Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
June 17, 2004
We saw in the previous chapter that the wedding in Cana focused upon the stone vessels, which pointed to the nature of the apostolic church, with each man’s body resembling an individual vessel. The changing of the water to the wine within the vessel speaks of a spiritual change in the lives of those who are followers of Jesus. These vessels appear in stark contrast to the religious denominations and stone buildings of Christianity, constructed of cut stones shaped by the tools of man.
And there are also six empires of man, the last of which is divided into two parts to make the seventh, along with six millennia of evil empire rule, without the Spirit of Life in it. All of which is represented again by the number of vessels of water, which Jesus changed to wine, at the end of the feast. The wedding, which took place on the third day, speaks of the church on the dawn of the third millennium, with John next relating a third day message for the bride.
Now we move to the time of darkness when Satan will be loosed and sin will fill the world. It is the time of the end and a time to examine the attitude of the priesthood today, in relationship to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, of which Nicodemus was one. It could be said of our Christian priesthood that they are no wiser than the Pharisaical teachers who were all wrapped up in the religion of Judaism, with very little understanding of spiritual matters. Both groups, one of which was and the other is, are in confusion when it comes to the actual message of salvation, and its clash with the tenets of their respective religious systems.
As was the case with Judaism, in which the Jew was expecting a Messiah to free up the nation Israel from the Roman empirical rule, so it is with Christianity, which is waiting for the return of Jesus, whom they believe to be the Christian liberator who will make Christians rulers over this world. Again, we have a religious group looking for both a religious and a political deliverance. Christians are looking to the coming of their Christian Messiah, called Jesus, in the belief that He is coming for the good, religious people who have been loyal to their denominations and institutional churches, carrying out their good works, as the first to be welcomed into the kingdom of God.
Has anything really changed from the early days of the apostolic church? Will religion not again become the accuser of the bride, as it was of Jesus and the apostles, to become the enemy of truth, as were the Pharisaical accusers of Jesus? When the Spirit and the bride call to the religious to come out of her, Babylon the Great, mother of all harlots, the religious system of today’s Pharisaical priesthood will, at that time, reject the messenger. The entire, religious church system will prefer to remain in the safety and surety of traditional religion, no matter what direction it takes, even though it is moving away from the truth of the Word and into the arms of the One World Religion.
Jesus is about to address, prophetically, the priesthood of Christianity, the ones who are the supposed teachers of the people, every bit as much as He was addressing the Pharisees in the interaction, which took place between Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and Himself. Caiaphas, the high priest, and the other Pharisees were the religious leaders and teachers of their day. They claimed an authority, which they believed to supersede even that of the prophetic Scriptures by resting on their man-made rules, practices and doctrines. The pastoral response to the bride will be exactly the same as the Pharisaical response was to Jesus. Even though they may attempt to listen, they will do so with no spiritual understanding unless Spirit-filled, which so few professing Christians are.
The priesthood knew about Jesus, but it did not have an intimate relationship of the kind, which He shared with His apostles. Nicodemus recognized Jesus as a teacher and worker of miracles, so He concluded that God must be with Him, but he fell short of declaring Him to be the Messiah, the One sent by God for the salvation of His people. Of such is the state of the Laodicean church today; it recognizes Jesus as a good man, a few of which even declare His divinity with God, but the church is a long way from having pulpits on fire with the message of salvation.
“We are good people,” they will claim, “who go to church faithfully, but do not try to completely separate us from the thinking of this modern age! Either we stay in step with the times, or we will offend the other religions by pandering to the bigotry of the salvation message of Jesus. Keep your narrowness out of our modern Christian buildings!” they will exclaim. “Our preachers are well educated in the ways of the world at universities, and, as such, we respect and honor them. Furthermore, the Bible was written for then, but now we have a different set of world values, which do not interfere in our interaction with other denominations and religions.”
This man called Nicodemus came to Jesus at nighttime, in darkness. Not only did this suggest that he was suffering from the spiritual blindness of religion, which leaves a man in darkness, but it also suggests that he was ashamed to be seen as a lofty teacher of the Jews, who was actually submitting his position to the authority of this controversial, radical-type-of-a-man, called Jesus. After all, did his colleagues not consider Jesus to be dangerous? It would be best for him to not be seen talking with Jesus.
