JOURNEY OF FAITH
Day One Hundred Ninety-seven
WHY DO I EXIST
PRELUDE
Abba Father…Since it is literally true, and I really know and believe that it is literally true…that my body would be in the grave and my soul would be in Hell right now, and many times over during the course of my life since birth, had You not Personally, consciously, and deliberately intervened in my life to stay the hand of death…
then the only expression of heartfelt gratitude that could possibly even approach being an adequate response is to freely and voluntarily, consciously, and deliberately, lay my life on the altar of sacrifice for You, Blessed Jesus, even unto death…death to sin and death to self…just as You freely and voluntarily lay down Your life on that altar of sacrifice as the Sacrificial Lamb for me, even unto death…death to sin and death to self.
Abba Father…You did no spare Your Own Son, but freely gave Him up for me and on my behalf; in the same manner, I also do not spare my own life but freely give it up for You…to be Your bond-slave for the duration of my physical life on Earth.
This is my only and true act of worship…worship that is good and pleasing and acceptable to You. Anything less than wholly-surrendered life service is merely lip service, and is not worship at all; it is a stench in Your nostrils, and subject to Your rebuke: “These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”
WHY DO I EXIST
INTRODUCTION
EYES OF COMPASSI0N
For those 38 years leading up to that momentous day October 17, 1981, I lay in the spiritual gutter of sin, wallowing in its muck and mire…utterly destitute, hopeless and helpless, without hope and without God. On that wonderful day, Blessed Jesus, You saw me lying there, and with eyes of compassion, reached out Your nail-pierced hand to me, inviting me, “My child…come with Me. I have prepared a place for You in My Father’s House.”
The moment I reached up and took hold of Your hand, You drew me to Your Bosom and embraced me. You removed the filthy rags of sin that clothed me, and immersed my body and my soul in Your Precious and Priceless Blood…to soak there in Your Blood. You soaked away all the filth that was caked up on my soul…all the sin, all the wretchedness, all the degradation. You bathed my body and my soul in Your Own Blood…washed me, cleansed me, and made me clean. Then You dressed me in the white robes of Your Own Righteousness, and presented me before the Father. As I stood there before the Father…washed in the Blood of the Lamb, dressed in the white robes of Your Own Righteousness, pure and holy now in His sight, without spot or wrinkle or blemish, accepted now in the Beloved…I heard, with ecstatic wonder, the Father say, “My child…this day I have adopted you…through birth and Blood…into My Family. You are now and forevermore My child, and I am forevermore your Father and your God.”
A NEW CREATION
My life was never again the same…a wonderful journey into the depths of God ever since! This Scripture became a literal reality: Therefore, beloved, since you are now joined together in a living union of oneness with Christ Jesus My Son, you are a new creation. You are no longer the same person you formerly were…your previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, a fresh, new life has begun!
For so long…so many, many, years…I had sinned against God. I had sinned against Him so often…so very often, and so deeply…so very deeply. Up to that point in time, for the 13 years of my adult life, I had tried everything to fill that felt-sense of emptiness…a void, a relentless aching…in the depths of my soul for something…I knew not what…that was missing. Nothing satisfied that emptiness; nothing filled that void. Having been raised Catholic, I came to the conclusion that it must be God that I was missing. But how do I find God was the pressing question of my heart. I wondered, Who am I that God would care about me, or have any concern for me? I wasn’t somebody who was important or significant that God should have any thoughts about me. That was my mindset in those years.
Even so, I set out on an intense, consuming search to find God…a relentless search that would continue over the next six years. I didn’t really know what “finding God” actually meant; I just knew that whatever it meant, I needed to find Him. I went to different priests and asked them, “How do I find God?” They weren’t much help; actually, they didn’t really know the answer. Sometimes they would point me to a book to read, written by a priest. I would read the book, and a number of times I made an appointment to meet with the author of the book…even traveling out of State to meet with him! Still…they had no answer. I diligently tried practicing different methods I had read about… “Centering on God” and other types of meditations and concepts…all to no avail. I became involved with pursuing several different philosophies concerning God…such as “The Power of Positive Thinking,” and even had sessions with Albert Ellis, a prominent psychologist who had written numerous books on a new theory he had developed called “Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.” All of my desperate searching came up completely empty.
