Introduction
There is a radical shift coming to the body of Christ. Like a sword, it will separate the real from the counterfeit. We are coming to a watershed moment in the history of the church, and we are being confronted with a profound and demanding question that must be answered before we can proceed any further. The Lord has put His church on the witness stand to be cross examined just like in a court of law and she must bear witness and give account for her behaviour. She has promised to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but now her motives are being questioned, her sincerity examined, and her heart exposed. This question which confronts her and demands an answer is the same as that asked of Rebekah in Genesis 24:58 when Abraham’s chief servant came looking for a wife for Isaac, ‘Will you go with this man?’. The Holy Spirit has come to collect the Bride for Jesus, and He is saying ‘will you come away with me? Will you allow me to give you the wedding clothes? Will you allow me to take you somewhere you have never been before?’ Beloved, it is time to leave the house we have grown accustomed to, and begin a pilgrimage to the Bridegroom, it is the last journey for the church to take, the final transition she must make, and she does not know how, except the Spirit of God has come and He will lead her.
Of utmost importance is a clear roadmap rooted in the Word of God and revealed by the Holy Spirit upon which we might navigate the turbulent waters ahead of us today. We cannot hold onto the security of what is familiar or the ways we have grown accustomed to. Our habits and church practices can become the very bonds which keep us imprisoned to an ideology that doesn’t line up to the Word of God or unfit for the times we now find ourselves living.
Whether we grew up with a Christian heritage or are new to the life of faith in Jesus Christ, we are inevitably influenced by what we hear from others and see in the church today. We often accept so easily without question. But what if the Spirit of God were leading His church into new and unchartered territory? One in which the practices, organisation, and infrastructures of the past, though they have brought us to where we are today, were ill equipped and unable to take us to our final destination?
The Transformation of the Church
Just like the caterpillar will never be able to fly or display the beauty that lies within, except without first dying to self: is there a process of change awaiting the church today? For the caterpillar to become all it was created to be there must be a radical metamorphosis, a dramatic transformation. Yet that transformation cannot happen until the old form of the caterpillar dies to birth the new form of the butterfly. One might argue the church is the new creation, and I would have to agree, yes of course the church has been brought of out darkness and into the glorious light of God, redeemed and washed by the blood of her Bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ. But is that the end of change? Are we not to change from glory to glory? Are we not to present ourselves a living sacrifice on the altar of worship, that we might be transformed by the renewing of our minds? Does that renewal take place upon salvation only, or is it a daily responsibility to be sanctified?
If I am to be changed as a child of God, does that not also mean the church should be changed as the Bride of Jesus? For she is a person. Just like I am a person, so is the Bride. A corporate being the Lord sees and relates to collectively as One. The church is the new creation, but that doesn’t mean she has become all she was created to be, there is a process of change that awaits her, a renewal of heart and mind to enable her to rise up into her created destiny as the Bride.
We will not find the blueprint of who we are in our denominational handbooks or vision statements. We must go much deeper than church tradition or history, style or personal preference, for ultimately it is not who we say we are, but what God has spoken over us and will bring forth into being.
God has spoken who we are, and His Word will endure and produce its fruit. His Word carries prophetic significance, it is pregnant with power to transform and bring us through the transformation process, and no wilderness, no tribulation, no pandemic or emerging World Order, is able to oppose what God has spoken.
Confessing Our Identity
This is where we are today, the Holy Spirit is bringing to the church the Word of God spoken over us so we might know who we are. This is always the journey to understanding. The Holy Spirit reveals the very deep thoughts and intentions of the Father into our spirit that we might know Him, and in knowing Him we might know ourselves. This revelation comes to us in the form of testimony. Listen to what Paul writes:
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” Romans 8:16 NKJV
The words ‘bears witness’ used here in the original Greek is the word soom-mar-too-reh’-o and means a joint testimony, to bear witness or testify together. It means to be in agreement with each other. This is how we know we are children of God, because there is alignment within our spirit and the Holy Spirit, that bear witness together. We agree with and confirm the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. But this is only part of the process by which we enter into the truth of who we are. It is not enough to believe. Here is what Paul writes:
“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9 ESV
You see, we must also confess what we have come to believe. We must give audible expression of that which bears witness within.
