear lamb/sister

As the parable of the wedding feast teaches, we usually as humans want everything except the wedding feast to start. So let' s not discourage or call selfish the few who wants it! There are plenty other things thst make us selfish. Hastening the day of the Lord is not among the things which make us selfish

Then you are faithful to what is written in 2Peter 3:12 and many other places! He orders us to spees it up. Don' t lose this heart! Keep speeding up! And if you can, go to mission or at least try to spread the Gospel as much as you can Prayers and mission

I am also concerned for the unreached. We should be missionaries wherever we are. At the same time there will always be people who are not in Christ at any point in human history. Following this logic, the Rapture/Second Coming would never happen because there will be always someone who hope it comes as late as possible so that their family member may change their mind. Instead, God doesn' t follow this logic evidently since He promised that it will happen but He also let us know that many will be left. Billions of people keep borning in this world, getting tempted and refusing Christ' s Salvation. Every single second more people are persecuted and more people are in danger to be tempted and overcome by the world. That is why the Lord taught us to pray: "Maranatha. Come quickly Lord" Otherwise He would have taught to pray "come slowly"

I hope you don't consider our discussion vain argument. I consider it a constructive conversation and was glad to hear your points though I disagree. Your brother in Christ

I don' t pray the Lord to come as a selfish desire of my own. I pray it for all the persecuted Christians around the world. They pray it too "Ask and you will receive" said the Lord He didn't say "ask and my sovereignty will be challenged" or anything you have written. You can find many pastors teaching this. Adrian Rogers to start with. I am specifying cause you said that what I am writing is odd. It's not. With love

Brother, am I striving with my Maker by obeying praying the prayer He taught us to pray and understanding it?

The Creator taught us to pray: Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus. Also: thy Kingdom Come.

Great points. Agree, we are the ones who delay it. Moreover, there will NEVER be a point in history in which everyone will be Christian. Therefore, every second that separates us from the rapture means that someone is born in this world, will reject Jesus and go to Hell

Great question. With a surprisingly simple answer from the Scriptures: We are delaying His Return. 2 Peter 3:12 says that we can hasten His coming. Speed up. Therefore, whenever we don' t speed it up, we delay it. How can we delay and how can we speed it up? We get 2 ways to speed up His coming from the Gospel: spreading the Gospel in the whole world as a testimony to all nations (Matthew 24) amd praying for His Return. How many Christians are praying in this moment for His Return? I know personally hundreds of Christians who never heard about this prayer. Yet it is the main meaning of the Lord prayer. How many are instead praying for things of the world? (Read matthew 23: the parable of the wedding banquet) In the first three centuries the majority of Christians were praying "Maranatha". Come quickly Lord. Not so for the following centuries, when "Kingdom Now theology" and "Dominion theology" made people believe that the main goal was to build a Kingdom on this earth. But recently thanks to the work of the Spirit the Bride of Christ is awakening again. Thus Revelation 22 is starting to be fulfilled: "the Spirit and the Bride say come" Jesus will come for a Bride who utterly desire Him, not for a Bride in love with the world. Again this is a great question and we shouldn' t answer in a 'lazy' way but putting all the responsibility on God. We should ask ourselves what are we not doing that we were supposed to do. Do you wanna join the prayer for His Return and help spreading it in the whole Church?

Hey thanks for the great questions! Everybody is still suffering because God's Kingdom of Heaven hasn't come yet. Because of our rebellion we are still in a fallen state until Jesus' Second Coming, and while His Spirit can start healing our hearts, the whole creation is in eager expectation for the Lord to show His glory and redeem us. Meanwhile Satan has control over this world. Paul calls satan "the god of this world". (2 Corinthians 4:4) Jesus calls him "the ruler of this world". (John 14:30) Furthermore Jesus says: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." (John 18:36) Moreover Jesus states very often that He is not of this world: "But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world." (John 8:23) That is why Christians are ultimately to pray, desire and explicitly ask God: "Thy Kingdom Come. Deliver us from the evil one" ALL of these concepts were very clear to the first Christians, who were praying "Maranatha" which means "come Lord Jesus". (Revelation 22:17, 22:20) Unfortunately throughout history deception entered Church and these concepts started becoming blurred. Nowadays with "Kingdom now theology", "prosperity Gospel, "social Gospel" and many other human inventions it's very hard to get a straight doctrine. But the good news is that Scriptures haven't changed. Read the 4 Gospels, read the letters and you will find most answers :) Then maybe the Spirit will move into your heart and you will join our prayer and mission of spreading the Gospel, this way "speeding up His coming" (2 Peter 3:12) and the end of all suffering.

