Then, I saw the most beautiful bridal gown I had ever seen suspended above me. It was made of other-worldly material. It was the purest white, but it also emitted the most beautiful blue and gold. I could not imagine that a more beautiful gown had ever been made. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Will you help My bride put this on?” Then the vision ended.
The next day I saw the heavens open again, and I saw the ball of fire again. As I looked, understanding was given to me. The ball of fire was traveling through deep space. There was such a freshness and newness to everything that I knew I was seeing this ball of fire at the beginning of creation. There was also great joy and beauty like that of a beautiful spring morning, even in space. Everything seemed to just emanate beauty, joy, and freshness.
As I kept looking at this ball of fire, I saw into it. At its core there was another ball that was a blue/gold metal. This was the nuclear center that caused the fire, which was like a nuclear reaction going on from this inner sphere. This ball was made of the most dense, heavy matter possible. It was also the weightiest thing that mattered to God—His desire for His bride.
I knew that was why I was struck by the ball of fire before being shown the bridal gown. The main fire, the main passion of God, is for His bride.
I was being shown this at the beginning of the creation because I was to understand that this was the main thing on God’s heart when He created the universe—His bride, who would be His eternal companion. I knew that I was given to understand the ages and ages in which this fire had existed without change, but also to understand both His patience and His resolve to have His bride. This is the main reason that He created the universe, and it is the main reason for its existence.
God loves His creation, both the spiritual and the natural. He loves every angel and every creature, which is why He notices when even a single sparrow falls to the ground. Even so, His first love is for His bride. Though He loves the earth and all of creation, it was His bride that was on His heart when He became a man and when He went to the cross.
As I continued to watch the ball of fire, I understood why it burned me spiritually but not physically. This fire does not consume matter because its source is spiritual—it is a heart fire. It is what burns on God’s heart. This is what gives life and is the source of life. This is why eternal life is to know Him, which is to know His heart. This was the fire which was in the burning bush that God talked to Moses through. The passion that burns on God’s heart for His people is what was imparted to Moses. There is so much life in this fire, which has burned from eternity. It imparted such life to Moses that when God took him at one hundred and twenty years old, he had not physically deteriorated.
This is also the fire that accompanies the true baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is the passion for what is on God’s heart. It is now coming to the earth again because it is time for God’s people to be set free, to leave their bondage and cross over to their promised land, their inheritance. It was this fire which also touched Abraham and Sarah, giving them the vision to leave all that they knew in Ur to pursue God’s purpose.
It was this fire which was in the smoking oven that Abraham saw when God sealed His covenant with him. This fire which was in their hearts gave such life to them that even when Sarah was ninety years old she was still so physically beautiful that Abraham feared he would be killed by a king who would want her for himself. When we get close enough to God to be touched by that which burns on His heart, life is imparted that renews, not destroys. This is also why the Apostle John lived so long—he laid his head on God’s breast and heard His heartbeat. Because John’s heart was so close to God’s heart, the indestructible life of God permeated him.
Moses was not rejuvenated by just seeing or being close to the burning bush, but by taking upon his own heart that which was on God’s heart. Again, this is a heart fire, a spiritual fire. It is not by seeing the fire, or being close to it physically, but by uniting with what is on His heart. That which is burning on the heart of God has been there from eternity—it is indestructible and will never die. As we take what is on His heart on to our hearts, that same indestructible life is in us. This is what it really means to know God, to know the deepest things on His heart, and to share these with Him in His ultimate purposes. We do not need to have a prophetic experience to do this, but just be a seeker of God. The true seekers of God, those who are truly close to Him, will burn with a fire that is unquenchable. They will not be lukewarm.
Again, there is nothing weightier, there is nothing that has more substance, energy, power, or life in it, than being united with God in what is on His heart. This is the ultimate quest of man, to be one with God, to have His heart. It says in Psalm 103:7, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.” Moses was used to perform some of the greatest miracles God has performed through a man, yet Moses wanted to know God’s ways, not just His acts. He wanted to be united with the Lord in what was on His heart, not just know what He was doing. We also see this in Exodus 33:12-16: Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’
“Now therefore, I pray, have, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people."
And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." 15 Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.
“For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth” (NKJV).
This is one of the most basic truths that must be recovered by the church so that she can come into her full purpose and stature, to become the pure and spotless bride that He is worthy to have. Programs and good works can be noble endeavors because we were also created for good works, but they are not the main thing. The main thing is to love God and to love what He loves, and hate what He hates.