Meanwhile, my life was spiraling downward at warp speed. By October 1981, in absolute desperation, I reluctantly accepted a suggestion to meet with a local Baptist minister. For a Catholic in those years, this was absolute rock bottom; a Catholic would not be caught dead talking to a Baptist minister, let alone meeting with one! But I was desperate.
On Saturday morning, October 17, 1981, I poured out my heart in Pastor Lester’s office concerning my desperate, yet fruitless, search to find God. He patiently listened, and when I had finished, presented so simply a child could understand…what I had spent six long, intense years searching for! He asked if I would like to follow him in a prayer to accept Jesus as Lord of my life and Savior of my soul, and enter into a personal relationship with Him. As we prayed, there were no flashing lights…no sound of bells and whistles…just a deep satisfying sense in the depths of my soul that now, at last, I had found God…or rather, more accurately, that God had found me. On that day the Scripture verse became true for me: You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. [Jer 29:13]
OVERWHELMING GRATITUDE, ETERNAL THANKS
Abba Father…I owe my body and my soul to You. If it were not for You, my body would be in the grave, and my soul would be in Hell long ago… 15 times I should have been dead that I am fully aware of and can testify to, and surely many more times that I am not aware of. Though I had sinned against You for so many years, so very often, and so very deeply…even so, You Personally, consciously, and deliberately intervened in my life to stay the hand of death! If it were not for You, Father, I would be in Hell right now…and I full well deserved to be there; the angels of Heaven would have acknowledged Your righteous and just judgment. But in Your boundless mercy and infinite grace, You would not have it; You were not willing that I should perish. How many times Satan had come for me to claim my life and to claim my soul, but You would not permit it. No…You were my Shield and my Protector;
You protected my soul, and You kept me safe…even from the very pit of Hell…until that wonderful day of my salvation!
TOKENS OF DIVINE LOVE
I don’t know whether in the depths of your heart you really believe there is a God in Heaven or not, but this I do know…for six years I desperately searched for God and did not find Him…until that momentous day He found me and revealed Himself to me!
Now that I am His and He is mine, my Father’s ear is attentive to the voice of His child, and He loves to give His child little tokens of His Divine Love whenever my requests are within the framework of His plans, His purposes, His will. Scripture tells me, “You have not because you ask not…or you ask with wrong, selfish motives.” My Father loves to show His child His Glory…that I may see it with my own eyes, and thereby have occasion to testify to His great Name and mighty Power! I have testified to it, and I will do so again…continually: https://preservechristianfamily.org/category/testimonies/
HOW GREAT THOU ART
That is my motive…to proclaim Your Glory. I do not have a selfish motive, a self-serving agenda, something I want to gain for myself. I want the people of the world to know how great You are, Abba Father! Show me Your Glory; bring Glory to Your Name, and bring Your blessings and Your salvation before the souls of Men!
I have gazed attentively into the Sanctuary and I have beheld Your Power and Your Glory many, many times! Formerly, my ears had only heard of You; but now my eyes have seen You and have seen Your Glory! In the presence of the congregation, I will proclaim Your Great Name and Your Mighty Power according to all that my eyes shall see!
UNBEARABLE EMOTIONAL AGONY
A few years later, on that late February, 1984, winter night on Long Island, I lay on my bed crying out to God…immersed in deep sadness and sorrow, intense crying and pain, overwhelming grief, loneliness, and brokenheartedness over a deep sense of loss that had just blind-sided my life. I had only just become the bride of Christ 28 months prior, on October 17, 1981. And now this was the third night of intense emotional agony. I remember thinking that if Hell were like this…and I knew it was ten thousand times worse, infinitely worse…I couldn’t bear it. The emotional pain was entirely debilitating…I don’t know how I made it through the work day. I felt hopeless and helpless…crushed and immobilized by a consuming sense of loss. When I got home in the evening, all I could do was collapse on my bed, crying out to the Lord in utter despair. A whole array of verses from Psalms went through my mind as I just poured out my broken heart to Him.
