listener24

On 4/29/2019 at 6:15 AM, Tigger56 said:

I believe the Lord will move in people's hearts and minds to bring them to unified prayer, unified purpose with a unified calling. My friend at this point you need to pray for the unity of spirit within God's people, then and only then will there be a unified desire joined in united prayer. Then there will be a unified desire for the quick return of our Lord. I hope this doesn't discourage you but as men, we must pray and seek. Continue knocking on the door and wait upon the Lord to move.

Brother, this is a great answer! (sorry for the late reply)

I believe this as well, only the Lord can stir and renew our hearts and He is doing incredible things all around the world.

I am actually very encouraged, and as I keep praying for His return I'm seeing amazing things happening in His global Church.

He is reminding on a global scale that the main prayers He has taught us are "Maranatha", "come quickly Lord", "your Kingdom come".

He is also reminding that He is a responsive God (Luke 18:1-8) and that these prayers, in addition to the obedience to the Great Commission, really have a role in speeding His coming.

He is doing so by the power of the Spirit and also through the people who is raising. So in addition to praying, I think we can also talk about this beautiful prayer with our fellow Christians, who haven't joined this prayer yet. What do you think?

On 4/19/2019 at 6:23 AM, Tigger56 said:

I do agree. Prayer is powerful, united prayer even more so.

Well said my friend.

So if prayer is powerful and united prayer even more, how can we get the whole body of Christ to pray "Maranatha, speed up you coming Lord"?

6 hours ago, Rebecca Pickles said:

Love this! Amen to this one! Freed from the worries of this world. The Lord will supply all our needs as we travel on this quick Earthly journey towards our Heavenly home, with Jesus! X

Five Reasons to Be Fearless 
By John Piper 

Desiringgod.org
 

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

The reason God wants us not to be afraid concerning money or other things of the world is because that fearlessness — that freedom from anxiety — will magnify five great things about him.

First, not being afraid shows that we treasure God as our Shepherd. “Fear not, little flock.” We are his flock and he is our Shepherd. And if he is our Shepherd, then Psalm 23:1 applies: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want” — that is, I shall not lack anything I truly need.

Second, not being afraid shows that we treasure God as our Father. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” We are not only his little flock; we are also his children, and he is our Father. He really cares and really knows what you need and will work for you to be sure that you have what you need.

Third, not being anxious shows that we treasure God as King. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” He can give us the “kingdom” because he is the King. This adds a tremendous element of power to the one who provides for us. “Shepherd” connotes protection and provision. “Father” connotes love and tenderness and authority and provision and guidance. “King” connotes power and sovereignty and wealth.

Fourth, not being afraid shows how free and generous God is. Notice, he gives the kingdom. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” He doesn’t sell the kingdom or rent the kingdom or lease the kingdom. He is infinitely wealthy and does not need our payments. So, God is generous and free with his bounty. And this is what we magnify about him when we are not afraid, but trust him with our needs.

Finally, not being afraid — not being anxious — shows that we trust that God really wants to do this. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It delights him. He is not begrudging. It makes him glad to give us the kingdom. Not all of us had fathers like this, who were made happy by giving instead of getting. But that sorrow is not the main thing any more, because now you can have such a Father, and Shepherd, and King.

So, the point of this verse is that we should treasure God as our Shepherd and Father and King who is generous and happy to give us the kingdom of God — to give us heaven, to give us eternal life and joy, and everything we need to get there.

If we treasure God in this way, we will be fearless and God will be worshiped.

 

Amen!

There are so many times in which Jesus tells us to not be afraid.

When by obedience we submit our emotions to Him, it is so liberating!

17 hours ago, turtletwo said:

This greeting comes to bring good cheer
As 'Resurrection Day' draws near

Great poem Turtle!
I loved it, especially these opening lines.

Happy Easter brothers and sisters!!!

@Tigger56 This is a great answer that touches many points, all worth reasoning on.

On 4/8/2019 at 11:23 AM, Tigger56 said:

I do believe that the Lord God stands outside of time that He isn't surprised by anything and that He knows all things. I know as scripture states that He changes not (Malchi 3:6) is one of those scriptures. But a God that changes not, how does that apply to prayer for I believe prayer changes things.

This is true!

Some may argue that "God changes not" means that prayer are irrelevant. But this point wouldn't be Biblical at all.

From the very beginning to the end God listen to prayers, and hasten or delay things based on prayers.

So it is true that the Lord changes not: He has always been listening to prayers and taken them into account for His decision, and He will always be, He will never change this trait of using prayers. He is the God who said: "ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you".

