The Ultimate Prize

The Ultimate Prize

There is a great deal of talk these days about end times, about revival, and about the rapture. Indeed, I am one who has shared a lot about these very things. So perhaps I am guilty, or at least I am as guilty as anyone else, of minimising the requirements for partaking of any of these events. Jesus said in Luke 10:17-20 “Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”  And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” This is referring to that of which Paul wrote in Philippians 4:3 “And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.”

So how do we get our names written in heaven in the Book of Life? Simple by accepting our salvation through the sacrificial Blood of Jesus at Calvary where He died for our sins that we might have eternal life. The Gospel is all about getting our names in the Book of Life by confessing Jesus as our Lord, by repenting and turning from our old sinful ways, then picking up our cross to follow Jesus.

So how then do we preach this Gospel in these days. Well, in Joel 2:23 “...rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you—The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month.” Latter rain is the name given to the Spring rain which immediately preceded the harvest. Translated forward into today’s understanding of end-times, this refers to the outpouring that will result in the end-time harvest or revival that precedes the Rapture.

The only ones who will be raptured will be those whose name is written in the Lambs Book of Life. That, my friends is our ultimate prize. So it behoves us to answer the call of Jesus; to declare His Lordship in our lives; and to ensure our names are written in heaven – in the Lamb’s Book of Life.