Week 2 we move on to the broader move of God – Christ preparing His Bride as He begins to call His church into her identity as His beloved and His friend.
40-Day Focus – 3/11/10 – A Bride Made Ready / Praying for the Church (7.0MB 15min)
John 17 Mission
That the love the Father has may be in them
Posts Tagged ‘bride of Christ’
40-Day Focus: Week 2 – A Bride Made Ready
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40-Day Focus Week 2: A Bride Made Ready
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As we begin looking at the broader picture of what God is doing and where it’s all going, we are zooming out from what is taking place immediately in this nation and the nations of the earth. There is a broader move of God present in the earth that is global in its scale and decades in its duration. As I mentioned in introducing this topic, the better way to define this move of God is not by what people are doing, but by what God is saying. Hearing what the Spirit is saying is our means to get our hearts ignited for what God is doing, then the activity will surely follow. On the other hand, we can push ourselves to fast and pray, to worship, to evangelize, to do works of justice and every other activity that God is emphasizing right now, and still miss getting touched by what God is actually doing.
The Heart of the Matter
One of the most common stated or unstated missions among church communities these days is to recover what the Acts church looked like, which is certainly not the worst of aspirations. Our tendency, unfortunately, is to go about that by attempting to copy what the Acts church was doing (i.e. their method of ‘doing church’). When in reality it wasn’t the methodology of the Acts church that made it so dynamic. What defined and empowered the apostolic church in Acts was how they understood and lived their relationship with God, and the power of His presence in their midst. The apostles carried a deep-seated revelation from years of being with Jesus as to who He was and what His purpose was, and therefore who they were and what their purpose was. They oversaw a church born in the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and continually lived in a consistent pattern of being filled with the Spirit day by day. These were the realities that made possible both its inward success as a community and body, and its outward success in winning souls.
The point being to attempt to imitate the activity of a move of God without giving ourselves fully to the heart of it effectively separates the move of God from God Himself. In doing so, the purpose and the power behind it are lost. We lose the relational aspects of what God is doing – what He’s revealing about Himself and about us – and we lose the priority of His presence. Hence our focus in these 40 days is on the heart of what God is doing and on the presence of God Himself. As we watch the “prayer movement” begin to sweep the earth, it’s easy to say this move is about prayer, but it’s so much more than that. This is not simply an increase in the quantity of prayer going on around the globe. God is revealing something about Himself and about His purposes that is motivating believers to pray like never before, and God is calling His church into a new revelation of who we were created to be that in turn is causing us to find our corporate and individual identity in the place of prayer. When Isaiah prophesied about God’s house being called a house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7) it was more than just a promise that God’s people would pray. It was looking to a day when the church would find it’s identity as a house of prayer – when connecting with God would become the center of who we are and what we do. And it was looking to a day when God would make us joyful in His house of prayer – when we would so connect with what prayer is really about that we would find fullness of joy in that time in His presence and that connection with His heart.
It’s About the Bride
When I look at what God is doing I am convinced this move of God has Revelation 19:7 squarely in its sights – “the marriage of the Lamb has come and the Bride has made herself ready.” It’s a promise echoed frequently throughout Scripture that is the final climactic conclusion to the story of redemption. All of human history marches towards that day, creation longs and groans for it, and Jesus Himself awaits it with great expectation. There is a real day coming in which Christ will return to claim for Himself an inheritance from the people of the earth – a pure and spotless Bride fully given to Him in love. As Revelation 19 makes clear, though, His return does not happen in a vacuum. The marriage of the Lamb is waiting for something… the Bride is going to make herself ready. As we look around the world, we see much that indicates we are drawing near to the end of the story, but this one sign seems noticeably lacking. At least in the Western world it would be hard to point with any confidence to a pure and spotless Bride appearing on the scene. More than that, though, we seem to have lost our motivation – rarely can you find anyone who is even consciously working towards that goal. Before that day can come something has to happen – God has to stir His people to begin making themselves ready as a Bride for her Bridegroom.
What would such a move look like? What would stir the Bride to begin making herself ready? Two simple revelations: the Church beginning to see herself as a beloved Bride, and seeing the beauty of her Bridegroom and longing to be with Him. All across the earth and in all different streams, a common theme is beginning to be heard. It sounds different when spoken by different voices, but its heart cry is the same: God delights in and is jealous over humanity, He made us for Himself and is drawing us to Himself, and nothing will satisfy as much as being with our glorious Creator – it is our purpose and identity now, and our destiny at the end of the story. And increasingly alongside that cry you hear another: the wedding day is coming soon and it’s time to make ourselves ready.