All great suggestions here! Church should be both a place that makes us grow in the Lord, and a place where we help other people grow with our unique talents. If one of these two components is missing, then there are some issues. Then if that's the case and something is missing, before leaving the church i would take the courage to discuss the issue first, because this would be a great Christian thing to do, in order to edify yourself and the people you will speak with about the issue. If after an active attempt to fix things, the situation is still lacking of a fundamental component, I would look for another Church. But I wouldn't just stay home unless physically forced. Church is so important to God as you can read all over the New Testament. I'm talking as a person who was disillusioned as well. There is always a Church in which you can serve, and if there isn't where you leave then you should rather start one, but staying home I don't think is the Biblical answer, although the time to study the Bible by ouself is definitely fundamental. God bless you.

Great point. Cultural Christianity can be bad when it makes the name "Christian" void. We must walk in repentance, in Spirit, in the Word and in Love. We must know that our sins are washed in Christ's blood, but at the same time that the testifier of true faith is a constantly renewed heart. May the Lord help us in this

You are 100% right about this brother! In fact Jesus told us to love God with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul. If it's only a thing of the mind, then we are uncomplete and ultimately as you said it becomes fruitless. So I'm totally for revival that touches all the three parts of our being. Part of this is done only by God's Spirit. For part of it, He asks our cooperation. So the reason why I brought up the Scriptures, is that there is an obstacle that we can contribute to remove, which is the obstacle of false doctrines. I often hear about these supposed "all-knowing", very knowledgeable people with no actual zeal for Jesus. I'm sure there are SOME people like these, I'm not saying that they don't exists. But to be honest, I also see an overwhelmingly majority of people who: - are leader of churches and they found their whole teaching of a very few, misinterpreted verses - are followers of some leader and mostly know a mixture of what their leader know and they happened to hear from others This is a bigger number with respect to these famous people who are supposed to know everything, have a perfectly sound understanding but don't love the Lord. (we can read many stats by just typing "Biblical illiteracy") So I just feel like this would be part of the revival, though I completely agree that it will also touch the hearts and souls and not only the minds! Just to give you an example, most of the first Christians knew that their prayers and their holy life had an effect on hastening the Return of Jesus. This is because they understood why Jesus has taught us to pray "thy Kingdom come", which is also the last prayer in Revelation "Come Lord Jesus". The first Christians were greeting each others with the words: "Maranatha". Nowadays when I speak about speeding up the Return of Jesus only a minority is excited about it. Theories like "prosperity Gospel" or "social Gospel" are definitely more famous, and they are actually an hindrance to having our eyes fixed on Heaven. This way we don't fulfill the role of the widow in Luke 18:1-8. I conclude with a question: Can we all think about things that we can do for contributing to this revival? In addition to theorizing it and hoping for it? I'll propose some, and I hope to read some more insights from the great people on this forum: 1) Problem: Biblical illiteracy, dependence on some "leaders" for understanding Jesus. Solution: promote much more personal reading of the Gospel and the Bible, more small groups, focus on the Gospel first (since in this fast society it's sometimes too much to require to read the whole Bible before someone hasn't even read the Gospel) 2) Problem: False doctrines are all over. Solution: actively refuse them with the Gospel. Remember Matthew 23:8-10 and the mandate to all be at the same level and having Christ as the only head. 3) Problem: people's heart far from God. Solution: improve our relationship with the Lord and love for Him first. Keep praying, keep repenting and learning the true meaning of repentance. Be an example of a repenting heart in words and deeds. 4) Problem: the focus of many Christian is completely switched on this earth, with prosperity-signs-social Gospel all over. Solution: remember the countless verses in the Gospel that speak about the beauty of Heaven. Talk and reason often about Heaven, in order to make ourselves excited and in expectation for it. Pray actively for Jesus Return, which is the ultimate demonstration of where is our actual hope. 5) Problem: Lack of outreaching and mission mentality Solution: through the Word, show that mission is one of the main point of Christian life. I can go ahead with other points as well, and I'd like to hear other people opinion as well. But all the points I've analyzed and many others could be derived by just reading often the 4 Gospels. Then we need to pray the Spirit as well because without His power we can't do anything. What I often see are people with a lot of zeal for the Lord, but without a clear direction, and attracted by the last things that the last "famous" leader say. I'm sorry when I see that because I feel like all of their zeal could be better used if they would be more encouraged to get their direction from the One Master through His Word

