1: Preparing Our Heart | Biblestudy4Starters Chapters

End Times: Great Tribulation

Chapter 1. Preparing Our Heart

Preparing Our Heart

Abstract

Preparing Our Heart

It’s all by God's grace and mercy that we are saved and what an awesome and intimate love God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost have for each one of us.
The most important cry of our heart should be to have an intimate relationship with, walking in obedience to and in love with our Lord Jesus, as well as our fellow humans.
Our personal relationship with Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit needs to be nurtured every day and every moment of our lives.
In this relationship a clean and humble heart is crucial knowing that without the Holy Spirit's fruit of the spirit and His character in us we are nothing.
Miracles are nice and Biblical knowledge is wonderful, but only with Agape unselfish love, holiness and obedience will we see King Jesus.
Finally, it is wonderful to start well, but much better to also end well and keep our faith.

Introduction

In case you are not yet a born-again Christian or not sure of your eternal salvation, or if you are a newly born-again Christian, please first study Chapters 1-4 of the Bible Study for Starters.
Whether you are a born-again Christian or a mature follower of Christ, it is always good to freshen up and strengthen your foundation in the Word of God.
Now, the reason why we first delve into the topic of "Preparing Our Heart" for eternity before going into an in-depth study of the "End Times-Great Tribulation" themes is that the most important cry of our heart should be to have an intimate relationship with, walking in obedience to and in love with our Lord Jesus, as well as our fellow humans.
As without this eternal salvation and our personal fellowship with Christ Jesus as our sole Mediator, we would still be lost in eternity with all the knowledge -piled up to Mount Everest- that we could have.
Moreover, let us do like the Berean Christians mentioned in Acts 17:11, New King James Version, which we will use throughout this study, except when another translation is referred to. There we read, "These were more fair-minded [KJV: noble] than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." We will together visit numerous Scripture quotations and come to some vital conclusions on various aspects of the end times. Let us keep an open mind while asking Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our understanding [Ephesians 1:17-19]. In case you disagree with our insights and conclusions, no problem ... God is good all the time. May our Holy Spirit keep guiding each one of us into the whole truth.
Understanding the context of the Scriptures, as well as following the advice given in Isaiah 28:9-10, “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”, will help us to comprehend the message that God wants to bring across to His children.
What our heavenly Father certainly does not want is that His children fight about Scripture. Opinions should always be shared in love and humility. There seems to be some controversy about the Rapture timing, which will be discussed in another Chapter, but don't let that take your eyes off of our Lord Jesus Christ and most importantly let us be faithful to Him all the days of our lives. Whether there is a Rapture before the Tribulation (called Pre-Tribulation), a Mid-Tribulation, a Post-Tribulation or a Pre-Wrath Rapture, let us be ready every moment of the day for whatever comes our way, as God could call us at any moment to eternity!
Finally, the reason why we have written this in-depth study is because for some time now we have felt an urge to prepare -as many as possible of- our brethren in Christ for the tough times ahead.

Why this first Chapter?

You may have all the Biblical knowledge of (End Times) prophecy there is to attain, become a walking Encyclopedia, have memorized all Bible verses, maybe even become like king Solomon who had vast world and Old Testament knowledge;
But if our heart is not right with our Lord Jesus all would be to no avail and would have no value at all.
Yeshua Hamashiach, our Messiah Jesus, longs and loves to have an intimate and personal relationship with us, and so do we.
Here we go ... know that each Bible verse has a purpose.

Matthew 24:1-4

“Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be?

And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”

Jewish Temples

“During the First Temple period (1200-586 BC), the First Temple was built in 1000 BC by King Solomon after King David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital. The Temple was destroyed in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, when he conquered Jerusalem.
During the Roman period, in AD 70, the Second Temple was destroyed, along with Jerusalem, by Titus’ army.” Quotation taken from: MoonTravelGuides.com
Jesus' prophecy of the destruction of the Second Temple and His crucifixion was about 40 years before the actual destruction of the Temple and the city.
Nowadays, preparations for building the Third Temple are well underway.

First and Foremost: Do Not Be Deceived

The first thing Jesus answers His disciples/us about the end times is that they/we must be watchful and discern what is truth and what are the deceptions of the enemy, as he comes as "an angel of light." [2 Corinthians 11:14]

Revelation 12:9

“So, the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Let us daily ask our Heavenly Father to allow Holy Spirit to grant us His spirit of discernment to uncover the enemy’s deceptions, and above all to discern Holy Spirit’s voice.
Jesus warned us to be watchful and to be alert as not to be deceived by any false messiah, false prophet or any false world system.

