Get Ready

Revelation 3:2-3
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
Get Ready
        Be watchful. This is a season to be watchful. And when it says to watch, it means to pay attention and to observe. This is a season and an hour that we really have to pay attention and there are some things that we have to observe, to take note of that’s transpiring around us and in our lives.  There are some things that we should be looking to and asking God to show us, to give us the revelation.  God show me what to do and show me what has being done.  There are some things that are taking place and transpiring that we should be taking note of for to prepare us for what is about to come. Now we know that even in this hour in the next couple of weeks as we are in the spring season, but even in this season there is a time of preparation. The Bible says to be watchful when we look up Merriam Webster’s definition of watch it means keeping awake, to guard, close observation of a time a guard or a period of duty of a guard; to look or to observe, to be looking or waiting attentively. God is telling us that this is a season that we need to be look and wait attentively for His next move. Observe what is about to come up and what is about to transpire. We need to look and be attentive to this. God said to be watchful and to strengthen.
        When we look at the word strengthen it means to gain strength and it means to give support to. Many of us are not looking at how we can give support to the purpose of God, nor how we can give support to the move of God. We are so busy in this season and hour being worried and concerned about ourselves that we are forgetting the things that God has told us to do.  It says the state or quality of being strong a force or a power, a toughness, durability. And this is the hour that, we’ve got to be durable.  We have to have the ability to be durable- when things change, when people change, when seasons change, and as God begins to reposition our lives and people in our lives, we’ve got to be able to be durable. We’ve got to be able to be flexible. We have to show that we can move on past natural circumstances and situations.
        Here in the book of Revelations, it is saying to be watchful and strengthen the things which remain. We have got to give strength and give support to those things that remain. Whether that be in your ministry, the people, the members of your family that are still living, or the people of your organization that are still present. Strengthen and support the people on your job that are still supporting you. You have got to give stability. You have got to give strength to them, you have got to give support to them. It says not only be watchful and observe, but you have got to know what to give strength to. In this hour when He says to be strengthened, to observe, to watch and strengthen you have got to observe and say God, I am watching to see what I need to be giving support to. In the past seasons of our lives, we have given support to the wrong things because we did not watch. We gave support to those things that looked like they needed to be strengthened in the natural but in the realm of the spirit there were other things that were lacking that needed our strength and support. We were strengthening a bad attitude; we were strengthening a spirit of a victim; we were strengthening a spirit of a pity; we were strengthening the people’s doubts, fears, and their inhibitions.
        We truly thought that we were strengthening the person, but we were strengthening a spirit. So that is why God said not in this season, not in this hour. You are really going to have to give, to pay attention to what you give strength to and support. You are really going to have to be observant of what God is saying to do so that you will not find yourself strengthening things that will attack you. We cannot find ourselves giving strength to a force that will only utilize itself against us instead of being in support of us.  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. Now you can look at this scripture and say that this can be very confusing because it tells us, me to give support to something that is dead. There are some things that we support that it is the will of God that it die.  You need to say I support the fact that you need to lose that attitude. I support the fact that some people need to make their own money. I support the fact that some people need to be on their own. I support the fact that it is time for some people to straighten up their act. I am not against you. I am just supporting the next move that there are some things that need to die in you. And this is the season that you have to pay attention and know when people have got things that are working against them that are in them. My God, help me! Even in me there are some things that I has to die like my attitude, my evil disposition, my thought pattern about people and situations that are contrary to the will and the purpose of God. And yes we need to watch and observe and say ok, I need to support you in that your attitude needs to die. I need to support you that lust needs to die in you that fear needs to die in you. I need to support you when you are moving forward that those things that are not productive, those things that are not adding to your life, those things that are not making you alive and giving you a desire to live, that those things need to die.
