The last days are now upon us, so how can we welcome the Lord? Based on what’s written in the Book of Revelation, some believe that the Lord will come back in His resurrected spiritual body and appear to mankind on a cloud, so welcoming the Lord based on what we see is the safest bet. However, some brothers and sisters take this verse into consideration: “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” (Revelation 3:20). They believe the Lord has told us that in the last days, He will speak to knock on our doors. There are also a lot of people online bearing witness that the Lord has already returned, that they’ve already heard God’s voice and welcomed the Lord. Can we really just rely on what we see without listening for the voice of God? What can we do to welcome the Lord? Should we greet the Lord by listening for God’s voice, or only believing what we see?

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The Crucial Step to Welcome the Lord’s Coming

The Lord Has Returned and Has Spoken: Have You Listened?

The Consequences of Insisting on Seeing the Lord’s Coming on a Cloud

The Crucial Step to Welcome the Lord’s Coming

We’re all aware that there are many prophecies regarding the Lord’s coming—who would dare claim that the Lord will only come on a cloud, and nothing else? The Lord Jesus very clearly told us: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). And the Book of Revelation prophesied, “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” (Revelation 3:20). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). These prophecies show us that in the last days, the Lord will knock on the doors of people’s hearts with His words, that He will seek out His sheep by speaking, and that God’s sheep will recognize and welcome Him when they recognize the voice of God. That is, no matter how God appears to mankind, it is certain that He will utter words, so when we do recognize the voice of God, we can greet the Lord and then confirm what form God really is appearing to us in. It’s just like when Moses heard God speaking from the burning bush; God was appearing to Moses in the form of fire. When Job heard God speaking to him through a whirlwind, that was God appearing to Job through the wind. And there were Peter and John, who personally heard the Lord Jesus incarnate expressing the truth, the voice of God, and so confirmed that God had appeared to mankind in the form of the flesh. We can see from all this that God may speak to humanity in many different ways, and no matter how we hear Him speaking to us, we see the appearance of God. This is why we can’t just rely on our eyes to welcome the Lord. What’s key is to listen for His voice. The moment we hear the returned Lord’s utterance, and recognize it as the voice of God, that proves that the Lord has indeed returned. At that point, the way the Lord appears in the last days will be self-evident. If we fail to focus on listening for God’s voice, but determine that the Lord will absolutely come down on a cloud based on a literal interpretation of the scriptures, and we think that in welcoming the Lord, seeing is believing, wouldn’t that be making the same mistake as the Pharisees? The Pharisees didn’t pay any mind to heeding the voice of God, but just defined the Messiah’s coming according to a literal interpretation of the Scriptures. Even though the Lord Jesus expressed many truths and His words contained authority and power, the Pharisees did not focus on listening for the voice of God. And so, they ultimately had the Lord Jesus nailed to the cross, committing a grievous sin and earning God’s punishment. This is why we should learn from the lesson of the Pharisees in the matter of welcoming the Lord’s coming. We absolutely cannot rely on our notions and imaginings, but we must be the wise virgins and take care to listen for God’s voice. This is the only way we’ll be able to welcome the Lord. It’s just as God has said: “Since we are searching for the footprints of God, it behooves us to search for God’s will, for the words of God, for His utterances—because wherever there are new words spoken by God, the voice of God is there, and wherever there are the footsteps of God, God’s deeds are there. Wherever there is the expression of God, there God appears, and wherever God appears, there the truth, the way, and the life exist.”

The Lord Has Returned and Has Spoken: Have You Listened?