Jesus' Second Coming and End of the Age

After Jesus' warning Christ gives us a list of signs and calamities in Matthew 24 that will occur with increasing frequency in the End Times.
The sign of Jesus' return that is when Jesus will appear again, as well as the main signs of the end of our era will also be studied in following Chapters.
But, we first focus on our heart.

Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

If you have found The Way, or maybe better formulated, if The Way has found you, in other words your spiritual eyes have been opened and you have come to faith and made your definite decision to follow Christ Jesus, be thankful.
O yes, we are grateful that our Lord Jesus called us, He who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life, what an amazing grace. However, we have to -by His grace- be faithful and persevere in obedience and holiness till the end, as to not hear Jesus say, "I never knew you ..." To the contrary, may we bring a smile on Jesus' face and hear Him say, "‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’" [Matthew 25:21]
God's way is not easy, and we certainly need faithfulness and perseverance, and the help of the Holy Spirit, but we can be "confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ". [Philippians 1:6]
May many more come to the awesome faith in our Lord Jesus!

Proverbs 4:20-23

“My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

God's Word brings light of guidance and direction, it generates real life, as well as healing and health in abundance!
Jesus says "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life." [John 6:63]
Let us always according to God's Word, think positive, speak positive, act positive and expect our miracle. Certainly the greatest miracle is having Jesus' Presence in our lives.
Speaking God's life-giving Word and sharing God's love brings joy and restoration to those that are in need.
May we guard our heart above all else, as it really determines the course of our lives [NLT]; hence, where our heart is, there we also will be, as Scripture states, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." [Matthew 6:21] Remember the beautiful songs, "I just want to be where You are" and “Jesus, Your Presence is heaven to me”.

Psalm 19:12-14, AMP

“Who can understand his errors or omissions? Acquit me of hidden (unconscious, unintended) faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous (deliberate, willful) sins; let them not rule and have control over me. Then I will be blameless (complete), and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing in Your sight, o Lord, my [firm, immovable] rock and my Redeemer.”

We earnestly desire to continuously walk in the light and to be sensitive of things that might disappoint God's Holy Spirit, such as our sinful thoughts, our words that we utter hurting another person, our sinful acts or omissions.
We break and stop immediately with any known sin.
May our Holy Spirit reveal any unknown sin so that we can confess it and break away from it. In some cases it might be a sin, a trespass, an iniquity and/or being in tough with the occult that we committed years ago. Also, if you have not forgiven someone that had hurt you, ask the Spirit of God to help you to forgive, as this grudge will only hurt you more than the other person mentally, emotionally and physically, and moreover if we keep hatred in our heart, God cannot forgive us. Once we realize how much God has forgiven us and that He has saved us from eternal hell fire, it will be much easier to forgive the other, even our so-called enemies.
May we be conscious every moment of the day that we walk and live in God's Holy Presence.

Psalm 51:10-12,17, AMP

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right and steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit ... My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin [and humbly, AMPC], thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.”

Gifts and beautiful words do not define a person, as out of the heart arise evil thoughts resulting in evil actions.
We therefore really need a pure and humble heart knowing that without the Holy Spirit's fruit in us -in other words His character and personality which automatically leads to good deeds- we are nothing.
A humble heart that is what God seeks in us, as we will then easily submit and obey Almighty God. "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." [Matthew 5:21-30; 15:19; Mark 7:21; James 4:7]
Thank God that He desires to intervene and create a new heart in us and put His law and love in our heart. [Romans 5:5]
Finally, we need God to daily speak to us through His Word, the Scriptures, during our silent time with our Lord Jesus; and we also talk to Him and intercede for others. This intimacy is crucial, as we water our 'roots' to develop a strong foundation. [Matthew 13:6-8,21; Hebrews 8:10]

Romans 12:1-2

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

1 Corinthians 6:19

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"

