For it is light that makes everything visiable. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph 5:14)
The Lord has been speaking to me about the message He has for His bride the church. The Lord led me to Song of Songs 5 and to Revelation. Also Matthew 24. This is the challange to those who will hear:
(The Church) I slept but my heart was awake. ( The church is sound asleep, just as the disciples in the garden were. Oh, how our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak!)
(Jesus) “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”
(The Church) “I have taken off my robe-must I put it on again?” “I have washed my feet- must I soil them again?” (Isn’t this just like so many in the Church today? Must I go to Church today or spend time in the Word, I just want to sleep. Must I pray again, I just don’t have time. Must I keep serving, I have been doing this for many years now?)
(Jesus) My lover thrust his hand through the latch opening (Jesus is always reaching out for us)
( The Church) My heart began to pound for him. I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh on the handles of the lock. I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him, but he did not answer.
(Satan and his demons) The watchman found me as they made their rounds in the city (Job1:7) They beat me, they bruised me, they took away my cloak those watchmen on the walls! (Tell me what happens when someone takes away your cloak? What do you become? That’s right, you become exposed and NAKED! We are no longer fighting just forces outside of the Church, they have crept their way in. While we were sleeping and after many nights of beating and bruising us, they are taking away our cloak. We have been asleep for so long now that many of us missed it and we don’t even know we are naked.)
The Lord then led me to Revelation 3 16-17, 20.
“So because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth”. You say, “I am rich, I have aquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and NAKED.” (20) “Here I am! I stand at the door and KNOCK. If anyone hears my voice and OPENS the door, I will come in nd eat with him, and he with me.”
Dear sisters in Christ, it is time to Rise and Shine. Awake from your sleep! The groom is calling out to us to prepare for the soon coming of the Wedding Day! Oh, how I pray we will not be like the 5 foolish bridesmaids in Matthew 25. Do you know what happened to them? Understand, they thought they were part of the wedding, (Verse 5 tells us the bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all become drowsy and fell asleep.) The warning to the Church of Sardis was to repent and obey, not to soil their clothes or else He would come on them like a theif.
Let us not be like the disciples that slept in the garden, but let us keep our lamps filled with oil, let us be watching and praying and be found wide awake! Most importantly, let us open up the door of our hearts and churches and respond to His knocking. It is then that we can be available to be consumed by His Holy Spirit, that will move us from lukewarmness to being totally on fire for Him and His mission!
At His feet,
Stephanie
