For quite some time now, I have felt that Jesus can not come back for the Church, until their has been some kind of a great revival to sweep the whole earth.
Many countries overseas, are already experiencing this revival, but here in the United States, we are asleep.

I have a book by Richard Eby, and in it Jesus told him that when that last person that was suppose to accept Him as Lord, does, then that is when God tells Him to go get His Church.
 
John the Baptist was born 6 months before Jesus. His purpose was to prepare people for
the ministry of Jesus. Sometimes, when we go to see a famous person, they have someone on first, to warm the crowds up. They would be more prepared for the main actor to come on the stage. This might not seem like a good comparison, but John went around preaching repentance, and getting the peoples hearts and minds ready for their Savior.
When the dove landed on Jesus at His baptism, it was a sign to John. It did not
have any  meaning to the others who were watching. John came in the spirit of Elijah. He was not the physical Elijah, but was a fiery man, who was not afraid to call fire down from Heaven. He walked in the Spirit of God. Some say that John the Baptist even wore the same camel skin coat that Elijah wore.
 
Just as John prepared the people for Jesus's first coming, and ministry, I think that the same
thing will happen before Jesus comes the second time to get His Bride. Many people will go around and minister to others, like Elijah and John did. Preaching repentance and getting peoples hearts and minds prepared for the coming of the Lord in the air.

We are not ready now. We are asleep. These preachers will be like little Elijah's, covering
the whole globe, and that is when revival will come. God is also going to send judgments at the same time. These judgments are for the unbelievers, not the righteous ones. He will provide protection for His children. Read Psalm 91. We have had judgments to come in the past and many good people have perished in these disasters. I think the end time judgments will be different. It will be the separating of the wheat from the tares. We are not to fear. God has not given us the spirit of fear. The Bible talks about the former and latter rain. The former rain is when the seeds are planted. The latter rain is for the harvest. At Pentecost, we had the former rain, when the seed for the  Church was planted. The church grew and spread out to cover the whole earth. Now we are waiting for the latter rain. A similar outpouring of the Spirit to help bring in the harvest.
 
I have read many prophecies about the end times and judgments. It seems that while they
spoke of these judgments, they also mentioned about the Spirit of God being poured out
at the same time. Like two types of rain falling. A rain of judgment, and a rain of the Spirit.
 
Just as in Old Testament times, God used disasters of different kinds to get the Israelites attention. They would go astray, and some country would attack them. They people would cry out to God to Deliver them. This happened over and over. God never gave up on them.
He always delivered them from their enemies. Even though the people of this world have gone astray, God still Loves them, and is ready to welcome them home.
 
Susan