How to Become Rapture Ready

How to be Rapture Ready ?

I always believe that the next major event to take place in the church is the “Rapture of the Church.” Since the time of the first century disciples, it is always believed to be imminent or it may happen any moment. As it is written in I Thessalonians Chapter 5:2, “ for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. “ As Christians, as true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must keep on watching or that Day may catch us unaware.

What are the ways to be prepared for the coming of the Lord ? Or what are the ways to be “Rapture ready?”

First, we must return to our First Love. We must set our First Love on Christ. In order to be qualified as the Bride of Christ, Christ must be our First Love. In the Book of Revelation, the church in Ephesus is admonished to return to its "First Love." In spite of their hard labor for ministries and sound doctrines, this church still need to repent for falling out of its First Love for Christ. We must rid our hearts from all “idols of the heart.” What are these “idols of the heart?” There are many idols that are trying to occupy our hearts. The world offers many things that will steal away our focus from God. We should be firm on resisting these things that are leading us away from God. We must constantly guard our hearts from the so called “idols of the heart.” Among these are position, money, wealth and material things, a sports or any entertainment, any obsession, a person or any loved one, even our very own self. We must forsake anything that will destroy our relationship with Christ or anything that will take away our focus from Christ.

In order to maintain our First Love for Christ, we should be firm in giving time for our personal devotion or quiet time. We must give time for daily prayer and meditation of God’s Word. This is one thing that we should never miss and we should fight for this. We should not also forsake the assembly of the believers. We must regularly attend a gathering of believers in Christ. Through the fellowship of the brethren, we are encouraged and strengthened. We must also maintain a ministry wherein we can minister the Word of God to others who still need to know Christ more. Maintaining a ministry is very important for a Christian in order to be firm in his/her walk with God. Giving time for both personal and corporate worship is vital for Christian life. We can enjoy personal worship to God through music, by simply listening to heavenly worship songs.

Second, we must work to have the anointing or the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Recall Matthew Chapter 25, the Parable of the Virgins. The “wise virgins” who were able to meet the “Bridegroom” has an extra oil in their lamp. This “oil” refers to the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We must constantly seek to possess this “anointing’ or “infilling’ of the Holy Spirit daily in our life. How can we have this ? Our lives should be first examined by the Word of God. We can use the passage Galatians, chapter 5 verse 19 to 21 to examine our lives. This passage can be used to examine whether we are living in carnality. Or the “ Ten Commandments” written in Exodus chapter 20 can also be used.

After being examined by the Word, we must submit completely to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and confess all the sins He revealed using the Word of God. We must repent from all those sins and surrender our life to God. Then we will experience the “infilling of the Holy Spirit.” It is very important that we are filled by the Holy Spirit daily. We must forsake all carnal ways or anything we hold onto that hinders us from being filled with the Holy Spirit or from receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We must be willing to give up all relationships that are not right to God. We must be willing to forsake all sinful practices, any form of stealing or cheating, lying, slandering, gossip, hatred, bitterness, envy, greed, selfish ambitions, obsessions, materialism, dissension, arrogance, pride, selfishness, vanity, conceit, profanity, jesting, malice, lustful desires, etc.

Only by attaining purity of heart, we can receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

If you have not yet accepted Christ as your personal Savior, it is time to put your faith on His finished work on the cross to receive forgiveness for your sins. It is the only sacrifice acceptable to God. This sacrifice is perfect, sufficient and complete.

Preparing to become “Rapture ready” is the most important preparation we can do during our time, much more important than preparing for our earthly wedding or marriage. It is such a high time to start preparing to become a chaste bride for Christ, before we become caught unaware just like the rest of the world. Don’t be left behind, be Rapture ready !!