Too old to pioneer? Part 5
In recent times you’ll probably have read or heard on the News that people are being encouraged by the Government to store provisions in case of a calamity. There may well be some common sense in that suggestion, but there is a much greater event coming for which practical ‘prepping’ alone will never prepare us! I’m referring to the tumultuous incidents at the End of the Age precipitating the return of Jesus! More than anything we need to be preparing as the Bride to meet her Bridegroom King.
There’s a wedding coming! The Bride is being made ready and as Christians we need to take personal responsibility for engaging in the process. Sadly, it’s so easy to get caught up with busy-ness, focusing on doing rather than becoming.
God is creating a corporate vessel who will be fit to be his Bride, and it won’t happen by us trying to prove our worth by what we do. It’s by dying to self and allowing the life of Jesus to fill us and live through us. Paul could confidently say: ‘It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’. (Galatians 2:20) Allowing his kingdom, his will, his desires, his eternal purpose to be established within means laying down selfish ambition for the sake of knowing Jesus as our lover, Bridegroom and friend. This was something understood by Thomas a Kempis but often overlooked by mainstream Christianity. He said this:
Learn to turn from worldly things and devote yourself to spiritual things, and you will see the Kingdom of God come within you . . . Christ will come to you and offer you his consolations if you prepare a place for him in your heart . . . come and prepare your heart for your divine Spouse that he may be willing to come and dwell with you.
Kempis knew that knowing God is all about relationship. It’s not knowing about him, or knowing the Bible well; it’s about knowing him personally and developing that relationship so that we genuinely eagerly await and anticipate his return.
Kempis also understood that God is calling us to build a dwelling place for God in the spirit within each of us. This is what it’s all about. The overarching theme of the Bible from beginning to end is that the Godhead is looking and longing for sons for the Father, a temple for the Holy Spirit and a bride for the Son.
I first came across the phrase, ‘the exchanged life’ in Watchman Nee’s classic: ‘The Normal Christian Life’ but I confess I didn’t fully understand it back then, probably because I was so caught up with making more effort. We’ve all tried to try harder, but surrendering ourselves completely is not something any of us can do in our own strength. Perhaps that’s why God used the analogy of a wedding to convey his heart for us. For the Bridegroom is longing to be with his bride because of his love for her, and equally she longs to be with him. He showed his love for her by laying down his life to redeem her; as she grows in love with him the Bride is only too glad to surrender.
He's seeking those who are willing to give him all that we are, that he may take control of our lives, filling us until we cease to be what we’ve naturally become and instead become all that he longs for. His longing is for us to know Christ in an ever-increasing way, so that he’s more to us than just a saviour, wonderful as that is! He’s our life, the life in us now! No longer are we living for ourselves; no longer is our satisfaction in other things or people, our satisfaction is in Jesus himself. Those who relinquish their own life in order to be a vessel for God to fill completely are part of the Bride, with representatives in every church, every denomination and every nation on earth.
This is the ultimate preparation of the corporate Bride for her Bridegroom King. What more could the Bridegroom want of his Bride? And what more wonderful moment than when the last great catastrophe is at an end, the skies split and the Bridegroom appears!
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. (Rev 19:7)
Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!
Posted by Jennifer Curtis
