The choosing of His Bride: The wise and foolish virgins!
Word For Today: September 10, 2019: The choosing of His Bride: The wise and foolish virgins!
Beloved, as I am home tonight spending time with the Lord. I started to write a post that I would probably post tomorrow since I posted a Word For Today already.
But I feel a prompting of the Holy Spirit to post tomorrows, Word for Today tonight.
(THIS WORD IS NOT FOR EVERYONE... BUT IT IS FOR THOSE GOD IS HAVING ME WRITE IT TO)
I feel an urgency in my spirit to do so to help other 5 fold ministers, and people that God has called to come out of the church age mentality into the Kingdom of God revelation and reality as He did for me.
Beloved it is so very important that we gain and understand of one of the first works of the new wine and new wine skin of the kingdom age, the choosing of the Lord’s Bride!
This new first work revelation of the Kingdom of God is critical because all the other foundational truths of God’s kingdom and for the establishment of His government.
All of the Kingdom of God reality predicates on this one truth, the selection and preparation of the Lord’s bride and the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Precious ones of the Lord, There are many different teaching in the body of Christ especially those who are still currently with the “2nd day church age mentality” about who is the Bride of Christ?
Many still believe that the whole body of Christ will be His Bride, but this is where we need the new wineskin and the new wine to see the truth as revealed in the Kingdom of God understanding and reality of the scriptures.
If we don’t teach this truth correctly and continue to say every single believer will be His bride, then we will not be truly preparing them for their full life and work in the kingdom of God.
Beloved if Jesus is marrying everyone no matter what spiritual state or growth they have obtained on the earth then why press the body upward to grow into maturity?
It wouldn’t really matter what everyone did with their life they all would get the same reward, the same authority no matter what they did with their life. Do you really have a witness of the Holy Spirit that is true?
Why become spiritually mature or a full grown son or daughter if He is marrying the whole body regardless of their spiritual state and growth?
As we grow in our kingdom understanding we will begin to see that that would be a foolish thing for the Father to do.
Would the Father in all his love and wisdom give His son in His glory to marry a baby, a toddler, a teenager or immature adult bride? Of course not!
Yet many ministers today still believe that to be true in the 2nd day church age because the Lord must shine a greater light on his scriptures in their hearts to see the fuller picture of the Lord’s bride that is to be with Him by His side.
With the restoration of the kingdom of God reality and understanding that the Holy Spirit is bringing forth today, we are gaining much more light on the scriptures and their meanings specially concerning who will be selected to be His bride.
The Lord is releasing His secrets and mysteries of His Kingdom and His glory to be more available and more available to those who are diligently seeking Him.
1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
Beloved, In each dispensation, according to revelation as then given, the Lord provided a way to attain greater revelation of His kingdom perfection.
Also, there were “representative” men or women, (forerunners) who were examples of what the Lord required.
“Enoch walked with God….” Genesis 5:22
“…Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” Genesis 6:9
“…The Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be you perfect.” Genesis 17:1
“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” Job 1:1
“Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48
The word “perfect” refers to our being spiritually mature. Paul also testified to this, and to the faithful assistance that God will render to all who seek to fulfill His will and purposes.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 8, that all of creation is in travail with the earnest expectation for the manifestations of the sons of God to appear on the earth.
These sons and daughter are the fully mature, over-comers, that are preparing themselves to make themselves ready as a Bride for the Lord.
The question that the Kingdom age must answer is, is everyone who is saved the Bride of the Christ? I believe the answer to that question from the Kingdom of God vantage point is NO!
Can every single believer desire to become a bride for the Lord? Yes? Can all obtain it, yes?
But there is a qualification and sanctification process that each must complete to “make themselves ready” to be chosen as His bride.
We don’t get to pick if we are a bride to the Lord or not. The Lord choose those who have made themselves ready to be His bride.
He chooses those who are willing to change and grow up into the full stature of Christ as found in the book of Ephesians to be His side.
The immature have a place in God’s kingdom and a wonderful place. They have a wonderful work to do for eternity, just not as a bride of the Lord.
Beloved, Jesus Christ is taking from among the Church, a “Bride” to Himself. This is a great condescension.
This is what the whole Book of the Song of Solomon is all about. It is about a Shulmaite “bride to be” chosen out from amongst the daughters of Jerusalem, (the whole body of Christ.)
This is what the whole Book of the Song of Solomon is all about. It is about a Shulamite “bride to be” chosen out from amongst the daughters of Jerusalem, (the whole body of Christ.)
To gain a deeper understanding of the Kingdom of God, the depth of the Song of Solomon must be understood on how Jesus prepares Himself a bride to be by his side and what is required of the bride to “prepare herself” to be made ready.
