The Bride
Updated: Mar 16, 2019
Now here we are, almost two thousand years after His death (30AD), witnessing a world and an age that is closing. The forces of this world will have their day, but it is a short time, to play out the final scenes..
The Bride
In the land of England a common young woman accepts the proposal of her handsome prince. She quickly realizes that nothing will ever be the same for her again. No longer a commoner. Her name will change. Her thinking will need to change and the way she speaks will be changed. She would never walk the same, talk the same or carry herself in public the same way ever again. She was going to undergo a transformation. Be 'born again' so to speak, into the new self that she would be for the rest of her life. Her coaches will ensure that she has a very strong impression on the importance of representing the family she now finds herself belonging to. She is to be a princess, perhaps even a queen.
The British media reported:
Kate has been sent to Princess School in Lancashire in Northern England, where she will study with renowned Princess Whisperer, Dame Marjorie Maple, who is reportedly the only woman on earth with “proper manners in every situation”. Dame Maple met with Princess Kate and had this report:
“Kate is very pretty and has a great smile, but she’s been infected by the culture of today.” “Her manners are equivalent to those of a dead circus cat. It will take me two years to get her in shape, but I am confident I can do it.”
She was infected by the culture of the day, it was said. Amazing. And how many of us are so too, infected by the culture of the day within our churches?
Now think about this... how long was she the bride? Was she not the fiancee as long as she was engaged to the young prince. Was she not his wife the moment the vows were exchanged? She was his bride for only a day. She had weeks, months of preparation to know how to behave and how to address the media and how to speak. She was to become a princess. The moment those vows were over, she turned around and she was a princess, facing her people in attendance.
Who are you? The Bride of Christ. You are engaged to the King. The King has sent out the invitations. The table is set. The bells are ringing. Are you ready to meet the Bridegroom? For indeed the hour is at hand.
Our young English example, had expectations to meet, and you can rest assured that if she was not cooperative with her teachers, or did not care about what was expected of her, the family would have some very strong words with the young man, who would soon be king.
The point I am trying to make is simple. If you knew that your Prince was coming soon, would you not do what is needful to show yourself ready for being taken into this family. We have such a finite view of such an eternal purpose. Heaven is not the end of things. It is the beginning. But even before any notion you have about Heaven becomes a reality for you, there is this little thing called a millennium, which is right before us. Standing at the very threshold of our time.
The Bride of Christ is the Church. Yet the term church, within out culture today has lost all its power, honour and influence. So tainted is it now in the eyes of so many here in our society. Therefore I often will say we are having family reunions every week! Feels better to me.
Back to the Bride. We are engaged to the King. Remember the preparation Ester went through before she could even be presented to the King. Six months or more. I would like the 'church' to recognize that she is the 'bride' to be. Engaged. Let the teaching and solemness of this realization to sink in deep. Will you sit back and chill out waiting for the Prince to show up? Or will you stop and realize that just like our young English example, we too, need to get an education on how to think, how to speak and what it will mean to be in His family.
Young Catherine had to be prepared to be a wife. For she was a bride for only a day, and the purpose of being a bride is only to transition into being a wife. A co-ruler with her husband. Are you starting to see what I am getting at. She needed to know how to rule. How to reign. How to govern over the people of her land. The instructors she had were not focused on making her into the best bride she could be. No. They were focused on making her the best princess or queen that their nation could have. Your instructor, the Holy Spirit, is not focused on you being the bride. Stop thinking of yourself as the bride. You need to start thinking about preparing the way you think and act and speak in line with what it means to be the wife.
Your destiny is not to be the bride - your destiny is much bigger than that. Much more noble and far reaching that a single wedding on a single day for a single moment. Your destiny consists of the plans that He has for you and those plans most certainly move beyond the wedding day. Those plans have within them, your purpose, your destiny and your meaning in Him.
You are the bride. A bride with a purpose to rule and reign with Christ. You will reign and govern. You will need to know how to speak on behalf of the family you now represent. Think right. Talk right.
This is what we are to be doing now! The hour is at hand. Like Simeon and Anna from Luke chapter two we are on the verge of a shift in time... the old is passing away and the new is at hand. They were witnesses to the Messiah. The close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. An age of grace brought in by the sacrifice of the One on the cross.
Now here we are, almost two thousand years after His death (30AD), witnessing a world and an age that is closing. The forces of this world will have their day, but it is a short time, to play out the final scenes.
The time for the ruling and reigning of Jesus and His Bride is at hand. But don't be waiting for the arrival of His kingdom to learn how to operate in His kingdom. He is preparing you now, if you will listen. There are millennial concepts on food, nutrition, education, finance, energy and many other fields are being developed by inspired and attentive believers all over the world. We need to be listening to the voice of the Lord as he prepares us to seamlessly step from one era into the next.
Blessings
Mark Hutzler, Eschatologist www.FullBibleTimeline.com