Preparing for New Year 2021 - by Jim Tharp

As we are facing a new year, I feel the need to call our attention to a warning from God’s Word which the apostle Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (II Timothy 3:1-5, NKJV)

It is important for us to know the meaning of “The Last Days.” It certainly means more than just another day or moment in time. “The Last Days” is God’s term for describing the last days of His Church Age. The Church Age began when Jesus Christ came to earth as “The Son of Man” to suffer and die to pay the sin debt of anyone who would repent of sin and trust Him as Savior and Lord. Christ’s first coming was His miraculous birth as the Son of God. He suffered and died and was resurrected on the third day. He remained on earth for 40 days to remind His disciples to prepare for spreading the gospel of salvation throughout the world. His final orders before His ascension back to Heaven was for believers to go back into the city of Jerusalem and pray for His and the Heavenly Father’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit of power. (Acts 1:1-14)

For more than two thousand years, Christians have been spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world to help everyone believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and prepare for death or the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus warned throughout His ministry that all human beings must prepare for His return. No one would know the day or the hour of His coming. But both Jesus and His disciples gave some signs of the times that would allow saints and sinners to get prepared for His Second Coming.

Dear readers, I do not need to tell you that our world is on fire. We are in global conflict. Evil has been poured out on the human race ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden. The apostle Paul used the term “perilous times”—explosive, dangerous, the most critical times of human history! Chuck Colson asked me to join him in prayer for several minutes one day in Washington D.C., saying, “Brother Jim, we are in “The New Dark Ages.” He went on to say, “Something sinister is in the air we breathe. Both the heavens and the earth are ablaze with conflicting forces of good and evil!”

As we face the new year, I am praying for a renewal of Spirit-filled prayer warriors who will spend time praying and fasting for one of the greatest American outpourings of the Holy Spirit in all of our history. Let us look to Jesus, to His Holy Spirit, and to His Holy Word for our guidance and strength for these trying times. It seems to me that a good New Year’s resolution for sincere Christians would be to devote more time to pray for a closer relationship with Jesus, to be more filled with the Holy Spirit of power, and to share their faith more freely and fully with others who need Jesus.

 

I’ll close with some instruction the apostle Paul gave his Ephesian brothers and sisters; I believe it is also good instruction for us as we face the new year of 2021: “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints …” (Ephesians 6:14-18, NKJV)