My imagination tells me that Jesus would have given him a quizzical look and then would have addressed him in words such as these: “Nicodemus, you are a teacher of Israel. How is it, with all your priestly credentials and Judaic degrees, that you have no spiritual understanding? Do you not see that you are teaching from earthly knowledge, but are desperately in need of spiritual understanding? Such can only come from above, which I know firsthand because I have been there and come from there.
I give you the truth, but your religion can never give you the bread of heaven; I am that bread and your Creator as the Word made flesh. The wind blows wherever it will blow, but you can neither tell whence it comes, nor where it will go. There are two births, Nicodemus. Hear this message, and hear it well, for your very eternal life will depend on it!”
At this point Jesus was about to utter perhaps the most important and most quoted words of the Bible, with respect to the inheritance of Abraham, and the salvation of God’s people Israel. In giving this message to Nicodemus, rather than the apostles, Jesus chose to address the false priesthood with a message that would bring forth a new High Priest of the true priesthood. The contrast between the understanding of a secular-taught priest and a Spirit-filled one was a huge part of this issue, and basic to the point, which Jesus wanted to make. All that the Pharisees, the teachers of the people, had been taught in their religion of Judaism was about to be shaken to its very foundational roots.
Already, Solomon’s temple had been taken down once, in the same manner as all the temples, which man builds, will crumble and, in the very near future, the rebuilt temple was about to come down a second time. At this same point in time, the Jews would be driven from their land and dispersed among the other nations of the world, which indulged in religious, idol worship. The nation Israel had always loved the idols of the gentiles more than they had valued or cherished their own God of Israel.
Jesus would make a prophetic statement regarding the end to come of all, religious, building programs and agendas of Israel’s present, religious connection and spiritual Israel’s future religious connection, in its then unknown form of Christianity. He was ready to deliver a message, which would rock the understanding of the Judaic priesthood of His day and the understanding of those who would be taught religious falsehoods for seventeen plus centuries to come by a Nicolaitan system, which would end in a state of Laodicean apathy.
One need look only to the apostles who never elevated themselves above anyone, nor did they stagnate in buildings and building programs. They were building a witnessing voice with the express purpose of increasing its numbers so that others, in turn, might witness to and teach the truth of the Word. Romanism has only served to take the vast majority of people deeper and deeper into the captivity of religious systems, very little different from the religious system of the Pharisees.
The perception put forth by Christianity is that the gates of heaven are opening to those who have carried out all of the Christian denominational rules, practices and doctrines, in the same way that the Pharisees believed in the power of the practices and many laws of Judaism to deliver them to the kingdom gates. Jesus warned the priesthood of His day that those, whom they considered to be sinful, were more likely to see the kingdom of heaven before they would. Yet the Lord always has had His own remnant within the religious system, waiting, like wheat for the plucking, to be separated from the tares at just the right time.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).” The term, ‘most assuredly’ requires the reader to take special note that something very important is about to be said. One can sympathize with Nicodemus, for who of us would have understood Jesus any better then he did, without knowing about His death and resurrection. There you have it – a statement, which would leave Nicodemus’ priestly mind-set reeling.
It was not until it was time for Jesus’ departure from this world that He promised to send the mighty Counselor. He instructed His apostles to tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until they were endued with power from on high, which occurred with the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We have the Word in writing and the apostles’ witness to the truth of this, with it all being clearly written down in Scriptures. So whom do you think is under the greater judgment here? Would it be Nicodemus, or the false priesthood of today, which, having been given the greater opportunity to clearly understand this message, has refused the truth of it for the lies of religion?
Jesus expounded on His message once Nicodemus had revealed his lack of understanding spiritually. “Most Assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5).” He was declaring an unthinkable fact that there must be two births in the lives of men if they are to partake in the inheritance of Abraham (a priestly one) in the kingdom of God. This will be His chosen portion of the people, His priesthood and His adopted sons and daughters, the true spiritual Israel (see Deuteronomy 32:8-9). They must be born again of the water and the Spirit of Life.
More than any other group needing to receive this understanding is the true priesthood of Jesus Christ, along with the understanding of the second level of salvation. The first is the primary inheritance of Abraham, belonging to Isaac, and must not be confused with the second level of inheritance belonging to his other sons. The first birth is of the flesh and seed of man, but the second birth is not one from the seed of man, but rather one, which comes from on high, just as the conception of Jesus was by the Spirit from on high. Spiritual birthing is a prerequisite for the sons of God, both for His begotten Son and for His adopted sons and daughters.