On 4/8/2019 at 11:23 AM, Tigger56 said:

The Lord's soon return would indeed be a mercy.

This is a great point to keep in mind.

Maybe if we have a very comfortable life, in a safe country, from our couch we may think that the Return of the Lord is something to fear.

But if we keep in mind all the infants suffering, all the Christians persecuted, all the poors oppressed, then we'll realize that the Return of the King is the greatest mercy.

On 4/8/2019 at 11:23 AM, Tigger56 said:

But it is only one of many prayers needed. The Apostle John when seeing the things he wrote about in Revelation even prayed for the Lord to come soon. But even in our seeking the Lord's return we must also be seeking a great revival for many hearts to turn to the Lord. I truly believe there will be a great revival that will occur. I also believe in the signs of things that must be before the Lord's return, but I know these things can start quickly. 

True.

We are not to just pray "Maranatha, come quickly Lord" by ourself alone.

It is still fundamental to spread the Gospel in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. So for example we should pray the Lord to send workers to harvest His field.

The prayer Maranatha, Thy Kingdom Come, Come quickly Lord should be the burning desire out of which every other prayer burns.

On 4/8/2019 at 11:23 AM, Tigger56 said:

The Lord is omnipotent and thus has the qualities of omnipotence. If the Lord God knows the beginning from the end then He even knows when prayers he desires will be spoken. He gives man free will, but He also guides and directs man

This is so true!

And He is indeed speaking mightly about this in these last day.

He is making the prophecy happening: "the Spirit and the Bride say Come".

For centuries this prayer was lost, except for some remnants, and now is being restored on a global scale. All out of His will.

We can take part of His work of Restoration.

On 4/8/2019 at 11:23 AM, Tigger56 said:

God isn't surprised by what lies before us tomorrow or a year from now. But in knowing this, the Lord can place you in a certain place and a certain time to change things. He chose even the time in which you were born. If you read in Amos 7, that the Lord did things and then changed it to where it did not happen due to the prayers of Amos. I believe the Lord God is stop time, change time. He can make it where someone never existed, etc....  If all of this sounds too fantastic then you are as me in that I am in total awe of an Almighty God, the great I AM that is beyond and above anything! 

Amen! Amazing and encouraging thoughts.

On 4/8/2019 at 11:23 AM, Tigger56 said:

I thought a good point brought forth by Listener24 was the fact that we should pray the promises. There is a beautiful prayer from Daniel when he realized the exile of Israel was coming to an end. He prayed for what he already knew was going to occur.  

Woah!! What a great example from Daniel! I'm very inspired by this.

Given all of these considerations, I believe it's safe to state that everyone who join this prayer with their hearts and will, make an important difference. @Tigger56 would you agree?

I'm very inspired by the whole answer, thanks!

WOW!

@angels4u I've just found another version and I was about to publish it, and just noticed the last video published was this from you!

Here the version I found:

Very humbling and edifying!

So true, another reason why repentance is so important and the contrary of pride

1 hour ago, Woman of faith said:

I was hoping to get some insight into this question

I tried to answer your question, hope that gave you some insight! 

Personally, I enjoyed the question and it made me think.

To wrap up:

If the oil is the Holy Spirit, or our relationship with God, or anything similar, then the "currency" to buy it is where we put our time and efforts, and the "dealers" are the Church, the Word, the poors and persecuted who are Jesus in disguise, and the unreached.

Investing our time, energy and even money on these activities edify us. And it requires the intentional decision to not use our resources in the things of the world instead.

By this I didn't mean that we buy the Holy Spirit in weird ways.

But I meant that day by day, with our decisions, we decide whether to make a way for the Holy Spirit in our hearts, through obeying what Jesus commanded, or not.

Actually, if you consider that in the same speech Jesus continues with the prables of the talents, and the sheep and the goats, this seems to be even more reasonable.

15 minutes ago, Sonshine☀️ said:

looking forward to the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ

There is a special crown for those who live by longing for His appearing.

2nd Timothy:

"Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing."

Let' s demonstrate thig longing through our prayers for His Return, by spreading the Gospel and by living an holy life!

51 minutes ago, Tigger56 said:

As Christians, there should be adherence to the same rules and we should be of the same mind. If we follow the Lord Jesus we will all walk in the same way for he is the way unto joy, happiness, peace and salvation. There is a right way to live and that is the way according to rules and laws established by our Creator. Let us be people who live by the established rules and laws of the Lord.

Amen!

"If you love me, you will obey my commandments.

