The Day of The Lord
Joel 2:11The LORD gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
12“Now, therefore,” says the LORD,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
The day of the Lord refers to the events promised to mark the return of God to the earth. Jesus came to prepare the earth to receive the Father. He released an invitation to be His brother, servant and friend... He released a wedding invitation. Then, as is Jewish custom, He went to His father's house to prepare a home for all who say yes to being joined to His family. He will return for His bride. He will return to those who prepare for that forever home with a continual yes in their hearts.
The Bible promises that every aspect of this coming, inviting, withdrawing, preparing, and returning is "Great AND Terrible."
Why?
It is great because God is bringing back together what was broken. The reuniting of heaven and Earth is great. Sickness will be eradicated, poverty abolished, pain removed, loneliness will be a thing of the past, the earth will be renovated into a sustainable and glorious state, even the very air we breathe will be better. Animosity between man and animals and even between the animals will be removed... It is GREAT!
It is also terrible. All those who claim to be His yet resist PREPARING will be in great pain, excluded, cast away, expelled from this glorious renewal to some degree or another. The glory of the reuniting of heaven and Earth...the sheer value of it... Requires a response on the part of all those who experience it.
This isn't a "someday" reality. It is happening right now. In billions of seemingly tiny events every day, the Lord is returning through the hearts and experiences of all those who enter into it... Who believe it, ask for it, and learn to expect it. Faith opens the door of the inner man to let the king of Glory back onto the earth. That is HOW Jesus' kingdom comes:
Luke 17:20Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;
21“nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
22Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
23“And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.
24“For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.
25“But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27“They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
This is great and terrible. As the days of Noah were great for Noah who responded to the small promptings of God in faith...those same days were terrible for all who didn't.
Practically, this means if you encounter God in His return to the earth...in any of the billions of seemingly small increases of his presence, hearing Him, understanding His plan... A miraculous healing, leading someone to the light, supernatural provision, being overcome by His presence in worship.... If you experience any of these advances of the kingdom, MORE is required of you!
The more God gives of Himself to you, the more you must respond in sanctification...or giving yourself back to Him in the process of His coming. If you don't, His coming will be terrible. This is a simple and consistent truth in the Bible:
Luke 12:45“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk,
46“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
This is the thing, though: You can't respond in your own strength. It takes God to love God.
If it we're on me to get ready for Jesus, I would fail. If it were on Noah to design and build a boat, Noah would have drown. He had no boat building experience.
Instead of trying to grit my teeth and get ready, I need to use the experiences of God that He gives me as fuel to ask Him to make me more ready! Much is required, and I have so little, but the One who requires a response is actually also the One who gives me all I need to respond, including the air I breathe and even my basic heartbeat that keeps me alive!
This leaves me in a place of prayer. Not personally responding to the coming of Jesus is evil. Responding in my own strength and logic is equally evil. This leaves me in the narrow road of asking and receiving....it leaves God and I in the roles of the parent and the child ... groom and spouse... this leaves me in the arms of love.
What the Lord is looking for is dependency and humility...letting Him be the One who leads me, guides me, and provides for me...the One who sets me apart from the crowd...who sanctifies me from the worldliness all around me.
When God reveals Himself to me, I am supposed to repent and let Him have more. This is holiness. This is sanctification. I let Him lead me, I humble myself and see the truth He is presenting to me...more and more I lay down my agenda, tell the truth more, embrace the rejection more...I take up a cross and follow more closely.
Right now much of the church is into "experiencing His presence". If I experience His presence and don't walk away changed, then I walk away arrogant. My heart is terribly hardened by the very experience I sought. This is how delusion spreads.
Every inch of His return is great and terrible. I want to embrace the truth of that and let Him change me.
Then I'll be ready when He comes. He's coming right now!
Hebrews 11:6But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
7By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Luke 21:25“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26“men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
27“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
29Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.
30“When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.
31“So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.
32“Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.
33“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
34“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.
35“For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.
36“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?
