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We Can’t Only Wait for Jesus to Come Upon a Cloud

I was formerly an ordinary believer in the Born Again Movement. Like most believers in the Lord, I had been longing to welcome the Lord’s arrival while I was alive, inherit His promises and blessings, and stay with Him forever. If my longings could have been realized, what a happy day that would have been! I had imagined many scenes of meeting with the Lord, but never had I imagined that the Lord has already come back quietly when I didn’t expect it, and that when the Lord knocked on my door I would have welcomed Him in such a way …

I enjoyed reading the Bible, and often read these verses: “You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also(John 14:2–3). Every time I read these words, I couldn’t help imagining the scene of the Lord’s second coming. He left to prepare a place for us, and after He prepared a place for us He would surely return on a cloud with great glory to receive us. … Every time I thought of this, I felt very happy and lucky to believe in the Lord. Because of this expectation, no matter what suffering, trials, and tribulations I encountered on the path to faith in the Lord, I could stand testimony for Him and glorify His name by praying to Him and asking Him to give me faith and strength.

Slowly, I saw many signs of the Lord’s second coming in the last days appearing: Various nations around the world have become volatile and unstable; wars have started occurring between nations; people are harming and oppressing each other more; famines, earthquakes, plagues, floods, storms, etc., are appearing more frequently everywhere. All of these are fulfilling the prophecies of the Lord Jesus’ return: “And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be you not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows(Mark 13:7–8). So I always felt in my heart that the Lord would come soon. Thereafter, every day I prayed to the Lord more sincerely, asking Him not to forsake me when He comes back. Sometimes when I was walking outside and humming hymns, I would look up at the sky every now and then, longing to see the Lord descending on a cloud. Basically, those days I was always in a mixed state of excitement and nervousness. And the preacher, brothers, and sisters in our church were also unable to restrain their excitement, just like me. Together we often discussed how the Lord would take us back to His home in heaven. For a few years I had been watchfully waiting for the Lord to return like this, deeply fearing to be abandoned by the Lord.

Just as I was eagerly longing for the Lord’s coming on a cloud, a sister, who is my best friend and who I hadn’t seen for more than a year, came to my home. She said to me happily: “The Lord Jesus has come back. He has become flesh and is expressing truths to do a stage of work of judging, chastising, and saving mankind….” She also told me: “The Lord’s appearance is not His descending on a cloud to receive us as we imagined, but His becoming flesh on earth and uttering words to save us humans, and in the end to make us utterly clean and bring us to a beautiful final destination….” Hearing her say that the Lord has returned and done a stage of new work, I immediately refuted her: “The Bible clearly records that the Lord will come as He departed. He left upon a white cloud, so He will surely return upon a white cloud. How can He become flesh again?” Afterward, no matter what she said to me, I wouldn’t accept any of it. Before she left, she gave me a copy of The Scroll Opened by the Lamb and told me to read it.