On the Day of Pentecost the church of Jesus Christ and of the new covenant was birthed. The apostles were endued with power. The word Christian was not used at this point in time to describe the church, but rather appeared at a later date as a mocking term used by the Greeks and Romans to mark those considered to be messianic believers in Jesus, better known as the Way.
The religious institution of Christianity was birthed from Rome under the Emperor Constantine. Paganism was its foundation, and the antichrist spirit ruled supreme over the institutionalized system, which took the name of Jesus and His church into captivity, blaspheming the Holy Spirit with a religious counterfeit of the church we now call the Christian church.
It finally broke up into various divisions or denominations of varying belief systems, causing division among its religious adherents, in contrast to the unity of Christ’s true church, unified in truth, and not religion at all. Pentecost saw the division of the tongues, which occurred at Babel, being brought together again into one, speaking with one message and one doctrine, the doctrine of truth, which knows no division.
It would take Paul, the one taught in the spirit by Jesus, to finally lead the others to get their apostolic act together by refusing to combine religious, legalistic practices and the works of man with the one complete work of truth, which took place on the cross. The bride, like Paul, that great priest of understanding, will once again call the apostolic church out of all religious compromise to come together, resting on her apostolic foundation, which is that of truth, whom the religious priesthood sent packing to the cross.
How is one going to recognize the bride today? Most assuredly, she will be born of the water and of the Spirit, but then, what exactly does this mean? As is the case of the marriage bed, when the marriage is consummated, the infilling of the Holy Spirit is as the consummation of the marriage of Jesus and His church. This time, it is not a physical marriage between a man and a woman; it is a spiritual marriage between Jesus and His bride. It is only by the Spirit that she can birth the good fruit acceptable to God, which He intended when He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, that is to say, before they ran from God to the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of compromise.
Had Adam and Eve not sinned they would never have lost the Spirit of Life, given to them by the breath of the Lord God. They were created as perfect living beings meant to bring forth good fruit for the Creator, but instead, they became men of the flesh, in whom nothing good dwelt. The heart of man must once again come back into line with the heart of God, in the same way that a cordless telephone allows the voice of one to be heard by the other, regardless of the distance between the two.
With a one flesh connection having been made by spiritual infilling, the voice of God can be heard by man, through the connection of the Spirit. One becomes a new creation within this act of love, as the fruit of the woman (taken from mankind) becomes the man child, born anew of the Spirit of Life, to be snatched up to the throne of God (see Revelation 12:5). She will rule and reign with her Beloved as His sister and His spouse at the same time. The type of such a miraculous, fruitful marriage was that of Sarah and Abraham, with Sarah being sister and spouse of Abraham, whose womb was miraculously opened by God when she was a very old woman, well beyond her child-bearing years.
Like mother like daughter, the name of Sarah goes on the wedding invitation, which John is issuing, as the bride of the Son of inheritance of Abraham, with the name of Mary becoming that of the mother of the Groom and Son of Inheritance. She was the first woman to birth of the Spirit, since God had created Adam and Eve, changing the blood line of Abraham’s inheritance in a crossover from a natural inheritance to a spiritual one, which would belong to believers in a spiritual lineage, henceforth, to become the true Jew.
Still there is more to be stated on the wedding invitation about the person of the bride. If she is to truly be the comparable heritage partner, then by nature, she must be a servant and light bearer of Israel, which both the nation and the institutional church have failed to be. She is the lampstand of the holy place in the tabernacle (see Revelation 1:20). There will be a call to separate from this world of religion, in exactly the same way as Abraham was called to separate from his father’s house and gods of religion, when his journey began with God. This is the exodus of spiritual Israel, the church, as she separates from a world full of religion.
The changed life is the sign of the fruit of the Spirit, and never let the religious system tell you that it is anything else, such as tongues. The invitation might even state that this is a bride who has been transformed from the ground under her very feet up to the top of her head. She has experienced the changing of the waters in her life from the bitter, deadly seawaters to the sweet waters of life.
