November 2020 | Getting Ready
Firstly, Happy belated (American) Thanksgiving! I’m so thankful for all of you who read my newsletters and send such encouraging words! I hope that you had an amazing time with your loved ones and those dear to you. Continue to carry that thankfulness and gratefulness throughout the remainder of this year and into next. Remember His enduring mercies that lasts forever. That stays true to you in your highest and lowest moments because of His great love for you! [Psalm 136]
As we draw closer to the end of this year, the more I begin the think about the end of the age as Jesus talked about in Matthew 24. How the nations will rise against one another, how we would be hated for His names sake, and that lawlessness would abound. I can’t help but look around after this year thinking about this text and wondering if Jesus’ second coming is truly upon us.
This question excites me because we know that in that time, the Gospel will be preached in every nation and then, and only then, the end will come. [Matthew 24:14]
To know that the harvest is plenty and that we are the labors [Matthew 9:37-38]
We need to be ready for His return if it’s next week, next year, or in a thousand years. It doesn’t change that we should live our lives in anticipation for Him. To have that maranatha cry, to say “Come Lord Jesus!”
Something that the Lord has revealed to me over this month is the "how" of his return. The context of His coming and why I need to be ready. You hear in many churches that Jesus is the Prince of Peace [Isaiah 9:6], the Lamb of God [John 1:29]. That He is one of grace and one of mercy. He is all of those things and will forever be those things. The thing He’s been revealing to me is that all of those talk about when it was prophesied of His first coming and when He was on the Earth. So what does it saw when He comes back?
“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Jesus is a Lord of War. [Exodus 15:3]
He comes back to take His bride and to strike judgement on those who rejected Him. If a man comes from the sky on a white horse in a robe drenched in blood and fire in His eyes, she’s coming to execute wrath. That is not the lamb, that is the lion.
[Revelation 5:5]
When the Children of Israel went to war, the ones who went first was the Tribe of Judah.
[Judges 20:18] They would be the ones to trample their enemies and to deliver vengeance upon them. When Jesus returns, that is what He is going to do. He is a bloody King.
So after all of this, what happens next? He makes all things new! He will wipe away every tear and take away all death, all sorrow, and all pain. [Revelation 21:4]
So as we near the end of this year and go about or lives, continue to get ready! Get ready for Him! Like a bride before her wedding, make yourself in a right standing with Him as a pure and spotless one! Continue to call Him holy and yearn for His coming!
Well, thank you for coming to my TED talk! This is what the Lord has really been placing on my heart and I felt led to share it with you. I pray that this continues to go deeper down into you soul and spirit, and that Jesus gives you an excitement for his coming!
If you’d like to support me in any way, I have a giving link below as well as some prayer requests. Much love!
www.paypal.me/JosiahDavidGibbs
Prayer Requests: New Zealand | I’m still all lined up to head back to YWAM Queenstown once borders open, just prayer that God provides for the both myself and for the base to facilitate both now and in the future.
Continued Hunger | I asked for this last newsletter, but I just want more of God! To just know Him more and sink deeper into His heart!
Creativity | Going into next year I have a lot of ideas and I want to steward these ideas well. To give myself the time to make them what God has given me and to do so with excellence.
Answered Prayers: Finances | God has brought some amazing people into my life who have wanted to support me even while being in Florida and staffing at the church, so that’s super cool!
Revelation | As this newsletter has obviously shown, the Lord has been giving me a lot!
Music To Check Out:
Camp Lukewarm - Lord’s Child
All Hail the Bloody King - Dalton & Anna Thomas
To The One - UPPERROOM
Returning - Vineyard Anaheim
Smile In The Mystery - John Mark McMillan
You Hold It All Together - Maverick City Music & UPPERROOM