Day Twenty-Seven
The Bridegroom’s Voice
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the groomsman who stands by and listens to him rejoices greatly and heartily on account of the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my pleasure and my joy, and it is now complete.” Amp Jn 3:29
John the Baptist is referring here to himself as the groomsman who rejoices greatly on account of the Lord’s voice. Yet over in Matthew 11:11 Jesus told the crowds He was addressing that the “least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.” That is that the least saint of God, the least believer of the Body of Christ, the smallest member who helps form the Bride of Christ – that smallest member is greater that John the Baptist. Yet John rejoiced at the Bridegroom’s voice. The question is: How much more so should we who are part of the Body of Christ/part of the Bride – how much more then should we rejoice daily to hear the voice of our Lord, our Beloved, The Bridegroom?
Rejoice you say? “I would just be happy to hear the Lord’s voice at all?” Well then this word is for you (and continually remains for me too!)
What is needed for us to hear the voice of the Lord – to be more conscious of His speaking? Like John did – we must decrease, and He must increase!
As believers it is time for our lives to be laid down as living sacrifices, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is our reasonable sacrifice and service. (Rom 12:1) We are called to offer ourselves to God “as though” we have been already raised from the dead to perpetual life. (Rom 6:13) We are called to please our master in singleness of motive and with all our heart, as to Christ Himself! We are called to do the will of God heartily with our whole soul. (Eph 6:5-6) So what is the problem?
Our own consciousness of our desires and needs, our wants and dreams, our hopes and plans (our own soul) – has not been laid in the dust before the Lord as a living sacrifice. We not only attend to all these things, we serve and indulge these things as our first priority – and we don’t even register the desires and plans or needs and wants of the Lord. We can’t hear His voice because the voice of our own selves so fills our focus, is so quickly indulged, so thoroughly attended to, we can’t hear His voice.
But if we are willing to lay down our own “life” like Job says: “if we lay gold in the dust, and the Gold of Ophir among the stones of the brook [considering them of little worth], and make the Almighty your gold and the Lord your precious silver treasure, then you will have delight in the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God.” (Job 22:24-26)
The Gold of Ophir was considered to be of the highest quality and value. So if we lay our Gold of Ophir down – it is laying down our very lives which we so treasure, for the Life of Christ which is of much greater value! It is then, as we begin to let go of ourselves, forget ourselves, lose sight of ourselves – that our own voice diminishes and His voice can be heard. It won’t happen overnight. But as we continually make this our posture before Him, we will lose self-consciousness and the Holy Spirit will bring forth Christ-consciousness. We will then hear the voice of the Bridegroom! In that place, you will no longer want to indulge your own self. You will be the Bride that the Bridegroom has – and will rejoice greatly in that fact. (Jn 3:29)
Be-less, be-Christ conscious, be-loved — BE the BRIDE!
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