John is addressing the church at Sardis that God knows their works. He knows our works also. He knows what you’ve done, your labor of love, but He understands that even in the midst of that there are things that are in you that need to be ready to die. There are some things in you that can’t live. There are some things that we’ve spoken life to that we need to speak death to. There are some things that we supported that we now have to drain and say, “God, that was not your will.” There are some ideas, some visions, some mindsets that are contrary to the purpose, the plan and the move of God that we have to say, “God it ain’t your will. God I let that live, but now it has to die.” Even some attitudes that we grew up with that our parents and our friends were in support of and you were just spoiled and a free spirit. You were just used to doing things your own way and used to having things the way that you wanted them, but that need to die because it’s selfishness. It needs to die and I need someone who is going to support me and say no that is not God. Many of us have lied and talked about things in the wrong manner and instead of someone saying no that needs to die, they supported it. Not in this season. We need to observe in us, individually, personally, and corporately what needs to die. What do I have to be ready to say ok go ahead and kill it. I need to look at, just like myself and say, “God what part of the church of Sardis lives in me? What is it about me that I have not paid attention to, that I have let some things live that should have died, but now I am ready for this thing to die that I may really live this life for Christ? I am ready for this thing to die so that I can be all that God has called me to be in Him. I am ready for this thing to die so that I may understand the will, the purpose, and the plan of God.
He says that the reason that these things need to die is because He has not found your ways perfect before God. There are some things that people do not mind that we have done, but Gods says, “I do not find it perfect.” Now, this word perfect does not mean perfection, but it means maturity. God is saying when I look at you; there are some things about you that I do not find to be mature. There are some things when I look at you that I have not found balanced. There are some things when I look at you that I have not found yet complete. As I look and I observe you, I’m saying yes that is good, but that is not mature. Yes that is good, but I have not found it perfect.  He says, “I’m looking at you and I have not found your work perfect; you haven’t done everything right.” I think that many times the church is so busy judging people that we forget to remember compassion. We forget to remember the grace of God. We forget to remember the love of God because love believes all things, endures all things, and hopes all things. We say we love people, but we don’t believe the best about them. We say that we believe in people, but inwardly we are looking for them to fail. We are looking for ministries to fail. We are looking for churches to collapse. We are looking for people to walk away from God. We are looking for marriages to fail. We are looking for friendships to fall apart, but that isn’t love.
That isn’t the plan of God. It isn’t the purpose of God because love believes the best, love wants the best, and love aspires to be the best. So He says when I look at you, I do not find your love perfect. He says let patience have her perfect work in you lacking nothing. We have to look and ask God, have I been patient? He says I’m looking and I do not find patience with a perfect work in you. I do not find love perfected in you. I do not find compassion complete in you. I’m looking and I am seeing that you are doing some things, but you are not doing them in a mature manner. You are doing some things, but you are not doing it in a manner of someone who understands scripture, who understands purpose, and who understands vision. So yes there are some things done, but are they done the way that God says? No. There are some things done but are they done in the way or the manner that God calls for them to be done? No.
So, he says, “Listen, I have not found your works perfect before Me.” It’s not before man because we can do things to dress things up that men of the flesh make allowances for. We say that we are human and there is not anyone perfect, but God knows what He placed on the inside of you and God knows what He requires of you. Even when man says you fall short and we’ll use the scripture, “for all have sinned, and come short of the grace of God [Romans 3:23], but there is some thing about God that says, “Come on” you have been through enough that you should not be making the same mistakes. You have been through enough now that you should be a little wiser than the time the enemy brought this temptation to you. Come on now, you ought to have more word in you than you had five years ago and what you had three months ago. The same stuff shouldn’t trap your mind up. It shouldn’t take you that long to get rid of that thought. It should not take you that long to cast that thing down because there should be a maturity in you now that says I can separate flesh from spirit. I can separate God from the enemy. I can separate righteous from unrighteous, and I can separate holy from unholy. There is a place of maturity in God where God looks at you and He says I’m judging this thing. It is God saying He does not find you mature. It ain’t nobody being jealous of your gift, nobody being jealous of your position, nor your stature in life. It is God saying that I do not find your works in a mature place.
The writer continues by saying, “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard.” He is saying this is the problem. We do not hold on to what we receive. You see one day we receive it and then the next day we release it. We heard it, but now we can’t remember it. He is saying I’m talking back to you because whether you liked the vessel that it came from or not God still spoke it. The church is about to get in trouble because we fall out with people and now we reject the word that God used them to speak in their lives. And we don’t like people any more, so we don’t like what they said anymore. But God said you better remember what you heard. You better remember what you received three years ago. Ok, it’s three years later and you don’t like them, so you don’t like their word any more. It’s still true. Whatever God said doesn’t change because God says my word changes not. He says, “You better remember what you heard, what you received, and you better hold fast to it.”
