LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The "When" of the Lord's Return
Before the return of the Lord certain things should be happen on earth.
Rubén Chacón
The time preset by the Father
Whenever we think about when the Lord Jesus Christ will return, we remit ourselves to the fact that the Father has determined a chronological time for His Son's return. When that time is completed - we think- Christ will return. For that reason when mankind approached the year 1,000 there was a great deal of agitation and expectation in the world, caused by the fear that that was the date determined by the Father for Christ's return.
The same thing happened when we approached the year 2,000, when there was even more expectation. In Chile, the phrase: "You may reach one thousand, but not two thousand" was very popular. Now we are in the fourth year of the third millennium and we ask ourselves: When will our Lord Jesus Christ return? 2,010? 2,100? 2,500? Maybe the year 3,000?
That time corresponds to the fulfillment of His purpose on the earth
In order to reach, at least a minimal understanding with regard to this, we first need to know this: although it is true that the Father has put the cronos and the kairos under His power, it is nevertheless also true that those times necessarily have to correspond to certain occurrences to be fulfilled here on the earth. In other words, the Lord's coming is not only a question of fulfilling the time determined by the Father in order for Christ to return, but rather the time preset by the Father is the necessary time in order to achieve certain things here on the earth through the Holy Spirit of God.
Truly, the time which the Father put under His power for the second coming of Christ has to do with the time that it will take to reach His purpose. The exact moment (the day and the hour) of the Lord's return will be, at the same time, the exact moment in which the Father will achieve His purpose. If this was not so we can be sure that the Lord Jesus Christ would already have returned.
The purpose of God
But what is that purpose which, even up to today is trying to be reached? Jesus Christ Himself clearly told us during the time of His first coming: "I will build my church". The Father's principal and fundamental purpose in this dispensation is the edification of a church that expresses His Son's fullness on the earth. It is not just to have a church, but rather to have one that is the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ in a practical way. For this reason Jesus Christ came to the earth and, for this same reason waits for His second coming. Brothers and sisters! The Father wants to send his Son today! Brothers and sisters! Jesus Christ intensely desires to return today! Brothers and sisters! All of heaven is expectant, waiting for the edification of the church to be completed! And not only heaven, but the whole creation waits, groaning until that church may finally appear and be manifested; that which is Christ's beloved, that which is God's fullness on the earth.
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, the main sign which will indicate the imminent return of the Lord in this dispensation is not Israel nor the Middle East, nor Europe with its single currency, nor the earthquakes and plagues that afflict the world. The sign par excellence is the church. When the fullness of Jesus Christ has entered into the church's experience and life by the work of the glorious Holy Spirit, then, most certainly, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ will return.
His return was never closer than in the first century
So, if we are interpreting the Scriptures correctly, if you would allow me to speak "a heresy", we could say that our Lord's return was never closer than during the first century. Why? Because in the whole history, the church has never been closer to the fullness of Jesus Christ than in the first century. The world at that time was mostly evangelized (if not totally), the church was truly the church, with all its ministries and gifts. The amounts and norms of unity, sanctity, power and multiplication are our paradigm even up to today. We could almost say that the only thing which it lacked was precisely the return of their Lord…
Close, but not quite
I said we could 'almost say', because for some reason, which we cannot fully understand, the apostles themselves warned that "the mystery of lawlessness" would enter into the church and would begin to decay. So, brothers and sisters, the most glorious church in all of history up to today began to decay at the end of the first century. And from the century IV its ruin was complete, to such an extent that, if it weren't for those groups and movements that God had reserved outside of the official church (Priscillians, Valdenses, united Brethren, Moravians, etc.) God's testimony on the earth would practically have disappeared. Unfortunately, the persecution, the sword and the burning of books ensured that very little of the testimony of these groups reached us.
God begins to restore the church
Nevertheless, from 1517 God began to restore all that forgotten glory in a permanent way: justification by faith, sanctification, evangelism, missions, divine healing and, at the beginning of the last century, the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
The Revival on Azusa Street
The restoration being as glorious as it was, and has been since beginning in the revival of 1906 (there are approximately 100,000,000 Pentecostals today), there is, nevertheless, a bitter flavor to all that happened. I have here in my hands a report written in 1991 by the "Committee of spiritual life", from the Assemblies of God in the United States, where they highlighted five main areas that characterized the revival on Azusa street. This movement was marked by: 1) A great hunger for God; 2) A love toward others; 3) A total devotion to the Word of God; 4) A dedication to evangelism and missions; and 5) A devotion to restore the New Testament church. Regarding this last point the report says: "The pioneers of Azusa were not interested in tuning and repairing the existent machinery of ecclesiastical traditions. They wanted to do just one thing: establish the church described in the New Testament again. For that reason, they are part of what is called a Movement of Restoration".
This point is clearly confirmed by one of the main individual's involved and an eye witness of the revival: Frank Bartleman. In those days he said: "Los Angeles seems to be the place, and this the moment, in the mind of God, for the restoration of the church to its original state, favor, and power. The fulfillment of time seems to have come for the church to be totally restored". And I think, brothers and sisters, that when Frank Bartleman said this, Heaven was filled with expectation. Jesus Christ's fullness would finally enter into the church. Finally, after a 1900 year wait, the glorious church would appear, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish. Brothers and sisters! I am sure that that was God's desire.
