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Chapter 9 Did you notice that there is no mention of the Bride here in this story? Where is the bride in all of this? Actually, this story does include the Bride. This story includes the church. We are the bride of Christ and what we are to learn from this story we apply to ourselves as His bride. The bride is often the center of attention at a wedding, yet we see no mention of the bride here. Why? I believe it’s because the beauty of the bride of Christ comes as you are hidden in Christ Himself. That’s where you belong—hidden in Him. You become hidden in Him as you receive this message of love, hope and faith, which brings you to a place where you can hide in intimacy with Him. It started with love—intercessory love—for those who had run out of wine. And your marriage with Christ began as He loved you enough to intercede for you to the point of laying down His life to save you pain, shame, humiliation and eternal torment. As His bride, you must receive His love. In fact, in order to become His bride you must receive His love. And when you receive His love your desire will be to keep yourself pure for Him. In order to do that you’ve got to see yourself how He sees you. You’ve got to see the beauty and value He placed within you. Not so you become arrogant and self-seeking, but so you can fully take your place as the bride and present yourself beautiful to Him. A bride’s lack of love for herself will keep her from presenting herself to the groom with purity. The reflection of her beauty comes from the groom. As He reveals his perception of the value |
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| <<Bible Seed Home The New Wine: Chapter 9 , The Bride | ||
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and beauty in her to her, then she will also see it and desire to present
herself to Him in purity. In Ephesians 5 we read for husbands to "love
your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, So
that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water
with the Word, That He might present the church to Himself in glorious
splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be
holy and faultless]." (Eph. 5:25-27 Amplified Bible). The Lord’s love
for you cleanses you to the point of making you pure to Him.
We also read in 1 John 3:2-3: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Having the hope of being like Jesus when you see Him purifies you. Just having the desire, the hope, the longing to be like Jesus brings cleansing to you. You will long to be like Jesus when you know His deep love for you. Steve Thompson told the story about how his little girl’s grandmother
was telling her how beautiful she was and she replied very confidently, "I
know it!" And the grandmother asked her how she knew it and she said,
"Because my daddy tells me so!" Just as this little girl will come to see
herself as beautiful because her daddy has told her so, in the same way as
you hear the words of love your Lord speaks to you, you will also see the
value He has placed on you and have the desire to remain a bride that is
without spot or blemish when He returns for you. |
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The devil will try and take the very characteristics that the Lord has put
within you that are valuable and attack those things. If you are generous,
humble, beautiful, talented etc. the devil will do all he can and try and
destroy those values in your life. One way is by convincing you to become
proud and to think that you somehow deserve credit for those
characteristics, but another way is to try and steal those qualities from
you by getting you to either not recognize them or become unappreciative
of them. You need to recognize the value of the gifts the Lord has placed
within you, and also within others. This book starts with the disciples and ends with the bride. Your walk with the Lord is the same way. As a disciple you believe in Him and follow Him and you end up in intimate relationship with Him. Having the heart of a disciple prepares you to be His bride. Jesus is not One who keeps you at a distance as you follow Him. He wants to walk with you intimately. The Last Supper was the meal that ushered in Jesus’ death. It was the supper at which John laid his head on Jesus’ breast. John saw Himself as the one Jesus loved. You also need to see yourself as the disciple Jesus loves. First you see yourself as a disciple, then as a disciple whom He loves. And only then will you be able to see yourself as His bride. Once you learn to see yourself as His bride individually, then the Lord will be able to show you how you must also love and value the Church as a whole—the whole body of Christ, each other and, of course, your local Church. We don’t see much of a love for our local Church these days. Of course the Lord loves His Church, but the Church, both local and worldwide, just like a bride, must perceive of His love and see the value in herself in order to want to present herself to the Lord in purity. It’s actually the Lord who presents the Church to Himself without spot or blemish. We can’t even do it. But the way He does it is through His love. As you receive His love for you, you will see the value He places in you and allow His cleansing love to purify you. |
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I was writing this chapter about the bride early one morning while my
husband was sleeping. While I was writing he had a dream about a bride at
a wedding who was being treated harshly by religion. A few days before
that he saw in a vision people throwing wine on the bride’s dress as she
was walking down the aisle. We, the body of Christ, are the expression of
God’s love towards each other. We need to allow the Lord to express His
love for others in the body of Christ through us. Remember what Jesus said
in John 13:35: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if
ye have love one to another." The beginning of this story at Cana
starts with Mary saying, "They have no wine." We need to look out
for each other. We don’t want to ‘throw wine’ at each other by using what
the Lord gives us to embarrass or humiliate each other. But we use what
the Lord shows us to bring others closer to the Lord. Are we looking to
‘stain’ each other’s wedding garments by pointing out each other’s sin, or
are we looking to help each other stay close to the Lord because only He
can keep us pure? Please don’t read this book as a nice story. Take it
to heart and ask God to help you search your heart and reveal to you the
areas in your life that need to be changed into His image. Ask Him to help
you soak in the fruit of the Spirit with the proper temperament and taste
His goodness slowly so as to appreciate every simple truth He reveals.
Make a decision to allow love, hope and faith to work together in your
life in order to bring this new wine at the proper time. Tell Him you
recognize His goodness. Call Him near! And receive His love for you, which
purifies you, and stirs up the desire to remain spotless until His coming.
And finally, allow this same love to move you to intercede for others, to
love His people with His love so together we can become a bride that will
be pleasing to Him. This story may include us, the bride, but a bride
cannot be a bride without the Groom. This story reveals the beauty of the
marriage, the intimacy, of Jesus Christ and His bride. |
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