BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND
The blessed hope, the return of Christ, this is where it is all heading. When we begin with the end in mind, refocus and reset, we find it is all about a wedding. And like all weddings, there is much preparation to be done. This wedding, unlike others, however, does not have a set date we have been made aware of. Can you imagine? Preparing for your wedding, but you do not know the date. You do however know the things that must be done to prepare.
The two-fold preparation of the bride being made ready, and the fullness of the bride (those yet to come into the family of God) being won in heart to Christ. With the mandate of the Great Commission, making disciples of all nations, we show our love to our bridegroom by obeying this (and all His) command(s).
THE BRIDAL PREPARATION
Making disciples is not just about winning more people to Christ. I always thought this verse was about the work of evangelism, but over recent years I have discovered that more people coming to Christ is simply the fruit of my obedience. The process of obeying God, making disciples, and teaching them to obey Christ’s commands, is actually molding, shaping and preparing my heart. Making disciples of all nations both brings people to Christ and prepares the already born-again Bride of Christ.
God’s love language is obedience.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
“If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.”
“By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.”
The only way to grow in love and intimacy with Christ is through obedience. Obedience implies action. This has become a problem for me and maybe many others because for years I have spent time in prayer and the Word and believed that was the way to intimacy with God. And while prayer and the study of the Word increases our depth and knowledge of God, intimacy is relationship, not intelligence. The emotional and relational part of our being needs to engage with action toward the one we behold and love for it to be real love. It is both getting to better know the one we love and showing them that we love them through our actions is it not?
If we are heading toward a wedding, and being made ready during this time of betrothal then how will we keep our focus on our bridegroom in the waiting?
In light of beginning with the end in mind, I want to review these key passages which will simplify this betrothal preparation period we are in and what is needed for our Lord to return. If we focus on what we are supposed to be doing in the waiting, perhaps we will hasten the day of His coming.
It is all about relationship
From the beginning, since the garden, God was in this for the relationship was He not? In fact, when I was a young believer that was the buzz phrase, “it’s a relationship, not a religion”. God demonstrated His commitment to fight for relationship with us and has proven that He will not let go. He is fully committed to this wedding no matter how long it takes.
Of course, we must remember that the Father chose Israel, the Hebrews, to reveal Himself to as their Father and demonstrate this to. It began with Israel, and it will finish with Israel.
When will the Son of Man Return?
“For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
The end of the story, really, it’s the gateway into the age to come, it is actually not the end, but the beginning of a new era. How do we get to that door? When Israel cries out wholeheartedly desiring Jesus to come and be their Messiah. The Jews will want Jesus. When will this happen? When will the Jews want Jesus?
“So I ask, Have they stumbled so as to fall [to their utter spiritual ruin, irretrievably]? By no means! But through their false step and transgression salvation [has come] to the Gentiles, so as to arouse Israel [to see and feel what they forfeited] and so to make them jealous.”
The Jews will be provoked to jealously by gentile believers- but who are they? Which gentiles are going to provoke them to what will turn into desire for Jesus their Messiah? Wouldn’t it make sense that it would be the neighboring gentiles? After all, in the days of the scripture, the Arabs and neighboring descendants of Ishmael would have been the ones called “gentiles”. And this is what we are seeing today on the earth. There is a great revival happening in the Middle East among Muslims, the children of Ishmael, and the mortal enemies of the Jews are now becoming their best friends. This is a sign and a wonder manifesting in our very day and time.
Let’s continue to follow the preceding progression of events…
What will happen (and is happening right now) is a “love revival” I like to refer to as “Isaiah 19.”
ISAIAH 19
“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
What Verse 24 is saying is there is going to be a unity of believers in the Middle East nations Arab, Persian, Egyptian, and Jewish believers. Right there in the Middle East. That is the epicenter of the glory of God in the end-time purpose. The epicenter is the Middle East where He is going to heal Abraham’s family Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, their offspring that say yes to Jesus throughout the Middle East. He is going to heal the family of Abraham on a global stage.
The great “love revival” in the Middle of East of Arab, Persian, Egyptian believers will result in revealing the God of Israel to Israel. Israel will be in a time of unprecedented persecution in flight fleeing from the land. In Amos 5 when they flee in the Day of the Lord they will flee from the “lion and run into the bear”. They will leave Jerusalem and Judea and they will run into Islamic nations. Unbelieving Jews in flight fleeing persecution will run in the Land to Islamic nations.
But, Psalm 23 tells us the Lord has prepared a table even in presence of their enemy. There is going to be tens of millions of lovesick worshippers of Jesus in the Middle East nations they are going to love unbelieving Israel. This will be a sign and wonder to them. These neighbors are going to be a source of provision, protection even dying with them in some cases and revealing the God of Israel to unbelieving Israel.
The epicenter of John 17 will be right in the Middle East, which is really the whole original boundaries of the Garden of Eden from Euphrates to the River Nile. The whole Garden of Eden and the family of Abraham healed on a global level, this is actually right before the Lord returns, right leading up to it. And the whole earth is filled with the glory of God.
God’s plan for the Islamic Nations
So here you see that by praying for and supporting the work of bringing Muslims to Christ, you are actually hastening the return of the Lord. Several years ago, the Lord showed me this – if you truly love Israel, you will contend for Muslims. That is how I understood it, by giving my life to seeing Muslims come to Christ, I would see more fruit of unbelieving Jews receiving their Messiah. The code was now cracked. Here is how to win Israel to Christ- pray for Muslims.