This is what’s at the heart of what God is doing on the earth right now: the Church catching a revelation of God as a jealous Bridegroom, and the Church stepping into her identity corporately and individually as the Bride of Christ. It’s not that either of these revelations are new, but that He is preparing us to begin understanding them and walking in them at a new level as we come nearer to the day when the Bride welcomes her Bridegroom as He returns. It’s not the language of the Bridal relationship that’s important but rather the reality behind it. It is a description of God that reveals Him as passionate and purposeful: He loves, delights in and is jealous over those willing to be called His, and He is relentlessly in pursuit of love – drawing hearts into it, bringing hearts to fullness in it and preparing for the day when God and man will be fully joined in it. It is an identity for the Church that reveals who we are now and forever as the one creature made to be joined with God: in intimacy as we delight in Him and He in us, and in partnership sharing in the secrets of His heart and the labors of His soul.
Catching the Vision
We want to set ourselves before all of those revelations over these next weeks, but for this week I want to ask God to seal us with a vision:
That He would mark us with a vision for what He longs to do in the earth. That our spiritual eyes would be opened to see a glorious Bride made ready, a great harvest from every tongue and tribe and nation, and a people prepared for the Lord. Let our hearts be stirred for God to move in a way that touches all flesh – not one stream or movement, not a remnant but from weakest to strongest every believer swept up into knowing His love and walking in the kind of relationship with Him that He created us for, and from one end of the earth to the other every heart hearing the invitation “come to the wedding!”
And may He mark each of us deeply with a personal vision to lay hold of the invitation that God is extending in our day. That our hearts might yearn to go deep in the reality of His love and enter into a relationship with Him that brings us the heights of joy and the heights of fulfillment. May we enter in to living as a Bride being made ready for Jesus – allowing Him to draw us in His love and wash us with the water of His Word. May our vision and ambition in life be no lower than His vision for us – going on a journey of love that leads us into the depths of relationship with Him.
Some Scriptures to meditate on: Eph 1:17-19, 3:14-21, 5:25-32; Rev 19:6-7; Isa 62:1-5; Jn 17:21-26
As we begin looking at the broader picture of what God is doing and where it’s all going, we are zooming out from what is taking place immediately in this nation and the nations of the earth. There is a broader move of God present in the earth that is global in its scale and decades in its duration. As I mentioned in introducing this topic, the better way to define this move of God is not by what people are doing, but by what God is saying. Hearing what the Spirit is saying is our means to get our hearts ignited for what God is doing, then the activity will surely follow. On the other hand, we can push ourselves to fast and pray, to worship, to evangelize, to do works of justice and every other activity that God is emphasizing right now, and still miss getting touched by what God is actually doing.
The Heart of the Matter
One of the most common stated or unstated missions among church communities these days is to recover what the Acts church looked like, which is certainly not the worst of aspirations. Our tendency, unfortunately, is to go about that by attempting to copy what the Acts church was doing (i.e. their method of ‘doing church’). When in reality it wasn’t the methodology of the Acts church that made it so dynamic. What defined and empowered the apostolic church in Acts was how they understood and lived their relationship with God, and the power of His presence in their midst. The apostles carried a deep-seated revelation from years of being with Jesus as to who He was and what His purpose was, and therefore who they were and what their purpose was. They oversaw a church born in the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and continually lived in a consistent pattern of being filled with the Spirit day by day. These were the realities that made possible both its inward success as a community and body, and its outward success in winning souls.
The point being to attempt to imitate the activity of a move of God without giving ourselves fully to the heart of it effectively separates the move of God from God Himself. In doing so, the purpose and the power behind it are lost. We lose the relational aspects of what God is doing – what He’s revealing about Himself and about us – and we lose the priority of His presence. Hence our focus in these 40 days is on the heart of what God is doing and on the presence of God Himself. As we watch the “prayer movement” begin to sweep the earth, it’s easy to say this move is about prayer, but it’s so much more than that. This is not simply an increase in the quantity of prayer going on around the globe. God is revealing something about Himself and about His purposes that is motivating believers to pray like never before, and God is calling His church into a new revelation of who we were created to be that in turn is causing us to find our corporate and individual identity in the place of prayer. When Isaiah prophesied about God’s house being called a house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7) it was more than just a promise that God’s people would pray. It was looking to a day when the church would find it’s identity as a house of prayer – when connecting with God would become the center of who we are and what we do. And it was looking to a day when God would make us joyful in His house of prayer – when we would so connect with what prayer is really about that we would find fullness of joy in that time in His presence and that connection with His heart.