You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free"

22 hours ago, Woman of faith said:

I was reading about the 10 virgins in Matthew 25:1-10 and I know that the "oil" symbolizes either the Holy Spirit or walking in the Holy Spirit. But who are the "dealers" that the foolish virgins are to buy their oil from? 

 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed,they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry,‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to thewise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But thewise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and ⁱthose who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut." Matthew 25:1-10

 

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?

On 4/3/2019 at 4:08 PM, plavious said:

Can we say there was discrimination in creation? What about wealth distribution,  Geographical positioning,  sickness and suffering And etc?

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

This is beautiful!

It reminds that the enemy wants us to forget what the Lord has brought inside us, by using external attacks and making us weary.

Then through worries he attacks our faith and relationship with God.

And the solution is to fix our eyes on Jesus, the day star who arose in our hearts, the rose.

13 hours ago, Who me said:

Think.

 

If Jesus returned in the next 5 minutes, every person you know and care about or like who is not a Christian would face judgement and condemnation.

 

Is that what you want?

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?

Just now, Littlelambseativy said:

True, we are to pray ‘even so come Lord Jesus’!

Amen dear lamb/sister

5 minutes ago, Littlelambseativy said:

O boy don’t we all...that’s the problem with humans. We want everything now.

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

5 minutes ago, Wayne222 said:

I just want it to speed up lol.

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

19 minutes ago, Littlelambseativy said:

who of our family or friends may be left behind because of our own selfish desire for Jesus to come now.

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"

7 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

That is between you and  my Lord.

As for me I will have to let guidance  found at 2 Timothy 2, and also Titus, prevail. That is to avoid vain arguments and foolish things that distract from doing all that each believer in Christ Jesus is to be about doing to His glory alone.

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

11 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

Even so,  Lord Jesus come or "Maranatha", is my prayer, but so often amended by me very selfishly of my heart's strong desire that time pass that my own, those known to me hear and heed the call of God the Holy Spirit to know Jesus as their Lord God and savior. And for that I do also ask Lord may God The Father have You tarry yet a while longer.

All that are to be saved have been predestined as well as foreknown to God. I cannot be so arrogant as to demand He close creation out setting my will above His sovereignty,what a silly demand that would be from me. My concern is to be the soldier in Christ Jesus not a rogue not a complainer not a celever person thinking up oddities and diversions from that which God has set this clay to be.

And so I say  Maranatha knowing it is the providence of sovereign God The Father to tell Jesus God The Son when He has completed  and  readied  a place for His bride for the honeymoon, and not me.

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

13 minutes ago, Neighbor said:

It is also said: Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

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

5 hours ago, Neighbor said:

The creation is for the pleasure of the creator and not the creator for the pleasure of the creation. Who is so worthy that they may tell the creator when he should return and why?

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

Also: thy Kingdom Come.

3 hours ago, JohnD said:

Jesus directly charged his disciples / apostles and all who would believe their message to disciple all nations, to witness to every generation, to every man an answer a reason for the hope that is within us with gentleness and respect.

IF we took this seriously and prioritized everything in life accordingly... it would have taken only a few generations after his ascent to heaven to bring in all who would believe in him in all history.

This is only my opinion / belief on the subject, of course. ← which means subject to total scrutiny and most likely untrue unless it aligns with biblical truth.

But God knows all things. That means all the variables for having given mankind limited amounts of sovereignty (free will). He knows who would and who would not believe in his Son Jesus. 

The thing is, given the Church's lack of putting his commandment to evangelize the lost as top priority... the humanist traditions that deceive the Church (the chiefest being the division of clergy and laity in the new covenant)... God has to "seed" believers through a prolonged history so that their potential conversion can be realized. 

In short, you and I were born when, where, and how so that we would have that come to Jesus moment we would not have had (given our individuality) at any other point. 

The real hell of this is that countless millions of people who will not believe in Jesus (and would have been better off if they had not bee born) are born and go to eternal hell...

because WE who believe in Jesus do not take this commandment seriously enough.

That IMHO is what delays the Messiah.

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

3 hours ago, Wayne222 said:

          I heard a lot of answers. But why is it taking so long. What's the real reason. If he came back he could stop all war. Stop all illness.  Stop all hungry.  He would bring peace to all nations. All murders would end. No more child abuse.  No more racial division. God's name would be held high. No more lewdness.  Modest respectable dress. I could go on. What is delaying Jesus ?

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?

3 hours ago, PATMEN said:

See yah around... my brother's and sister's in the Lord...  God Bless

Praying for you Patman!