Insolomonsporch's Blog

©Sandra Gilloth 2010

Imagine…The Bride

Introduction

An Eternal Promise

From the very moment the Lord touched my understanding on the topic of the Bride, He used Genesis 11:6 as the basis and foundation for my investigation.  As a classic end-times prophecy movie aficionado, I am aware of the misuse of this Scripture by the New Age community and others for their own call to a bizarre mind-meld unity principle.  But this is not at all how the Lord presented this Scripture to me.  Let’s first review Genesis 11:6 as it is found in the Amplified Bible:

“And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them.”

What was conveyed to me was this verse stands as an enormous eternal promise that God honors for all mankind.  For good or for evil, whatever we pursue with united effort we will have.  Even in God’s benevolence, He will not withhold a reaping of ill that will occur from this pursuit.  It is also the rationale and explanation for every breakthrough that we have experienced on earth from man’s direct effort and intervention.  Every medical  discovery, every breakthrough in science, every discovery in new technologies, every “find” in archeology and other disciplines can be attributed to God honoring this promise.  However, whether we put our collective minds to pursue nuclear annihilation, or strategies to benefit mankind — when we have gathered in one effort, it will not be withheld from us.

The negative side of this promise is dramatically seen in Romans 1:26, where it is describing the press of man to pursue sexual impurity and specifically detailed “vile affections and degrading passions.”  Ultimately it says that God gives them over to these — He doesn’t hold them back even for their own safety.  But He gives them over to their base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome.  This stands as a very grave warning for everyone, to beware what you pursue.

When the United States became interested in atomic energy for weapons development –they too became one people (identifiable by their focus and the efforts to pursue that focus).  They had in common, one language — the language of science (Chemistry/Physics etc.).  And as we can see, the results of that pursuit entered us nationally into the atomic age.  There we launched atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki because we considered it more humane than continuing and escalating the scale of the war.  Debatable!  But my point here is, even concerning detriment and harm, what we imagine will not be withheld from us.

Now take that same promise and apply it to the Body of Christ.  As we have been redeemed and adopted into the Kingdom, we are all one people.  We are the people of God.  We also have one language — a holy language.  First, we have the Word of God, and as a companion to that we have the language of tongues as given by the Holy Spirit.  What makes the Body of believers different, however, from the world — is our anchor and plum-line in Christ Jesus.  So now what motivates us is not our fallen nature which (without Christ) could lead us to pursue the power of God (atomic/nuclear/etc.), without any accountability to God.  Nor do we seek to scientifically unseat God, and place man’s thinking on the altar of our worship as an idol.  Instead, we have within ourselves the life of Jesus through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.  His Spirit moves us to pursue what pleases Him.

In a defining passage, 2Cor5:14 reveals that as believers we are of the opinion that as One (Christ) has died for all, thus all have died.  For that reason, now the love of Christ urges, controls, and impels us.  What defines us as a believer is that we believe Christ has died for our sins on the Cross, and we have received that sacrifice.  As we receive His death in our place, we are in fact baptized into His death — all have died.

So now as the Body of Christ, we have laid before us a very awesome promise.  Become the Promised Bride — for according to Gen11:6, what we imagine will not be withheld from us!

The Presentation

As I sat before the Lord for insight on how to present this topic, it became apparent that there are other parts to the overall process.  That is, before actually imagining the Bride one must first Behold, Believe, then Imagine, and finally Become the Bride.  It is, however, “imagining” the Bride that the Lord has called me to focus on.  That is why the other described parts are omitted.  For clarity though, I will touch on each briefly for a point of reference.

“To Behold” refers to actually seeing or recognizing the Scriptural call upon the Body to become the Bride.  In 2Cor3:18 we find as we behold in the Word of God the very truth of God, and we are actually changed from glory to glory into His image.  Hence, we become what we behold.  Likewise, in beholding Christ’s image through the word, we also move more and more into the image of the Bride — the very likeness of Christ formed in His Body.  The Chapter titled “Finding the Beloved” would actually fall under this area of “Beholding”, but has been included as an addendum.  The goal was to present a comprehensive work on “Imagining” without dissipation in any way.  While “Finding the Beloved” is an addendum, it must be seen that it is actually paramount and a precursor to the whole process.  You can only launch into “Beholding the Bride” if you have already said yes to the Bridegroom.  You will only say yes when your heart has found Him and you become cognizant that He is Lord, Savior, and soon coming King!

“To Believe” is appropriating the Word.  To use a boat analogy, if  beholding is to “see the boat”, then believing is to “trust the boat and climb into it.”  It is to cling with trust to the belief in Christ and His word and His promises.  It is to possess these things as your very treasure.

“To Imagine” the Bride (continuing with the boat analogy), is to fill the sails of the boat with the vision for the Bride.  It is to harness the power and momentum of that vision in preparation to the obedience of walking that vision out.

That is what “To Become” the Bride is — walking out the fullness of the vision in obedience.  So to “imagine” is to consolidate momentum and power for the culminating stage — to become the Bride or to walk out being the Bride.  Like the wind which fills the sail enables you to get underway (cast-off), this movement is the righteous deeds of the saints that establish the Bride’s right to wear the bridal attire found in the Book of Revelation.  It is the fluid, unified, powerful churning of well oxygenated living water that is a force to reckon with!

So you see that there is more than just to “Imagine…The Bride,” although that is our challenge here.  There is first: to behold, to believe, to imagine, then to become the Bride.  But our focus and target of this work deals with –imagining the Bride.

Let the imagining begin!  I pray that you are not only blessed by this effort, but that it ignites the Body of Christ to be filled to overflowing with God’s Word and His promises, to not only imagine the Bride, but to usher in the time when the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.  Blessings — Sandra