It’s About the Bride
When I look at what God is doing I am convinced this move of God has Revelation 19:7 squarely in its sights – “the marriage of the Lamb has come and the Bride has made herself ready.” It’s a promise echoed frequently throughout Scripture that is the final climactic conclusion to the story of redemption. All of human history marches towards that day, creation longs and groans for it, and Jesus Himself awaits it with great expectation. There is a real day coming in which Christ will return to claim for Himself an inheritance from the people of the earth – a pure and spotless Bride fully given to Him in love. As Revelation 19 makes clear, though, His return does not happen in a vacuum. The marriage of the Lamb is waiting for something… the Bride is going to make herself ready. As we look around the world, we see much that indicates we are drawing near to the end of the story, but this one sign seems noticeably lacking. At least in the Western world it would be hard to point with any confidence to a pure and spotless Bride appearing on the scene. More than that, though, we seem to have lost our motivation – rarely can you find anyone who is even consciously working towards that goal. Before that day can come something has to happen – God has to stir His people to begin making themselves ready as a Bride for her Bridegroom.
What would such a move look like? What would stir the Bride to begin making herself ready? Two simple revelations: the Church beginning to see herself as a beloved Bride, and seeing the beauty of her Bridegroom and longing to be with Him. All across the earth and in all different streams, a common theme is beginning to be heard. It sounds different when spoken by different voices, but its heart cry is the same: God delights in and is jealous over humanity, He made us for Himself and is drawing us to Himself, and nothing will satisfy as much as being with our glorious Creator – it is our purpose and identity now, and our destiny at the end of the story. And increasingly alongside that cry you hear another: the wedding day is coming soon and it’s time to make ourselves ready.
This is what’s at the heart of what God is doing on the earth right now: the Church catching a revelation of God as a jealous Bridegroom, and the Church stepping into her identity corporately and individually as the Bride of Christ. It’s not that either of these revelations are new, but that He is preparing us to begin understanding them and walking in them at a new level as we come nearer to the day when the Bride welcomes her Bridegroom as He returns. It’s not the language of the Bridal relationship that’s important but rather the reality behind it. It is a description of God that reveals Him as passionate and purposeful: He loves, delights in and is jealous over those willing to be called His, and He is relentlessly in pursuit of love – drawing hearts into it, bringing hearts to fullness in it and preparing for the day when God and man will be fully joined in it. It is an identity for the Church that reveals who we are now and forever as the one creature made to be joined with God: in intimacy as we delight in Him and He in us, and in partnership sharing in the secrets of His heart and the labors of His soul.
Catching the Vision
We want to set ourselves before all of those revelations over these next weeks, but for this week I want to ask God to seal us with a vision:
That He would mark us with a vision for what He longs to do in the earth. That our spiritual eyes would be opened to see a glorious Bride made ready, a great harvest from every tongue and tribe and nation, and a people prepared for the Lord. Let our hearts be stirred for God to move in a way that touches all flesh – not one stream or movement, not a remnant but from weakest to strongest every believer swept up into knowing His love and walking in the kind of relationship with Him that He created us for, and from one end of the earth to the other every heart hearing the invitation “come to the wedding!”
And may He mark each of us deeply with a personal vision to lay hold of the invitation that God is extending in our day. That our hearts might yearn to go deep in the reality of His love and enter into a relationship with Him that brings us the heights of joy and the heights of fulfillment. May we enter in to living as a Bride being made ready for Jesus – allowing Him to draw us in His love and wash us with the water of His Word. May our vision and ambition in life be no lower than His vision for us – going on a journey of love that leads us into the depths of relationship with Him.
Some Scriptures to meditate on: Eph 1:17-19, 3:14-21, 5:25-32; Rev 19:6-7; Isa 62:1-5; Jn 17:21-26
40-Day Focus: This Present Move of God
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As we enter this 40 days of fasting, one of my primary objectives is a heart awakened more fully to what God is doing in our day. One of the great prayers of my life is that my heart and the hearts of everyone I know would be caught up in the story of all that God has done, is doing and is going to do in the earth – the grand drama of redemption. The human spirit was created to be a part of something bigger than our own self-preservation, we long for a sense of purpose and significance that’s meant to be found in the plans and purposes of God. It’s in setting ourselves in that story that we’re prepared to see it unfold with no offense and no confusion, just a heart in awe of what God is doing and a life lived in partnership to see it done with Him.
