Precious, Precious Ones…
The “heart and soul” of my newsletter this month comes in the form of a music video! The Spirit of the Lord impressed upon my heart that there are some of you He wants to minister to through this video. My humble request is that would you take a few minutes to watch the video while reading the lyrics with a heart open to the Spirit’s dealing and ministry. The song that is in this video was given spontaneously by the Lord one evening several years ago while a group of bible school students gathered in my living room to have a “worship flock.” We have entitled these times of worship as “worship flocks” because we come as lambs to worship the Lamb that was slain and is our very Life. During that evening the Spirit moved so preciously among and within us, birthing this song, and the music video contains the actual live recording from that evening. We later added flute (thank you Mallory Patrick) and cello (thank you Aimee Hunter) to that original recording. Please know that I will be praying for the Spirit to have His freedom to move deep within all of us in new and eternal ways. Specific prayers will be offered in regards to the things mentioned in the music video.
On a more personal note… You all are so precious to me. Your love and care and the Jesus that flows out from you is just so beautiful and appreciated. In constant ways of selfless giving and Jesus living the Lord Himself ministers to me through you. Thank you for being vessels of His Life. In regards to the ministry, all I can say is that the Spirit is a movin’! There is a constant flow of Jesus going on in all kinds of areas. We are filming, producing, and sending forth the Word almost daily. We are transcribing sermons, making booklets, and uploading materials to websites constantly. I love it!!! I couldn’t be more blessed! In a time of limitation and weakness we are experiencing Jesus’ Life in new and wonderful ways! The Lamb is never limited, rather He shines forth His true beauty in weakness and limitation. All glory to God.
Oh how I thank God for you.
Yours in Jesus,
“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7).
“So we will be glad and happy and give Him praise. The wedding day of the Lamb is here, and His bride is ready.” (Contemporary English Version)
“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.” (Good News Translation)
The scriptures tell us that the Lamb of God is to be married. This union is a perpetual feast, blessed beyond all measure. Those who are called to be a part of this eternal union are blessed in ways our hearts have yet to comprehend! Those who join with the Lamb in such a heart and know the Lord is such intimacy can be you and me if we seek and choose Him as our first love above all.
Exiled With Purpose
At the end of his life the Apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos. God separated John unto Himself in this place where He could share His deepest longings. God opened up His heart to John and gave him a vision of how His people could progress from being the churches stuck in the earth to marrying the Lamb and relating to Him as His wife in oneness. It was such a holy and sacred opening of God’s heart that the Spirit breathed it into John in visions rather than teachings. The time of learning had passed. It was and is the time of seeing God and entering into true and living union.
This unveiling of God’s Heart poured into John and flows out to us today as a call into marrying the Lamb. “Blessed are they which are called into the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). Like John, we also may feel exiled and troubled through the things we are going though. The real question is, “Can God use your situations to bring you into a deeper union with the Lamb in ways that surpass all teachings and everything you have ever known or experienced up to this point?” If God’s deep desire is to give His Son a wife, then that eternal purpose can overshadow and gather up everything we are going through. Nothing needs to be temporal, vain and purposeless. We can turn our hearts to the Lamb in the midst of it all and “marry” Him, feast on Him, and allow His nature to fill us right there in our fiery trials. Do you believe that what might be received as tormenting affliction could become as a wedding feast when the heart turns to the Lamb and joins with Him?
The True Sayings of God
“And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God” (Revelation 19:9).
How interesting that after eighteen chapters of exhortation, tribulation, seals, vials, and trumpets… the scriptures declare the marriage of the Lamb as “the true sayings of God.” Five years ago in Ireland (May of 2015) the Spirit of God began a season of releasing His heart intimately in regards to us progressing from relating to the Lamb as a church stuck in the earth with problems to relating to the Lamb as His wife. In that first outpouring these very verses were emphasized to us by the Spirit of God. Over five years later the Spirit continues to cry out and call us into knowing the Lamb in the ways that are so extremely precious to God. And now, in 2020, He is blessing us with opportunities to experientially know these realities.
What Kind of a Wife Does the Lamb Need?