In this hour and in this season, you have to keep holding on even when folks quit. You have to keep holding on even when your situation seems to work contrary to the word that you received. You have got to hold fast to it. You can’t wait. You can’t go on a forty-day fast before you hold on to what God promised you. You can’t wait until your situation gets ideal before you hold on to what God said. You can’t wait until your life seems perfect and everything that you want seems to be in place before you hold on to what God said. You’ve got to hold on fast to what God said, what you’ve heard, the message that you’ve heard, the prophecy that you received, the teaching that changed your life. You’ve got to hold on to it.
In this season, we have got to know what to hold on to and what to release. What I’m telling you is that in this hour there may be some things that you do not like that you still have to hold on to. Even when God wants to discipline your flesh and bring you life back to order, you may not like it, but you still have to hold on to it. You may not like the fact God rebuked you in your flesh and now it’s a year later and you are still having issues in your flesh, you still have to hold on to it. You may not like the fact that God is still calling for holiness and righteousness and may feel like you’ve matured and that you’ve got you life together, but the word that God gave you it’s still good. God wants you to hold on to it, remember what you’ve heard, hold fast, and repent. Now there is a process that God says that you have to go through. God says you have to repent because there are some things that God is speaking that you still don’t like, but He still requires you to do. You have to repent because it is not about if you like the word, or if you agree with the word, but it is about who spoke the word which is God. 
The Bible says that prophecy doesn’t come by private interpretation, but it is the Lord who speaks.  And we get upset because we want people to think that we are in a different place and we want people to believe that we are engaging in another place in God when God really has us somewhere else. God said you better repent. Repent for your doubt. Repent for your unbelief. Repent because you have talked against what God said. Repent because you have been slothful. Repent because you have been impatient. Repent because you have been fearful. Repent from whatever stopped you from maturing in what God said, whatever has hindered you from moving forth in the things of God, whatever has limited you, whatever has come to back you up, whatever has come to stop you- He said repent of it. It doesn’t matter what the enemy used. Whatever he used that prevented you from moving forth, whatever he used that stopped you from progressing, whatever he used that stopped you from absorbing or giving ear to what God is saying, He said repent.
Why? If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief. God said if you do not pay attention, if you do not observe that it’s your season that I’m telling you to change, it’s your season to love, it’s your season to walk in peace, it is your season to throw off the works of the flesh. Then I’m going to come upon you like a thief; that you will not know when I come but when I come, it will not be a good day. For when I come, I’m going to bring judgment. We have to be careful because we don’t know which day God will show up and check our flesh. You don’t know which day God will come up and see if you possess the mind of Christ. You’re not sure when God is going to show up and check the merits of your heart. Repentance keeps you at a place of purity. God says, “You keep repenting and you keep your heart and you keep you spirit pure.” So, I’m telling you to repent.  I want to tell you to get ready because you don’t know when God is going to come. You don’t know when God is going to check and see if you are about kingdom business. You don’t know when God is going to come and He is going to do an inspection to see if you are displaying the fruit of the spirit.
Are you producing love and gentleness and kindness and longsuffering? God is going to come and nobody knows when the Inspector is going to come and inspect the fruit of the Spirit in your life and you better make sure that when He comes that you are producing the right kind of fruit. Make sure you are producing the fruit of the Spirit and that He doesn’t come and find you producing the works of the flesh. I’m telling you God is coming to look at us and He wants to know if all the seasons’ seeds that have been planted from the springtime, the summer, and the fall are now springing up. Now, in the springtime, we are going to know what has been planted in you by what springs up in you. Even in this season of the springtime, there is going to be a manifestation of the seed. So, we are going to know what seeds have been planted in you by harvest time.
What are you going to produce? Are you going to produce the fruit of the Spirit or the works of the flesh? I’m telling you better get ready, and you better get in line, and align yourself with the will and the purpose of God. You better tell God. You better begin to seek God with your whole heart. I’m telling you, this is a prophetic warning. You better align yourself with the will of God. You better align yourself to be about kingdom business. You better align yourself to walk in love. You better align yourself to walk in peace.  You better align yourself to walk in forgiveness. I’m telling you, you better tame your tongue, open up your heart, and open up your spirit to be yielded to the word of God to be obedient to the purpose of God, to be ready to move in the things of God. I beseech you by the mercies of the living God that you get ready and align yourself for purpose. Watch out, He is on His way!