Though we’re prone to live without giving it a moment’s thought, we are living in one of the most significant hours of history. The Greatest Story Ever Told is unfolding before our eyes its final climactic chapter… and almost nobody is paying attention… yet. What’s beginning to unfold will demand the attention of all in time, but for now it is an open invitation for any who are willing to stop what they’re doing and ask the Lord what He’s doing. Now is an opportune moment for us to step back and take in what God is doing in the earth and to not let it pass us by unnoticed. It is a glorious time to be alive and in Christ, and we are robbing ourselves if we carry on business as usual and miss what God wants to give to this generation.
When I’m speaking of this present move of God, I’m talking about something bigger than the outpouring that began in Kansas City and is now touching different places across the nation. I’m talking about something bigger, even, than what we have seen to this point of the global prayer and worship movement. There is a move of God stirring in the earth right now that promises to be one of the most significant the earth has ever seen, filling the body of Christ and the ends of the earth before it has run its course. It’s been called a prayer movement – and it is… it’s been called a worship movement – and it is… it’s been called a missions movement, a justice movement, a prophetic movement, a signs and wonders movement – and it’s all those things… but it’s bigger than that. What really defines this present movement is not what the body of Christ is doing, but what the Spirit is saying that is stirring us to do all of those things. Proverbs tells us “for lack of vision the people cast off restraint,” but let us catch sight of a little of God’s vision and you will find laborers rising up in all spheres longing to serve God’s purpose in their generation. The lifestyle of prayer and worship, and the outworkings of evangelism, prophecy, healing, missions and acts of justice are all symptoms of a particular heart condition that is beginning to spread throughout the body of Christ.
Without a doubt, it is spreading – at an “only God” rate. In 10 years time with no human oversight or planting program we have seen the emergence of hundreds if not thousands of houses of prayer where previously the concept was virtually unheard of. In 10 years more time the major missions organizations are telling us that over half a million houses of prayer will be planted throughout the earth. As we watch night and day prayer begin to cover the earth we naturally make the connection to verses like Isaiah 62:6-7 that promise the coming of watchmen who “give the Lord no rest day or night.” What’s happening behind the scenes, though, is hearts getting struck with the revelation contained in Isaiah 62:1-5 – the God who “will not rest until,” burning with a glorious agenda for the earth and its inhabitants; and the Bridegroom God who rejoices over His people, delighting in them and longing for them to be with Him in His zeal and in His rest. It’s that revelation that produces in us a burning heart, and it’s that burning heart that thrusts us into the heart of God in intimacy and into the activity of God in partnership.
This move of God is about “until.” It’s about a Bride made ready, a harvest from every tongue and tribe and nation, and a people prepared for the Lord. Its heartbeat is a fiery core of revelation: of the Bridegroom God who is zealous for His people, of the Church’s identity as the Bride of Christ, and of where it’s all going as the King prepares a wedding for His Son. It’s that Spirit-breathed revelation, identity and purpose that is sparking what is taking shape in various streams all across the earth… and it’s that same heart that has the power to touch and shape not just a minority movement of intercessors and worshipers, but the entire body of Christ and the whole of church life… and it’s that heart burning within the church that then equips us to begin lighting fires of change in our communities and our nation. For these 40 days we are setting ourselves before those fires of revelation and asking the Spirit to breathe upon them that our hearts might burn still more and more.
As we enter this 40 days of fasting, one of my primary objectives is a heart awakened more fully to what God is doing in our day. One of the great prayers of my life is that my heart and the hearts of everyone I know would be caught up in the story of all that God has done, is doing and is going to do in the earth – the grand drama of redemption. The human spirit was created to be a part of something bigger than our own self-preservation, we long for a sense of purpose and significance that’s meant to be found in the plans and purposes of God. It’s in setting ourselves in that story that we’re prepared to see it unfold with no offense and no confusion, just a heart in awe of what God is doing and a life lived in partnership to see it done with Him.
Though we’re prone to live without giving it a moment’s thought, we are living in one of the most significant hours of history. The Greatest Story Ever Told is unfolding before our eyes its final climactic chapter… and almost nobody is paying attention… yet. What’s beginning to unfold will demand the attention of all in time, but for now it is an open invitation for any who are willing to stop what they’re doing and ask the Lord what He’s doing. Now is an opportune moment for us to step back and take in what God is doing in the earth and to not let it pass us by unnoticed. It is a glorious time to be alive and in Christ, and we are robbing ourselves if we carry on business as usual and miss what God wants to give to this generation.
