Are we ready and prepared for what is to come?

Questions:

1. If we prepared the way Jesus is now preparing for us, what difference would that make in how we do things?
2. If Jesus prepared things for us the way we are preparing things for Him, what impact would that have on us?

Shouldn't our preparation be of the same quality, integrity of work, application of time, effort, heart, passion and desire to make ready that the Lord is bestowing upon preparation for us?

Let’s look at these words and their definition for a better understanding of what I am about to teach:

• Prepare - to get something or someone ready for something that will happen in the future:
• Preparation - the things that you do or the time that you spend preparing for something:
• Preparatory – what’s done in order to get ready for something:
• Prepared - ready to deal with a situation:
• Preparedness - when you are prepared for a particular situation:

So far, we have made “preparation” for things in the future, like the harvest, miracles and breakthrough…things we want to see happen...for something that we believe is going to happen, whether today or tomorrow or eventually...

...But, we as yet haven’t developed a plan of “Preparedness” for a particular situation.

Many believers are in some level of preparation for "hard times," but we also need to be in preparation for "spiritual times." This is not just about evil men and devils moving into place, but about the Church, the People of God getting in place and thriving in difficult, but fruitful times!

While many are thinking about "natural preparation," we must begin to think about "spiritual preparation."

Let's take our preparation from generalities to specifics.

• Generality - when what someone says contains no details, and often very little meaning:
• Specifics - exact details:

Yes, we know people are going to be saved, prodigals are going to come home, cities are going to be shaken, the harvest is going to come in, transformation is going to happen, the miracles will be released through the church, families are going to be unified in the faith…but…what about when it is no longer just talk and it is actually happening and we have to handle… the ‘facts in real time” no longer the “prophecies of what is to come?”

The world around us has mocked us, acted as if all that we have believed is a myth, but soon…we will be dealing with a new landscape in the church, our city, our family, and our world.

• I am not just talking about salvation, healing and deliverance from the hand of God…but also the shakings, (and all that means to a “shaken area”), that are coming. Are you prepared?

Let’s look at these questions and then let’s discuss the implication of “not being prepared,” and “of being prepared.”

Are you prepared to, willing to change?

Many are not prepared to change and believe they can do the same as everyone else without the cost of allowing God to shape them.

Personally, are you willing?

Are you prepared as a vessel?

Can God use you?
Is your mind prepared? – By the Word of Truth, to withstand deception; is your mind fixed in Him?

Rom 12:2 - And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Is your heart prepared? – Affections, desires, lusts, passions, appetites, emotions?

Gal 5:24 - And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Is your spirit prepared? – Are you filled with the Holy Ghost; is it current, is it fresh today?

Jude 1:20 - But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

Is your body prepared? – Are you disciplined, pure, are you a clean sacrifice to God?

Rom 12:1 - I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

1 Cor 6:19-20 - What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

• The lamb of sacrifice was without spot, pure
• Jesus was without spot and pure
• We need to present our bodies, meaning all that we are, without spot, wrinkle and pure before our God.

Eph 5:26-27 - That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Are your homes prepared?

• Is there peace in the home?
• Is there compromise?
• Is there wrong foundations?
• Is there a family altar?
• Is your house set in order?

Are you prepared to walk in the Spirit and not the flesh?

Gal 5:16 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Are you prepared to sever from the things of this world?

• Things filling your time?
• Things you now hold dear that have no value to where you are going?
• Things you want more than God?

James 4:4 - Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

2 Pet 1:4 - Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

I Jn 2:15-17 - Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

We cannot fills our days and nights with our own pursuits and then expect God to show up.

Are you prepared to give more to God to have more of Him?

Are you prepared for more change?

• Sweeten your attitudes?
• Sweeten your spirits?
• To do what’s necessary to be used of God?

Are you prepared to speak truth?