This is how we are saved—not only to believe but to confess that belief. But there is more. This process of giving verbal confession to internalised belief is also true of our adoption as children of God—we bear witness with the Holy Spirit that we are children of God and by the Spirit of Adoption we cry ‘Abba Father’. Here again, there is the internalised belief and the verbal expression.
Let’s look at what John writes:
(2) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 1 John 3:2-3 NKJV
John is saying though we are now the children of God, there is so much more, for what we shall be, has not yet been revealed. Yes, now we are the children of God, but it is just the beginning of all we shall be. Paul writes:
“For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face, now I know in part, but then I shall fully know, even as I am fully known”
1 Corinthians 13:12 NKJV
Whilst we will not fully understand some things until Jesus returns, it is true that what no eye has seen or ear heard, what no heart of man has imagined of what God has prepared for those who love Him, those things are able to be revealed now by the Spirit who searches the very depths of God[1]. We are able to know now in part of what we shall be then. Indeed this revelation is necessary for us to align with God’s heart and intentions, since we must prepare now for what shall be then.
So the work of the Holy Spirit remains unfinished with us as children of God. He has one final assignment, one more glorious commission, one more testimony He is bringing into the hearts of the children of God of what we shall be. It is what the Spirit is saying to the churches today, that we are the Bride.
Ultimately this truth has not come as an audible external voice but an inner witness.
If we search deep enough within, we will hear the witness of the Spirit of Betrothal declaring that we are His Bride.
It is not an appeal to the head but to the heart. We cannot transition into our Bridal identity by theology alone. This is about heart, about longing, a wrenching of emotion to break the hardness set in and cause us to repent from every other perception and ambition that denies admission into our corporate identity as His Bride.
Now if the right response to our adoption is to cry Abba Father, what should be the cry of the Bride? With what words should she proclaim this inner witness and begin the transformation process?
What I am saying is that it is not enough to believe in the Bride—that belief must be given a voice, a cry, a call, if the belief is to become a reality.
The Cry of the Bride
Becoming the Bride defies passive doctrine which requires no response. It goes beyond ecumenical unity and deeper than denominational partnership, it gives no regard to our titles or church affiliations, but cuts to the heart, to the spiritual fabric and DNA of the church. The connection between one part of the Bride to another is not through pastoral consent, nor a leadership granted pathway, but is the essence of our corporate identity who stand in solidarity to make the Bridal Call.
What is this call? It is no less than for Jesus to Come and those that hear what the Spirit is saying must make this cry.
After all, this is exactly what scripture tells us to do. Here is what John writes, in this now most profound and central scripture, which has become a key foundational truth upon which we must build going forward:
“And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17 NKJV
The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come’. In just one word, we are able to align ourselves to His heart and embrace our Bridal Identity. In just one word, we are able to get dressed and be beautified. In just one word we are able to abandon our strivings for a Kingdom Now philosophy, and in just one word we are able to position ourselves into the design and purpose of God for His church as we approach the final days ahead.
You know the early church had this understanding and revelation of calling upon the Lord to come. They used the Aramaic word Maranatha as a way of greeting each other, which means both Our Lord has come and also Our Lord Come. It was a statement of truth and a prayer. They greeted each other with this declaration of assurance and longing, especially during the persecution and severe trials they faced at the time. This prayer kept their hopes alive on the promise that Jesus said one day He would return for them. It was embedded in the DNA of the early church and gave them solidarity in an era of tribulation.
