PREPARING FOR THE MIGHTY COMING OF THE LORD

THE BUD FAMILY AFRICA
MONTHLY PRAYER AND FASTING BULLETIN FOR JUNE, 2025

THEME: PREPARING FOR THE MIGHTY COMING OF THE LORD
TEXT: Matthew 22: 8-14
BIBLE READING:

Hello sisters and welcome to our last fasting and prayer program before the Juicy July, 2025. It is that time of the year we all should look forward to. Today’s bulletin will mainly be focused on the preparations we need to make for the great things the Lord is set to do in our lives in this coming month. I pray that the Lord will guide our hearts as we study and walk through what He has for us today.

 

Preparing for The Mighty Coming of the Lord.

 

Let’s take a look at Matthew 22: 8 – 14 (KJV):

8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

 

 

Can you imagine attending a life-changing event but you were not let in because you did not carry or show a pass card? Some before you entered, some after you entered but because they had this tiny and pretty card that was scanned through an equipment and it let them in.

 

 

But You could not get in because you did not carry that card.

 

The door just would not open up!

 

 

You tried to rush in the moment it opened up for someone with the card but the machine was made smart to only allow the weight of a person through the main door. You tried all the other available entrances including the one meant for staff members but they all had the same equipment! The devastation such an individual will feel cannot be described with the best words especially because the event is supposed to bring solutions to pending issues.

 

 

Yes! This is how Juicy July is. It is not an event, it is an encounter, a life-changing, life-transforming, life-elevating season where God, our Father, encounters our lives in every ramifications and aligns us with deeper realities of Himself and Power.

 

 

It is that space hosted by Heaven where God’s children who participate in it touch realms they never knew existed in God.

It is that season where we set Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Big Brother, before us anew, afresh, and we renew the love and devotion we have for Him.

 

 

God, the Father, is ready! The Heavens are set! The windows are open! The Spirit is hovering! The Word is awaiting declaration! The fire awaits the call to fall! The angels are lined up to deliver Heaven’s goodies! A new dawn is awaiting breaking!

 

 

Just one issue…

 

Some don’t have their feasting garments ready!!!

 

The pass card required, some don’t have it!

 

Some who have the pass card, are too casually dressed for divine encounter!!! They are not appropriately dressed for the season at hand.

 

Those who are appropriately dressed don’t have enough oil in their lamps to light the way to the venue and they are not making efforts to get more!!!

 

Some others are still busy giving excuses upon excuses as to why they can’t make it into the Juicy space!! The excuse is as flimsy as ‘I don’t even like Juice!’

 

Some don’t know the way and they seem not to be bothered about finding help to get to space and not so bothered about it!!!

 

 

Many won’t partake not because there are no wedding garments to change into but because they just don’t care that much about their lives.

The key verse is that “The wedding is ready but they which are bidden are not worthy”.

The Lord is simply saying that the feast is ready, His blessings are ready, He’s actually always ready to pour out His rain, the clouds are gathering, always willing to fill the hearts of men, but they which have been invited to come and dine, are not worthy, are not ready and are not fit to dine with the King.

 

 

The worthiness of those who are called to feast with the Lord in Juicy July will largely depend on the garment they are putting on– their inward state.

 

 

Jesus is very clear on this subject when He said in Mark 2:21-22:
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.

 

 

God will not pour a new batch of heavenly made goodies, freshly prepared, into a corruptible space. You can’t mend an old cloth using new fabric. Neither will do the other any good. Jesus makes heaven’s stance very clear on this matter: no one will be given new cloth to mend old clothes, neither will new wine be given only to be poured into old wine skins. Why?

 

 

Because the old wine skin has no capacity to sustain the richness of the new wine. The new wine will only waste away and that will mean wasting heaven’s resources! God will not have that. Even the leftover bread and fishes that Jesus multiplied had to be gathered. John 14: 12 says …Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted…

 

 

You can’t feast with the same old skin, you can’t feast with self and the flesh spotting the garments of purity.
Check out what is said in Ecclesiastes 9:8 AMP:
“Let your clothes always be white [with purity], and do not let the oil [of gladness] be lacking on your head”.

 

 

In this context and aligning with where we started from, the right garment which has to do with our hearts is all about the purity of heart. Matthew 5:8 (NLT): “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God”.

 

When the heart is pure, it is the pass card/password/passcode/pass entry, to see God!!!

