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I. Introduction
A. God is raising up a lovesick bride who is being equipped through bridal intimacy. He wants to remove spiritual boredom and passivity which dominates many of God’s people. The Lord wants to empower His bride for Himself and for the tasks on the earth. There is nothing more important in this life than our hearts growing in holy passion for the Son of God.
· You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Mt.22:37).
· And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (Jn.17:3).
· That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil.3:10).
B. In Matthew 25 we have 2 different pictures of a heart being equipped in love. The Bridegroom God is wanting His bride to live and minister with a heart on fire on the inside. It’s a new paradigm of experiencing God’s heart. We’re entering into Bridal partnership with the heart of God. Lets’ look at two types of believers:
1) Wise virgins – Their lamps are filled with oil. The oil described in Matthew 25:4 is not just talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit, but it’s referring to a secret life in God. It cannot be bought or borrowed. It’s a lifestyle that is cultivated through bridal intimacy. Notice these wise virgins were ready to meet the Bridegroom (vs. 10).
2) Foolish virgins - They didn’t have any oil in their lamps. They equipped their hearts through ministry tasks. This was their primary occupation which should have been their secondary one. They were not able to enter the wedding. The door was shut. This is the testimony of the foolish virgins (vs. 10-12).
C. Understanding the bridal paradigm is the most effective way to empower and equip our hearts while upon the earth. We are entering the darkest and most evil times ever in human history. We have so many distractions and different voices screaming for our attention. This was why we need to become wise virgins in the hour were living in.
D. In Philippians 3 Paul the Apostle gives us three distinct insights to being empowered inside our spirit. It is the greatest calling known to mankind. It’s what the Father is seeking
after. Let’s look at these three insights that will sustain us to follow the Lamb wherever
He goes.
1. That I might know Him (vs.10) (Intimacy).
2. That I would experience the power of His resurrection (vs.10) (Power).
3. That I would enter into the fellowship of His sufferings (vs.10) (Suffering).
E. God does not measure our lives through out ministries, talents, skills or discipline, He measures us by the cry or the Yes in our heart. He’s looking for a wiling spirit.
· Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mt. 26:41).
II. Approaching the King of glory
A. In Psalm 24 David gives us insight of how to approach the King of glory.
1. Clean hands (vs.4).
2. Pure heart (vs.4).
3. No idolatry (vs.4).
4. Honest (vs.4).
5. Open the door of your heart (vs.7).
B. In Jeremiah 30 the prophet of God gave the Nation of Israel the key to approach the King
of glory.
1. God Himself is the One who causes us to draw near (vs.21).
2. We are the ones who pledge our hearts to approach the Lord (vs.21).
3. We cannot just sit back and wait for God to show up and we cannot approach and
receive revelation of God’s heart, without Him causing us to draw near. It’s called
divine partnership – friendship with the King of glory.
4. What a great priviledge to approach the eternal, uncreated God.
C. In Hebrews 4 we are told the secret to approach God’s heart with confidence.
1. We have a great High priest (vs.14). He’s not just a High Priest, but He’s a great High
Priest.
2. Jesus, the Son of God has passed through the heavens (vs.14). The high priest’s in
the Old Testament were just types and shadows of Christ. They were vulnerable.
Christ Jesus is greater than the angels, greater than Moses, greater than Solomon,
greater than Aaron, and greater than all high Priest’s. He has passed through the veil
in the holy place and was not seen even by the priest’s. He entered through the
second veil into the holy of holies, where the majesty of God dwells.
3. Jesus is not just a great High Priest, but He’s a gracious high Priest (vs.15). He is
merciful, compassionate, and sympathizes with our weaknesses. Though He is so
great and so far above us, yet He’s very kind and tenderly concerned for us.
4. Jesus is a sinless High Priest (vs.15). He was tempted as we are, yet was without sin.
He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than
the heavens (Heb.8:26).
III. God’s End-time Strategy
A. God is longing to have a church standing in victory as a cherished and prepared Bride at the end of the Age.
· 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 (Rev. 19:7).
B. History began with a Bride and a Bridegroom in the garden (Gen. 2) and history will end with a Bride and Bridegroom in the Eternal City (Rev. 21:2, 9).
IV. There are eight key words that summarize the bridal paradigm.
1. Desire. This is the longing of the human spirit. We all want to feel cherished
and wanted. This is the hidden key that produces whole-heartedness to love
and to be loved (Song 7:10).