@Gideon, beautiful and inspiring post. You presented many great points and I'll share my opinion on them. Undeniable truth, unfortunately. We must be very aware to not fall into these same errors over and over again. Such an abundance of "prosperity gospel", "fleshy based experience" and even "social gospel" doctrine is unprecedented. This slows down the true revival of the last generation. Very beautiful point. I do agree that the latter rain will not be denominational specific, nor city specific, nor experience specific. And I do agree that it will be about having Jesus at the center of our lives and as the King of every aspect of our lives. On not being doctrinally specific, let's just make a clarification. I do agree that it will not be about any "fancy" doctrine. Nor it will be about for instance deciding between pre/post tribulation or some similar controversial point. But to increase the love for Christ, we must increase our knowledge of Him. And this knowledge is not to be found in the next fancy theological book, but back in the Scriptures, especially in the 4 Gospels. In the simplicity of the Gospel, the Word of our Lord, there is most we need to know and to meditate to increase in love with Him. "But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop." As we learn in Luke the good soil are those who hear the Word, RETAIN IT, and PERSEVERE in it. Now more than ever everybody have access to the Gospel. Everybody can learn from the Master and then grow in their love in the Church and in their outreaching mission. It will not be about new doctrine but about restoring the simplicity of the Gospel with a daily, Spirit guided relationship with Jesus and His Word as a fuel for our Christian life. This way simple Truth from the Gospel will be evident again. For instance, our longing for hastening the return of the King (2Peter 3:12, Revelation 22:20) will raise again as we will intentionally pray "thy Kingdom Come". And as we will give our lives fully to Him. The more we grow in Christ the more we will be able to love one another and to be an example. Let's also remember that this will not make "earth" a "Paradise" yet. "For the increase of wickdness the love of most will grow cold". Along with the Church becoming holier, there will be a lot of distress in the world. But the Return of Jesus, which we'll hasten with our prayers, spreading the Gospel and living an holy life, will finally fix everything. Then "there will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" Maranatha!

Amen! "But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah."

LOL what do I have to do with those guys frienduff? I hope nothing Never too early to praise the Lord, agree! God bless

Throw those hands Frienduff!!

Great point. I actually find this post as completely making sense. True, emotions of Jesus are displayed in the New Testament. Sorrow, grief, compassion. But not anger. Even when He says to the pharisees "you snake, you wood of vipers", He is just stating what they are, especially to warn other people, He is not making up "insults" out of rage, as humans usually do. In fact, soon after He cries on Jerusalem. People don't cry out of rage, they cry out of sorrow and grief.

Amen. Unfortunately many self-proclaimed leaders "tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them." They think Jesus confirmed their men-made traditions. Instead we are now in a whole different relationship with God. "The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

Dear SkilletFan, great to hear from you! I am so glad you are enjoying this forum and I remember having some great conversations with you. There were some periods in which I haven't come here into this forum very much, so I guess that's how we didn't stay in touch. But real brothers and sisters in Christ, even when they don't communicate often, never lose the connection in Christ with each other. I also praise God for the miracles in your life. Remember: He is a Faithful God, He doesn't want to lose any of us. Let's keep diving into His Scriptures and in the service that He calls us to do for others. And just to reconnect to this thread, let's always keep praying persistently for speeding up the final liberation of our our siblings. Thy Kingdom Come Lord! Maranatha Deliver us from the evil one, forever, Father