The church is not yet the Bride but rather the espoused Bride. We are engaged to Him. The Bridegroom has prepared the wedding city and will soon come for His chosen and ready saints. He is jealous over us with a holy jealousy and will not accept unfaithfulness. The Holy Ghost was sent from the Heavenly City to call and nurture the Bride in great anticipation of the wedding. If we could only be half as excited about the Bridegroom as the Bridegroom is about the Bride, what joy would flood our souls!
We find a lovers paradise in the Bible book “Song of Solomon.” The Bridegroom is pictured wooing and calling to His Bride, while the Bride is often seen as the reluctant lover. If He did not understand our fleshly weaknesses and passions, there would be no hope. But we must not excuse ourselves because of this fact but rather cast ourselves at His feet and yield to the nurturing work of His Holy Ghost. What we cannot be on our own the Holy Ghost was given to accomplish in us. Notice the wooing of His Spirit pictured so beautifully in this love story.
“I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.” (Song of Solomon 5:1-6)
Please notice His wooing and the Bride’s reluctance. The warning in this text is awesome for the espoused Bride, because some are seen as having missed His call for love and are left wandering in the dark and wounded by the enemy. What a realistic picture of so much of our church world that will soon be heartbroken at having lost the ultimate reward of Brideship. But there will be a great company of the overcomers, and the Holy Ghost is nurturing the faithful every moment. Apostle Paul warned Timothy, “That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” (II Timothy 1:14) We are passionate people; every one of us dwells in nothing but a skin tent; but the Holy Ghost was given to fill and build us up in His power and might of Himself to be victorious.
Jude, a half brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, gave us a powerful exhortation. He knew the weakness of flesh but he also knew the power of the Holy Ghost’s nurturing love. He said, “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 20-21)
Our church world hates responsibility and wants a theology that is cheap on obedience. The Holy Ghost can only nurture that person that yields to Him. Your reluctance to surrender and obey will block His wonderful works of grace. At the same time, the weakest and the less endowed among us can cast himself on Him, and He will provide abundant grace. That’s why Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
The nurtured Bride that yields to His wonderful grace will soon be shouting in the Heavenly City before the throne of His Holiness.