She no longer has her sin covered over in the waters of judgment, but rather, her sin has been taken away by the only possible Kinsman Redeemer, called Jesus, who is able to take away the sins of man. The truth has set her free from the entanglement of religious lines, which imprison her and keep her from being fished out of the muddy, deadly seawaters. Only truth, and never religion, came forth with the living water that flowed from the side of Jesus, when He was pierced.
There is always a wedding party at a wedding, but there are also guests, and who exactly are on this guest-list? It is for certain that there will be no sorcerers, sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters or whoever loves or practices a lie (see Revelation 22:15). Jesus might have spoken to Nicodemus in words such as these: “Here is the second message, Nicodemus. I have just presented the requirements for the wedding party, but the good news is I offer salvation to those unwilling to accept My offer of ruler-ship with Me. I have many mansions open for salvation in heaven, and I can promise eternal life to those who simply believe on My name for salvation. You might say that they are like the unchanged nature of the beasts, which were also saved on Noah’s ark, from the water judgment.”
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:14-15).” If there were any other way to eternal life, would Jesus not have told us so? Does He expect us to witness to this fact or to busy ourselves with religious programs and good works? Jesus has just made the statement to Nicodemus, which would take Him out of religion, by using the prophecy of Scripture, again, to point to the spiritual reality of what He is saying.
Still, one would have to sympathize with Nicodemus’ lack of understanding to some degree, realizing how difficult this lesson would have been for him to grasp without the events of the cross having yet transpired. Was Jesus trying to condemn Nicodemus? I don’t believe so. It would appear He was preparing all of the religious priesthood for the time when the cross would become a reality. It would also appear that Jesus was successful in reaching into the understanding of Nicodemus, for, at that time, he came out of his darkness. Oh, that the priesthood today would have ears to hear and search out Jesus and the Word to gain such understanding!
In pointing this message to the cross, one must look to the two thieves on either side of Jesus, and see the second level of salvation, to which His next statement points: “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:15).” This is perhaps one of the simplest and yet most misunderstood statements of the Bible. It is difficult for the religious to understand this second statement, after just having heard Jesus say that one must be born again to inherit the kingdom.
Herein is the difference. One speaks of kingdom inheritance, as a king might inherit a kingdom; the other speaks of salvation and eternal life within the kingdom. Both require something of man, but the requirements are different. In the first case, one must serve Jesus in a spiritual rebirth and changed relationship with Him while, in the second case, one must merely make a confession, with no sign whatsoever of the changed life.
The lack of spiritual rebirth does not keep anyone from believing on Jesus for salvation. Rahab is the perfect picture of a harlot who participated in the Jordan victory of Israel over Jericho, simply because she trusted in the power of Israel’s God. She didn’t have a speck of Jewish blood in her, but she knew better than to trust in the religious gods of her own city of Jericho.
What Jesus is pointing out in this chapter, can be seen in the two different responses of the two criminals on the crosses on either side of Him, one, like the sheep on the right of the shepherd, and the other, like the goats on the left. One had no fear of God and demanded that Jesus save Himself as some sort of magician, working some sort of great magical performance. The other felt it in his heart to rebuke the man for speaking as he did. He first confessed his condition as a sinner, and then he confessed Jesus’ perfect nature, and recognized Him as Lord, asking to be remembered when He received His kingdom. Surely, this man was on the right side of Jesus.
What did he actually do to earn eternal life? From all we are told, he could have been a murderer, have never attended synagogue on a regular basis, never have given any money to the poor or, in point of fact, he might never have done one good deed in his entire life. What we do know is that he confessed his sin, confessed the Lord and confessed his belief in the name of Jesus for the salvation of his soul.
There, on the two crosses beside Jesus, is the picture of the salvation of man and those who do not receive salvation when the judgment of death falls upon all men. It helps us to put the entire tabernacle picture of the kingdom, described in Revelation, into perspective. The thief on the cross on the one side of Jesus represents the national level of the salvation of those belonging in the tribes of spiritual Israel, who dwell in the nations surrounding the inner part of the tabernacle, but without access to the Holy place of the central tabernacle. This is reserved for the true sons and daughters, adopted by God directly into His family of priests. The unbelieving criminal on the other side, represents the vast bulk of humanity, which has rejected Jesus and the message John wrote for us about the wedding of heaven, which includes only the head table and the guests who are in attendance.
