“(7) “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” ( And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” – Revelation 19:7-8 NKJV
In part 1 of the Warrior Bride, I reminded us of what Yeshuah taught His disciples on the Mount of Olives in answer to their question “what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” Matthew 24:3. Despite the disturbing reply, His intention was not to discourage them, but to prepare them with the Truth, so they might not be deceived by the entourage of false christs and false prophets that would surely follow and provide a different more attractive narrative. This of course remains as important for us today as it was for the early disciples, and we must heed the instruction well lest we be deceived.
However, this inevitability of trials and tribulations should not produce in us a defeatist attitude as though we were without the means to bring change. Rather it should create in us a resolute determination to do all we possibly can to fulfil the mandate we have been entrusted with to make disciples of all nations. After all, ever since Yeshuah taught on His glorious return, for the last two thousand years the Bride has endured and transitioned through all the epochs of church history until now. Great things have been accomplished through the passion of men and women whose lives were sold out to God not only in the harvest fields of mission but in all sectors of society, whether politics, education or medicine, the arts, social reform or philanthropy.
When Yeshuah returned to the Father, He did not leave us without the means to overcome or prepare the way for His return. Here’s the account in the Book of Acts:
“(6) Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (7) And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ( “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” – Acts 1:6-8 NKJV
We know this scripture well, and take great encouragement and instruction from it, for we have indeed received power through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which empowers us mightily for tremendous exploits and testimony. In this Quick Bite, I want to make the connection between being a witness in the power of the Holy Spirit to being the Warrior Bride engaged in preparing for the return of her King. Okay, so let’s take a closer look at what’s going on here, and we’ll begin back in Matthew 24.
“(3) Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what [will be] the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” … (14) “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew 24:3, 14 NKJV
In answering His disciples’ question “what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”, Yeshuah talks of great deception, wars and rumours of wars, but the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places, which Yeshuah calls “the beginning of sorrows”. Then persecution and martyrdom, betrayal and apostasy, false prophets and so on, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. Now as remarkable as each of these are, it is what follows in verse 14 that completes the sequence and serves to answer their question the end will come when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached as a witness to all the nations. Note, at this point the Kingdom has still not yet come in its earthly consummation, but its gospel will have been preached as a witness to all nations. This is a key point and forms part of the judicial process necessary before the Second Coming that creates a straight path of righteousness for the return of the King, as though to herald His soon return and provide opportunity to repent and prepare.
The gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a witness. The word preached is G2784 kēryssō (kay-roos’-so) and means to proclaim in the manner of a herald but always comes with the suggestion of formality, gravity and an authority which must be listened to and obeyed. It is more than proclamation or the propagation of news, because it carries with it a legal connotation. This point is important to grasp because everything the Lord does is always within a legal framework of righteousness and justice. Listen again, the gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a witness. The word witness is G3142 martyrion (mar-too’-ree-on) also carries a judicial meaning and is synonymous with the word testimony as in a court of law, and it’s also connected with being a witness to the end of the earth in Acts 1:8.
Now you might be wondering where I am going with this, and how does this connect with the Warrior Bride? So to answer that, let’s look at another scripture, this time in Revelation 19 just before the Battle of Armageddon.
“(11) Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him [was] called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.” – Revelation 19:11 NKJV
This is the ultimate in spiritual warfare, the final battle before the Lord’s millennial reign upon the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, when finally the Kingdom of God shall come and be restored in all its glory. Did you notice though, the manner in which Yeshuah, as Faithful and True, will come? It says He will come in righteousness to judge and make war.
That’s because judging and warfare go together, and both in righteousness. They are interlinked with each other; the legal protocols of righteousness and justice are necessary and inseparable from the outworking of spiritual warfare. When the Lord returns in glory, it will be foreshadowed by the requirements of legal precedent to bring testimony and witness to the ends of the earth of His coming Kingdom.
And this is the point I’m making, that we must understand the nature of the battle we are engaged in from a legal point of view, so that we too can operate along the protocols of righteousness and justice, and in particular, make the legal argument in the courts of heaven to counter the adversary’s accusation in a way that grants a ruling in favour of the saints and subsequent victory upon the battlefield.
I appreciate the depth of the points I’m making here and I don’t want you to miss what I’m saying. I believe the Warrior Bride is commissioned to the battlefield not without wisdom or understanding but in partnership with the courts of Heaven, living out of intimacy with Her Beloved, where her garments are not the encumbrance of another’s armour but “arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” Revelation 19:8. The word “righteous acts” here, is the word G1345 dikaiōma (di ki oh ma) and also carries legal connotation with it as in that which has been deemed right so as to have force of law, for example what has been established and ordained by law, or a judicial decision or sentence.
