And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2:17-18
Really? Is it the ‘last hour’? Over wide stretches of the earth the people of God have been driven, scattered, having everything outward taken from them. The question is: Why does the Lord allow it? Why does it happen if the Lord is wise, almighty, gracious, good, kind, loving, and merciful? One reason could be to discover how much of the Heavenly Christ is to His people, and how much they depend on the earthly order of things, even the Christian religious order.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.1 John 1:1
Children, it is the last hour…
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17
Do you see the link? If at the end, at the last hour, it is as it was from the beginning, then it will abide forever, but if it has become something else, … it will go. The whole question of heavenly relationship with the Lord is a tremendously searching one, the fact that Christ transferred everything to heaven and nothing less than a life in heavenly union with Him will stand the test of time. Do you ask the Lord if this really is the Truth and to search you / us? Why such crushing isolation? Why such seemingly harsh testings? Why the loneliness in the spiritual life? To save us from things unto Himself, even Christian things, so that God’s end that Christ may be all and in all shall be reached in us; not things, but Christ; not Christianity, but Christ; not Christian work, but Christ.
Is the Holy Spirit leading you to the same conclusions?
He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30
What is He wanting you to give up? What has the Holy Spirit been asking you to do, but you keep swatting away His questions to you?