"And the Spirit & The Bride Say Come!..."- Rev 22:17
Hi friends,
Hope this blogpost finds you in good health and spirits. The
signs of the times point to the soon coming of our Lord and King Jesus! Mathew 24
outlines some of the different signs of His coming being so near…
1) Wars & Rumors of War (vs 6)
2) Nations rising against nation
and kingdoms against kingdoms (vs 7a)
3) Famines (vs 7)
4) Pestilences (vs 7)
5) Earthquakes (verse 7)
6) Hated for Jesus’s sake (vs 9)
7) Many will be offended (vs 10)
8) Betrayal (verse 10)
9) False Prophets & many will be deceived (vs 11)
10) Lawlessness (vs 12)
11) Love of many growing cold (vs12)
12) Gospel will be preached in all the world (vs 14)
13) Sun will be darkened, moon will not give light, stars
will fall from Heaven, powers of Heaven will be shaken. (vs 29)
Amidst the gloom and doom surrounding us, one thing that
gives us hope and keeps us looking upward and marching onward is that Jesus is
coming soon for His Bride -The Church.
There is no doubt that we are in the last of the last days;
the question for us to consider is ARE WE READY FOR HIM? 1 Thessalonians 5:2
says that the Day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night. Meaning that No
man knows the day or hour, not even the angels of Heaven but only the Father knows.
(Mathew 24:36) So it is imperative that we do everything in our power to be
ready for Him.
1) Accept Jesus as Our Lord & Savior/
Rededication – Rom 10:9-11 says that if we confess with our mouth
and believe with our heart that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead
and is now seated at the right-hand side of the Father interceding for us. If we have already accepted Him, we can check
how far we have backslidden and must return to our First Love & be red hot
on fire for the Lord. All this can only be done by the Blessed Holy Spirit who
cleanses us from all impurities that we pick up as being born in sin and living
in a fallen world. 2 Corin 1:21,22 NLT says that “It is God who enables us to stand firm for
Christ. He has commissioned us, and He has identified is as His own by placing
the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first instalment that guarantees
everything He has promised us.”
2) Baptism – In water and Spirit. We
need to follow the example of Jesus and be baptized by Immersion in Water, and we
need to pray for a Baptism by Fire which is being filled with the Holy Spirit
and the demonstration of gift of Tongues. John 3:5 says “Most assuredly,
I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, He cannot see the
kingdom of God.”
3) Prayer in the Secret Place- We need
to build up our prayer altar and make it a habit to have a Quiet Time with the
Lord when He will speak to us and we can listen and learn from Him. We have to
make Prayer our lifestyle and pray without ceasing in all things and for
all things. 1 Thess 5:17
4) Praise & Worship- Singing Psalms
and songs and hymns to usher in the Presence and Glory of God. Eph 5:19
says that we must sing unto the Lord from our heart.
5) Bible study and meditation - We need
the Word to be successful in the spiritual warfare that we enter into the
moment we become real Christians. We read in Mathew 4 how Jesus used the Sword
of the Spirit which is the Word of God to fight against the temptations of the
Devil. We need to put on the whole armor of God as mentioned in Ephesians
6: 11-18 in order to stand against the wiles of the enemy.
6) Fellowship with the saints- We need
to find the right people we can share with and encourage one another. If we
pray to the Lord for the right people , He will bring them into our lives. As
Iron sharpens Iron we will be able to grow quicker by learning from one
another. (Proverbs 27:17)
7)Sowing in to the Kingdom of God- We
read in 2 Corin 9:6-7 that “God loves a cheerful Giver.” We must give to the work of God that which we
have in our hand and He will provide us with more than we can ask think or
imagine. However, we must be sure that we are sowing into the right and fertile
soil where help goes to the needy ones and not into the wrong pockets.
8) Always be ready to learn- John
14:26 “It is the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things”, sometimes
through His Word and sometimes through other people. We must always be
teachable and ready to learn. If we are teachable, God will put into our hands
different resources like books and tapes, different websites and blogs. We can
also go for the right Conferences and build up our faith from time to time.
Learning from the mistakes of others prevent us from making the same mistakes
and this would accelerate our learning capacity.
9) Serve – We have a Savior who never hesitated to serve the people around Him. “He taught, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, fed the hungry and delivered those oppressed of the devil.” -Mathew 4:23,24. He went to the extent to wash the feet of His disciples! (John 13:12,15) What a wonderful example to follow we have! We see in Eph 4:11 that God has blessed every one of us with some gift of the Holy Spirit. Whatever the talent that the Lord has given us, we must use it to further the Kingdom of God. If it is singing, we can join the Music Ministry, if it is to prophecy, we can encourage /edify another with it, if it is to take care of the old /sick we can do that. If it is to cook, we can share the love of God with the hungry, or we can be a friend/ listening ear to someone who is hurt and broken and in need of a shoulder to cry on. If we have the gift of time and tears, we could be an Intercessor and stand in the gap and pray to God for people around us in need of breakthrough in their life. Jesus will help us to pray and put fresh ideas for us to intercede. It is said that Intercessors are very close to the heart of God for He shares His burdens with them, and they call things into being with their prayers.
10) Share the Good News- In Mathew
28:19,20 Jesus has given us the Great Commission to “go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit
and to teach them to obey everything He has commanded us.” We may never
be able to travel as a missionary to the Nations, but we can be faithful and
bloom where the Lord has planted us. We can pray to God to make us a Blessing
wherever we go. We can ask the Holy Spirit for direction and guidance about
what He wants us to do to share the Good News of the Gospel with the people
around us. We can shine our light so brightly that people would see Jesus in
us. Everybody needs Jesus! We can pray for the salvation of the people in our
life and those who ask us to pray for them. Of course, we need to depend on the
Holy Spirit for wisdom and discernment always; for apart from Him we can
do nothing. John 15: 5 we can be available to Him and He will use us in
small ways to bring life to those in need of His touch.
So, there is indeed so much for us to do to fan into flame the
gift of God in us. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power,
love and self-discipline and we should never be ashamed of sharing our
testimony of how the Lord has transformed our lives by saving us, giving us
purpose and making us holy by His grace. (2 Tim 1:6-8)
In Mathew 25, verses 1-13, we read of the Parable of
the Ten Virgins. There were 5 who were wise and five who were foolish.
We read that all 10 of them fall asleep waiting for the bridegroom. However,
the wise ones had kept extra oil ready, unlike the foolish ones who miss the
wedding banquet because they were not ready for Him. And the door was shut!
Let us always be ready for the Bridegroom (Our Lord & King
Jesus) is coming soon to receive His Beautiful Bride, (Us , the Church) without
spot or blemish and let is keep our lamps burning with the oil which signifies
the anointing. Jesus ends this beautiful parable once again by warning us in Mathew
25:13 “to keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour!”
We read in the book of Revelation chapter 22 and verse
12 “Behold I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone
according to his work.” Let that be an encouragement for us to always
be ready for Him and “to redeem the time coz the days are evil.”- Eph
5:14-17
Enjoy this song: He’s Coming Soon! By Bebe & Cece
Winans.
https://youtu.be/0TzPXlQ4OFs?si=7vB4jIsygPl-9W6Q
Rev 2:20 " Surely I am coming quickly..."Amen Even so, come Lord Jesus!
Sparky Laurie