 

A pure heart is not a perfect heart. Far from it! It is simply a heart with a clear conscience before God and before man. It is that heart you can not find blame with. The accuser has nothing nor holds nothing against that heart.

 

In 1 Peter 3:15-16 (CSB):
…but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, …keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame

Acts 24:16 (CSB):
I always strive to have a clear conscience toward God and men.

 

 

When one has a clear conscience, one can stand blameless before God and man, no fault to your name in heaven’s records and here on earth. Anyone who keeps a clear conscience regards God first and seeks to please Him at all times. Such an individual consistently seeks to be on a right standing with God, while recognising that she is one weak fellow and all she longs for is to have God and His strength to help her live right.

 

A pure heart yearns to do His will and let Him have His way even when it seems the odds are against her. She will always let God have the final say. A pure heart says like David in Psalm 27:4 (CSB), ‘I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.

 

All, so to be with Him, to see Him.

 

 

Just that one request!

I urge you dear sister, as you prayerfully and watchfully prepare for the Juicy July, ask yourself if you have a heart that longs to see God, to be with Him. It is not so easy to separate an entire month to be consecrated to God, actively seeking His face daily.

 

You want to turn your face on God and say God please prepare my heart to see Your face. Don’t only come expecting to receive something of God – job/marriage/child/healing e.t.c.

 

 

The Lord would also love for you to seek His face and sharpen your spiritual eyes to see His glory and power.

 

 

He wants you to know Him – to see His face – to love Him – to experience Him, yes sisters, He does.

 

 

The wrong garment will surely prevent you from enjoying the feast. When the King of Glory is vetting all who have come to feast with him, your dirty or clean wrong garment will surely be spotted out because the Lord hates spotting, James 1:27 (NIV): “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”.

 

 

Can you imagine a wedding where the bride has a dirty wedding gown, stained, rumpled and rough? You would surely look at that with utmost dismay, how could you appear at your wedding in such garments? Were you not ashamed or did you think that it was okay to come this way, even a guest would have dressed much better, why then is the bride looking so shabby?

 

 

That is exactly our state when we come to the Lord with garments that are impure. One part that really breaks my heart is when the Lord still called the man “FRIEND”! He was asking friend, how come you are wearing improper garments? Why do you look so shabby? Is there anything I can do to help you, to bring you into the proper state which you should be in before we dine together? The man was speechless! Oh what a pity!

 

 

Sisters, cry out to the Lord and say this prayer:
“Lord, I will not be speechless when you want to help me!”

 

 

You know the Lord knows how pained you are about your singleness, and he wants more than anything to see you married joyfully, He knows how badly you want to carry your own baby and he really desires to give you your own bundle of goodness, He knows how desperately you need a job in order to settle bills and he has absolutely no delight in seeing you ”broke” and borrowing all the time, Yes sister!

 

 

The Lord wants to settle you completely but first He’s saying – will you seek to see My face? To know what I want? To share in My joys and sorrows?

 

 

Prayerfully listen to this song. Let your heart say and sing these words to the Lord:

New wine (Hillsong Worship)

In the crushing,
In the pressing,
You are making new wine,
In the soil,
I now surrender,
You are breaking new ground;

So I yield to you into your careful hand,
When I trust you I don’t need to understand,

Make me your vessel,
Make me an offering,
Make me whatever you want me to be,
I came here with nothing,
But all you have given me,
Jesus bring new wine out of me (2X).

Jesus, bring new wine out of me,
Jesus, bring new wine out of me,

‘Cause where there is new wine,
There is new power,
There is new freedom,
And the Kingdom is here,
I lay down my old flames,
To carry your new fire today (2X)

 

Will you begin to ask the Lord to make new wine out of you in this Juicy July?

 

Would you cry to Him and say Father:

I want new wine. I want new power. I want new freedom. I want fresh anointing. I want a newness of life. I want to desire only You. I want a renewed heart. Let this Juicy July be a time where you empty me of all old wine, of old self, of old sin and make new wine out of me.

 

 

Just as we round up, these three practical steps to prepare for the Juicy July program would be key to summarizing all we’ve said in the other pages of this bulletin.

 

• Prepare your hearts.

James 5:16b (KJV): “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”.
Our heart posture is very critical to receive anything from the Lord. Your heart has to be righteous, clean from evil and free from sin.

Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT): “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”.

 

I love the part where he says point out anything in me that offends you. The most reflective way would be through people around you. You could suddenly notice how impatient you are, or how malicious you could be or even how angry you become.

 

Someone’s presence irritates you, you are finding it hard to forgive. You think you can do a better job than what your colleague is doing. You see what someone has and you will do anything to also have it. Oh! So many ways we do offend the Lord!

 

If the Lord does not search us by His Spirit, with His Word, we will only continue to bear around a heart that is ill-smelling before the Lord, old clothing that cannot be patched in anyway. Watch out for these offensive ways and take them to the cross.

 

Ask the Lord to thoroughly search your heart, try your heart, cleanse your heart and make you wholly true to receive from him.

 

Ask Him to humble your heart and rid you of all pride. A proud heart has nothing to receive from the Lord!

 

 

• Prepare your bodies.

 

Romans 12: 1, 2 NLT: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, [a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. [b] Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”.

2 Corinthians 4:16 ESV: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day”.

 

In this period of fasting dear sister, it would be the best choice if you could waste away for the Lord and choose inner renewal. The above verses are simply pointing out the need to let self die. If self does not die, we cannot be renewed. If self does not die, we cannot receive anything tangible or valuable from the Lord.

 

If self does not die, we cannot, in any way, offer anything pleasing and acceptable before the Lord.

 

In fact, self has to die so you can prepare a heart that is worthy of acceptance before God. Depriving yourself of anything that will not allow you to create adequate time with the Lord! It could be food, pleasure through social media, friends, sleep, movies, unnecessary outings, whatever will distract you from seeking God and just choosing to feast on God’s word and His Presence richly.

 

 

Don’t think about how you feel due to hunger or depriving yourself of these things. The human body can go without food for more than 30 days so don’t worry about fainting for a few hours. Those are just tricks of the devil to hinder you from fasting and seeking the face of God.

 

The flesh is accustomed to relaxing and comfort. It will fight back surely. It will make you feel like you can’t do without these things. But, the moment you keep saying no to it and keep saying yes to God, you will find out that it was never as important as it appeared to be in the first instance.

 

Trust the Lord for strength for this season. He has plenty in store for you. Only keep asking for grace each moment you perceive your strength is waning.

 

 

 

• Prepare your spirit.

 

 

You have to war against the flesh daily and fasting and prayers is a great way, maybe the greatest way to exercise your spirit. Romans 8:5 NIV: “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires”.

You really want to feed your spirit man in this season. It should be fat and flourishing. It should be brimming with energy, hungry for more food (the word), more prayers and more edifying. It is the season to build up your spirit to fight and win.

 

You feed it with God’s Word, nourish it with prayers.

 

Surround yourself with Spirit-inspired sermons and music.

 

Let the air around you be soaked with God’s Spirit.

 

Make up your mind to be obedient to God’s instructions to you no matter what. It is in obedience that we God weighs the sincerity of the heart!

 

Seek to increase in the Fruit of the Spirit as the enemy will come around testing you just to make you grieve the Holy Spirit. Don’t let him!

 

This is the state we should be during the entire Juicy July. Ready to receive from the Lord and eager to feed more on his word. Set your heart on everything godly, truthful, and holy.

 

Once again, listen to songs and messages and read materials that feed your spirit man in this month.

Do away with anything that will draw you away from God’s presence.

 

Matthew 26:41 (NIV): “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”.

 

The spirit is willing to serve, to pray, to be holy and to love the Lord but we have to battle against the flesh. The only way to kill the flesh is to starve it, just like if someone is starved for long, the person could die after a few months, if your flesh is starved for long, it will die too naturally and if you start to feed it again, you would resurrect it from death.

 

Temptation would come in different ways but the bible says clearly, 1 Corinthians 10:13 (MSG): “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it”.

 

Holding on to God’s word that speaks directly to whatever situation you may be going through is the best way to overcome any temptation and understanding. The Lord is much ready to move and visit our hearts, but the only issue is that our hearts are not ready to receive him, or to experience him.

 

As we go into prayers dear sister, I want you to fix your gaze on Jesus and tell Him to prepare you for what He has in store for you in this Juicy July.

 

LET US PRAY!!!