I suggest a good book for those who are Kingdom minded to read is the Secret of the Stairs, by Wade E. Taylor. You can find it at www.wadetaylor.org
God gave this apostolic father the revelation and understanding of what this book truly means for our generation.
He is not the only one that has that revelation, but He is a main pioneer of it’s understanding.
I am writing this post today because there is a sense amongst kingdom apostles and prophets that we are now in a season of getting the new wine skin from the Lord and new wine to fill it.
This requires us to be very discerning that we don’t put the “old wine” of the church age understanding of the Bride in the Kingdom new wine skin.
I say this with much love and grace as someone that had to learn this for himself and still is. I have had to rethink, relearn, and let go of much about what I held onto even as God has given me some Kingdom of God light.
I even fought it for a while, thinking I was pretty sure what I had learned was complete, only to find out it wasn’t. That was very humbling but needful for me to grow in the Lord and in understanding His Kingdom reality.
I still am learning, and I am willing to unlearn, relearn or gain greater revelation light as the light of God’s glory shines more and more on me and all of us. I hope you are as well.
I know many Christians back in the day, who believed there is no additional Baptism of the Holy Spirit. They believe the gifts of the Spirit died with the Apostles. They believed that are no gifts of the Apostles and Prophets needed today.
Yet some of those same Christians got filled with the Holy Spirit Baptism, speak in tongues, operate in the gifts of the Spirit and they themselves now function in the gift of the Prophet and Apostle.
What changed in them? Greater light was shined in then and upon them of the revelation of God and His Kingdom reality.
This is the same process of growth we need to understand who is Jesus going to select as His bride from all the daughters of Jerusalem or the body of Christ.
The Book of Esther also teaches us the same selection process to be “chosen” to be the Queen. Esther had to make herself ready.
She had to gain understanding what a King desires, and what would He need by his side as his helpmate.
Then she had to give herself to become that royal helpmate that He would choose. So much more is that the same process with our Lord.
(A good Christian movie that I suggest you could watch to shows this process is called One night with the King) It is one of my all time favorites.
Beloved, 5 fold ministers, just because you may never heard any teaching about this, or given new light and revelation of it, does not make it untrue. So I pray that you would be open minded to search this out for yourselves.
I believe as you study the life of Esther and the Song of Solomon the preparation of the Bride takes on it’s true kingdom reality.
These two books of the Bible help us prepare and understand the work of God for the governmental reign of the Kingdom of God on the earth to come forth through the Bridegroom with His bride.
This process is even further advance in the Gospel of Matthew 25;1-13. In this teaching parable of the 10 virgins, we see a process of selection that is necessary to go out at the “midnight hour” to meet the bridegroom.
The 10 Virgins represent the whole body of Christ. The unsaved are never called virgins. Amongst the total number of 10 virgins we have two divisions. The 5 wise virgins and the 5 foolish virgins each who have the initial oil of salvation in their lamps.
We see in the first division of the 5 wise virgins they have oil in their lamp, and EXTRA OIL TO GO ON THE JOURNEY. THEY ARE PREPARED TO MEET THE BRIDEGROOM.
The 5 wise virgins have what it takes to enter into the marriage celebration to be selected as his bride to meet her bridegroom.
In the second group of virgins we have the 5 foolish virgins. They only have the initial oil of salvation and have no extra oil.
Beloved the extra oil represents spiritual growth beyond our initial salvation. It represents the sanctification process, the separation process of a life wholly given to the Lord.
This extra oil is what wise have that the other foolish virgins don’t. They buy and have extra oil for their lamp because they have allowed the Lord to deal with their self life and put it death to spiritually grow up in Him.
When the sound of the bridegroom comes at the midnight hour, they are prepared. They trim their lamps and are ready to go out and meet Him.
The 5 foolish virgins walk us as well. They now realize they are lacking what it takes to be married to him.
They do not have the extra oil of sanctification. they only have the oil of their initial salvation. So they are still babes that have never grown up.
They now panic and say to the 5 wise virgins, “give us some of your oil so we can go out and meet him.” But the 7 wise virgins say no, you have to go the DEALERS AND BUY IT FOR YOURSELF!
In other words you can’t have our oil because it is a personal work of sanctification preparation we allowed God to work in our own hearts.
In that spiritual transformation time we were making ourselves ready in our hearts that is now allowing us to go meet him and we can’t give that to you. You have to get that extra oil for yourself while there is time.
By the time the 5 foolish came back with that oil, it was to late, the door has closed and they could not enter into the marriage supper of the Lord as a bride, they WERE NOT PREPARED OR READY. ARE YOU BELOVED?
Let us read this preparation testimony again found in Revelation chapter 19: 5 -9, “Then there came from the throne the sound of a voice, saying, “Praise our God, all his servants and all people, both great and small, who have reverence for him!”
