"The Kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." 

                                                                  - Matthew 13:44 

       We are living in a very serious hour. Things are changing at an unprecedented rate. There is a shift taking place in the realm of the Spirit where the tide is starting to turn.  We are approaching the darkest hour of man's existence, and there is a great concern for many within the church.  The days ahead will draw a line for many, whether they have truly become rooted in faith or will be shaken with fear. It is the hour of transition. 

         In the days of John the Baptist, Jesus said, "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the Kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it" (Luke 16:16).   The word "presseth" means to apply force, to exert the utmost earnestness and effort.  When you consider a woman in travail, you understand how she goes through a transition, a shifting or change, from nurturing and sustaining her child in her womb to releasing the baby into the world.  In that moment of delivery, she experiences contractions that come as a result of the muscles in the womb tightening to help push the baby out.  We also know from our English language that the word contraction is described as pulling two words together as a means of shortening them, such as can't or don't. 

The things that we are beginning to see take place in the world, and in the church, are a result of what has been growing in the spiritual womb and is now beginning to transition into the physical realm.  It is a contraction of two time periods - the Church and the Tribulation starting to pull into one, and the days ahead are quickly being shortened. The dispensation of grace, as we know it, is about to come to an end.  What stands directly in front of us is tribulation and judgment.  Sooner than many of us realize is the approaching BEMA or Judgment Seat of Christ.  That is when the Church will stand before God and give an account for everything she has done. There is also rapidly approaching the judgment of the nations.  Christ will come to judge the earth.  Sandwiched in between those two events is the seven year tribulation period, upon which half can be described as the "Great tribulation."  We have to know and understand that the day of grace is not going to conclude without the impact of what is coming, anymore than the day of grace suddenly arrived without a period of transition.  John the Baptist represented that transition.  He did not come as a representative of the law and neither did he come as a voice of grace.  He came as one who was sent to prepare the way of the Lord.  Now, how does all of this affect us, as the church? We stand in the overlap.  We are approaching the end of an age and the emergence of something new. Remember, Jesus made a statement in John chapter four, "The hour cometh, and now is..." (John 4:23).  He was describing those who would be true worshipers, who would worship him in spirit and in truth.  But notice how he said it: "The hour cometh and now is."  He's talking about future things beginning to mesh together with current things. The day of grace and the hour of tribulation are going to interlock, and only those who are tied into Jesus will be able to keep themselves from being entangled with the rise of it all.

Jesus said that during the hour of transition, men pressed into the kingdom of heaven. Part of what motivates a person to press is the value they place on what it is they are after.  Paul himself even said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).  In our opening scripture, we found a man who placed such an incredible value on the treasure he found in a field that he sold everything he had to buy it.  You cannot buy the things of God, but there is a price to pay to have them.  That price is your commitment. Going deeper into this hour of transition will reveal what lies within each of us.  Once the contractions begin, there is no turning back.  "For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither is anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad" (Mark 4:22).  Jesus himself said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21).  In the very next passage, Jesus tells them about the rains descending, the floods coming, and the winds blowing upon a man's spiritual house.  Only those who were founded upon the Rock and had made themselves to be a doer of the Word survived. 

Friend, the curtain is about to be drawn.  The rumblings are here.  Are you pressing in?  Is your house in order? Are you prepared for the coming of the Lord?

It is not all about finishing the race...it's about winning the race.  You don't run without purpose, and you certainly don't endure the pain of pressing hard after the things of God to slow down at the end.  We have to pick up the pace.  Jeremiah said, "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?  And if the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?" (Jer. 12:5).  Don't let yourself think as the five foolish virgins did, who thought they could make preparation at the last minute.  The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" has reached into our generation, and we need to heed its declaration with all readiness of mind and heart. 

In His Grace,

Pastor David

Faith Harvest Church 

Return to the top of the page