Ps 51:6-7 - Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop (declare my guilt that I have missed the mark, and make me pure), and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

2451 chokmah - wisdom
a) Skill (in war)
b) Wisdom (in administration)
c) Shrewdness, wisdom
d) Wisdom, prudence (in religious affairs)
e) Wisdom (ethical and religious)

3526 kabac- wash me
To wash (by treading), to be washed, to perform the work of a fuller;
To wash (garments, a person)

Those who are used of God, like Jesus, have to have a place and time where they draw away and move into that realm and dimension of being totally lost in God.

Are you prepared for the last day’s?

• Is your mind prepared?
• Have you dealt with pride and, jealousy?
• Have you a desire for position?

We can’t spend our time in our own moods and attitudes and expect God to enter into that frame of mind. We cannot ignore the issues of our own heart or we will not be able to carry the precious oil to others.

We will only pour out what is in our lives.

• We must be clean vessels, filled vessels, and prepared vessels, like the 5 wise virgins who awaited the bridegroom’s call.
• We must have the precious oil that we can spend in extravagant worship, like Mary who anointing Jesus.

We cannot cram at the last minute as if we are taking a test of some kind when we are preparing to minister. We must be constantly training ourselves to better contain and release the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit of God.

Do we really know the Holy Spirit?
Have we communed with the Holy Spirit?
Have we listened enough to know His voice?
Have we been overwhelmed and consumed by His presence?

Are you prepared for the battle, spiritual warfare on the next level?

Isa 21:5-6 - Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

• Are your eyes, ears and mouth prepared?
• Are your natural senses prepared?
• Are you prepared in discernment, to go beyond the natural senses?

Are you prepared to remove all stumbling blocks out of the way of the LORD?

Isa 57:14 - And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.

4383 mikshowl or mikshol - a stumbling, a means or occasion of stumbling, a fall - literally or figuratively (obstacle, enticement [specifically an idol], scruple

1 Cor 8:9 - But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.

Rom 14:13 - Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

4348 proskomma - a stumblingblock
a) An obstacle in the way which if one strikes his foot against he stumbles or falls
b) That over which a soul stumbles, that is, by which is caused to sin

Matt 18:7 - Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

4625 skandalon ("scandal")- offense
1) The movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick
a) A trap, a snare
b) Any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall, (a stumbling block, occasion of stumbling), that is, a rock which is a cause of stumbling
2) Any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin

Isa 57: 15 - For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

• Do you have a humble spirit?
• Are you contrite in spirit?

Are you prepared in the Fear of the LORD?

Prov 14:26-27 - In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

Prov 19:23 - The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.

Are you prepared as a “Harbinger?”

Isa 40:3-4 - The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

Are you prepared to do the hard work to clear the path?
Are you prepared to go ahead of your king and make ready his road through intercession, though you travel alone?

Are you prepared to handle the miraculous?

Acts 6:8 - And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Acts 8:6 - And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

Acts 8:13 - Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.

Acts 15:12 - Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

Acts 19:11 - And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:

Are you prepared for the harvest?

• Are you passively waiting until the day they come in and then wonder what to do with them?
• Are you giving strong preparation to the issues of your own heart and mind so that when they come in you will be ready?

We must prepare now for those who are coming in – how are we going to deal with it?
Are willing to be faithful, stay submitted and committed to the journey.
We want to introduce these souls to Christ, not just us and our personality.

Are you prepared for the judgments that will come upon the religious world?

1 Pet 4:17-18 - For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Are you prepared for the shakings that will come upon the earth to test and try it?

Hag 2:6-7 - For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

Heb 12:25-29 - See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

Are you prepared for what is to come upon this earth, our nation and city?

a. War
b. Death
c. Famine
d. Persecution
e. Hardship
f. Loss of Goods and Home
g. Civil War
h. Ethnic and Religious Cleansing
i. Terrorism
j. Storms

Are you prepared to serve God, no matter what comes, putting your trust in Him alone?

Luke 12:22-31 - And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Are you prepared for the coming of the LORD?

Matt 25:1-13 - Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

Are You Prepared......?