After my friend left, I thought about how what she said was incompatible with the Bible, so my heart became full of resistance and I didn’t read the book The Scroll Opened by the Lamb. Until one day, when I was free, I looked at that book and suddenly felt very curious. I thought to myself: “She said the Lord has returned in the flesh and has done new work. How could she know these things? But on reflection, she is a person of high caliber, is an ardent believer in God, and is an independent thinker about everything. It was she who brought the Lord’s gospel to me, so she would not easily believe it without some basis in fact. Besides, despite whether the Lord has returned or not, there is no harm just reading this book about faith in God. I could find out what it actually says, or maybe discover something that will be helpful for me to believe in the Lord. So I opened the book and turned to the Preface: “It is My hope that each and every brother and sister who seeks the appearance of God will not repeat the tragedy of history. You must not become the Pharisees of modern times and nail God to the cross again. You should carefully consider how to welcome the return of God, and you should have a clear mind regarding how to be someone who submits to the truth. This is the responsibility of everyone who is waiting for Jesus to return riding upon a cloud. We should rub our spiritual eyes to make them clear, and not become mired in words of exaggerated fantasy. We should think about the practical work of God, and take a look at the practical aspect of God. Do not get carried away or lose yourselves in daydreams, always longing for the day when the Lord Jesus, riding upon a cloud, suddenly descends among you, and takes you who have never known or seen Him, and who do not know how to do His will. It is better to think upon more practical matters!” Reading this passage left me shocked to the bottom of my heart: How come these words say exactly what I think and desire? What do these words mean “We should rub our spiritual eyes to make them clear, and not become mired in words of exaggerated fantasy,” “Do not get carried away or lose yourselves in daydreams, always longing for the day when the Lord Jesus, riding upon a cloud, suddenly descends among you”? Will the Lord not descend on a cloud to be among us in the last days? The whole religious world is waiting for the Lord to return on a cloud—can we all be wrong? But then I thought: “Why did the Pharisees fail at that time? Was it not because they stubbornly held on to their own conceptions and imaginations that whoever was not born to a virgin and not called the Messiah would not be the Savior? And in the end, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross.” Thinking back, when I first started believing in the Lord, I often asked myself these questions: If I’d been born in the era when the Lord Jesus was doing His work, would I have condemned and resisted Him like the Pharisees? Or would I have been able to recognize that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah through His words, like Peter and Nathanael? Which kind of person would I have been? To my surprise, that day I was still faced with these questions. All those years I had longed for the Lord to descend on a cloud to receive me—had I really been so wrong? I’d heard from the brothers and sisters that maybe the pastors and elders in our church had read this book too, but they never said the Lord has returned. I had believed in the Lord for only a few years; how could I possibly know more than the pastors and elders do? Nevertheless, I had another thought: “Wrong. By telling the parable of the ten virgins, was the Lord not teaching us to be wise virgins who have a truth-seeking heart, and not be foolish virgins left outside the door? If the Lord has truly returned, but I reject Him due to not seeking, does it not mean that my life of believing in God will end here? No, it is God whom I believe in. I should not listen to the pastors and elders only. No matter what, the Lord’s coming is a big deal and I must treat it cautiously. I should seek and investigate it first. I shouldn’t make careless criticisms or jump to conclusions—that is too irrational. If I really resist the Lord and nail Him to the cross again, what shall I do then?” At that moment, I decided to seek the Lord’s second coming carefully. I believed that the Lord would guide me to know His will. For the Lord once said: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you(Mat 7:7).

Then, I went on reading the book with the intention of seeking and observing: “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.” After reading these words, I felt they had authority and power, and that they seemed to be the voice of God. They made me feel God’s righteousness, majesty, and His disposition that accepts no offense. But at that time, I was still full of doubts and confusion. The Bible predicted that the Lord would come as He departed, that is, since the Lord left upon a white cloud, He would surely arrive upon a white cloud. But why does the book say “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”? I thought: “Won’t the Lord return to take us up into the kingdom of heaven? Is the time that the Lord, who I have yearned for day and night, descends on a cloud the time I am cast down to hell to be punished? Isn’t He the Lord who has saved mankind? Will He abandon me when He comes? And why?” At that moment, I fell down in front of the Lord and prayed with bemusement: “Lord, I don’t understand why it says that when I see You descending on a cloud is when I am cast down to hell to be punished and when God’s work ends. Oh Lord, please guide me. If this truly is Your work, I’m willing to accept and follow it.” After praying, I thought: “Next time the sister comes, I must seek to understand this.”

Thank the Lord for listening to my prayers. After a few days, my friend came again. I received her with open arms and told her about my recent experience, thoughts, and confusion. She held my hands tightly, and said excitedly, “Thanks be to God. So long as we have a seeking heart, the Lord will appear to us. Regarding your question, let’s read some verses of prophecies in the Bible and then you will understand it.” She found two verses for me to read, “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation(Luke 17:24–25). “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.” Then she fellowshiped more: “Since it says the ‘Son of man’ it refers to God incarnate. If He were a Spirit, He couldn’t be called the ‘Son of man.’ Just as Jehovah God is a Spirit, so He cannot be called the ‘Son of man.’ The spiritual body of the Lord Jesus after He was resurrected could penetrate walls, and fade into view and fade out again. It was particularly supernatural. So He could not be called the ‘Son of man.’ And the reason why the Lord Jesus was called the ‘Son of man’ and ‘Christ’ was because He was the incarnate flesh of God’s Spirit. The ‘coming of the Son of man’ the Lord Jesus spoke of means that He will come again in the last days in secret as the incarnate God. Just like when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, He became an ordinary and normal man, lived among people, and did His work practically to save mankind. If when the Lord returns He descends on a cloud to openly appear before all men, and doesn’t suffer or isn’t rejected by this generation, and none dare to resist or condemn Him, then how can the Lord Jesus’ words—‘but first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’—be fulfilled? Only if God becomes flesh to do His work as the Son of man and people do not recognize Him as Christ incarnate, will people dare to condemn and reject Christ. Don’t you think so?”

