The Spirit and the bride say come

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

John 14:3 (NIV)

Let’s time travel back to the custom of marriage in Jesus’ lifetime in order to better understand the metaphor of the church as His bride. 

Every marriage during His time and culture began with the father of the groom, who sent his servant to negotiate the marriage arrangement. A generous price was paid to the bride’s family and a binding contract was signed. The servant then returned to the master’s house, and the Son excitedly began to prepare his bridal chamber. It could take up to a year for the groom to construct and prepare the place for him and his bride to reside.

Through that same negotiating servant, the groom sends his betrothed bride an engagement gift of gold jewelry. The engaged bride wears her gifts of betrothal, while waiting for her wedding day. She had to be ready at any moment, because the day and time of the groom’s arrival was unknown, but would be announced with a trumpet call and a shout.  

When I learned about these traditions, it brought new meaning to the words of Jesus, promising that He is going to prepare a place for us. 

The church is His bride and His Father paid the highest possible cost, with His Son’s divine, precious blood. That is the binding marriage contract. The resurrected Jesus is betrothed to whoever will accept His proposal, and He prepares a place for them, in His Father’s mansion. 

Instead of gold jewelry, He adorns us with all the engagement gifts of His Holy Spirit, who is the Negotiator for the Father. He distributes many different spiritual gifts of betrothal to the church, His bride. We wear and use these gifts of the Spirit, while we are waiting for the bridegroom’s return. 

We are still residing in our current home, but we are being prepared to live in a better and eternal one. Everything that happens in our lives has been a preparation for the goal of this union.

The date is unknown, and will be a surprise, announced by an angel’s trumpet call and a shout from heaven. We are His betrothed bride, and Jesus prepares His heavenly wedding chamber for us.  

We will learn how our whole life has been a time of preparation, and how every event served a purpose to make us better, motivated by His pure and infinite love for us. 

Like an engaged bride we anticipate the day of His second coming, and the marriage supper of the Lamb will be the greatest wedding feast of all time. On that day we will meet the One who loves us with an everlasting love and gave Himself for us. 

Until the bridegroom arrives, we hold within us all the grace and strength we need for whatever we were born to do. We cannot add time to our lives, but we can add spiritual quality to the time we have left to live.

In the the book of Revelation, Jesus is calling to each of us, saying, “Yes, I am coming soon,” and as our eyes look toward Heaven, we say “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus”.

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