What kind of a wife does the Lamb need? Let us look for the answer to that question in the scriptures. One qualification for this great union is that “his wife has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). She is preparing herself for HIM. She is making herself ready. What is she being prepared for? What is she getting ready for? The answer is right there in the context of the verse… THE LAMB! Notice that she is not marrying Jesus the healer, miracle-worker, teacher, etc. She is getting ready to be in vital union with THE LAMB. Who is the Lamb? One who gives Himself in sacrifice to God and others. How does someone prepare to be the wife of a Sacrifice? Rather than trying to become more spiritual in deep knowledge, powerful in ministry, or anointed in gifting, she is becoming willing to go into death with and by Him. Well, how does someone prepare for that in a practical way? The book of Revelation gives us answers to that very question. In fact much of that book is dedicated to that very issue.
It all relates to how we respond to our daily trials. In Revelation chapter five the Lamb upon the throne is persuaded by the poured-out prayers of elders and beasts to open the seals which will bring great tribulation upon the earth. Those beasts and elders knew that without fiery trials, our hearts would not have the proper opportunity to prepare, follow, marry, and bear the Lamb in His sacrificial nature in real and practical ways. Every “unjust” situation, crisis, and loss bore within it the golden opportunity to choose to be with the Lamb instead living separate from Him in our own lives down in the earth. Each problem and trial was released with one goal, to draw God’s people into a true union with the Lamb. Those who chose to come up out of themselves and the earth and cleave to the Lamb with purpose of heart began to make themselves ready for Him.
And yet the scriptures show that there are those who stubbornly hold to their own views in the earth, rejecting and accusing Him of abuse rather than discerning His call into oneness with His eternal Lamb nature. One might consider that the call into oneness with the Lamb comes during a church service at the end of a powerful session or in the midst of a prayer time of dedicating one’s heart to the Lord. But here in the book of Revelation we find the call coming in the midst of horrible affliction, persecution, and trial. Over and over again the scriptures cry out the importance of God’s people “hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” When daily trials came in chapters two and three, the seven churches only discerned their own struggles and needs. The Spirit of God had to begin to breath into these saints that there was a higher call than fixing their earth problems, a more blessed way, and to come up to the Lamb where He is at (Revelation 4:1-2).
Do We Hear What The Spirit Is Saying?
If we do not first hear the Spirit’s call to come away and join with the Lamb in the midst of our selfish views and earthly trials, then we cannot prepare ourselves for this marriage. Yet the scriptures declare that there are those who do hear and respond and prepare their hearts for Him! And that above all the crazy stuff going on in the earth THIS is the true thing that God is trying to say in the midst of it all (Revelation 19:9b). One might ask oneself… “Do I hear the call into the marriage supper of the Lamb or do I hear my soul crying out for deliverance in my earth trial?” It all depends on which direction our hearts are turned. Even John had to “turn and SEE the voice” that was speaking to him (Revelation 1:12). What the Spirit is crying out to us is not information to be added to our earth-lives; He is inviting us to “Come up here” and behold and marry the Lamb.
We may hear Spirit-taught doctrines about the marriage of the Lamb and feel we have comprehended them, but the real test is in the trial. Where do we abide when the fire comes? Who manifests in us when loss is required? What cry pours from our lips when under pressure… “Abba Father, Thy will be done” or “Deliver me O God and change my circumstances”? When these altars come, is it the Lamb shining forth from within His wife or just Christians in the earth overcome by their trials? The Spirit exhorted the seven churches seven times in chapters two and three of Revelation in reference to “He Who overcomes” being in them in the midst of their trials. Only “you in me and I in you” is going to make the difference (John 14:20, 15:4, 17:21).
We need to be up there in Him and He needs to be down here in us. Oneness wins. The Lamb in us is not just how we overcome, but the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth (Psalms 48:2, 50:2). We are now touching upon that which is eternal, the desire within God’s heart before the foundation of the world and that which continues when this age is over. Oh how blessed is it to God when someone, anyone, chooses to turn their heart to the Lamb, open their heart to His nature, and release Him unto sacrifice in the midst of their trial. Heaven sees and heaven rejoices! The Lamb has a wife, a home, a temple through which He manifests in His truest being of selfless giving (Revelation chapters 21 and 22). Glory to God in the highest! May our hearts press in like never before! May we truly hear what the Spirit is saying and turn our hearts all the way to Him. May we come up out of the earth and unto the Lamb who is enthroned above all. May our fiery trials become a wedding feast. In Jesus' name, Amen.
“Blessed are they which are called into the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
(Revelation 19:9)
