BEING THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
Are you intimate with the Bridegroom? Do you radiate His Presence through your life? Can you speak on His behalf because you KNOW Him so well that you drip of His anointing – His very Presence?
When you come into the Kingdom, you become a Christian. A Christian is, by basic definition, a follower of Christ. You are also a son of God and the Bride of Christ. But there is also a deeper more intimate level. It is much deeper than being just Christ’s Bride, His Church, the Corporate Body of Christ.
The “Bride” part is the ceremony part. It’s the joyful enthusiasm of being betrothed to Jesus Christ. The ceremony has begun, but we have not yet been pronounced as “man and wife.” We are made one, by faith, and He lives within us, but we are not actually one in manifested form. We have yet to manifest His character and nature within our very lives one hundred percent of the time. We are merely, at this point, walking down the aisle toward the altar, toward our fuller destiny. We are still on our journey (Romans 3: 23-24, Philippians 3:13-14). Anything can happen.
At the alter, we have reached the first climax of having and being fuller destiny with Him. We are not merely in transition as the beautiful Bride without spot or blemish, but we have become the wife of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are in full battle gear and the enemy has gone down hard. Now we are truly one! The marriage has become “consummate,” we know Him more fully as we are already known by Him. Nothing does He withhold from us – we KNOW Him intimately.
As wife, we have a deeper level, a deeper commitment, longevity, eternity with Him. Deeper than before and ever deepening, still passion-filled, still celebrating and warrior equipped. It’s a fuller destiny, a fuller intimacy, an oneness that doesn’t happen with anyone or anything else – the two are now one, nothing is hidden.
This is the new dimension – after a temporal shift, a rift between what we now know – who we know ourselves to be and who we really are. And we will know, have locked in who we are in Him, a full knowledge, a full revelation. Our full identity is sealed in Him till that time. Not only will He know us, but everyone else will know us as well – completely made known to one another – spirit to spirit communication, no garbling. There will be perfect communication, complete obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, loving our Triune God and loving one another, just more purely and more intensely than we can possibly conceive now.
You will drip with His anointing – His very Presence, for you will be soaked, saturated with Him. Not merely, “Oh, the Lord is here!” I’m dripping oil, plastered onto the floor or up against a wall or person. No longer, “Oh, do I have to respond now? I was just doing such and such – it’s too late to do that Lord…” (Song of Solomon 7:3). There will be no hesitancy; response will be immediate and it will flow – it has to be immediate; lives may depend upon it; no “faltering between two opinions” (1 Kings 18:21) that allows you to get ripped down the middle, and the Lord having to undo the damage the tearing cost you. There will be a joyful obedience, a soul completely bent to obedience to the Lord, in utter delight of doing His will and obeying His Word. And you would be able to constantly and consistently carry forth His Presence wherever you go.
Do you want to know a little about what it’s like to carry His Intimate Presence? [The Lord has given me a taste, a fore-running of it, and now I (really, really, really) earnestly want it. I’ve got to have more of him –] What I have is not enough. I want more than just hearing His heart beating within me, His pulse beating, reverberating within my breast – oh, the oneness, the Love – complete and unconditional Love. Oops, I digress…
You know how if you’ve ever been around a smoker that their clothes are saturated with smoke. It soaks in, it saturates them, it absorbs into their skin; it lingers upon them. It even permeates into the room or rooms that they smoke in.
When you move toward the smoker, go to hug them, you can smell the smoke coming up from them, from their clothing, and you leave them, carrying the smoke smell with you. But that smell cannot stay upon you; it gets washed away, it blows off of you; it has not permeated your own skin. It may linger a while, but you have not been saturated with it; it is temporary.
The same goes for the anointing. And we are to become saturated, permeated with the Presence of the Lord, His fragrance, His anointing (Song of Solomon 5: 3-5, esp. v. 4). We are not only to wear His Presence, as a perfumed garment, and hold His Name as Christians, but be the vessels of His Presence, forever saturated and permeated with His Character and nature. And the more time we spend in His presence, focusing upon Him, developing intimacy with Him, worshipping Him in Spirit and in Truth, the more impossible it will be to remove that scent from within us, and we will begin to develop His character and nature within ourselves, because He will transform us. Our beauty treatments are to be completed upon this earth (Esther 2:12-13) to be presented to the King.
There’s an atmosphere we carry. We walk into a room and the Spirit of God is so powerful that people are slain by just our breath because of His power we wield. Healings will no longer be a time process but instantaneous. These will be only the beginning signs that we are nearing the marriage supper of the Lamb – our role as wife still approaches – more fuller and complete than I can even begin to describe here. We will be walking in the full power and authority of Christ when we are His wife – not just a taste of Him, but a fuller comprehension, deeper than your deepest desire that has just been awakened (Song of Solomon 8:6-7) leading to the ultimate union of Christ and His Church, which is still only the beginning.
For now, puzzle pieces are still being fit together (without force), both individually and for the Bride. There will be no gaps, no holes, no breaks, no “missing people,” only a complete Corporate Body, the true Bride. With Him as our head, we flow, move, dance, as He directs because we are one with Him. There’s no lag, no delay, no hesitation, but immediate response to Him, simultaneous and synchronized movement and rhythm…a unity, an oneness, purity, perfection.
As for now, we must move past the rehearsal dinner, past the ceremonial walking down the aisle, and past the symbolism of merely being the Bride. We must move toward our King, receive Him as our Lord and Bridegroom King, and then onto the wedding feast, where we will be presented as the Lamb’s wife.