AWE-FILLED PRESENCE OF GOD
Quite suddenly…out of nowhere…the Lord walked into my room! I didn’t visibly see Him; my room was just as dark as it was before. But I was so filled with His Presence entering into my room and into me I felt like I was going to explode! My physical body could not contain His in-dwelling Presence! I remember exclaiming in awe, “Oh Lord…I can’t bear any more! I feel like I am going to burst!” Not that I wanted Him to leave; I was just expressing how I literally felt…that my human body just could not contain Him for any longer and live! At that moment, it didn’t matter to me whether I lived or died…I was experiencing an eternal weight of Glory beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent Glory and blessedness in His Presence!
The inaccessible Light [although there was no literal light] of the Glory of His Presence lasted maybe five or six seconds…but that experience is just as fresh in my memory today as it was in reality those 39 years ago! At that moment…the heretofore unbearable, debilitating emotional pain I had been feeling did not diminish in intensity, nor was it removed. It just became so insignificant and so meaningless in the light of what I had just experienced, that I literally thought, “Who cares!” And from that point on, though the source of the pain was never removed or resolved, it never again mattered to me, nor bothered me. I had seen the Lord; with my own spiritual eyes, I had seen Him! I would never again be the same!
Just one second in the inaccessible Light of the Glory of His Presence…a foretaste of Heaven itself…even now here on Earth is more than enough to wipe every tear from our eyes…all of our sadness and sorrow, crying and pain, grief and loneliness and brokenheartedness! And in that glorious coming Day, the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. [Isa 35:10]
Beloved…don’t become discouraged and lose heart! For your light and momentary troubles during this life are achieving for you an eternal glory beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness nevermore to cease! [Cor 4:16-18]
AS A DEER PANTS FOR WATER-BROOKS
Not long after that incredulous experience, I began to hunger and thirst for a continual felt sense of the Presence of God. As I read through Psalms, I knew in my mind that I wanted to have the cry of David’s heart:
As the deer, in the heat of summer, pants for water-brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God! My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You…as for streams of water in a dry sun-scorched land where there is no water! My soul thirsts for You, Lord…for the One True Living God! When, Lord, shall I come into Your Presence and behold Your Face, the Face of my God? When will You speak to me face to Face, as a man speaks with his friend?
I realized, though, that I didn’t long for God in that way. I didn’t feel a longing for God as a heart-cry; I didn’t feel a yearning for God from the depths of my soul…yet I wanted to. It was the desire of my heart. And so my continual prayer was, “Lord, I don’t long for You in the way David did…but I want to. I long to long for You in that way. My heart is inflamed with yearning to long for You with a consuming desire for the felt-sense of Your Presence.
HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
During that same period of time, I also began to hunger and thirst to live a holy and righteous life in my everyday manner of living. I had only become a born-again Christian a few years prior [October 17, 1981, at the age of 38], and I was struggling with several besetting sins from my past unsaved life. I made a conscious decision to fully embrace the words of Jesus, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be completely satisfied. [Matt 5:6]
I began to hunger and thirst for a purity, holiness, and righteousness of my own that comes from obedience to the Law of God in living out my everyday life…not to be good enough to earn salvation, but because I was already saved…by virtue of the Eternal Power and the Eternal Worth of the Blood of Jesus, which He poured out on my behalf on that cross at Calvary for the forgiveness of my sins. I just wanted to be like my Father and my God as the apostle Peter exhorted me to be:
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He Who called you is Holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am Holy.” [1 Peter 1:14-16]
HE WHO HONORS ME, HIM WILL I HONOR
Well…the Lord so wonderfully answered those two prayers not long afterward! One day I became aware…and actually remarked to myself,
“Whoa, Lord! I no longer feel the least bit tempted by those besetting sins that used to plague me and torment me…that I had been struggling with for much of my prior life! I can’t believe it! Hallelujah!”
Not only that, but I was filled with the joy of the Lord! I would wake up in the morning singing to the Lord, and fall asleep at night singing softly to the Lord! All throughout the day I felt an unclouded child-like carefree joy, and was resting in Him with an unruffled child-like rest! I was continually experiencing the fullness of joy in the felt-sense of the Presence of the Lord!