6 Then I heard what sounded like a crowd, like the sound of a roaring waterfall, like loud peals of thunder. I heard them say, “Praise God! For the Lord, our Almighty God, is King!
7 Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness! For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself for it.
8 She has been given clean shining linen to wear.” (The linen is the good deeds of God's people.)
9 Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Happy are those who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And the angel added, “These are the true words of God.”
Did you read verse 7? “and the bride has prepared herself for it. Is that not what the 5 wise virgin prepared for and did as well ? We’re they not prepared to go out at midnight to meet their bridegroom? Yes, they were!
Beloved what about the 5 foolish virgins? Did they enter in? No they didn’t. They failed to quality to be chosen as His bride, because they didn’t have the extra oil.
They are saved, they make into heaven, but the spiritual place as His bride they failed to obtain. These 5 foolish virgins could be anyone.
They could be pastors, prophet, apostles, leaders, Sunday school teachers they may be filled with the Holy Spirit and operate in the gifts of the Spirit, but they did not make themselves ready to be a bride or to be chosen as one. Beloved the choice is conditional!
Think about this beloved, for Jesus to take upon Himself the nature and form of man was certainly very humbling.
Beloved, to take a Bride (company of mature sons and daughters) from among the church (the whole body of Christ) and then live through eternity with this Bride, in close association and fellowship is amazing.
To take this Bridal company of (qualified mature saints) to rule and reign with them to function as Kings and Priest on the earth with Him is beyond the comprehension of our finite minds.
If we are going to walk in, teach, and impart the Glory of the Kingdom of God life and reality in this day and season, we must all teach the “ways of the Lord” so we can know Him and what He desire for us.
He is not just trying to win the lost, he is also transforming the whole earth and sharing it with His bride and the rest of his body in differing levels of relationship.
Jesus said, “many are called, but few are chosen.” The true rendering of that verse is “many, (the whole body of Christ is called” to be intimate with Him as a bride, but few (the bridal company) will pay the price to qualify to be chosen.
The common teaching from the church age mentality is that all classes of believers, regardless of their lack in attainment, will be part of the “Bride of Christ.”
Yet beloved, His Kingdom is altogether different and apart from the earth realm in which man’s reasoning is found.
How entirely unreasonable then, to suppose that Jesus Christ would consider and accept as His Bride, immature Christians, who have never grown up into maturity.
He would not choose anyone that has never entered or operated in this higher spiritual plane of being seated with him in heavenly places as His bride.
Jesus is not marrying a child or an adolescent bride. He is marrying a full grown mature bride who has made herself ready, permitted to wear that white gown which are the full grown acts of righteousness within her.
I wish and pray that every single believer would come into maturity as full grown sons and daughters, but it is a choice.
A choice each believer gets to make every day to pursue the Lord and seek him as their vital need, and make him their first love. Yet look around you in the church today?
Where are the spiritual mature sons and daughters? Where are those who are so passionately in love with Jesus, not their church, not their ministry, but Jesus as their soon to be bridegroom king?
Beloved to be about the affairs in His Kingdom as His bride, we must be spiritually mature on this high spiritual reality of being seated with him in heavenly places. For where He is, we shall also be.
We must experience the deep love of God, abiding in him, living in Him in His glory realm in our hearts.
In living reality we must be one with him on earth as it is heaven if we are to be chosen as His bride.
Nothing less can that that can our extra oil be to go out and meet him.
This deeper Kingdom work will be found in the hearts of his “called to be bride” who will truly give up the totality of her being on this earth just to please him.
She will pay the price. She will go through the preparing oils and baths Esther had to go through to make herself ready.
She will pay the price of being chosen as found in the Shulamite woman in the Song of Solomon.
Beloved to be chosen as His bride, we cannot sow in the realm of the flesh or natural world and expect to reap in the realm of the Spiritual. Like begets like” is an inherent law. “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)
There is a spiritual process of preparation of the bride to become a wise virgin that comes with the dawning of the Kingdom age and it’s reality.
Those in the church age mentality can not see this truth. It is hidden from their eyes as long as they hold unto the old wineskin and drink from the old wine of the church age.
You can’t put new wine in and old wine skin. So the Lord has to reveal through revelation knowledge of His word, the “heart of the bride” and her spiritual journey and preparation to be chosen by King Jesus as His bride.
This is the beginning revelation of the Kingdom of God age on the earth. Without it we may get some new light on Kingdom government and kingdom work.
Yet, without the heart of the bride making herself ready the kingdom of God reality will not come into being. It would be like putting old wine into a new wineskin.
For Jesus has come on the “third day” to finish his course, the making of His bride, to rule and reign with him forever and ever.
The invitation is to all, “the many” but the “few” will choose it. Why only a few? Beloved, because it requires total transformation from glory to glory and it is cost everything we are to be all His and His alone.
