White Birds On the Rocks By the Ocean

This is a short simple blogpost about what the Lord showed me as I worshiped today. I am blogging it because it's meant to be shared.

There is a bit of worship in the beginning of the video because after the busyness of the day I needed to get back to a place of focus on Jesus in an atmosphere of worship. Again, it's simple but there is a lot to it, especially to the expectant.  I pray it speaks to you and that if you are not expectant that you will be after reading/seeing this. If you are waiting expectantly, great! If you are unsure of what I am saying here, write a comment or read a few more of my posts. I hope I will be able to relay what the Lord showed and that we all have the right responses. 

But first, let the Word of God speak before I do. We need to get some Scripture in us:

I. SIGNS OF THE TIMES -  Matthew 24:3-14

The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age

³ Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for ^[a]all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, ^[b]pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹ “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ¹² And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But he who endures to the end shall be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

II. WATCHING AND WAITING - Matthew 25:1-13

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. ³ Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. ⁵ But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

⁶ “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom ^[a]is coming; go out to meet him!’ ⁷ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

¹¹ “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ ¹² But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

¹³ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour ^[b]in which the Son of Man is coming.

III. THE SEASON OF HIS RETURN - Mark 13:24-27

The Coming of the Son of Man

²⁴ “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; ²⁵ the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And then He will send His angels, and gather together His ^[h]elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.

IV. NO ONE KNOWS THE EXACT TIME OF HIS RETURN - Mark 13:32-37

No One Knows the Day or Hour

³² “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. ³⁴ It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. ³⁵ Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— ³⁶ lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. ³⁷ And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

The White Birds

V. THE VISION

As I was sitting at the keyboard in worship today, the Lord was ministering to me; as is usually His way, I saw a very simple vision:

The scene was a seashore but it was not a leisurely sandy white beach. The terrain was rocky and there were lots of white birds. The thing about these birds was they were looking up with an expectation as if waiting for someone. And the Lord made it clear to me that the birds represented the sanctified saints of God looking up awaiting His return. In this vision, the birds must have received their signal, seen their expected Master because they began to fly up as if being taken up. 

Simple, yet profound. I believe the Lord wants us to be readying ourselves for His return and I am not making a pre-, mid-, or post- tribulation statement or taking a position. I do have a position but that is not important here. What is important is that the Lord is telling us to be ready for His return. It will not be long. We need to be prayerfully watching, looking up because we know that our full redemption is drawing near. 

Folks, this means that some significant things are about to transpire on the world scene. Many know this because while He will come as a thief in the night to the unbeliever, the one who has rejected the Son of God, His children know the season of His return. He has laid it out for us in His Word. And so we are looking up in expectation that soon He will appear.

Are you ready?