ALONE TOGETHER WITH MY FATHER
My life had been so wondrously changed! The Spirit of God then led me to a book written by Hudson Taylor [missionary to China, latter 1800s] entitled, “Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret.” I read how it was his habit to get up early in the morning, well before dawn, and spend time alone with the Lord. And then I remembered that Jesus Himself often did the same thing to be alone with the Father…well before dawn, while it was still dark. I found myself wanting with all my heart to do that also…just as they had done.
I began setting my alarm clock for 4 AM every morning…seven days a week. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I just reached over and shut off the alarm when it went off…only to awaken later in the morning feeling so sorry I had failed once more! It only reignited my determination to try again…to plead with the Lord to help me be able to do this which had now become the most intense desire of my heart!
The Lord heard my heart-cry, and answered my prayer…and after a lengthy period of successes and failures, I finally acquired the habit of rising at 4 AM every morning to meet alone together with the Lord in our designated trysting place! It is a wonderful place of blessing, just sitting at His feet, to be alone together with Him, just to commune with Him! It is there where He continually pours more and more of His Blessedness and His Goodness into me, where we have intimate fellowship together, where He reveals to me something of the rich eternal treasures of the spiritual realm, where I become ever more one with Him in our sacred Covenant relationship…mirroring as They are with One Another in Their Blessed Holy Trinity! A number of years ago I moved my time to be alone together with the Lord back to 3 AM, so we could have more time alone together before breakfast!
For 39 years now, I continually look forward with a joyful expectation, an excited expectation, to our meeting alone together in those early morning hours just to commune face to Face, as a man speaks with his friend! I guard that time jealously, so that nothing would ever interfere with it; I wouldn’t miss it for anything!
TARGET OF SATAN’S FURY
Whenever a born-again child of God places their entire life an the altar of sacrifice…
wholly surrendered unto God, wholly given for the blessings and salvation of souls…and walks in the Power of the indwelling Holy Spirit the path that our Blessed Christ Personally walked and dedicated for us… a new and living way to God through the veil, that is to say, through the veil of His flesh…the path of obedience and suffering, self-sacrifice and self-denial, death to sin and death to self…
you can be sure you will become a target of Satan’s fury! All Hell will break loose against you!
Several weeks ago, beginning in June, 2020, the Lord allowed Hell’s onslaught to take place in my life. I was tormented and terrorized with overwhelming evil thoughts, images, and imaginations in my heart over continual stretches of time, day and night…beyond anything I had ever experienced before! It became clear that Satan’s intent was to destroy me!
I had known in my mind, and written about, that in my physical life, maturity is growth from the utter dependence of a baby to the complete independence and self-reliance of an adult. In my spiritual life, however, maturity is growth from independence and self-reliance to utter dependency upon God. He is most spiritually mature who lives a life of unreserved child-like dependence upon God. Just as a baby opens its mouth and cries whenever it has physical needs, so I open my mouth and cry whenever I have spiritual needs. Just as a baby is utterly and hopelessly helpless to satisfy its physical needs…and will surely physically die if no one hears its cry and comes to satisfy its needs…just so am I utterly and hopelessly helpless to satisfy my spiritual needs…and will surely spiritually die if God my Father does not hear my cry and come to satisfy my spiritual needs.
It is one thing to know this truth in your mind, but it is quite another to know this experientially! My Father allowed me to experience in my soul the horror of realizing that unless He came to rescue me…I was going to surely spiritually die! There was absolutely no question, no hope, not the remotest possibility of my being able to do anything about it! And I was frightened and scared experiencing this reality in the depths of my being for the first time in my life…continually crying out for my Father like a little child! I was experiencing something of the emotional agony that Jesus Himself experienced in the Garden that night when He began to be deeply distressed and troubled at the prospect of the cross. The Greek verbs used in the Biblical text describing what took place that night in the Garden described an extremely acute emotion, a compound of bewilderment, fear, uncertainty and anxiety, nowhere else portrayed in such vivid terms as here: shuddering awe; deep distress; overpowering mental distress; full of terror and distress; surprised and terrified; fright and anguish.