Proverbs 23:7a

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Our physical body is the Lord's who created it and we need to be cautious not to put or accept anything into it that could damage our body, or even our DNA; let us take good care of it to ensure we can be healthy to serve our Lord and Savior.
More and more, worldly music has become abominable and full of hatred towards God, even openly worshiping the devil. The world encourages pornography, free sex, cursing of Jesus, and turns things around, calling good bad, and evil good. Let us be careful to what we open our mind to and absorb.
Our mind is the primary battle field. Therefore pay attention to transform our mind by God's two-edged sword, which is the Word of God. Without the Word we would easily be defeated, but praise be to God, "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." [Romans 8:37-39]

Hebrews 10:19-22

“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Hebrews 4:16

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Zechariah 1:3

“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts”

We know that it is by the precious and holy Blood of Jesus that was shed in our place, and by God's grace and His granted faith that we are saved, not by works or any good deed. We are forgiven of all our sins past, present and future.
We have come to personally know the Son of the Living God, the Only Mediator according to God's Word. [1 Timothy 2:5]
All this is about being in His Presence and having that intimate relationship with Christ Jesus!
We realize that we have humbly access to the Ancient of Days, the Most-High God [Daniel 7:9, 22], our walk is with a holy fear and awe of our holy God, which entails hating evil, and also is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. [Proverbs 1:7, 8:13; 9:10]
Remember that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, each have a special, warm and awesome love for you, yes, for each one of us.

Comments on Zechariah 1:3 taken from the 1599 Geneva Bible
"Let your fruits declare that you are God’s people, and that he hath wrought in you by his Spirit, and mortified you: for else man hath no power to return to God, but God must convert him, as Jer. 31:18; Lam. 5:21; Isa. 21:8 and 31:6 and 45:21."

John 6:44, AMP
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him [giving him the desire to come to Me]; and I will raise him up [from the dead] on the last day.”

John 16:26-27

"In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

Thank God our heavenly Father loves us just as much as Christ Jesus loves us, and gently encourages us to come to Jesus.
The Father accepts us because of our love for His Son and our faith in Jesus, what a precious and amazing love of Abba, our heavenly Father, He desires to have us continuously close to Him in His Presence. Please don't disappoint Him.

Galatians 2:19-21

“For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

With Christ we have been crucified and our old sinful self has been buried through our water baptism, and we have arisen to a new life in Christ Jesus. [Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12]
We now live by faith In Jesus, and His righteousness has been granted to us [Jeremiah 23:6]. O how we need Yeshua, He indeed is our everything, as Paul in Philippians 1:21 declared, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

Galatians 5:22-25

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Hebrews 12:14, AMPC

“Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.”

We can do nothing without the Spirit of God who dwells in us.
Therefore, precious heavenly Father please allow Holy Spirit to always fill us with His fruit, yes, His character and personality, each moment of the day. Yes, fill us till overflowing with Your Agape, unselfish love, with Your holiness and sanctify our mind, our thoughts, our eyes, our ears, our tongue.

Matthew 22:37-40

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Romans 5:5

“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

1 John 4:17-19

“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us."

We worship in spirit and in truth, and love God with our spirit, soul and body, as God first loved us and gave all. Therefore we also love others and pray for their salvation that they may also come to know our Savior Jesus.
It is through this Agape love of the Holy Spirit in us that we can love and forgive one another. Just like Jesus we pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” [Luke 23:34]
Apart from God's Agape "perfect love", we also experience His "perfect peace" when our heart and mind is locked on Jesus (Strong's H7965, in Hebrew: "šālôm šālôm", which entails completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, safety, health, prosperity, contentment), "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." [Isaiah 26:3]
Miracles are wonderful to experience, Biblical knowledge and discernment of the end times is of utmost importance, but only with Agape, God's selfless love, holiness and obedience will we ultimately see our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah, Yeshua Hamashiach! [John 15:12-17; Hebrews 12:14]

Final Thoughts

Remember, our personal relationship with Christ Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit is crucial and needs to be nurtured every day and every moment of our lives, as we walk in holiness.
In 2 Chronicles 15 we read how Aza, king in the land of Judah and Benjamin, started well with a perfect heart, removing his mother from being queen and destroying her idol, but in 2 Chronicles 16:12 we read to our disappointment that he was struck by a disease that steadily grew worse, "yet in his disease he sought not the LORD, ..." O what a pity. It is wonderful to start doing the proper things in obeying God, but it is far better to also end well in obedience and to keep our faith, as Paul in full assurance declared, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." [2 Timothy 4:7]

by Dennis V. Dare

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