The Daily Word of Righteousness

Seven Steps to the Rest of God, #14

Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? (John 14:22)

The answer to this question reveals the personal, individual fulfillment of the last three feasts of the Lord, particularly the feast of Tabernacles:

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

It is clear, from the above verses, that there is a coming of the Lord prior to His coming in the clouds of heaven. It is a personal coming to each believer who, through the Spirit, keeps the commandments of Christ.

Those believers who are living in the flesh also will experience the coming of the Lord. They, without realizing it, are awaiting a fiery judgment that will consume their flesh. Their spirits may or may not be saved in the Day of Christ, depending on the judgment of the Lord.

The return of Christ will take place in stages. The bodily resurrection and ascension of the saints will take place at the last stage.

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21)

Hosea speaks of the coming of Christ that is not His worldwide coming:

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. (Hosea 6:3)

"He shall come to us."

This is not the appearing of Christ in the clouds of heaven. Rather it is a coming of Christ to His saints in the glory and power of the double portion of anointing, the end-time revival, the latter rain in the first month (Joel 2:23).

There shall be a historic second coming of Christ to the earth—the coming that is the foundation of the vision of the Book of Revelation (1:7). It is the coming in which every eye shall see Him. The victorious saints will be raised from the dead, glorified, and gathered into the Presence of Christ who has appeared in the air immediately above the earth. This is the assembling of the army of the Lord, the fateful moment before the furious cavalry charge that marks the beginning of the Battle of Armageddon.

The calling card of the King, the shaking of the firmament and its luminaries, will be presented for all to see. Then He will come.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven [of the heavens] to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)

To be continued.