Hearing her fellowship, I was astonished. I immediately read those verses over and over again, and then I finally understood: If the Lord arrives upon a cloud and all people see Him, they will only bow down to Him and worship Him. Thus, the Lord will not suffer at all, much less be rejected. Only if God is incarnated and does His work practically among people just like the Lord Jesus, will we dare to resist and condemn Him due to our ignorance of Christ. I had read these Bible passages in the past, but why didn’t I understand them? What I still didn’t understand is that since the Lord has already told us that He will become flesh to save man in the last days, why does the Bible say: “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(Mat 24:30)? How was I to understand it? So, I told the sister about my confusion.

She fellowshiped: “The Lord Jesus prophesied that He shall come again and said many words about it, not just the prophecy of His ‘descend with the clouds,’ but also many prophecies like that He will come as a thief and descend secretly. For example, Revelation 16:15: ‘Behold, I come as a thief,’ Matthew 25:6: ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him,’ and Revelation 3:20: ‘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.’ From these verses we can see: ‘As a thief’ and ‘at midnight there was a cry made’ means coming quietly. There is no sound in heaven, so no one will know; only those who hear God’s voice can welcome the Lord. So, from the Bible’s prophecies, we can see that there are two ways in which the Lord returns: One way is to come in secret as a thief, and the other is to appear in public. God incarnate first arrives on earth in secret to do His work and speak in order to make those who seek the truth and truly want God into overcomers. Once God has made a group of overcomers, His secret work will conclude. At that time, He will send down a catastrophe to reward the good and punish the evil, and descend on a cloud to openly appear to all nations and all peoples. And also, the prophecy of the Lord’s public descent on earth in Revelation 1:7 will be fulfilled: ‘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.’ When those who have resisted and condemned Christ of the last days—Almighty God—see that the One they have resisted and condemned is exactly the returned Lord Jesus, won’t they beat their breasts and wail in anguish? That scene will be exactly the fulfillment of God’s words which you have read just now: ‘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.’ Now is the stage when God incarnate is working in secret, and is the time when God is expressing the truth and doing His work of saving, cleansing, and perfecting mankind. If we only long to see the Lord descend upon a cloud, but do not seek the God who expresses the truth in the flesh, we will lose the opportunity to attain salvation.”

When she got to this point, I finally saw the light: Although I had believed in the Lord for so many years, I had never noticed that there are two kinds of verses which prophesy the Lord’s return. In the first kind, God comes and does His work secretly. After having made a group of overcomers, He will openly appear to all nations and all peoples. I often read these Bible verses, but why didn’t I understand them? It seems that I don’t understand the Bible, or only half understand it. If the sister hadn’t told me these things, I would still be foolishly waiting for the Lord to come openly on a cloud, and when that day—the day God’s work of salvation comes to an end—really comes, I would be cast down to hell, wailing in anguish. Later, she fellowshiped about the truths concerning God’s three stages of work, God’s incarnation, and other truths. After I understood these things, I firmly believed that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus!

Think about it: For two thousand years, all the believers in the Lord have been longing to welcome the return of the Lord and enjoy wonderful blessings together with Him. Luckily, by the grace of God, I was born in the last days and have welcomed the return of the Lord Jesus during my lifetime; I have heard the Lord’s utterance and enjoyed the water from the river of life that flows from the throne. Now, I’m feeling so excited although a bit regretful. But most of all, I feel blessed! I had been desperately longing for the return of the Lord, but never had I dreamed that I would meet with Him and welcome Him in such a way. Were it not for God’s grace, I would have missed the chance to welcome the Lord’s appearance. If I had tried to welcome the Lord according to my own imagination, I would never have welcomed the return of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I am willing to perform my duty well to repay God’s love. All the glory and praise be to Almighty God!

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