ANOINTING OF PROMISE
It was Thursday evening, July 23, 2020, when the Spirit of God led our weekly Home Disciple Group Meeting into a discussion on Adam’s sin of disobedience against God on the one command given him to test his obedience, the resultant expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the heretofore undefiled human nature as created by God now becoming a sin’enslaved human nature. As our discussion continued along that evening under the guidance of the Holy Spirit’s leading, we were discussing Scriptures concerning how the Lord Jesus sets a believer free from the bondage of sin…that all human beings by nature have a sin-enslaved human nature, and can only be set free by Christ through His atonement for sin by virtue of His death on a cross on our behalf. When I am born again, it is as literal and real a birth as was my physical birth… and I become a new creation…a new person, whereby my former moral and spiritual condition has passed away, and all things have become new. I no longer live my life out of my sin-enslaved human nature, but now live my new life out of the Divine nature of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within me by virtue of being born again. That is why only those born-again can know, and have, and experience, the indwelling Holy Spirit.
During our discussion, the Holy Spirit swept over one of our group members and so opened up his mind and heart to this truth…in a depth he had never seen before… that he literally, visibly, was filled with a fullness of joy! He could hardly contain himself! He was wired in the Spirit, and began to testify with power about what God had done, and was continually doing, in his life! He testified that when he is tormented and terrorized with overwhelming evil thoughts, images, and imaginations in his heart [and he knew nothing about what I was going through], his God and Father reaches down and plucks His child out of Satan’s grasp and into safety, declaring with determined purpose, “No! You can’t have My child; he belongs to Me!” He was anointed…and continued to testify about the utter weakness of his flesh and how helpless he was to resist by his own efforts and strength, and that if he tried to do so it would only guarantee his failure! He testified how the Power of the Holy Spirit in his life was the source of his strength, and apart from Him he could do nothing! He just went on and on, carried away in the Spirit into the heavenly realms for the remainder of our meeting, continually praising God, proclaiming the Word of God with boldness and power!
I just sat there and listened, thanking God for how He was touching this brother whom He was calling, and using, as the “pastor of Walmart!” And it brought to his mind a song that had so touched him…a powerful song with a powerful message…so he pulled it up on his phone and played it for us. The link is below, if you want to hear it. It is not my particular choice in Christian music…but I put myself in his place, and could embrace its powerful message as we all listened to it! The song is by CASTING CROWNS, entitled SET ME FREE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2HwtWLokSc
I myself was so blessed by the manifest Presence of the Holy Spirit in our meeting that evening that I never realized that God had quietly touched and anointed me as well with the “anointing of promise” that I had been desperately crying out to Him for! Over the past several weeks [actually, for a number of years…but now with an intense desperation] I had been pleading with Him for this anointing that I had been granted once before, in the Fall 1984 when I was just 3 years old in the Lord as a child of God…an anointing that I had lost because I had carelessly let it slip away, not appreciating in my spiritual babyhood how precious this treasure really was. I was pleading with my Father…that I could not live without it…that I could not serve as His messenger, His ministering spirit, His watchman, His emissary, with boldness, freedom, and confidence, with spiritual power and authority, unless I had this anointing of promise. I wasn’t asking for an anointing of privilege; that is God’s prerogative. No; I was asking for the anointing that was promised…that I had been granted once before. I knew what it was; and I knew I no longer had it.
The anointing of promise is the full blessing of Pentecost…and it is only granted to those who hunger and thirst for it…to those who are wholly surrendered unto God, wholly given for the blessing and salvation of souls…to those who by faith abide in the Holy of Holies in the unclouded Presence of the Father.
Blessed Jesus, You assured me: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…a purity, holiness, and righteousness of my own in living out my everyday life. You assured me that I will be filled…that my longing will be completely satisfied, and I will be filled up to the measure of all the fullness of God, to the richest measure of Your unclouded Presence, a soul wholly filled and flooded with God Himself! [Mt 5:6] That is the anointing of promise! And even more beyond that… Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [Mt 5:8]
MY FATHER HEARS HIS CHILD’S CRY
On that evening God my Father heard the desperate cry of my heart, and quietly, silently, granted me the anointing of promise. From that evening forward, the evil thoughts, images, and imaginations in my heart still came a number of times expecting to torment and terrorize me as they had always done…but now they had absolutely no power at all, were of none effect, and weren’t even the least bother. The anointing is not just a greater power than what had been coming to torment and terrorize me; no, the anointing completely neutralizes their power so that they are meaningless and have no affect whatsoever. The anointing of promise is the second greatest gift granted by God…second only to the gift of eternal life. No child of God should ever be satisfied without having it; but as you can see from this testimony, there is a cost to the anointing. Child of God…are you willing to pay the price?
