Preparing the Bride

After my last post sharing the picture that God gave me on ‘Rallying the Bride‘, my church has been looking more at the Bride of Christ as our identity. As part of this morning’s message on that theme (which I recorded several days ago), God spoke about Esther’s year of preparation for becoming a royal bride.

Est 2:12 tells us that each young woman had to undergo twelve months of anointing in preparation before she could be presented to her King: “for the days of their beautification were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with [sweet] spices and perfumes and the beauty preparations for women”. Myrrh was symbolic of mourning and burial (dying to old lives and old selves), of purification and cleansing – and apparently it also served to reinvigorate a sluggish circulatory system. The spices and perfumes were important, once the cleansing had been established, to make sure that no hint of stench from their old associations with the world remained.

We know that we are also in a season of purification and preparation as the Bride of Christ – we also are being asked to die to our old selfish lives, to be cleansed from sinful habits and revived in our spirits, so our attitudes don’t stink of the world’s influence. All of that can only happen under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, so we must submit to His leading if we are to be ready – like the wise virgins, whose lamps were filled with oil, ready for the Bridegroom’s return.

The next morning after recording the message, I came to prayer feeling like God was waiting to speak, so I grabbed my pen and started to write. Some words that God gives me are sometimes a bit vague and need interpreting, but that morning it was so clear, it was like taking dictation…

“I am coming for My Bride!  Make yourselves ready!  Fill your lamps with oil!  Get ready!  Purify yourselves with oil for mourning, laying aside your old life for Me.  Will you turn your back on all you used to know, all that used to be, and just run to Me?
The old Church is gone – do not look for her any more. I am doing a new thing – can you not see it?  Do not cling to what was.  It was beautiful in its day, but now is a new season. I am about to resurrect the Church in a new form – no longer to be a (consuming) caterpillar but a (reproducing) butterfly. It’s time to soar.  Do not look for what was – you won’t find it, and if you tried to re-create it, it would be an idol, offensive to My eyes.  Will you trust Me?  Will you surrender your own ideas, opinions and preferences?  Will you lay aside your hopes for the future and your fondest memories of the past, and just look to Me?  Will you consecrate yourself as My Bride, pure and faithful, and trust Me to lead you one step at a time into My glorious purposes?
My beloved people, you have been pilgrims in the wilderness for a long time, wandering with different shepherds to guide you along the way.  Will you now look to Me to guide you?
Do not look to what was – it could cause you to miss the beautiful gift that I am trying to give you now: very different, but glorious in its own, new way.  Are you ready?
Have you prepared your heart with the anointing oil and perfume of My Spirit?  Have you laid aside all selfish desires and contaminating world attitudes, to pursue Me and Me only?  I am coming for you, My Bride, for I desire that we build My Kingdom together.
Will you pioneer with Me, Beloved?  Will you go with Me to unfamiliar places, to establish My Kingdom there?  Will you be bold and courageous to step out even in your uncertainty and put your hand in Mine, allowing Me to lead you step by step into the glorious plans I have for you?
Have you seen the harvest-field, My love?  The need is great for harvesters: are you with Me?  I want My Bride – as devoted to Me as I am to her – to arise and take her place as My help-meet and co-labourer in the Great Harvest.
Come away with Me, My love – separate yourselves from the taint of the world, that you would be pure and holy to Me, that when we enter the harvest-field together it will be obvious to all that you are Mine: that My seal is upon you, My favour is with you, and you carry all My authority to heal, deliver and set free.
All the obstacles that get in the way of your putting me first?  All the distractions and intimidations?  Keep your eyes fixed on Me, and I will deal with them.  Look at Me, Beloved – keep your gaze, your focus, fixed on Me.  I have it all in hand.  You know you can trust Me.”

As He finished speaking I felt such a conviction that although as individuals many have been seeking God’s voice and the way forward, we haven’t come to a place where we are all united as one, taking that step of saying “Yes Lord, it’s all about You – we are consecrating ourselves to You and turning our back on the old”
And I felt He was asking us to enter into a deliberate and focused time of preparation through fasting.

Esther was being prepared as she waited for her Bridegroom-King. And just as Esther was anointed with myrrh for 6 months to symbolise her death to her old life and cleansing for the new, so fasting is an accessible way for us to deliberately identify with that and turn our back on what was, choosing to be prepared and cleansed for the new season to come. It shows a whole-hearted devotion to the Bridegroom.

So the fast that we are entering into is for twelve days – one day for each month that Esther experienced in preparation to be a bride suitable for her royal Bridegroom. In my church we’re doing it from 28th June – 9 July, but anyone anywhere can do their own season of consecration for the Bridegroom whenever they feel led.

As this fast particularly focuses on mourning – death to self etc, we are pursuing a subsistence fast that only consumes the most basic of foods (grains, veg, water etc) that cuts out all rich or celebratory food, such as anything sugary or fatty – anything indulgent that we don’t really need, like a Daniel-fast. I also strongly encourage you to disengage from worldly influences and contaminants such as TV, computer games, news, social media etc, and just fix your eyes on Jesus.

It’s time to declare, “Yes Lord, we put You first.  We turn from our old ways and consecrate ourselves – preparing ourselves in purity for You, our Bridegroom”.