 

 

• Thank the Lord for what He has said to you today. Bless His name for bringing His word to you, bearing His heart.
• Thank the Lord for all the previous Juicy July we have had in the family. Thank Him for the testimonies, thank Him for the experience, thank Him for the many victories, for the answered prayers. Thank Him for His unfailing mercies showered on us as a family, year after year.
• Say Father, come by Your power, come in Your glory, please grace our midst this July with your Presence.
  Father, Let Your glory shine forth from Your Mercy Seat. Let Your glory come to our midst and revive us, save us.
• Father, cause Your face to shine upon us for mercy, for grace, for favour, for strength, for an in-filling, for an outpouring of Your glory!!
• Prepare me, Father for what You have in mind for me. Prepare BUD for what You have in mind for her. Help us align with You, walk in Your pace, that we may not miss divine appointments, divine visitations, divine enablement, divine empowerments.
• Father, glorify Yourself in our midst in Juicy July.
• Declare to Him and say: You alone matter, Lord! You alone matter, Father! No one else but You, Jesus!
• Commit yourself into the hands of the Lord and ask Him to purify you for this season. Present your heart to Him, ask Him to search and deep cleanse you from within and make your wedding garment clean, pure and befitting.
• Present your bodies to the Lord and ask Him to help you honour your body in this season and keep it free from sin. Tell the Lord to help you overcome all the temptations the devil will bring your way this season. Ask for grace to say yes to Him and His will, and no to every other thing.
• Ask the Lord for grace and help you need to fast off food and worldly pleasures this Juicy July. Tell Him to fill you with His divine energy that while you fast and wait on him your outward man will perish but your inner man will be renewed in Christ daily, from glory to glory. Ask him to strengthen you each day of the Juicy July and help you not to be weary or faint.
• Ask the Lord to make you more like Jesus as you embark on this journey. Pray that you won’t please Him only for 31 days but that after Juicy July, you will keep thriving in Christ.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to set your altar ablaze with His fire. That your heart will begin to burn for Him, yearn for Him. Ask that before the first of July, your intimacy with Him will begin to increase from its current level.
• Pray that the Lord will rid your heart of every pride. Ask Him to enable you to humble yourself before Him so He can lift you up.
• Pray that sin will no longer have dominion over you but that you will always walk under Christ’s grace and not under the law.
• Pray that this July, that God, your Father will deal with all your excess and inadequacies. That those things that keep delimiting your growth in Christ will be so dealt with by the power of God.
• Tell the Lord your expectations from Juicy July. Whatever it may be, remember to keep it focused around seeking God’s face and not just what He can give you. Ask specifically for things that glorify Him, honour His name and exalts Him in your life.
• Ask the Lord to richly speak to you with each bulletin and ask Him to breathe upon each bulletin, every Scripture, every song that will be used throughout Juicy July. Ask Him to greatly renew the strength of every sister who has written the bulletin by His guidance.
• Pray for Mrs Yaks that she will never become an abandoned vessel in God’s hands. Pray that God will renew her strength in Him and bless her as He wills.
• Pray for every brethren who will be partaking in this year’s Juicy July from every part of the world that the Lord will speak to them Himself and attend to their cases, Pray that their expectations in God will not be cut short.
• Praise God for He is faithful always, every true, ever kind. Praise Him for who He is!
• Thank the Lord for answers to prayers. In Jesus Name! Amen!

 

 

Spend time with this song:

WHEN GOD WALKS IN (Dunsin Oyekan)

 

This is Holy Moment
When God walks in on us
Every gaze is on the Lion and the Lamb
This is Holy Moment
When God walks in on us
Every gaze is on the Lion and the Lamb

When the Glory comes
There’ll be no words to say (Oh-oh, oh-oh)
Oh-oh, oh-oh
When the Glory comes
There’ll be no words to say (Oh-oh, oh-oh)
Oh-oh, oh-oh (When the glory comes)
When the Glory comes
There’ll be no words to say
Oh-oh, oh-oh
When the Glory comes
There’ll be no words to say (Oh-oh, oh-oh)
Oh-oh, oh-oh

 

 

Dear Sister, as we step into Juicy July powerfully, remember to watch and pray and seek the Lord with all your heart in this season that He may shine His face upon you (Psalm 80:1-2). Expect to see Him; Get ready for His Glory, Hand, Presence.

 

 

See you all in our Bible study tonight and all the Bible studies we’ll have in the month of July.

 

God bless you, Sister!