Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
November 23, 2010
The purity of the bride is the direction of the next move on the Lord’s agenda for His church, as she readies herself to take the vows of the marriage covenant with her Beloved. It is the final move along the way back to the tree of life, giving mankind access to the kingdom, which will see him restored to the Garden paradise on earth.
It shall be re-opened to man on the east side, where it was closed to him when Adam and Eve sinned and were driven from it. Jesus and His bride shall ride together through the east gate of Jerusalem and into His city of ruler-ship from where He shall rule the entire world.
He entered once before on the colt of a donkey, and when He drew near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying, “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest (Psalm 118:26; Luke 19:38)!”
As He drew near the city of Jerusalem, He wept over it, for He saw into the future, seeing the city as we see it today. And He said, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, (was Jesus not warning about the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, among other things?) surround you and close you in on every side, (the Muslim nations of a religion that was yet to come) and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation (Luke 19:42-44).”
Jesus gave a very severe warning to those who would be dwelling in the city of Jerusalem in the day of His vengeance upon a world, which refused to acknowledge Him, starting with His own nation. Today, she is all but surrounded by armies. Take heed of what Jesus had to say about a city that rejected Him in order to bow down to Caesar (politically), settled for the religion of the Pharisees instead of His truth (religiously) and cared more about money and taxes than about truth (economically). Surely, it could be said that they were caught under the sway of the same serpent as that which entered the Garden. Thus, man rejected the truth of God, for a second time, as did Adam and Eve, millennia prior to this rejection by His chosen nation.
Israel wanted to be governed by Satan, and not by God, and so she chose to take the mark of the beast upon herself. This act would forever more define who would ultimately rule over her. She lost her position in the house of God and it would go to another people of a New Covenant between God and those who loved and believed on Jesus for salvation. They would become the true Jew, in the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through Jesus, who would become part of the family of God’s house of Israel, opened at the cross to all peoples of all nations.
“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Luke 21:20-24).”
And to whom did the blessing cross over? It went from nation to church, the spiritual nation of Israel. But this was not the church the world knows today. His early church, which began with His twelve apostles who were given its mandate, grew only after one of the twelve had rejected this commission, in order to remain tied to the religious leaders of that day. The position vacated by Judas was given by the Lord, Himself, to the apostle Paul, just as God had given the twelve to Jesus.
This took place in spite of the fact that Peter acted impulsively by moving forward without authority from above to do so. No one but God could give any of the twelve to Jesus, no matter how well-intentioned. It is a very strong lesson for the church today, when so many call themselves apostles, yet show none of the early apostolic fruit, which accompanies an apostolic appointment.
God will determine who His apostles are to be, and no man will be responsible for training them, except Jesus, who will train them in the same manner as He trained Paul; He will do so by taking His bride into the heavenlies in spirit, so that like Paul, she can teach the others who will restore the apostolic church of the first century, once again ready to run the good race in partnership with Paul. No seminary college is required for this kind of training; in fact it will prove to be the kind of handicap to the bride, as did Paul’s former religious, Pharisaical training prove to be to him.
And so Jesus told His eleven remaining disciples that all authority had been given to Him in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20).” “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).” “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49).” “Feed My lambs, tend My sheep. Feed My sheep (John 21:15 to John 21:17).”
Thus the great commission of the church was established. It required cleansing, infilling of the Holy Spirit, doing the things Jesus commanded, preaching the gospel of truth throughout the world, and teaching and keeping the sheep focused on the truth of Jesus. A New Covenant was in place between Jesus and those who called upon His name for salvation. The apostles were given the responsibility of carrying out this commission, in order for the church to become a growing organism as opposed to a growing organization.
However, the commission hit a roadblock in Rome, when the church was taken captive within the religious system of Christianity. She entered into the slavery of her own Egypt, which had been replaced with another empire, called the Roman Empire, part of the Babylonian system of empires. The Caesar of the day, called Constantine, placed his pagan Roman high priest over his new religious system, and dared to call it the church, as though there were any possible connection between the religious system of Christianity and the apostolic church of Jesus Christ.
The newly formed headquarters of the so-called church, called the Vatican, became a political, a religious and a strong economic entity unto itself, attached to the state of the failing Roman Empire. It had the mark of the beast, the mark of man instead of God, all over it. And so the church went into a kind of temporary tomb like that of Lazarus, while a religious system grew to overshadow the Word and the true commission given by Jesus to His church. It had never before known a Nicolaitan system of priest and laity.
Like Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, the church now awaits His call for her to come out of the tomb of darkness and into the light. It is time for the opening of the last scrolls, which will give understanding to the bride, before they are finally rolled up and there will be no further revelation before His coming.
The prophecies given to Daniel and John, are about to be fulfilled in her time. This is the fullness of time and the bride of the church must now make the last call. She will call the apostolic church to restoration from out of her captivity to the Romanism of the final empire of the Babylonian system under Satan.
She must now get purified and ready herself to assume the spiritual power of God, the same power behind the two incredible witnesses of Elijah and Moses, who witnessed to the truth of the pre-incarnate Jesus; their witness always pointed in the direction of Jesus. He was the same Lord, who walked with the prophets of old as walked the Galilee with the apostles, a fact He emphasized to Peter, John and James at the transfiguration.
The spirit of Moses and Elijah pointed to the church finally coming out of the empires of man and into the kingdom following her own exodus from religion. This must take place before the judgment falls on the entire religious system, which will include the feminists of the Asherahs this time, when the entire one world religious system goes down as a harlot riding the beast.
The bride must be absolutely pure with none of the mark of the beast upon her. She does not stand on religion, she does not bow to the final world political ruler, the Antichrist, and she does not depend for her provision on the money of this world. She will not take the mark of the beast, the number of which is 666 – the religious, political and economic system of this world under Satan who replaced the Garden government of God with his own empirical form of government, when he lured man into sin.
And so the bride will feed the sheep by teaching truth, but only with the understanding given by revelation. It will come in the same manner as it was given to Paul in the spiritual world at the feet of the Master, and in the same manner as He taught His apostles in the natural world.
She will never lead the flock to any kind of religious service or practices; she will only teach, teach and teach some more, for it is only the Word, and not religion, which will make the bride pure, washed clean and dressed in proper clothing in readiness for the wedding feast. She will no longer have the tomb clothes of Christianity covering her, for Jesus, Himself, will remove them and give her a covering of white linen under His brown mantle of humility. There will be no pride left in this completely transparent creature, filled with the Spirit of God.
Will the bride be represented by a woman? In all likelihood she will, just as Mary, and not Joseph, represented the woman birthing, as the bride of God and the mother of Jesus. She alone can be the fruitful branch of the tree of life of which Jesus is the vine. All of spirit-filled mankind enters into her motherhood, birthing in the Spirit in the line of Mary.
The bride cannot remain in the Romanism of the last empire of the Babylonian system, still being called Christian by name while attempting to be the true church at the same time; as such, she would have the mark of the beast upon her. But Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. They are prevailing daily against the religious institutions of Christianity, which call themselves church. She can have no part of it if she wants to be part of the pure church for which Jesus is returning to take as His bride.
“Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light (Luke 11:35-36).”