2. Fascination. We have a desire to be excited and thrilled. Without being
fascinated by GOD we become bored in our spirit. We want the river of GOD's
desire to ruin us so we can become lovesick for Him (Ps. 36:8).
3. Beauty. There is a deep longing in the heart for the beauty of JESUS. There is
nothing more attractive than the very beauty and splendor of the worthy Man upon the throne. It was King David who penned,
One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple (Ps.27:4).
4. Gladness. The gladdest person in the universe is GOD Himself. When we encounter Him as a glad Bridegroom King, we become motivated to extravagant obedience (Zeph. 3:17).
5. Pleasure. This is a powerful spiritual need within every human heart. If we do not experience GOD's pleasure in our lives, we will be driven to look for satisfaction in other places. We need to feel the superior pleasure of GOD over us even in our weakness (Ps. 149:4).
6. Jealous. This beautiful God that we worship is a jealous lover. He will not tolerate any other lovers in our hearts, because we are priceless (Zech.8:2).
7. Lovesick. A lovesick person is the most satisfied and yet dangerous person to the kingdom of darkness. A person in love cannot be bought, because they are voluntary lovers. It is the gift of God (Song. 2:5).
8. Romance. This is the invitation to bridal partnership. It is where we encounter the
fire and ocean of Divine love. The romance of JESUS is what produce voluntary lovers.
The treasure of voluntary love is the currency of Heaven (Song. 6:3).
V. There are two key aspects that equip the heart into the bridal revelation.
A. First: The revelation of God’s beauty - His emotions and affections.
(what God looks like).
1. The beauty of God’s heart is most powerful to the human spirit. It is about desire being awakened. When we discover the vast ocean of God’s beauty, our heart begins to soar like a river on the inside.
2. The beauty of God was the secret to King David’s life. This was his pre-occupation in life (Ps.27:4).
3. David was the one in scripture who married the beauty of God and the holiness of God.
· …Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (1 Chrn.16:29).
B. Second: The knowledge of the Bride’s beauty – our spiritual identity/new name.
(What we look like to God.)
1. The Bride of Christ is a position of privilege and honor. It is available to every
human being upon the earth. It is a divine invitation to encounter the deep things of God’s heart. There’s nothing greater than the ability to feel desired by God and to love Him back. This is what makes us to be confident in love.
2. Because our emotions are always running wild and we struggle with anger,
lust, fear, bitterness, insecurity and pride, the message of the Bride of Christ
is what helps us to overcome this struggle. Living in confidence before the
throne is our destiny and our inheritance.
· The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (Eph.1:18).
C. When we think bridal thoughts we have new emotions.
· But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18).
D. The Bride will operate in her bridal identity at the end of natural history.
· And the Spirit and the bride say, “come!” (Rev. 22:17).
VI. New paradigm of serving God.
1. Duty - delight
2. Fear – love
3. Boredom – fascination
4. Cranky holiness – happy holiness
5. Hard-taskmaster – Easy to please
6. Angry God – Happy God
7. I have to – I want to
8. Worker – lover
VII. The first three great teachers on the bridal paradigm of God’s heart.
1. Moses
· He was a man who encountered the fire of God’s heart. He had tremendous visitations of the power and glory of God.
· In Exodus 3, he saw the fire of God.
· In Ex. 15:1-11, Moses discovered God’s holiness as being glorious.
· In Ex.19:16-19, he experienced the power of God.
· In Ex.24:9-18, he saw the sea of glass and ate a meal with God.
· In Ex. 33:18-23, he experienced God’s glory,
· In Ex.34:1-9 & Num.14:18, God revealed His personality to him.
· In Ex.34:14, he experienced the jealous God.
· In Ex.34:29-35, we have the result of Moses encounter with God.
· In Deut.5:4-5, 23-29, Moses hears God’s voice from the fire.
· In Deut.30:9-10, he experienced the happy God who rejoices.
· In Deut.33:1-3, 26-29, we have Moses final encounter.
2.David
· He was a lovesick man, more than a conquering man. He was the one named by God as a man after His own heart. Why was he a man after God’s heart? Because he was resolved to be a student of God’s fiery emotions. He had such revelation of the God of pleasure and delight. His obedience was motivated by delight. He was a man who experienced intimacy with God’s heart.
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