Discern the time
Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? Luke 12: 56
This is exciting stuff! We are seeing the ending of days here on earth. Oh, I know we have heard this for years, so many predictions and guesses of when Jesus will return to get His people. However, this time it’s different. It’s not about someone calculating a date or writing a book about “now is the time”. It’s about discerning the time. I’m not suggesting that we try to figure out what day Jesus will come, but I am saying that He wants us to be watching and ready. Not with fear and anxiety, but with anticipation and a sense of urgency to finish our assignment.
Jesus told the “religious” people of His day that they were hypocrites because they were not paying attention to the prophecies in scripture about His birth and ministry. In today’s verse, He said that they knew how to look at the outward circumstances to predict the weather, but they were unable to recognize their Messiah by what the scriptures had said about Him and what had been fulfilled up to that point. All of the Jewish people knew that the Messiah was coming, so the signs surrounding His birth and ministry should have been more obvious to them. However, they had gotten distracted by putting on the appearance of being “spiritual” instead of actually paying attention to the important things of God.
With all the crisis and turmoil in the world today, it is clear that the predictions Jesus made are happening all around us. The temptation is out there to take on the fear that the world is experiencing, but that’s not our part of the plan. We are living in the most prophetic times of all history and God chose each one of us to be on the earth for such a time as this to fulfill our assignment and ministry. With all these distresses come the opportunity to reach those who are afraid and do not know what is going on. The outside world can only see that the world is falling apart. No matter how hard people try to fix things, clearly, there is only one solution! We can share the words of Jesus that these things would happen and that He has made provision for all through His Salvation!
Jesus wants us to know that the time is getting close. Just how close? It just doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we are ready, watching, and helping with the harvest of people that are coming into the kingdom in these last days. People are pouring in all over the world, and it is our job to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers, and to be laborers to help bring in this great end time crop of souls. “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:37-38
Today I want to encourage you to get excited, get motivated, and get ready because your redemption and salvation is drawing near! We may not know the day He will come, but we do know that the day is closer than it ever has been before! Jesus is coming soon! Begin to pray for His return and also ask Him what you can do to reach those within your sphere of influence. Let’s make sure we have completed, down to the last detail, every task He has assigned us to do! Then when we finally stand in His presence, He will say, “Well done!”
Today’s scripture reading: Luke 12:49-56
49 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!
51 Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.
52 For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three.
53 Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
54 Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is.
55 And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is.
56 Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?
The Daily Dose 