Preparation for the Coming of the Lord By T. Austin Sparks
The Bible is quite clear and emphatic. The Lord will come at a time definitely known to and fixed by Him, but, on the other hand, the Lords coming will be just as much a spiritual matter as a chronological one.
The fact is that we are to move just as much toward Him as He to us. The break with all here on earth in a heart way, the leaving of this world spiritually, the occupation with the things of Christ, the patient endurance, and the growth of faith are indispensable and inseparable factors in relation to His coming and our going on with Him....a spiritual state of separation, occupation, and expectation is invariably bound up with our being received by Him at His appearing....
....We want to underline the Divine revelation that the Cross separates us from this world, from this "flesh," from Satans authority, and joins us to Christ, brings us on to heavenly ground, and constitutes us a spiritual people, and it is for such that the Lord will come....
....The Lord will not just return as a matter of course. He will come to and for something. It is a love matter. He will come for His bride, but it has to be mutual. "Them that have loved His appearing" (2 Tim. 4:8). So the Cross is as much a part of the consummation as it is of the initiation, and by its operation in the life as a principle and power, the Lord will come for "a people prepared." This preparation relates to heart condition and not to mental apprehension of prophetic truth.
From The Centrality and the Universality of the Cross
_________________ CHRISTIAN
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