RICH ETERNAL TREASURES GRANTED TO GOD’S CHILD
Friends & neighbors; brothers and sisters…
It is my prayer that you will feel the leading of the Spirit to seek these rich eternal blessing with all your heart. You will most assuredly experience these same blessings for yourself, and will have this same testimony to share:
I proclaim to you Christ Jesus…the One Who existed from the beginning, from Eternity Past, Whom I have heard with the ears of my own inner being, and have seen with my own spiritual eyes. I have gazed upon Him and have spiritually touched Him with my own hands. He is the Word of Life. His Life is continually being revealed to me; I have seen it and testify to it, and I proclaim to you that He is the One Who is Eternal Life. He always existed with the Father, and is now continually being manifested afresh and anew to me. I proclaim to you what I have personally seen and heard in the depths of my soul, so that you also may enjoy this same fellowship together with us. The fellowship I continually enjoy is with the Father and with His Son, Christ Jesus. I am writing these things so that you also may fully share together with me in this fullness of joy! [1 John 1:1-4].
This is our birth-right as a children of the Most High God! Hallelujah!
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SUMMARY OVERVIEW OF MANKIND’S CREATION
Here is a concise summary overview of God’s Eternal purpose and intention in bringing you into existence, as He Himself has clearly set forth in Scripture, expressed clearly and accurately in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: The chief end of Man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
- I made you for Myself, in My Own image and in My Own likeness, Divinely crafted with the capabilities and capacity to be joined together with the Triune God in a Sacred Covenant relationship…a living union of oneness…the very crown jewels of My Creation, and that, as a mirror of the Almighty, you would reflect My Glory to the Created Universe.
- I purchased you, by Myself and for Myself, with the precious and priceless Blood of My Divine Son Jesus, that you would declare My praises…the praises of the One Who called you out of darkness into My marvelous light.
- I made you to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, consecrated and set apart to the worship of God…consecrated and set apart to worship Me!
Friends, brothers and sisters…
There is one absolutely necessary preparation for every living soul on the face of this Earth, for the soon coming and imminent return of Jesus Christ…the one preparation that will irrevocably determine in which neighborhood you will spend all eternity, whether in Heaven or in Hell. You must be a born-again child of God.
“I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s Kingdom. I tell you the truth, no one can ever enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at My saying, you must be born again.” [Jesus…John 3:3-7]
The Gift of My Son makes it possible for you to appropriate My Eternal Purpose for creating you and bringing you into existence…
Relationship…through becoming His bride, the bride of Christ.
The Gift of My Holy Spirit makes it possible for you to embrace and be engaged in My Eternal Plans specifically and personally ordained for you in bringing you into existence…I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.
Entrance into the Eternal Blessings I have for Mankind…My Eternal Promise of an abiding rest for My children…BEGINS with your solemn vow before Me to become the bride of Christ My Son in a divine spiritual marriage, to be joined inseparably together with Him through the new life to be conceived in you by the Holy Spirit.
If you have never been born again,
or you are not sure whether you have been born again,
or you have been living your life as a lukewarm Christian and would now like to recommit your life and enter into a deep and intimate relationship with Christ Jesus in preparation for the soon coming marriage supper of the Lamb…
then I counsel you to get alone with God, read the solemn marriage vows presented below you must make to become the bride of Christ and thereby be born-again, and with sincerity of heart from within the depths of your being, acknowledge before God, “I DO.”
MARRIAGE VOWS
SPIRITUAL BRIDE OF CHRIST
- Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Divine Son in the Triune God, the Lamb of God Who came into this world to become the One only, all-sufficient, atoning sacrifice through His death on a cross and subsequent resurrection, thereby securing forgiveness for your sins and restoring your relationship with God that had been severed by sin?
- Do you now solemnly vow before God to give yourself to be the bride of Christ, receiving Jesus the Christ into your life in a spiritual marriage, promising to honor and obey Him as both Lord over your life and Savior of your soul?