Should we look upon the cross as a message of condemnation or as one of love? How can it escape our understanding that it is both? God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to become the focus of our love, that all might become children of God. At the same time, we become servants of the Lord who choose to serve Him and to share up to half of His kingdom ruler-ship as His bride (see Esther 5:3). Is there any greater love than that of a bridegroom for his bride, one who is willing to share all with her, even to the point of dying for her?
Yet given the choices made by the two criminals on the cross, most men will not see the light for they love darkness, where they can hide their sins with no need to expose them in repentance. It would require a change of lifestyle, which, generally speaking, most of mankind is not willing to make. There is constantly placed before man the choice between following Satan or following Jesus. One is either for Him or one is antichrist in spirit, being against Him. It is religion, which causes the darkness in our lives and keeps us from making way for the light of truth.
One can just imagine Jesus speaking to Nicodemus. “Do you see, Nicodemus, how redundant your temple, your religious practices and your Sabbath wrangling become in the face of My witness to the simplicity of the truth of salvation? I want you to understand an important truth. My testimony to the truth is validated by prophecy, for the truth of the Word is the testimony given in the spirit of prophecy (see Revelation 19:10).
There is nothing that will be, which has not already been as the pattern of things to come. The prophecy of past events is validated by its fulfillment in the events of the future, all to be found in the truth of My Word. Nicodemus! Run back to your temple; pick up the Scriptures and read them! To do so, will not only bring understanding through prophecy, but it could mean the difference between life in the prophetic truth and death in religious dependency.”
Next, Jesus moved into Judea, as He went up to Jerusalem, which speaks of His strengthened presence with His bride today. We must remember that this is a message about going from national salvation to the salvation of spiritual son-ship, which belongs only to the Davidic, priest-king line. One can tell that it is the time when Jesus is going to pour out His Spirit on His bride for He is then the One who is doing the baptizing, and we will later be told that He did not baptize of water; they were only John the Baptist and His apostles who did so (see John 4:1-2).
John the Baptist’s ministry is now pointing us to that of the bride and to a baptism taking place in a town called Aenon near Salim. Aenon points to springs of water, which means she is washing with an outpouring of the Word, so that others might become purified. Salim is a place of peace, placing the time very close to the coming of the Lord, who is the only one who can bring peace to this world with His second coming. It also speaks of her freedom from the captivity of her tomb imprisonment, since it describes a time when John was baptizing as a free man, not yet imprisoned.
The priesthood today, like that of Jesus’ day, dares to question that which God has anointed from on high. They will resent the movement of the true church from the religious system of controls into its freedom from the Nicolaitan system. They will suggest that the bride is leading everyone in the wrong direction, which they will dare to claim is away from Jesus and to herself. They know she is worthy of the same name by which Jesus was known, when He was called Rabbi, for her whole ‘raison d’être’ is found in knowing her commission is to teach the truth of the Word in the spirit of prophecy, and to preach the true gospel to all people.
The words of John the Baptist verify her position as one of appointment from on high. He also verifies the fact that she has been sent to carry out her role as forerunner to the second coming of Jesus. He strengthens her position by coming right to the point; his message is all about a wedding being arranged in heaven. John knows that he has a role to play and a place in it, similar to that of the bride, to whom he compares himself. Who better than John the Baptist to point prophetically to the bride? His words are specific in this matter.
“He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:29-30).”
John rejoices greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice. But how is it heard just before His return, when baptism is taking place in Aenon, a place of springs, near Salim? Only the bride is given the authority to speak for the Bridegroom, as His voice (see Song of Solomon 8:13 and Revelation 22:17). Like Paul, she has been taken into the Lord’s presence for instruction.
No apostle can become such, without being instructed directly from Jesus, Himself. Like Esther, only she goes into the presence of the King, to be handed the golden scepter, which allows her to speak before Him, without risking her life. John recognized the voice of the Kingfisher of men as bringing fulfillment to his ministry, while pointing into the future to another voice, which would be that of a bride calling to make straight the way of the Lord.
One might counter with the answer that by the Word Jesus speaks to all people, and not just to a select few. The answer to such is “Yes, indeed, it is God’s Word, which speaks to man.” But His Word also tells us that there are mysteries veiled in it in the form of prophecy, which were sealed to Daniel, to be revealed at the time of the end. The bride is the one chosen to receive that understanding of the prophecy, which is opened only at this time.