12“Now, therefore,” says the LORD,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
The day of the Lord refers to the events promised to mark the return of God to the earth. Jesus came to prepare the earth to receive the Father. He released an invitation to be His brother, servant and friend... He released a wedding invitation. Then, as is Jewish custom, He went to His father's house to prepare a home for all who say yes to being joined to His family. He will return for His bride. He will return to those who prepare for that forever home with a continual yes in their hearts.
The Bible promises that every aspect of this coming, inviting, withdrawing, preparing, and returning is "Great AND Terrible."
Why?
It is great because God is bringing back together what was broken. The reuniting of heaven and Earth is great. Sickness will be eradicated, poverty abolished, pain removed, loneliness will be a thing of the past, the earth will be renovated into a sustainable and glorious state, even the very air we breathe will be better. Animosity between man and animals and even between the animals will be removed... It is GREAT!
It is also terrible. All those who claim to be His yet resist PREPARING will be in great pain, excluded, cast away, expelled from this glorious renewal to some degree or another. The glory of the reuniting of heaven and Earth...the sheer value of it... Requires a response on the part of all those who experience it.
This isn't a "someday" reality. It is happening right now. In billions of seemingly tiny events every day, the Lord is returning through the hearts and experiences of all those who enter into it... Who believe it, ask for it, and learn to expect it. Faith opens the door of the inner man to let the king of Glory back onto the earth. That is HOW Jesus' kingdom comes:
Luke 17:20Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation;
21“nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
22Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
23“And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.
24“For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.
25“But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27“They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
This is great and terrible. As the days of Noah were great for Noah who responded to the small promptings of God in faith...those same days were terrible for all who didn't.
Practically, this means if you encounter God in His return to the earth...in any of the billions of seemingly small increases of his presence, hearing Him, understanding His plan... A miraculous healing, leading someone to the light, supernatural provision, being overcome by His presence in worship.... If you experience any of these advances of the kingdom, MORE is required of you!
The more God gives of Himself to you, the more you must respond in sanctification...or giving yourself back to Him in the process of His coming. If you don't, His coming will be terrible. This is a simple and consistent truth in the Bible:
Luke 12:45“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk,
46“the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
47“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
48“But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
49“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
This is the thing, though: You can't respond in your own strength. It takes God to love God.
If it we're on me to get ready for Jesus, I would fail. If it were on Noah to design and build a boat, Noah would have drown. He had no boat building experience.
Instead of trying to grit my teeth and get ready, I need to use the experiences of God that He gives me as fuel to ask Him to make me more ready! Much is required, and I have so little, but the One who requires a response is actually also the One who gives me all I need to respond, including the air I breathe and even my basic heartbeat that keeps me alive!
This leaves me in a place of prayer. Not personally responding to the coming of Jesus is evil. Responding in my own strength and logic is equally evil. This leaves me in the narrow road of asking and receiving....it leaves God and I in the roles of the parent and the child ... groom and spouse... this leaves me in the arms of love.
What the Lord is looking for is dependency and humility...letting Him be the One who leads me, guides me, and provides for me...the One who sets me apart from the crowd...who sanctifies me from the worldliness all around me.
When God reveals Himself to me, I am supposed to repent and let Him have more. This is holiness. This is sanctification. I let Him lead me, I humble myself and see the truth He is presenting to me...more and more I lay down my agenda, tell the truth more, embrace the rejection more...I take up a cross and follow more closely.
Right now much of the church is into "experiencing His presence". If I experience His presence and don't walk away changed, then I walk away arrogant. My heart is terribly hardened by the very experience I sought. This is how delusion spreads.
Every inch of His return is great and terrible. I want to embrace the truth of that and let Him change me.
Then I'll be ready when He comes. He's coming right now!
Hebrews 11:6But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
7By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
10for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Luke 21:25“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26“men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
27“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
29Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.
30“When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.
31“So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.
32“Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.
33“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
34“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.
35“For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.
36“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
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