Rapture Ready - Are You Really Ready?*

As we see the signs of the end times around us, including pandemics, turbulent and destructive weather, economic troubles, many Christians are looking for The Rapture, the catching away of the Church to be with Christ. People are saying they are Rapture- ready, but do we really understand what it takes to be ready for The Rapture? Jesus gave this warning regarding what can become stumbling blocks to our "readiness": "And take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare it shall come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." (Lk. 21:34-36). Even the cares of this life can derail our ability to be Rapture-ready. Jesus said for us to pray that we may be accounted worthy. What is required to be worthy? Jesus told us: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Mt. 5:48). "Perfect" as used here means complete, as in having grown into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, as stated in Ephesians 4. In Rev. 3, Jesus gave a warning to the church at Sardis saying, "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God." He urged this church to repent. If they did not repent, He would come upon them like a thief in the night, "and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." As for those in the Sardis church who had not defiled their spiritual garments: "...they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy." (Rev. 3:1-6). Jesus is looking for ferfect works from His church. How do we attain this perfection, the completeness of the fulness of Christ? Jesus had a discussion with a rich young man who had spent most of his life living according to the commandments of God, but still felt that he lacked something necessary that he may have eternal life. He asked Jesus, "...what lack I yet?". Jesus answered him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow (akoloutheo- walk the same road) me." (Mt. 19:16-21). Jesus told this pious, sincere young man, "Walk the same road as Me". What does it mean to follow or walk the same road as Christ? As the LORD described the way that pleased Him through His prophet, Micah wrote, "Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Wlll the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams...shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:6-8). The LORD is saying here, as Jesus said, "Follow Me!", "Walk the same road with Me!". The LORD said the same thing to Abram: "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." (Gen. 17:1). As God separated Abram from his home in Ur of the Chaldees, He separates us also from the world by saying, "Walk with Me, and be perfect". The LORD separated Noah from the violent and corrupt world around him, a world that would experience God's judgment, by saying of Noah, "...Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD...Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Gen. 6:8-9). Of the man, Enoch, who lived before the flood of judgment, and who was the first example in scripture of one who was "raptured", God said, "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Gen. 5:22-24). This message, to be perfect, to walk with God, to follow Him, has been repeated throughout the Word of God. There is a coming judgment. There is a heaven to gain, and a hell to shun. There is a Church in need of making herself ready for The Rapture, and for Christ's return. Pray to be worthy to escape and stand before the Son of Man. Be perfect, and walk the same road with the Lord. To contact: P.O. Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 or Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com. You can also find Dr. Stevenson on Facebook and Twitter.