- To be joined inseparably together with Him in a Sacred Covenant relationship…an Eternal living union of oneness through the new life to be conceived in you by the Holy Spirit…
- To have and to hold Him, above all others and above all else this world has to offer, as the choicest, most precious treasure of your heart…
- To love and to cherish Him, above all others and above all else this world has to offer, reserving for Him alone your sweetest, most tender affections…
- For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, all the days of your life, until death of this body brings you to be together with Him in Heaven for all eternity?
Our Lord Jesus’ High Priestly prayer to the Father…on that night just prior to His betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane…clearly defined eternal life: Now this is eternal life: personally knowing You, Father, the One True Living God, continually ever more deeply and intimately in a daily living-out union of oneness,
and knowing Jesus Christ Your Son…the Messiah Whom You have sent…in that same deep and intimate personal relationship, joined inseparably together with Us in an eternal Sacred Covenant relationship. [John 17:3]
God Himself has given this testimony concerning His Son: I have granted you eternal life, and this life is given through union with My Divine Son Jesus.
Whoever is joined together with My Son in a living union of oneness
possesses that life;
whoever is NOT joined together with My Son in a living union of oneness
does NOT possess that life.
I have written this to you so that you who place your trust in Christ My Son will know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that you do now indeed have eternal life. [1 John 5:9-13]
BLOOD OF CHRIST
Blessed Jesus…You laid aside Your Divine Majesty, Glory, and Almighty consuming Power, and came into this world clothed in meekness, lowliness, and humility. You loved me with an everlasting love, and You voluntarily lay down Your life for me…even unto death. No one took Your life, Lord; You were free to lay it down, and free to take it up again. You stretched out Your arms on a cross on my behalf, and declared, “IT IS FINISHED!”
IT IS FINISHED, for all time and for all Eternity…available to any soul who would freely and wholeheartedly choose to appropriate as their own the rich eternal blessings of the finished work of Christ on that cross at Calvary, through their solemn marriage vows to become Your eternal bride, Blessed Jesus…the bride of Christ.
By virtue of the Eternal Power and Eternal Worth of Your Precious and Priceless Blood poured out on behalf of the souls of Mankind on that cross at Calvary, You have forever freed me from my sins…past, present, and future…and restored my relationship with God that had been severed by sin.
- IT IS FINISHED…The Eternal Power and Eternal Worth of the Blood of Christ has secured eternal forgiveness of my sins, and has guaranteed and secured my Judicial Status of Eternal
Righteousness before God as an accomplished and finished fact. - IT IS FINISHED…The Eternal Power and Eternal Worth of the Blood of Christ has guaranteed and secured my Eternal Union with You, Lord…now joined inseparably together with You in an Eternal living union of oneness as Your bride…the bride of Christ…in a divine spiritual marriage…flesh of Your flesh and bone of Your bones.
- IT IS FINISHED…The Eternal Power and Eternal Worth of the Blood of Christ has guaranteed and secured that the Eternal Purpose for which God created me…to be joined together with the Triune God in a Sacred Covenant relationship…stands eternally fulfilled.
- IT IS FINISHED…The Eternal Power and Eternal Worth of the Blood of Christ has guaranteed and secured my Eternal Access into the Holy Of Holies, and into the inaccessible Light of the Glory of Your unclouded Presence, Father…as my birth-right.
- IT IS FINISHED…The Eternal Holy Spirit was indeed given as God’s Eternal Gift to dwell in me, never to leave me, never to forsake me…to be the Power in me Who continually guarantees and secures my capability to live my everyday life faithful to my solemn marriage vows as the bride of Christ in our eternal living union of oneness.
- IT IS FINISHED…The Eternal Power of the indwelling Holy Spirit is now made continually available to me, Whose Power in me continually guarantees and secures my capability to live my everyday life faithfully within the Holy Of Holies, in the inaccessible Light of the Glory of Your unclouded Presence, Father, in our Sacred Covenant relationship.
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This is what the Most Holy, Most High, Triune God declares:
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him. [Matt 24:36-39, 42-44]
“Behold”, says the Lord Jesus in His last warning for the last opportunity offered to mankind to be among His redeemed, “I come for the last time like a thief in the night to gather those who would be among the elect! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, in watchfulness, prayer and readiness for the summons when it comes, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed, eternally without remedy.”