When you come into the Kingdom, you become a Christian. A Christian is, by basic definition, a follower of Christ. You are also a son of God and the Bride of Christ. But there is also a deeper more intimate level. It is much deeper than being just Christ’s Bride, His Church, the Corporate Body of Christ.
The “Bride” part is the ceremony part. It’s the joyful enthusiasm of being betrothed to Jesus Christ. The ceremony has begun, but we have not yet been pronounced as “man and wife.” We are made one, by faith, and He lives within us, but we are not actually one in manifested form. We have yet to manifest His character and nature within our very lives one hundred percent of the time. We are merely, at this point, walking down the aisle toward the altar, toward our fuller destiny. We are still on our journey (Romans 3: 23-24, Philippians 3:13-14). Anything can happen.
At the alter, we have reached the first climax of having and being fuller destiny with Him. We are not merely in transition as the beautiful Bride without spot or blemish, but we have become the wife of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are in full battle gear and the enemy has gone down hard. Now we are truly one! The marriage has become “consummate,” we know Him more fully as we are already known by Him. Nothing does He withhold from us – we KNOW Him intimately.
As wife, we have a deeper level, a deeper commitment, longevity, eternity with Him. Deeper than before and ever deepening, still passion-filled, still celebrating and warrior equipped. It’s a fuller destiny, a fuller intimacy, an oneness that doesn’t happen with anyone or anything else – the two are now one, nothing is hidden.
This is the new dimension – after a temporal shift, a rift between what we now know – who we know ourselves to be and who we really are. And we will know, have locked in who we are in Him, a full knowledge, a full revelation. Our full identity is sealed in Him till that time. Not only will He know us, but everyone else will know us as well – completely made known to one another – spirit to spirit communication, no garbling. There will be perfect communication, complete obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, loving our Triune God and loving one another, just more purely and more intensely than we can possibly conceive now.
You will drip with His anointing – His very Presence, for you will be soaked, saturated with Him. Not merely, “Oh, the Lord is here!” I’m dripping oil, plastered onto the floor or up against a wall or person. No longer, “Oh, do I have to respond now? I was just doing such and such – it’s too late to do that Lord…” (Song of Solomon 7:3). There will be no hesitancy; response will be immediate and it will flow – it has to be immediate; lives may depend upon it; no “faltering between two opinions” (1 Kings 18:21) that allows you to get ripped down the middle, and the Lord having to undo the damage the tearing cost you. There will be a joyful obedience, a soul completely bent to obedience to the Lord, in utter delight of doing His will and obeying His Word. And you would be able to constantly and consistently carry forth His Presence wherever you go.
Do you want to know a little about what it’s like to carry His Intimate Presence? [The Lord has given me a taste, a fore-running of it, and now I (really, really, really) earnestly want it. I’ve got to have more of him –] What I have is not enough. I want more than just hearing His heart beating within me, His pulse beating, reverberating within my breast – oh, the oneness, the Love – complete and unconditional Love. Oops, I digress…
You know how if you’ve ever been around a smoker that their clothes are saturated with smoke. It soaks in, it saturates them, it absorbs into their skin; it lingers upon them. It even permeates into the room or rooms that they smoke in.
When you move toward the smoker, go to hug them, you can smell the smoke coming up from them, from their clothing, and you leave them, carrying the smoke smell with you. But that smell cannot stay upon you; it gets washed away, it blows off of you; it has not permeated your own skin. It may linger a while, but you have not been saturated with it; it is temporary.
The same goes for the anointing. And we are to become saturated, permeated with the Presence of the Lord, His fragrance, His anointing (Song of Solomon 5: 3-5, esp. v. 4). We are not only to wear His Presence, as a perfumed garment, and hold His Name as Christians, but be the vessels of His Presence, forever saturated and permeated with His Character and nature. And the more time we spend in His presence, focusing upon Him, developing intimacy with Him, worshipping Him in Spirit and in Truth, the more impossible it will be to remove that scent from within us, and we will begin to develop His character and nature within ourselves, because He will transform us. Our beauty treatments are to be completed upon this earth (Esther 2:12-13) to be presented to the King.
There’s an atmosphere we carry. We walk into a room and the Spirit of God is so powerful that people are slain by just our breath because of His power we wield. Healings will no longer be a time process but instantaneous. These will be only the beginning signs that we are nearing the marriage supper of the Lamb – our role as wife still approaches – more fuller and complete than I can even begin to describe here. We will be walking in the full power and authority of Christ when we are His wife – not just a taste of Him, but a fuller comprehension, deeper than your deepest desire that has just been awakened (Song of Solomon 8:6-7) leading to the ultimate union of Christ and His Church, which is still only the beginning.
For now, puzzle pieces are still being fit together (without force), both individually and for the Bride. There will be no gaps, no holes, no breaks, no “missing people,” only a complete Corporate Body, the true Bride. With Him as our head, we flow, move, dance, as He directs because we are one with Him. There’s no lag, no delay, no hesitation, but immediate response to Him, simultaneous and synchronized movement and rhythm…a unity, an oneness, purity, perfection.
As for now, we must move past the rehearsal dinner, past the ceremonial walking down the aisle, and past the symbolism of merely being the Bride. We must move toward our King, receive Him as our Lord and Bridegroom King, and then onto the wedding feast, where we will be presented as the Lamb’s wife.