When I posted Did God Signal a SEPTEMBER 23 Rapture? I thought it might be my last blog article. Yet this morning as I finally spent some time in worship before Him, He poured His unending love over me, and I wept at His amazing faithfulness. As I basked in His wonderfulness with my eyes closed, I saw fingers drumming impatiently. The first thing that came to my mind was how those of us who are actively watching and longing for the Lord to gather us are growing ever so impatient.
“But You, Lord, as the faithful Husbandman are patient,” I said, which led me to look up that particular verse.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. - James 5:7 KJV
“Be patient.” We are, of course, to emulate Christ and also be patient, but this is something I struggle with and I’m guessing there are many others who share that challenge with me. So this rhema, dear Brethren, is a difficult one to swallow.
But how our Lord knows us, right?!
Many of Those in Christ have an expectancy for certain Rapture “watch dates” coming up more quickly than I realized such as the 9th of Av also known as Tisha b'Av (August 6-7, 2022) as well as September 23, 2022, the 5th Anniversary of the Revelation 12 Sign of the Woman. So is our Lord and Bridegroom telling us to give up our watch? I think not.
What I believe He is encouraging us to do is what I learned in my youth when I ran hurdles in track--that you continue to give it your all past the finish line. You did not slow down as you approached the finish line—you PUSHED as hard as you could until you passed it!
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, - Hebrews 12:1 KJV
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; - Hebrews 12:11-12 KJV
Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. - Philippians 2:16 KJV
Chapter 5 of the Book of James is exactly what we needed to hear now for it is where we are at today—the wicked prosper and the righteous are afflicted as our very freedom and food supply are attacked!
Go to now, [ye] rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon [you].
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. - James 5:1, 3, 4 KJV
It is immediately following this chastisement to the elite of the world that our Lord then turns to us in verse 7 to be patient and look to the husbandman.
Commentator Matthew Henry expounds on this exhortation--
(1.) "Look to the example of the husbandman: He waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
. . . Consider him that waits for a crop of corn; and will not you wait for a crown of glory? If you should be called to wait a little longer than the husbandman does, is it not something proportionably greater and infinitely more worth your waiting for?
(2.) But, "Think how short your waiting time may possibly be: The coming of the Lord draweth nigh, v. 8; behold, the Judge standeth before the door, v. 9. Do not be impatient, do not quarrel with one another; the great Judge, who will set all to rights, who will punish the wicked and reward the good, is at hand: he should be conceived by you to stand as near as one who is just knocking at the door."
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. - Revelation 3:10 KJV
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven. . . Revelation 4:1 KJV
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. - James 5:8 KJV