The key to welcoming the Lord is listening for God’s voice. Only by hearing God’s voice can we know how the Lord has come. Today, only The Church of Almighty God openly bears witness that the Lord Jesus has already come in secret before the great disasters, that He is Almighty God in the flesh, and He has done a stage of work to judge and cleanse mankind. He has expressed words from the Holy Spirit to the churches. He has shared all aspects of the truth with us, including the mysteries of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, what incarnation is, what being raptured is, how to discern the voice of God, how to discern the true Christ from false Christs, the nature and essence of mankind’s corruption by Satan, how to cast off the bonds of sin, how God judges and cleanses mankind, and how God determines people’s outcomes and destinations. Almighty God saves us completely from the shackles of sin, allowing us to be purified and attain full salvation. We can see from this that Almighty God’s appearance and work fulfill these prophecies of the coming of the Son of man: “Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of man comes at an hour when you think not” (Luke 12:40). “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:27). Not only that, but this also fulfills the prophecies of the Lord returning to express the truth and to do the work of judgment: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). “He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). “Sanctify them through Your truth: Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Anyone with heart, with spirit, who hears the words expressed by Almighty God can feel that these words are the truth, that they are full of power and authority. They are able to confirm that they are the voice of God. If this weren’t the voice of God, then who could possibly reveal the mysteries of God’s management work? Who could judge our human corruption through the word of judgment? Who could cleanse and transform us, and save us from the bonds of sin? Only God can express the truth—this is the voice of God. This allows us to confirm that the Lord Jesus has returned, that the Lord has again become flesh as the Son of man, coming down among mankind in secret in order to save us and cleanse us. If we want to welcome the Lord, we must be sure to listen for the voice of God and read more of the words Almighty God has expressed. Only this will allow us the chance to be caught up before God’s throne and attend the feast with the Lord.

The words expressed by Almighty God in The Word Appears in the Flesh have been translated into more than 20 other languages and published online so that peoples of all nations may seek and investigate. This is God knocking at our doors through His words. Shouldn’t we be the wise virgins, listen to whether Almighty God’s utterances are the Holy Spirit’s words to the churches, whether they are the voice of God? If we absolutely insist that seeing is believing, only believing once the Lord comes with clouds, won’t we have already shut Him outside of our doors? Is that being a wise virgin? Is it possible to welcome the Lord’s coming that way? These are questions we should all consider very carefully.

The Consequences of Insisting on Seeing the Lord’s Coming on a Cloud

If we don’t listen for the voice of God so that we can welcome the Lord, but just wait to see the Lord coming down with clouds before we believe that He has returned, what will the consequences be? Let’s take a look at the warnings and exhortations given to us by Almighty God:

“Many people may not care what I say, but I still want to tell every so-called saint who follows Jesus that, when you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you, yet you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven is also the time when you go down to hell to be punished. That will be the time of the end of God’s management plan and it will be when God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have returned before the throne of God and entered the Creator’s embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that ‘The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false Christ’ shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who exhibits signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who proclaims severe judgment and releases the true way and life. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud. They are too stubborn, too confident in themselves, too arrogant. How could such degenerates be rewarded by Jesus? The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit.”

Through Almighty God’s words, we can understand that those who just wait to see the Lord on a cloud are refusing to accept the truths expressed by Almighty God in the last days and they are condemning Christ of the last days. They will miss their chance to welcome the Lord before the great disasters and lose their opportunity to be made into overcomers by God. However, those who accept God’s work of judgment and purification before the great disasters—that is, those who welcome the Lord before the disasters—will escape the bonds of sin by accepting the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, will be purified and transformed, and have the chance to be made into overcomers by God. They will be taken by God into a beautiful destination. Once God has made a group of overcomers, He will rain down the great disasters, and only at that point will He openly come on a cloud and appear before mankind, sorting people according to their kind, rewarding the good and punishing the wicked. Those who resisted and condemned God’s work of the last days will be subject to His righteous punishment. They will see that Almighty God, whom they resisted, is none other than the Lord Jesus returned. They will weep and gnash their teeth; they will clutch at their chests. This will fulfill these biblical prophecies: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). “Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7). And so, all those who try to listen for the voice of God, all those who accept the truths expressed by Christ in the last days before the disasters, are the blessed. But those who just rely on their eyes, who insist on waiting for the Lord to come on a cloud, will rue the day.

Now that you’ve read some of Almighty God’s words, have you seen God’s righteous disposition through His warnings for us? Have you felt His urgent will to save us through His exhortations for us? If you still have doubts or questions about welcoming the Lord’s return, you’re welcome to message us on WhatsApp or Messenger.

Read more on our Spiritual Life page, or click on the related articles below.

How to hear God’s Voice and Welcome the Lord

Wise Virgins Can Recognize the Voice of God