As we live the Christian life in the present environment today, we need to devote ourselves to and persevere in prayer while discerning “the signs of the times”, realizing that God uses war, famine, death, and even Satan to accomplish His economy and we can cooperate through prayer.
We need to see the signs of the times; in Matt. 24:3-14 we see that nation is rising up against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there are famine, earthquakes, and all kinds of things happening.
These days we realize that the earthquakes are happening more frequently and are bigger and bigger; also, there are wars, famine, and diseases spreading – the Lord says that all these are the beginning of the birth pangs.
What are these birth pangs, what do they refer to, and what do they achieve?
The entire world situation is for the producing of the new man; from the day of the Lord’s resurrection until He returns there is a period of long delivery of the new man through the preaching of the gospel and the suffering of persecutions.
As the believers preach the gospel and persecutions are taking place, there are the birth pangs, the travail involved in the producing of the new man.
God’s economy is to produce the new man, a corporate entity in which Christ is every one and in everyone, and He is everything.
When we enjoy Christ as the universal replacement, He becomes everything to us, and He replaces us with Himself.
Birth pangs refer to all the tribulations in the New Testament age, including wars, famines, earthquakes, afflictions, and persecutions.
We can say that, in one sense, the new man was born at the time of the Lord’s resurrection (John 16:20-22); however, in another sense, the universal new man revealed in Eph. 2 and 4 has not been fully delivered.
When the Lord comes back, there will be a rapture, which will be the final delivery of the new man; we believe that we live at the end of this age, and the new man is being delivered!
So we need to discern the signs of the times; the Lord returns soon, so we need to take heed to ourselves, less perhaps our hearts are weighed down with debauchery and drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day come upon us suddenly as a snare (Luke 21:34).
The day of the Lord’s return will come as a snare upon those living on the face of the earth, but we need to be watchful at every time, beseeching that we will prevail all these things which are about to happen, and stand before the Son of Man.
In Dan. 5:23 we see a picture of the signs of the times, when Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon, dishonoured God to the uttermost when he asked for the vessels from the temple to be brought in and they drank from them and defiled them, and a hand wrote on the wall a writing, and that night he was slain and the kingdom was taken by Darius the Mede.
The whole human history turned from Babylon to Medo-Persia, because of a king who didn’t honor God the way He wanted to be honored.
Oh, may we live a God-honoring life by enjoying Him and living Him!
May we see the signs of the times in the present environment of the world, and may we devote ourselves to and persevere in prayer to cooperate with the Lord’s ultimate move today.
Gaining God to the Fullest extent and Realizing that God uses all things, even Satan, to Carry out His Economy
May we pray with the full realization of God’s view of human history by seeing that the gospel is speeded up and even maximized by war, famine, and death, and by seeing that we need to gain God to the fullest extent (Phil. 3:8, 12-14).
We may think we need to pray for the coronavirus to be stopped, but if we have a full realization of God’s view of human history, we will realize that the gospel is speeded up by it.
Even though we don’t know how long the Lord will use this to accomplish His purpose or what His purpose is in having us in this kind of environment, we know that we need to pray that we may gain Christ in this environment!
God has a purpose, but He also has an enemy; after Satan rebelled against God, he was condemned and even sentenced by God, and Christ crushed his head by His death on the cross.
However, in His wisdom and sovereignty, God has not yet fully executed His judgement on Satan – He has still given him a certain limited time to do something to meet some negative need in the fulfillment of God’s economy (see Job 1:6-8; 2:1-6; and John 12:31).
We see this in particular in the book of Job, where God, through Satan as an “ugly tool”, was dealing with Job by tearing him down to reconstitute him and make him a God-man, not just a good man.
God used Satan as an ugly tool to tear down Job by stripping him and consuming him, so that God may tear Job down and gain him for His purpose.
Job was a good man, but God doesn’t need a good man – He wants a God-man, one who is stripped and consumed so that God may work Himself into him; for this, God uses all things, even Satan as an “ugly tool” so that He may gain what He is after.
If we would have been there with Job, we would have probably prayed for him to be healed…but God didn’t want that – He wanted him to pass through some things so that his natural man would be torn down and he would get out of the realm of ethical and moral perfection and enter into the realm of God to gain God!
Job’s sufferings were not God’s judgement but rather God’s stripping him down, His consuming and tearing him down, so that God may have a base and a way to rebuild Job with Himself and make him a God-man! Wow!
Many times God uses Satan as an ugly tool to strip down, consume, and thus tear down our natural man so that God would dispense Himself into us as those who love Him and seek after Him (Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9; Phil. 3:3).
God’s purpose in dealing with us as His holy people is that we would be emptied of everything and receive only God as our gain.
The desire of God’s heart is that we as His people would gain Him in full as life, as the life supply, and as everything to our being, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem.
So He uses all things for good to those who love Him (Rom. 8:28-29); the good is that He would strip us, consume us, and tear us down so that He may rebuild us with Himself and make us God-men, new man in God’s creation.
Even in the environment we are in today, right now, God is using this – including the wars, the famine, the coronavirus, and even Satan, for Him accomplish His purpose.
So what we need to do is see the signs of the times, see the purpose of God, and give ourselves to God to not only hear about Him or know about Him but to see Him and gain Him!
For us to see God is to gain God; to see God is to be transformed into the glorious image of Christ, the God-man, that we may express God in His life and represent im with His authority (2 Cor. 3:18).