Let us read Revelation chapter 19 7-9 another time. I pray right now that the Holy Spirit of Fire comes and opens your hearts to receive the glorious Gospel of the Kingdom in the Lord forming for himself, choosing for himself His bride out of the daughters of Jerusalem “the church body.”
May it become so real within each of those reading this post, that they would instantly burn to change, burn to be fully in love with you Jesus.
May it work a heart in them tonight they would purchase the oil of your work in their hearts so they have the extra oil of the wise virgins to go out and met you at the midnight hours.
Revelation 19: 7-9
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are true words of God.” Revelation 19:7-9 NAS
Beloved, what does the Bride do? “His bride has made herself ready.”
The Lord is seeking out and qualifying a Bride. We must have a clear vision and a practical understanding of the work of God’s kingdom in the heart of his people.
We must understand and enter into the experience of this divine standard of our bridal work of preparation, if one is to enter this high calling to be chosen as His bride. We must know and attain to God’s requirements.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, In past ages, in order to prepare a bride as a queen for her intended King, there were elaborate, prolonged schooling and various preparations that were required of her.
They are revealed to us in Esther 2:8-13. And you can see even more in the Word of God in Psalm 45:13-14.
Insight into the character and nature of Jesus Christ will help us to understand the characteristics that He expects to find within His Bride.
Certainly, He will require her to be of like character with Himself. This speaks of our becoming an overcomer, by which we rise up into a state of union with Him as one with him fully prepared to become His Bride.
Our bridegrooms character must be His brides character if they are to become one. Beloved, that is why this last 2 years has been intense trial and preparation.
If we are to be chosen as His bride we must reflect his glory, his character and his nature fully in our life. He has come to us on the “third day” to finish that course, or finish that work in all those who will allow him to do so.
He will do that in all of those who desire to be his bride and make themselves ready. They will hear the knock on their heart found in Revelation Chapter 3:20, and open the door and let him in to sup with him in new and deep intimacy that will prepare them to be a bride.
What will His Bride character look like? It will look just like Him.
“…Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.” Matthew 11:29
She will be in perfect union with him and so transformed that they can say with Him,
“…Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son (and the bride) can do nothing of Himself (herself) but what He sees the Father (and Jesus doing): for what things so ever He does, these also does the Son (and the bride together ) do likewise.” John 5:19
This very heart and nature must be in His Bride to be, for him to choose her amongst the daughters of Jerusalem (the whole body of Christ).
“When you have lifted up the Son of man then shall you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things. And He that sent Me is with Me: the Father has not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.” John 8:28-29
“Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwells in Me, He does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” John 14:10-11
The Father’s indwelling of the Son was the foundation of their union. To be selected as His Bride, Jesus prayed that His disciples also should be brought into this same oneness.
Will every Christian do this? No, many have not even over the last 2000 years, so how could he select them as His bride?
It is possible many today will not either. Jesus taught us there were 5 wise and 5 foolish. If we just look at percentages, that is only 50% who are wise?
So would you marry someone that has not made themselves ready to be married as their spouse?
Would you marry a spiritual immature 5 year old, 13 year old who have not grown up in Him? Of course not!
We hear the cry of Jesus heart for his disciples, for his full grown sons and daughters and for His bride to be in John 17:18-21.
“As You have sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world… That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” John 17:18, 21
Beloved, The Father and Son, by the power of Holy Spirit, seeks complete control of our whole man, physical, soul, and spirit if we are going to be qualified to be His Bride or full grown son or daughter.
Nothing less than a union such as this “divine indwelling of being one” and “co-working with him’ could satisfy God the Father for us to be His son’s bride.
This oneness with him, and divine indwelling of the two becoming one will qualify any believer as an acceptable Bride for Christ.
In order to become one or be chosen His Bride, we must awake and overcome the world, the flesh, and passionately burn in love with him.
We must truly have the extra oil of the Spirit of God’s work in emptying us of our old life and nature to take on his nature and likeness of selflessness, if we desire to be chosen by him as His bride.
For if we do not begin to ask him how to make ourselves ready as his bride as in Revelation 19:7 we may find ourselves amongst the 5 foolish virgins with the door of being His bride shut and we can not enter.
We can enter heaven, we can see him, be with him, have our assignments from him, we just can never have the bridal intimacy with him, because we did not purchase that while we are in our body on the earth.
If you desire to be chosen as His bride you must find out what he loves, what he desires, and his plans and purposes for your lives fully.
You must willingly and unconditionally give him the totality of your being, your body, soul and mind as a living sacrifice and have His mind as your mind.
If we don’t beloved of the Lord, we may find ourselves to have fallen short of His calling to be His bride.
May the Lord’s fire burn tonight and cause us to be what we have never been before, a “bride making herself ready for her Lord.”
