Marriage

The Book of Revelation is, in its simplest explanation, a story of the most amazing wedding in all of human history. Marriage is a legal relationship invented by God. We got the idea of marriage from Him, not the other way around. God defines marriage as two people legally agreeing to be so closely united they become one:


Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.


God is very serious about unity...becoming one. Revelation is the process of Jesus' Bride...the Church...being transformed from a bunch of un-unified "factions", into one pure and spotless Bride. Most people sitting in pews right now think Jesus is going to wave His hand some day and "make us" unified. He NEVER does anything like that!! Jesus is committed to love, which means He is FULLY committed to free will. He offers an invitation, and people who love Him respond. He has always operated this way. He commands the wind and the waves, but He woos the children of men.


Revelation is really the wooing process of Jesus, giving His Bride the context to "get ready for the wedding". We read the judgments and think they are "bad." Jesus says the judgments reveal who He is, and who His "other half" is to the world. The real title of the book is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ." Jesus has created the entire events of Revelation to redeem those who are rebelling against Him as a context for His Bride to agree with Him, pray in agreement with Him for the release of those judgments, and come into such agreement with Him that she actually carries the very authority of Jesus on earth BEFORE He comes. When Jesus comes, depicted in Revelation 19 and 20, Heaven declares: She Has Made Herself Ready!!


Revelation 19:7 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.”


Jesus doesn't wave His hand and she is spotless! No! He gives her the space to agree with Him to become spotless in the most intense time in human history. We get credit for "making ourselves ready" but the truth is, Jesus was the one who gave us the events He has planned in His word...the washing process...to make us ready. Even the preparation for the wedding is a partnership between Jesus and His Bride:


Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.


The events of Revelation...the Great Tribulation...is Jesus' engagement present to His Bride. Many look at the present Jesus has planned to give to His Bride and they wish Jesus would get them a different present! This is because they don't understand, or really trust, that their groom is perfectly powerful and perfectly loving. If these two things are true, then no object of His love should be afraid of anything He has planned! He is not worried or afraid of the Tribulation He has planned. He has a fire He really wants to kindle, because that fire refines His Bride as she is protected, carried, kept, and actually made to FLOURISH through it. It is intended to separate the wheat (those loyal to Jesus and His plans) from the tares (everyone else):


Luke 12:49, 51 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.


Jesus isn't afraid of this fire. We shouldn't be afraid either. He wants His Bride in such agreement with Him that we become a faithful witness to anyone who will listen that He loves them and they can call on His name! He isn't going to reign down tribulation on a bunch of unsuspecting people who don't even believe He is good, without giving them some people to explain what is happening. He has never operated that way...just ask Jonah!


I want to be careful how I look at Jesus' engagement present. The present is actually designed to make me ready for greatness forever in governmental partnership with Jesus. If I look at the present as negative and hope to escape receiving it, I will not get the benefit of owning it...I will be much less ready.


Many who are casual about their future husband will be offended...they will "fall away"... when they see His engagement present: the Great Tribulation. Many are hoping their husband has a better present in mind. Something more comfortable. That is not at all what He described:


Matthew 24:9-13 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.


Paul said this MUST happen before Jesus comes. Jesus is going to separate those loyal to Him, in the context of His engagement present, as part of the context He gives the Bride to make herself ready:


II Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,


The book of Revelation opens up with the first three chapters setting the stage for the wedding. Chapter one is all about the Groom. Chapters 2 and 3 are all about His immature Bride-to-be. She is kind of a sloppy mess...broken up into seven very different characteristic churches. Once the tribulation starts, those seven churches are never mentioned again...only the one Bride. The Bride becomes and one and spotless THROUGH the tribulation. Standing as a faithful witness that Her beloved is the one behind all of the events, calling more and more to the wedding...MANY will come as the most powerful prophetic anointing of power is poured out on her...even the kids and the elderly...healing, miracles, manna, all in the middle of the intensity!

Joel 2:28-32 “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, (this is the 6th seal!) Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord . And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the Lord has said, Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.