Who else would receive such prophecy but one who testifies only to the truth and never to religion? Is there any member of the institutional Christian priesthood who is not compromised by religion and its Nicolaitan system, which Jesus so hated in His day? Has any of that priesthood been taken up in the spirit to learn at the feet of Jesus in a similar manner as Paul, able to claim having learned like Mary and the apostles learned, as they sat at the feet of Jesus, centuries beforehand, and not from some seminary of religious training? Why would anyone believe that that which was needed yesterday for His apostolic move would not also be needed today, for an apostolic move? God never changes.
John makes the difference between earthly ministries and those ordained from above, as clearly as possible. First of all John could baptize of the water, but never of the Spirit; only He who comes down from above can do that. It is time for such practices, which are purely symbolic, such as water baptism, to give way to the reality, which, in this case, is spiritual baptism. It is time for Israel, the bride of Christ to come to her time of labor at last, to produce the man child who will rule and reign with Jesus in His kingdom.
It is time for the pattern to fully give way to a pure form of spirituality, which points to nothing but the truth of Jesus. John knew it was time to give up the reins that he legally possessed of the Levitical high priesthood and turn them over to the true High Priest of the kingdom. John had been alerted by God to recognize the Truth coming toward him, as he stood in the Jordan baptizing.
He also was alerted to the wickedness of the religious priesthood who came only to criticize and to try to undermine his ministry, which was ordained from above. This would give them cause to use words against him, declaring him to be a blasphemer, in the same manner as they would later accuse Jesus. Will the bride not fall also under the same religious condemnation?
The religious were not ready to hear the truth from John any more than they were from Jesus. Only Jesus, who has come from heaven, has the high- priestly authority given from above. Not any pope, moderator, or archbishop has any authority over the true believers, whatsoever. Neither did the high priest of Judaism have any such authority, having been appointed by Rome, as would the pope be appointed by Rome at a later date.
The bride, having received her prophetic testimony from her Beloved as did John, the apostle, will verify the validity of the truth of the Word. In so far as John explained it with words and prophecy, the bride also will verify the truth of the Word as the solid foundation for understanding through revealed prophecy, the tool provided for her use by her Bridegroom. He does not give her anything by measure; He gives all for His bride. He never gives a little truth mixed with some religion; His truth is given in total separation, as was made clear from the beginning, when God called Abraham to separation.
All things are given into the hands of the Son from the Father, for the relationship in heaven is one of complete love and trust, the kind a Father has for His children, and the child has for the Father. Now John makes a point, which this sick world needs to hear; he separates God’s love from the lusts of this world and from any form of immoral sexual act. Marriage is an honorable estate, not to be taken lightly, as a covenant between two people. Spiritually speaking, the two in the marriage covenant of God, are His portion of the people called Israel and Himself. It is as simple as this: he, who believes in the Son, has everlasting life; he, who does not believe the Son, shall not see life, but rather the wrath of God will rest upon Him.
Is God a loving God? Most certainly He is, but He is also a God of wrath, as shown to Moses in the burning bush, covered in fire, though never consumed. This message should both strengthen and frighten anyone regarding the eternal nature of man and the judgment of the Father. Unless the hand of God were in its midst, the bush would be consumed.
God has offered the greatest gift one could possibly receive. It is the love of His Son, the Bridegroom, who offers life and kingdom ruler-ship to His bride. Think carefully about the wedding and whether or not you want to receive this invitation to attend this most desired and magnificent event in history – the wedding feast of the Lamb! The alternative is to experience the fire of God’s wrath, on the other side of the great divide, where Satan and his wickedness dwell. One should fear God, for to do so is the beginning of wisdom.
Satan has created one of the greatest deceptions of history by which the religious Christians have come to believe that this is a message for born-again Christians. There is no such thing; for Christianity, as a religion, is at loggerheads with one who is born of the water and the Spirit. When a Christian sees the Truth walking toward him, he will never again be satisfied by walking away and back into the arms of the religious system. Instead, he will walk away from it forever and straight into the arms of his Beloved, for it is to a wedding that he is going.
Is there any other chapter of the Bible, which can claim priority over this one? John, chapter three, is at the very heart of the message of man’s salvation. This is the chapter that explains the straight way to the kingdom, which would never exist without the saving grace of Jesus, the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Him (see John 14:6).