WATCHMAN’S WARNING
Beloved…I still hold to these words of warning from the Holy Spirit: “Brace yourself, and tell others that I have warned them to brace themselves, for they are about to see even more shocking things. Ready or not, Nation, here it comes! Brace yourself on My Word and on My promises, and do not rely on your own strength. Do not stop bracing yourselves, and don’t look back; the storm will not pass until I, the Lord, stop the storm! Those who refuse to get ready will be wanting in the end.” Watch “Worse Than You Thought It Would Be” Prophetic Dream by Pastor Dana Coverstone: https://www.youtube.com/live/xDFT31FM8wM?feature=share
But if the watchman sees the danger coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes the life of even one of them, that one will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood. [Ezek 33:6]
Lord God Almighty, as Your watchman I have been solemnly fulfilling the responsibility You have given me in sounding the alarm to warn Your people; there will be no blood on my hands.
PREPARE YOURSELF
We are in the Last Days; time is moving very quickly, and we are drawing near! And so, my brothers and sisters, first of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of Creation.”
Son of man, you’ve heard that proverb they quote in Israel: Time passes, and prophecies come to nothing. Tell the people, This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will put an end to this proverb, and you will soon stop quoting it. Now give them this new proverb to replace the old one: The time has come for every prophecy of Mine to be fulfilled! [2 Peter 3:3-4, 10-12, 14, 17; 1 John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:14-16; Ezek 12:22-23]
God is calling a holy remnant to Himself…to personal revival…a holy remnant of His children who will not bow down, who will not shrink back, who will not compromise, who will remain steadfast and immovable in their commitment to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. God’s holy remnant is called to a life of obedience and suffering, self-sacrifice and self-denial…to walk along the path that Christ Jesus dedicated for us, and to follow in His footsteps as our Forerunner. You cannot become part of My holy remnant without being willing to sacrifice your desire for anyone & all others, and for anything & all else this world has to offer. Obedience is what characterizes the life of My child…obedience continually and unceasingly day and night. You are called to a life of obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice; rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as evil as worshiping idols. [1 Sam 15:22,23]
Wherefore brethren, having now boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us…a new and living way to God through the veil, that is to say, through the veil of His flesh…let us then without further hesitation or delay draw nigh in fullness of faith; here let us continually abide in the fullness of faith. [Heb 10:19-20, 22] Those who abide in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. [PS 91:1]
Arise My bride, and prepare to see My Face
Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
Then the angel said to me, “Write this down: Blessed are those summoned to the marriage banquet of the Lamb…all true believers who are members of His Universal Church. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with Power and great Glory. And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect…God’s holy people…from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” And he said to me further, “These are the True Words of God.” [Rev 19:9]
Blessed Jesus…I rejoice and shout triumphantly for joy! I celebrate and ascribe to You glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb draws near, and Your bride, the Universal Church and each of her members, has been preparing herself and has made herself ready! [Rev 19:7] Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! For our Lord God, Sovereign All-Ruler, reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him Glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. The finest linen, dazzling and white, was given her to wear. Then the angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage banquet of the Lamb!” [John…Rev 19:6-9; Luke 14:15-23]
The washing of one’s robes and the keeping of one’s garments relates to this very attitude and habit of looking for the return of Christ as an imminent event. Brethren, as you hope to walk those golden streets, and eat of those immortal fruits, see to it that you have your garments clean and your loins girded about like unto men waiting for their Lord. [Seiss…Rev 21:9-22:5]
Then the king said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding garment. “Friend,” he asked, “How did you come in here without putting on the appropriate wedding garment?” The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are invited and summoned, but few are chosen.” [Matt 22:8-14]
ENDURE TO THE END
Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will deprive you of your crown. Everyone who overcomes by means of their faith…I will make a pillar in the Sanctuary of My God. Never again will you leave it. I will write on you the name of My God and you will be a citizen in the city of My God…the new Jerusalem…which will come down out of Heaven from My God; I will also write on you My Own new name.
Holy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcx2O9WXvn8&feature=youtu.be
Preserve Christian Family 