When I’m speaking of this present move of God, I’m talking about something bigger than the outpouring that began in Kansas City and is now touching different places across the nation. I’m talking about something bigger, even, than what we have seen to this point of the global prayer and worship movement. There is a move of God stirring in the earth right now that promises to be one of the most significant the earth has ever seen, filling the body of Christ and the ends of the earth before it has run its course. It’s been called a prayer movement – and it is… it’s been called a worship movement – and it is… it’s been called a missions movement, a justice movement, a prophetic movement, a signs and wonders movement – and it’s all those things… but it’s bigger than that. What really defines this present movement is not what the body of Christ is doing, but what the Spirit is saying that is stirring us to do all of those things. Proverbs tells us “for lack of vision the people cast off restraint,” but let us catch sight of a little of God’s vision and you will find laborers rising up in all spheres longing to serve God’s purpose in their generation. The lifestyle of prayer and worship, and the outworkings of evangelism, prophecy, healing, missions and acts of justice are all symptoms of a particular heart condition that is beginning to spread throughout the body of Christ.
Without a doubt, it is spreading – at an “only God” rate. In 10 years time with no human oversight or planting program we have seen the emergence of hundreds if not thousands of houses of prayer where previously the concept was virtually unheard of. In 10 years more time the major missions organizations are telling us that over half a million houses of prayer will be planted throughout the earth. As we watch night and day prayer begin to cover the earth we naturally make the connection to verses like Isaiah 62:6-7 that promise the coming of watchmen who “give the Lord no rest day or night.” What’s happening behind the scenes, though, is hearts getting struck with the revelation contained in Isaiah 62:1-5 – the God who “will not rest until,” burning with a glorious agenda for the earth and its inhabitants; and the Bridegroom God who rejoices over His people, delighting in them and longing for them to be with Him in His zeal and in His rest. It’s that revelation that produces in us a burning heart, and it’s that burning heart that thrusts us into the heart of God in intimacy and into the activity of God in partnership.
This move of God is about “until.” It’s about a Bride made ready, a harvest from every tongue and tribe and nation, and a people prepared for the Lord. Its heartbeat is a fiery core of revelation: of the Bridegroom God who is zealous for His people, of the Church’s identity as the Bride of Christ, and of where it’s all going as the King prepares a wedding for His Son. It’s that Spirit-breathed revelation, identity and purpose that is sparking what is taking shape in various streams all across the earth… and it’s that same heart that has the power to touch and shape not just a minority movement of intercessors and worshipers, but the entire body of Christ and the whole of church life… and it’s that heart burning within the church that then equips us to begin lighting fires of change in our communities and our nation. For these 40 days we are setting ourselves before those fires of revelation and asking the Spirit to breathe upon them that our hearts might burn still more and more.
Song of Songs Series
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Pursuing God Service – 09/17/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 7): ‘Who is this’ – The Transforming Power of Love (30.6MB 67min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 09/03/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 6): Love in Every Season (31.1MB 68min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 08/27/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 5): The Foundation for Intimacy – ‘Dark, but Lovely’ (31.6MB 69min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 08/13/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 4): The Pursuit of Intimacy – ‘Let Us Run Together’ (24.3MB 53min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 08/06/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 3): The Cry for Intimacy – ‘Let Him Kiss Me’ (24.8MB 54min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 07/30/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 2): Love’s Story (25.6MB 56min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 07/23/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 1): A Bride Adorned in Love (24.3MB 53min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 09/17/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 7): ‘Who is this’ – The Transforming Power of Love (30.6MB 67min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 09/03/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 6): Love in Every Season (31.1MB 68min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 08/27/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 5): The Foundation for Intimacy – ‘Dark, but Lovely’ (31.6MB 69min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 08/13/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 4): The Pursuit of Intimacy – ‘Let Us Run Together’ (24.3MB 53min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 08/06/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 3): The Cry for Intimacy – ‘Let Him Kiss Me’ (24.8MB 54min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 07/30/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 2): Love’s Story (25.6MB 56min)
Notes
Pursuing God Service – 07/23/09 – The Song of Songs (Part 1): A Bride Adorned in Love (24.3MB 53min)
Notes
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