The Last Days Have Come: How Should We Be the Wise Virgins and Prepare Oil?
Now disasters are getting greater and greater; the day of the Lord’s coming has arrived. Many Christians are waiting for the Lord to come and be raptured into the kingdom of heaven. Then how should we wait and be prepared to become the wise virgins and to welcome the Lord?
Many brothers and sisters think: As long as we frequently read the Scripture, pray watchfully, keep to the Lord’s way, apply ourselves to the Lord’s work and spread the gospel, that is preparing oil. Those who do all of these things are the wise virgins and when the Lord returns they will certainly attend the banquet with the Lord. But are what the Lord refers to as wise virgins really like this? Let’s look back on the Pharisees — they were constantly hoping for the coming of the Messiah, and for the sake of welcoming Him, they not only were very familiar with the Scripture and upheld the law and commandments, but they also often interpreted the Scripture for believers and prayed for them, and even spread the gospel of Jehovah God to the ends of the earth. So based on that kind of understanding, the Pharisees’ actions should have counted as wise virgins preparing oil, and they certainly should have been able to welcome the Messiah and gain God’s salvation. But was that really the case? When the Lord Jesus became flesh to work and speak, the Pharisees entirely lacked hearts of reverence for God, and even though they saw that His words and work possessed power and authority and had come from God, not only did they not seek and investigate them with an open mind, but instead stubbornly clung to their own notions and imaginings, thinking that anyone who wasn’t called Messiah wasn’t the Lord. They also delimited God’s work and words within the confines of the Scripture at that time, condemned the Lord’s work and words as outside the bounds of the Old Testament and thus rejected them. They also madly fabricated rumors, slandered, and blasphemed the Lord Jesus, ultimately nailing Him to the cross. Thus, they earned God’s damnation and punishment. We can see from the facts of the Pharisees’ resistance to God that just reading the Scripture, being vigilant in prayer, keeping to the Lord’s way, and working for the Lord does not count as being a wise virgin. Then how exactly can we become the wise virgins?
The Lord Jesus said, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Mat 25:6). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev 3:20). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” (Rev 2:7). From this, we can see that God will speak new words when He returns in the last days. So being able to recognize the Lord’s voice is very crucial; only those who can recognize God’s voice and take the initiative to greet are the wise virgins and can attend the feast of the heavenly kingdom with the Lord. Just like Peter, Nathanael, and others, they all recognized God’s voice through what the Lord Jesus said, and followed the Lord. However, those who are just as arrogant as the Pharisees were, who cannot hear God’s voice, who hear God’s voice but do not seek or accept it, or who even hate and reject the truth, are all destined to be cast out by the Lord.
God says, “All who are able to obey the present utterances of the Holy Spirit are blessed. It does not matter how they used to be, or how the Holy Spirit used to work within them — those who have gained the latest work of God are the most blessed, and those who are unable to follow the latest work today are eliminated. God wants those who are able to accept the new light, and He wants those who accept and know His latest work. Why is it said that you must be a chaste virgin? A chaste virgin is able to seek the work of the Holy Spirit and understand the new things, and moreover, able to put aside old notions, and obey the work of God today.”
We can see from God’s words that when the wise virgins watch and prepare oil in welcoming the Lord, it mainly refers to putting their notions and imaginations aside, paying attention to listening to God’s voice, looking for God’s footsteps and the new work of the Holy Spirit, accepting and obeying God’s work and word in the new age, and following the footsteps of the Lamb. That’s why we say all those who hear the voice of God and then seek and investigate are the wise virgins; they are raptured before God’s throne, enjoy the supply of the ever-flowing living water of life, and attend the wedding feast of the Lamb.
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