How to be Prepared

“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

• Pray.  Ask God what he wants you to do to prepare. He will lead and guide you to a place of safety and peace, even in the middle of chaos. He will give you the protection and strength you need to withstand darkness. He will bring you into His glorious light if you are humble enough to ask Him.
• Listen.  Allah has given us wonderful opportunity to help prepare the world for Isa’s second coming. This requires us to listen to God’s voice so we can do God’s will. He will lead us to the places we need to be and share of this good news.
• Watch. The Holy Injil encourage us to watch and be ready. We do not watch with fear, but we watch with joy and gladness. Isa’s return should be a glorious time for His people and should look forward to that day.
  

Watchfulness
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Injil Luke 12: 35-40).
Isa Al-Masih uses four statements to emphasize the same point:

1. “Be dressed ready” is literally, “let your loins be girded.” In that day, everyone wore long robes which were a hindrance if you needed to move quickly or freely. If a person planned to run or work, he would tuck his robe into a sash around his waist so that it would not interfere with his movements.
2. “keep your lamps burning” there was no electricity. If you were expecting a visitor, you would keep an oil light burning, you could see and welcome him/her in. Again, the idea is, be ready for the Master’s coming.
3. “like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.” These feasts last for days, often for a week. The servants would need to be ready when they heard their master arrive to open the door and serve him. The master could come in the middle of the night when you least expect him, so you must be ready.
4. “If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.” If you known when the thief will come, you would not have allowed your house to be broken into. You will be ready and waiting.

The application of the four statements is, “You, too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect” (Injil Luke 12:40).

• To be ready for Isa Al-Masih coming, He must be your Master.
• To be ready for Isa Al-Masih coming, you must be His servant.
• To be ready for Isa Al-Masih coming, you must live in expectation of His return.

• Be in right standing with Allah.  “if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
• Forgive and be forgiven. “For if you forgive men for their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men for their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
• Study the Word of God. “Study to show yourself approved by God, a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
• Live a faithful life. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man viewing his natural face in a mirror. He views himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in his deeds” (James 1:22-25).
• Repent! Ask God to help you to truly and sincerely change, as Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17).
• Seek Allah and His Kingdom and purpose. Isa Al-Masih said, “seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). The inspired Word of God says: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1–2).
• Search for the full Truth of the Bible and share it, for Isa Al-Masih commissioned His true followers: “‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen” (Matthew 28:19–20).