When and wherever I have ministered around the world since receiving this vision, I have shared why we should cry “Come”. My experience in gatherings in different nations has been truly wonderful, as this cry, this longing for the Bridegroom has been released and activated. When the Bride calls “Come”, something in the heart of every believer rises to the surface, a resonance that lifts us up into the presence of the Lord. Gatherings of the Bride calling “Come”, have charged the atmosphere with a unique and compelling anointing. Oh, how we need this anointing poured out upon the Bride today.
We are not yet fully equipped or clothed as we should be, but when we cry “Come”, we are awakening our Bridal identity and aligning our hearts with His.
In this Bridal call, we are agreeing with the Spirit who has always been saying “Come”, and beginning to get dressed. Crying “Come”, isn’t a symbol we are ready but that we want to be. It is the greatest witness of all, and the prayer our Bridegroom longs to hear more than any other. When Heaven hears the Bride calling “Come”, the time is drawing near for the Bridegroom to return and complete the mystery hidden for ages—the Eternal Purpose of God—that we should be included in the glory of Oneness within the Godhead. How? Through a marriage union with Jesus Christ who is both God and Man.
This is the vision I received from the Lord which gave birth to the beautiful movement of Call2Come. When the church calls for the Holy Spirit to come and not for Jesus, how does that make our Bridegroom feel? What does it feel like when the one you died for and are betrothed to doesn’t call upon you to come, or is even aware of who she is? Is this what Jesus meant when he reproved the church in Ephesus of forsaking their first love? Two thousand years have passed, are we so entrenched in our ways, that we have forgotten what the early church knew so well? Can you imagine the joy of Jesus’ heart when He looks upon the earth and hears His Bride calling upon Him to come, wow, how beautiful is that? This is what I saw in the founding vision of Call2Come, that Jesus will turn to the Father with joy in His eyes and say “Father, can you hear them calling? They are asking for me to come. Can I go?” and the Father will say, “Soon. Yes my Son, I hear their call, but this is what we will do, until that day, we will send the Holy Spirit one more time to help her to get dressed”.
I believe there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit the church has yet to experience, and it will not be released by asking for the Holy Spirit, but for the Lord Jesus Christ to come. An anointing to empower her for the days ahead and help her to dress. This is why Call2Come has embraced this message, and the commission to release and activate this Bridal Call upon the earth today. Let us unite our hearts as one, setting hopes upon the glorious appearing of our Lord and Bridegroom. And let us be numbered among the Bride, who together with John’s closing prayer of all scripture say, “Amen, Even So, Come Lord Jesus”. Maranatha.
Selah
Principles
- We will find no blueprint for who we are in our denominational handbooks or vision statements. We must go far deeper than church tradition or history, style or personal preference. Ultimately it is not who we say we are, but what God has spoken over us and will bring forth into being. God is doing something new, more than simply reviving what once was.
- If we search deep enough within, we will hear the witness of the Spirit of Betrothal declaring we are His Bride.
- By the Spirit of Adoption we cry “Abba, Father”, by the Spirit of Betrothal we cry “Come”.
- We are neither fully equipped nor clothed as we should be, but when we cry “Come”, we are awakening our Bridal identity and aligning our hearts with His.
Scriptures
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:19 ESV
“(2) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 1 John 3:2-3 NKJV
“And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17 NKJV
Quotes
“The Church, as the Body of Christ, is the vessel chosen of God…embodiment of the glory and greatness of Christ.”
—T. Austin-Sparks, Collected Writings
“Lord, you are my lover, my longing, my flowing stream, my sun, and I am your reflection.”
—Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light of the Godhead
“Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love.”—Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
“Christ was the bridegroom, and the Church is His Bride… He died for her sins and now invites her to His eternal wedding feast.”
—St. Fautus of Riez (commentary on Christ’s nuptial role)
Pause for Reflection
- What does it mean for the Church to confess her bridal identity?
- Is “Come, Lord Jesus” the cry of my heart?
- How can I live in a way that reflects readiness for His return?
[1] “(9) But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”– (10) these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 ESV