But once again, God would have to continue waiting
But once again, God would have to continue waiting. The revival lasted three and a half years and then it began to decay. Despite gaining the blessed experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit for the church all around the world, the full restoration of the Church didn't happen. In a newsrole article "The flow of the Spirit" published in September of 1996, on the 90th anniversary of the Azusa revival, its conclusion states that: "Obviously, the revival was not a complete restoration of the Church, nor the 'late rain' promised before Christ's return".
Brothers and sisters! God was hoping that His Church would finally appear! His church, holy, glorious, apostolic! In contrast, what happened after 1909, according to Bartleman was the following: "It is true that in the beginning we tried as far as possible to take out of the platforms and the pulpits. We didn't have a conscious necessity for them. We totally swept away the priestly class and the ecclesiastical abuse. We were all 'brothers and sisters '. All free to obey God. He could speak through whoever He wanted. Hi Spirit had been poured out 'on all flesh', even on his servants and handmaidens (acts 2). We only honored those men for the 'gifts ' and ministries that God had given them. As the movement fell into apostasy, they began to built higher platforms, to dress themselves with longer robes, there were organized choirs, and they began to form string bands to give 'rhythm ' to the people. The kings returned to their thrones once again, and their sovereignty was restored. We were no longer 'brothers and sisters '. So the divisions multiplied".
Do you see? Instead of the church having appeared, they formed new denominations. Thank God for all the glory recovered in that revival! But was that the full will of God? That the traditional churches gave way to new denominations? No, a thousand times no! What the Father wanted, what the Son wanted and what the Holy Spirit wanted, was that the churches open the way to the glorious church so that, finally, Jesus Christ would be sent back for the second time to the earth. This has been our tragedy: In all the past revivals we have not understood what God has been looking to do. In all the revivals something has been missing.
And, now, listen to me dear brothers, if we, the church of the fourth year of the third millennium don't understand this, our revival will also happen in a similar fashion, and Jesus Christ won't be able to return and God will have to continue waiting. But if today we take the challenge and we are willing to let the Holy Spirit work deeply in us and we allow Him to demolish our ministries, our divisions, our denominations and our carnalities so that he can lift up the glorious Church of Jesus Christ, then, we will see Jesus Christ's return to the earth in our days.
God will reach His aim: A prophecy from 1960
Brothers and sisters! This is already prophesied. God will finally reach His aim. What is lacking is to know whether we will be the generation that will see it, or if God will have to wait for the next generation. The evangelist Tommy Hicks in 1960 had a revelation of the final events. In the vision, he was floating in space looking upon planet earth, when he saw that throughout the planet lay a giant who fought to live. It was so immense that its feet seemed to touch the north pole and its head the south pole, its arms stretched out from sea to sea. In one moment of the vision, by God's intervention, the evangelist Hicks saw that that giant became an army of millions of people who rose up and covered the whole earth, marching forwards with the anointing of the Lord. He described these people as: "These men and women were of every social stratum. Hierarchies didn't mean anything.
When one seemed to stumble and fall, another came to lift him up. There was no attitude of "I" great, "you" small. Each mountain was thrown down and each valley was lifted up. They seemed to have one thing in common, a divine love flowed in front of these people while they walked together, worked together and lived together. It was the topic of their lives". Finally, he observed the earth again and saw that the tombs opened up all over the world and the saints from all time began to get up. They came from all directions and began to form another gigantic body. The immense body began form a powerful giant, but this time it was different. It was dressed in beautiful and magnificent white. Its dress was without stain or wrinkle. Then he observed how, slowly from the heavens, the Lord Jesus became that giant's head. Soon after he heard a thunderous voice that said: "This is my dear bride who I have waited for... This is who I have loved from the beginning of time". He then saw it begin to get up very slowly from the earth, and he woke up from the vision.
Then, brother Hicks finished by shouting: "Oh, people, listen to me! We will be dressed with power and the anointing of God! We won't have to give sermons. We won't depend on man, nor will we be denominational groups, but rather we will have the power of the living God! We won't fear any man but rather we will go forwards in the name of the Lord of multitudes". Amen!
A prophecy from the 70's
In the same way, brother David Wilkerson, in the 70's, wrote a book call "The vision". In this book, he prophesies the appearance of a super apostate world church. But in parallel form the following will also arise: "I see a great and supernatural union of Jesus Christ's true followers, gathered by the Holy Spirit and a common trust in Christ and His Word. This supernatural church of biblical believers will end up being a kind of secret co-fraternity and will include Catholics and Protestants from all denominations. They themselves will congregate young and old, blacks and whites, and people from all the nations". In another part, he adds: "At the same time in which the super visible church acquires political power, this invisible supernatural church will grow tremendously in spiritual power.
This power will come from persecution. The madness of the persecution that will come upon this earth will make these Christians unite more closely among themselves and to come closer to Jesus Christ. They will give less importance to denominational concepts and more emphasis to Jesus Christ's return". "Many won't believe me -says Wilkerson-but I see the day coming in which many Protestants as well as Catholics will have to 'come forth out of her'. These new Christians won't call themselves Protestants or Catholics, but simply Christians ''... Their co- fraternity won't be based on the experience of speaking in tongues, but rather it will be centered on the Father and on His Son Jesus Christ".