Silas
Beloved of All
Your longing for revival and for the church to be made pure and ready as a bride is a prayer that God delights to hear. Scripture says He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and that we should pray for all people and for those in authority so that lives may be lived in godliness and quietness before Him.
That revival you are asking for is tied directly to being washed by the Word. The Lord Jesus gave Himself for the church that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish. This is the great mystery of Christ and His church. To be washed in the truth of the Word day by day is how He makes His people clean and ready.
That work is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, in which we are called to participate. It is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit that we are able to put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the good works which God prepared beforehand for us to do. The fine linen of the bride in Revelation is described as the righteous deeds of the saints, and those deeds are the fruit of a life being made holy from within.
Scripture is clear that without holiness no one will see the Lord, and that the pure in heart shall see God. There has often been confusion about what holiness means, as if it were only outward appearance or a dress code. True holiness is not outward conformity but a matter of the heart. Jesus taught that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. We can keep an outward standard and still lack a holy heart, and we can also reject outward standards and neglect holiness altogether. Neither is right. God calls us to a true inward purity, a rightness of character before Him. Righteousness, which is rightness of conduct, grows out of that root. If the heart is made holy, the life will bear the fruit of right living. Without that inner work, any attempt to live rightly will fail because there is no motive strong enough to sustain it.
This is also Gods will for you, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality and that each one learn to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. God said, be holy for I am holy, and that call includes sexual purity and faithfulness within the covenant of marriage as God designed it, one man and one woman for life. It is part of what it means to be set apart for Him.
The picture Scripture gives of Christ and the church as bridegroom and bride helps us understand His love. He sees His bride as beautiful, without spot, fair and desired by the King, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, set apart for Him alone. In the same way the servant was sent to the far country to seek and to woo a bride for the son, and to bring her back to him, the Holy Spirit has been sent to draw out and prepare a people for Jesus. The bride was already chosen and appointed, and the Spirit faithfully leads and convinces hearts to come. After His offering, the Son waits until His bride is gathered and made ready, and then He will rise to meet her with joy at His coming. Our prayer, like hers, becomes come, Lord Jesus, make haste to come.
That same reconciliation you prayed for is central to the gospel. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting trespasses against them, and He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Vertically, we are reconciled to God through the one mediator, Jesus Christ, who offered Himself once for all and by that one offering has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Horizontally, that reconciliation bears fruit in peace with people and unity among believers, but it is a unity in truth. Jesus prayed that His people would be one as He and the Father are one, and that oneness comes as we continue in His Word and know the truth that sanctifies us. We are to follow peace with all men and holiness, proclaiming His excellencies as a holy people called out of darkness into His marvelous light, serving Him in our spirit in the preaching of the gospel so that others may be gathered into His fold and made disciples.
May the Lord answer your prayer by shining in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and by opening the eyes of your understanding to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. May He establish your heart blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints, and may He use you to bear much fruit, both the fruit of the Spirit and a harvest of souls, to the glory of God. We join you in asking this in the name of Jesus, through whom we have forgiveness and an eternal inheritance, that God may be feared and glorified. Amen.
That revival you are asking for is tied directly to being washed by the Word. The Lord Jesus gave Himself for the church that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish. This is the great mystery of Christ and His church. To be washed in the truth of the Word day by day is how He makes His people clean and ready.
That work is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, in which we are called to participate. It is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit that we are able to put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the good works which God prepared beforehand for us to do. The fine linen of the bride in Revelation is described as the righteous deeds of the saints, and those deeds are the fruit of a life being made holy from within.
Scripture is clear that without holiness no one will see the Lord, and that the pure in heart shall see God. There has often been confusion about what holiness means, as if it were only outward appearance or a dress code. True holiness is not outward conformity but a matter of the heart. Jesus taught that it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. We can keep an outward standard and still lack a holy heart, and we can also reject outward standards and neglect holiness altogether. Neither is right. God calls us to a true inward purity, a rightness of character before Him. Righteousness, which is rightness of conduct, grows out of that root. If the heart is made holy, the life will bear the fruit of right living. Without that inner work, any attempt to live rightly will fail because there is no motive strong enough to sustain it.
This is also Gods will for you, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality and that each one learn to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. God said, be holy for I am holy, and that call includes sexual purity and faithfulness within the covenant of marriage as God designed it, one man and one woman for life. It is part of what it means to be set apart for Him.
The picture Scripture gives of Christ and the church as bridegroom and bride helps us understand His love. He sees His bride as beautiful, without spot, fair and desired by the King, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, set apart for Him alone. In the same way the servant was sent to the far country to seek and to woo a bride for the son, and to bring her back to him, the Holy Spirit has been sent to draw out and prepare a people for Jesus. The bride was already chosen and appointed, and the Spirit faithfully leads and convinces hearts to come. After His offering, the Son waits until His bride is gathered and made ready, and then He will rise to meet her with joy at His coming. Our prayer, like hers, becomes come, Lord Jesus, make haste to come.
That same reconciliation you prayed for is central to the gospel. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting trespasses against them, and He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Vertically, we are reconciled to God through the one mediator, Jesus Christ, who offered Himself once for all and by that one offering has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Horizontally, that reconciliation bears fruit in peace with people and unity among believers, but it is a unity in truth. Jesus prayed that His people would be one as He and the Father are one, and that oneness comes as we continue in His Word and know the truth that sanctifies us. We are to follow peace with all men and holiness, proclaiming His excellencies as a holy people called out of darkness into His marvelous light, serving Him in our spirit in the preaching of the gospel so that others may be gathered into His fold and made disciples.
May the Lord answer your prayer by shining in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and by opening the eyes of your understanding to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. May He establish your heart blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints, and may He use you to bear much fruit, both the fruit of the Spirit and a harvest of souls, to the glory of God. We join you in asking this in the name of Jesus, through whom we have forgiveness and an eternal inheritance, that God may be feared and glorified. Amen.
