“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.”
Weddings always come with a lot of preparation. Actually, most people often hire a wedding planner. The planner comes with lots of different forms of investment; time, money meetings, and thoughts etc. When it comes to the things of God we often treat them in a very mediocratic way. People will do things and plan to repent, forgetting that we do not own our time on earth. Some ministers even will preach lies and selfish gratifying messages,. Church goers practice witchcraft and all kinds of evil and never think of sitting down to imagine if Jesus shows up what will be their story?
Most of us have the tendency of going late to events and thus poor time management. Unfortunately, punctuation and time is a currency in the spirit. It is very easy for the devil to get hold of people who are not straight forward with God. When we are late for everything, it also affects our spiritual walk as well. Being ready means, we take time to plan, prepare, and think ahead etc. God can prepare a package and dispatch angel Gabriel, but upon his arrival we are not found in the right place. He goes back with the package undelivered.
Let us go back to our main passage in Luke 12:35-36 and examine the verses.
1. Dressed Ready for Service
If you get up in the morning for church or any occasion, you have to complete certain task such as; cook, clean, Iron clothes, dress up etc. and ready to go when your ride shows up. Dressed ready for service also means that you are spiritually prepared to serve God in any capacity. It means that you are in school of the Holy Spirit and he is helping you to prepare and be ready. We are reminded of who we are in Christ; 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 “19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
Therefore, we must be prepared at all times for him to do whatever he wants on his temple at anytime. It is not about our physical appearance as stated in 1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” When God looks at us, it is what is contained inside that matters- the unfading beauty of a gentle and quite spirit as stated in 1 Peter 3:3-4 “3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”
God sees us as people who have been clothed with a garment of salvation and righteousness; Isaiah 61:10 “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
Therefore it is important that we guard our salvation with fear and trembling. It was given to us as a free gift being purchased with a very expensive price- the blood of the son of God. Philippians 2:12 “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Jesus in all his life on earth exemplified humility, thus we must clothe ourselves with the same quality for the master’s use. 1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
2. Keep Lamps Burning
This is the word of God within us. Psalm 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Our spiritual momentum must not die down. The word of God is light-Jesus. He radiates in us according to Hebrew 1:3 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Therefore, we will be able to shine froth as in Mathew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
To be ready, prepared and keep the lamp burning, we must creat time to study the word. 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” God speaks to us through his word and when we dwell in his word, he will make his voice available to us. Once we are able to recognize his voice, he will begin to reveal himself to us as well as help you do what he wants. James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
When you create time to study the word of God, it will richly dwell in you and teach you all you need to live a godly life. Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”
We have to create time for prayers: God expects us to ask him for our needs. Mark 11:24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” When we come asking, that is an aspect of prayer. Also he expects us to pray; Mathew 6:6 “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” He says “When we Pray” not “ If we pray”. Prayer is therefore an expectation and not conditional.
When prayer and the word are built in us, it will be easy to receive the grace to walk in love, honesty, accountable, diligent, obedient, watchful and be faithful etc. because we serve a faithful God.
We must learn to cloth ourselves with strength. This means to wake up every day and wait on the strength giver. Isaiah 40: 31 “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Ask the Lord to clothe you with the strength needed for the journey in 2025. Isaiah 52:1 “Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, holy city! For the uncircumcised and unclean will no longer enter you.”
We must learn how to walk in righteousness. The only way to practice and walk righteousness is to get up every day and put it on so that it will cover you from every thing that is ungodly. That is what will show that you are born of God. Therefore ask God for this grace Job 29:14 “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.” 1 John 2:29 “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”
Luke 12:35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning.” You cannot wait for last minute to prepare. You cannot borrow another person’s anointing. You must learn to dig your own well.
Prayer points
Psalm 127:1 “Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.”
Psalm 121 :1-2 “1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Ask God for help, there is nothing a man can do on their own. The psalmist knows this very well.
Ask God to help us cloth ourselves daily with the garment of righteousness- Christ and him alone crucified.
Ask God to help us walk in humility and obedience
Ask God for the grace to keep your spiritual momentum in 2025 so that you will not fall a prey like the foolish virgins. Mathew 25: 1- 8 “1Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”
Ask the Lord to open your eyes so you can see everything he wants you to see in 2025. Zechariah 4:2 “And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it.”
There is a reward in serving God. He has not called you in vine. Pray for the grace to stay awake and do whatever he is asking you to do in 2025. Luke 12:37 “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.”
Pray for the grace to create time to study the word of God so that it will richly dwell in you and teach all you need to live a godly life. Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”
Pray that the Holy Spirt will keep you reminded of this scripture, so that you will not get up one day and think its all about your efforts. Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Pray for the spirit of a watchman, so you will not be asleep when the Lord visits. Matthew 24:42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”
Pray for the grace to stay connected at the altar of the Lord where transformation of vessels of honor are made: Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Pray that the light of Christ in you must shine as you receive the grace to push froth. Mathew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Pray that we will give ourselves totally to the work of God as the Apostles. Acts 20:35 “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Pray that as God grants us the anointing to do his work, we will not become owners and then boastful, but we will be careful to give him all his glory. 1 Peter 4:11 “Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”