Making Ourselves Ready For The Lord’s Coming
Message Two
Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming
by Growing in Life unto Maturity
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Heb. 6:1 Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be brought on to maturity…
Col. 1:28-29 Whom we announce, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we
may present every man full-grown in Christ; for which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.
Word of Appetizer
What does it mean to grow in life unto maturity?
To to grow in life unto maturity means that Christ is our life within us, and then continues to grow within us to such an extent that He is formed within us. When Christ is formed in us, that is when we mature in the life of Christ.
Spiritual Burden
To be ready for rapture we need the maturity in life. To become matured is not an overnight matter; for the Lord’s coming, we need to prepare ourselves, love Him, and grow in Him so that at His appearing we may be mature to be raptured.
We should never be content with ourselves but should pursue growth and maturity in the life of Christ; we need to go on, to be brought on, to maturity by forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, pursuing toward the fullest enjoyment and gaining of Christ for the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
In his Epistle, James uses the illustration of a farmer awaiting with long-suffering the precious fruit of the earth.
To be mature is to have Christ formed in us.
The goal of Paul’s ministry was to present every man mature, full-grown, in Christ for the one new man.
To be ready for rapture we need the maturity in life.
The Experience of Life
Christ was born in us when we believed into Him (John 3:6, 15-16), He lives in us in our Christian life (Gal. 2:20b), and He will be formed in us at our maturity (4:19).
God will sovereignly use persons, things, and events to empty us of everything that has filled us and to take away every preoccupation so that we may have an increased capacity to be filled with God.
Practice and Application
We should never be content with ourselves but should pursue growth and maturity in the life of Christ; we need to go on, to be brought on, to maturity by forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, pursuing toward the fullest enjoyment and gaining of Christ for the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom.
Because of the demand of the divine life that we have received and because of the intensity of our love toward the Lord, we desire to pursue a life that awaits the Lord’s coming; for the Lord’s coming, we need to prepare ourselves, love Him, and grow in Him so that at His appearing we may be mature to be raptured.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The Lord’s coming requires our growth and maturity (Rev. 14:4; James 5:7)
(Please illustrate that just as a farmer cannot harvest his crops until they are ripe, the Lord Jesus will not return until a significant number of His believers are mature. )
T2 The farmer awaiting with longsuffering the precious fruit of the earth (Rev. 14:4; James 5:7)
(Please illustrate as we are awaiting His coming, the Lord as the real Farmer, is awaiting our maturity.)
Day 2
T1 Maturity means the fullness of life (Heb. 6:1; John 1:10)
(Please illustrate after regeneration, we need to grow and mature unto perfection in the divine life.)
T2 Transformation is the change of our natural life (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; John 1:10)
(Please illustrate that maturity is a matter of having the divine life imparted to us again and again until we have the fullness of life.)
Day 3
T1 Maturity is a matter of the enlargement of capacity (Heb. 12:10-11)
(Please illustrate maturity in life is the sum total of receiving the discipline of the Holy Spirit with the suffering experiences of Jacob.)
T2 Everything that happens to us is under God’s sovereignty for our transformation and maturity (Gen. 32:25; 45:26)
(Please illustrate what we see from Jacob’s experience.)
Day 4
T1 To be mature is to have the Lord fully formed in us (Gal. 4:19; Rom. 8:29)
(Please illustrate the purpose of God’s salvation is to work in us so that we may have His image.)
T2 The goal of God’s salvation is for believers to grow in life to maturity, and eventually to be exactly like Christ (Eph. 4:13)
(Please illustrate how God accomplishes this kind of salvation.)
Day 5
T1 To pursue the growth and maturity in the life of Christ (Phil. 3:13-15)
(According to Philippians 3:13-15, Please illustrate how the apostle Paul pursued the growth and maturity in the life of Christ.)
T2 the Lord command us to become perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect in life (Matt. 5:48)
(Please illustrate the Father, the divine life, can make us perfect as Him in life.)
Day 6
T1 To dispense Christ to others so that they may be maturing in Christ unto full growth (Col. 1:28-29)
(Please illustrate if we fail to impart Christ to others as we preach the gospel, our gospel preaching will fall short of God’s standard.)
T2 We need to experience more of Christ as the portion of the saints (Col. 1:12, 15)
(Please illustrate if we do not experience living by Christ, we cannot help anyone else to live by Christ.)
