This is a wonderful day, a day of freedom in the Lord in which we sense that we are being projected into and are just a little closer to the very presence of the Lord.
We think of the Parousia as the appearing, the presence of the Lord, or the second coming of the Lord, yet that really does not convey what it will be. Now we are facing a time of tribulation such as the world has never known. It is also a period within the Parousia, the time of His presence.
You could wonder how you will ever make it, and grunt and groan, “O God, help me hold out to the end,” for you can’t escape from it; it is inevitable. Yet this growing awareness of His presence and His coming joy is a reality. It will be fabulous.
Establish a walk with God now because His presence will become more potent and overwhelming; it will fill us. To the world it will be nothing, but to us it will be everything, and the world won’t understand it. That must be what the Scripture meant: as they come to Zion everlasting joy will be upon their heads (Isaiah 51:11). The people will be crowned with a sense of His very presence and His love.
That is what the Parousia means—the Lord will be with us; that closeness will grow. I feel it more every day. It will begin to live for us for we are in the beginning of it. We must get our mind off the other things and just do them incidentally, but set your mind on the Lord. Set your affections, set your mind on things above where Christ is (Colossians 3:2).
THIS IS THE WAY, WALK YE IN IT
There is a day that the Lord sets before thee that your heart should be wholly set on the Kingdom. Can this day come upon the people of the Lord and their hearts be indifferent to it? Can the Lord bring forth such wondrous things in thy day, in thy times, and still you pursue after the things that are passing away? Turn away from the cares of life. Turn away from the things that would beset you: the discouragements, the problems within, or the problems without. Let your heart be set on the Lord. Even the most lowly, oppressed soul can say that this day, which the Lord has brought for thee to walk in, is far more important than self.
This day is greater than all thy problems. Therefore, put aside anxiety and walk with the Lord with all joyfulness. Rejoice that He has made thee a people of destiny and that He has permitted thine eyes to see what prophets have desired to see and have not.
Rejoice that He has caused thy ears to hear words that prophets have desired to hear and have not been able to hear. Rejoice that the Lord has brought forth a wonderful thing in thy time: a thing that many generations before thee, and none thine inferiors, have desired to walk in and have not been able.
What favor hath the Lord bestowed upon thee, that ye in thine unworthiness should be counted the favorites of the Lord in this generation—a blessed people, a peculiar people that shall bring forth glory and praise unto His name. Is it not a time to rejoice? Is it not a time to be glad? Is it not a time to be thankful?
Be thankful that thine eyes have been opened to see, thine ears have been opened to hear and that the Lord has made this real to thine heart. The world is blind, and the great deceiver goeth out to deceive the nations, yet the Lord has caused thee to walk in His light. He has set before thee a certain path, and He hath constantly given thee His Spirit to remind thee, “This is the way, walk ye in it. This is the way, walk ye in it.”
Therefore, rejoice in your heart and be glad, for it is a day that the Lord has brought forth and thou has been proclaimed His people, an instrument in His hand to do all His work’s in the earth. Rejoice that such marvelous things the Lord hath proclaimed for such weak instruments to bring forth. Amen.