Let us look away from our present time and circumstances and raise our eyes just a little. ahead, into the future. What do we see ? What we see of the near future will help us to live properly today. What we see will influence how we live and how we behave today. And so what do we see ahead? .We see prophecies of the end time being fulfilled word for word. We see events of the end-time reaching critical stages such that , believers who are not prepared would begin to deny Christ as Jesus had Said. We see the love of many waxing cold because of increasing lawlessness in the land (Matthew 24:12).
Dear child of God, one of the major reasons why we have been emphasizing discipleship and personal relationship with the Lord is because evil days are closing in on us. We are very much in the midst of the last day, the time when Jesus said that evil shall fill the earth. In Matthew 24: 9-13 He said;
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
This is the prophecy that is about to be fulfilled upon the church. A day is coming when it will be difficult for one to stand up and say he is a Christian. A day is coming when it may not be possible for Christians to meet in the open and share fellowship as we have been doing now. At that time it will not be easy for you to get around to see your pastor or any man of God for that matter. There won’t be regular church meetings and worship places as we have them today. All these would have been outlawed in the wake of the worldwide persecution of Christians.
It will therefore be difficult for one to remain a Christian in such difficult circumstances except one has already been having a discipleship relationship with Jesus before those days. Believers who have been running to men of God and who have not established a talking personal relationship With Jesus will find it too hard to cope as they find themselves suddenly standing alone! It is such people that their love would grow cold. But those who have been standing alone with Jesus already will have no problems then for the Lord will continue to lead and direct them as He has been doing with them in the past. It is these ones Jesus said would endure to the end.
So the time to prepare for these things is now and that is why we have been directing everyone to the presence of God, to the table of the Lord, to go directly to God Himself and learn how to walk with Him now before the evil days finally comes.