Oh, may we see God, gain God, abhor ourselves, and be transformed into the glorious image of Christ! The more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor ourselves and the more we deny ourselves (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23; 14:26).
May we realize that God uses Satan as an “ugly tool” to accomplish some negative aspects of His purpose, and may we give ourselves to the Lord to know Him, love Him, see Him, and be transformed into His image!
Lord Jesus, cause us to realize God’s view of human history by seeing that the gospel is speeded up and even maximized by war, famine, and death! Amen, may we see that we need to gain God to the fullest extent to accomplish the goal of His divine economy! We give ourselves to You, Lord, so that You may gain in us what You are after. We believe that all things work together for good to us, for we love God, we want to see God, and we are in the process of being transformed into the glorious image of Christ. May we be remain open to Your inner work of stripping, consuming, and tearing down, and may we allow You to empty us of everything so that we may receive only God as our gain. Amen, Lord, may we fully gain You as life, as the life supply, and as everything to our being for the fulfillment of Your economy!
We Devote ourselves to Prayer and Persevere in Prayer as we see the Signs of the Times, Praying toward Christ and the Church
In Matt. 24:33-34 the Lord tells us that we should know the signs of the times; as we see that the fig tree becomes tender and it puts forth leaves, we know that the end is near. We need to learn from the parable of the fig tree, knowing that when these things take place, the end is near.
The fig tree is a symbol of the nation of Israel; for the fig tree to become tender signifies the coming back to life of the nation of Israel (which took place in 1948), and for it to put forth its leaves is to regain the city of Jerusalem (which they did in 1967).
Another major thing that needs to take place before the Lord returns is the rebuilding of the temple, for in 2 Thes. 2:4 it says that the Antichrist will sit in the temple and set himself forth at god…and as Rev. 13:8, 12 says, all those dwelling on earth will worship Antichrist.
If we look at the world situation today with the glasses of God’s economy on, we will realize that we are in the midst of birth pangs (Matt. 24:8, 32-34), and that the kingdom of God is near (Luke 21:31); we will then pray one with the Spirit, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20). Amen!
The entire Bible concludes with the desire for the Lord’s coming expressed as a prayer (cf. S. S. 8:13-14; 2 Tim. 4:8; Acts 26:16). Christ’s coming back will be His presence (in Greek, parousia) with His people (Matt. 24:3; Acts 26:15-16; Mark 13:8; John 14:21, 23).
We need to enjoy the Lord’s presence today, if we don’t, when He comes back, we may not desire His presence; His presence means everything to us in our life and work.
So what we need to do is to devote ourselves to prayer and persevere in prayer as we see the signs of the times, and our prayer needs to be toward Christ and the church.
Solomon prayed in this way in 1 Kings 8:48, and the principle in the Bible is that God answers our prayers when we direct our prayers not toward people or things or situations but toward Christ and the church.
We need to pray toward the Holy Land (typifying Christ as the portion allotted by God to the believers – Deut. 8:7; Col. 1:12) and toward the holy city (signifying the kingdom of God in Christ – Psa. 48:1-2) and toward the holy temple (signifying the church on earth – Eph. 2:21; 1 Tim. 3:15).
Daniel prayed three times a day by opening his windows toward Jerusalem (Dan. 6:10).
We can be those who can devote ourselves to prayer and persevere in prayer, realizing that it is through His faithful channels of prayer, God carries out His economy with His elect for Christ’s coming (Acts 2:42; 6:4).
God will listen to our prayer when our prayer is to God toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s eternal economy.
We may pray for a certain situation or person, but the aim of our prayer is not that person or situation, but Christ and the church.
We should never aim our prayers at a person or situation; we can pray for a person or situation, but our prayers should be aimed at the interest of God, the all-inclusive Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s eternal economy.
Amen, may we all mean business with the Lord that from this time forward, as we see the signs of the times and realize the need for God’s economy to be accomplished, we would be a prayerful person, a person that is not prayerless but rather praying!
Lord Jesus, keep us in a spirit of prayer. May we realize that we are in the midst of the birth pangs to bring forth the new man, and may we pray one with the Spirit, Come Lord Jesus! Amen, Lord, we treasure Your presence, we love Your economy, and we devote ourselves to and persevere in prayer for the fulfillment of Your economy! Dear Lord Jesus, may we see the signs of the times and open our windows wide toward Christ and the church, and we aim all our prayers at the interests of God, that is, the all-inclusive Christ and the church as the kingdom of God and the holy temple of God! Amen, Lord Jesus!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Truth Lessons — Level One, vol. 1, lsn. 4 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (2020 Memorial Day Conference), week 1, The World Situation as the Indicator of God’s Move on Earth, the Vision of World History from Christ’s Ascension to the End of This Age, the Spreading of the Truths of the Lord’s Recovery as a Preparation for His Coming Back, and Persevering in Prayer, While Discerning “the Signs of the Times”.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Pray with one accord in spirit, / Supplicate relatedly; / Seek the Lord, His mind, His leading, / In the Spirit’s harmony. (Hymns #779)
– Lord, bring forth the one new man; / Grant this vision now to us. / Gain in us Thy heart’s desire— / Thine expression glorious… / Consummate Thy central work / That we’d match Thee perfectly; / Thus, the church would builded be— / One new man eternally. (Song on, Lord, Bring Forth the One New Man)
– ’Tis but a moment now; / Thou, our Lord Bridegroom, Thou / Soon wilt return to claim Thy Bride. / O Hallelujah! / ’Tis this we long for, / And Thou too wilt be satisfied. (Hymns #1314)
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