The basic calling for every Christian is to become like Him and do the works that He did. We become like Him by seeing His glory, “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:18). The works come from His nature. He does not want us to just be used to heal the sick, but to be used to heal them for the same reason He healed them— He loves people. However, if we do not love God more than we love people, we cannot love people the way that we should.
It has been said that anyone will quit except for the one who is in love. Commitment, duty, honor, devotion to good works, and devotion to the truth are all good things and can help to keep us on the path of life, but when the ultimate test comes, only those who love will stand, only those who love will stay the course.
The greatest passion of God, the fire that burns in His heart, is for His bride, the church. This fire is going to touch the earth again, and those who are His messengers will burn with it. They will arise with this passion to see the bride make herself ready. A new breed of ministry is being commissioned now. These are the true friends of the bridegroom. These will be spiritual eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom. A eunuch cannot have a desire for the bride or to use her for his own purposes; rather, his whole satisfaction comes from seeing the King’s satisfaction with His bride—this will be their passion.
The new breed of ministry will not rape the bride; their whole purpose will be to help the bride make herself ready for the King. The new breed of ministry will not use the people to build their ministries, they will use their ministries to build people. This will result in a revolution in the church. Selfish ambition will be driven from the ministry of the church. Christians will begin to love each other and serve out of love. The result of this will be a society of saints who will become a marvel in the earth and a true light to the world.
Those who understand the times are not nearly as focused on what the devil is doing as they are on what the Lord is doing. The greatest sign that the end of the age is near will be the bride emerging in the glory that she is called to walk in. The Lord will not come until His bride is ready. Her preparation for the greatest of all events, the union of Christ with His bride, will accelerate as we get closer to the end of this age.
The Bridal Gown
As I shared above, the bridal gown was beyond anything of beauty that I had ever seen on any garment. Not only was it made of an other-worldly material, it was fashioned by artists of other-worldly gifts. This, too, is an important message. These gifts are being given to the church to help the bride get ready.
In the Old Te s t a m e n t we often find quotes saying that the Spirit of God came on someone, such as we see in II Chronicles 15:1 or II Chronicles 24:20. However, it was Bezalel who was the first person in the Bible about whom it was said that he was “filled with the Spirit,” which we see in Exodus 31:1-5:
Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
"See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
"I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship,
to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze,
and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship.
Think about this fact: An artist was the first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit, not a priest, king, or prophet. This should give us a definite sense of the importance that the Lord gave to art. His dwelling place, the tabernacle, which is a blueprint or model for the church, the “dwelling place not made with hands,” had to be fashioned by the best of all artists. There is a power in art that the church has not generally recognized for many centuries now. It must be recovered because the Lord is going to give the artists in His house unprecedented power to prophesy through their art.
When we look at nature, any sunset, or any snowflake, it is obvious that there is no artist like God. It is His nature. However, all of the beauty that we see was made out of His love for mankind. It is a gift. This love motivated His art. If you have ever seen a sunset or something of great beauty and had a sense that it was made especially for you to see—it was. God’s art is for His people. The reverse is about to become true—the highest art of mankind will come from a love for God.
There is an anointing coming upon artists that is even greater than that which was given to Bezalel for building the tabernacle of Moses. That was but a type; what is coming is the fulfillment. The glory of the New Covenant is greater than the former, and that which is given to help adorn the bride will be greater than that which came to help adorn the type. We will not continue to look back at the great masters in history—the greatest masters of all will be now.
There is an anointing that is about to come upon artists that will be from the Holy Spirit. Art will again be motivated by love for God. This art will have a prophetic power such as has not been given to mankind before. The more pure the love, the more pure and powerful the art will be. These are gifts from God to His bride, and they will touch her in profound ways to draw her heart to Him and be used to express her heart for Him.
The truest art will always come out of the highest worship, and will be high worship. This is why, at the end of this age, the most creative gifts the world will have ever seen will come from the church. These will be a part of the garment that she will wear, and what she wears will reflect what is in her heart. She will see His glory, she will reflect His glory, and she will produce glory in all that she does. Glory will be her garment, and it will be like a train that follows after her.
The Hebrew word for glory is kabowd which literally means “weight.” The ultimate glory of the bride is the weightiest thing in all of creation— it is the love that the Lord has for her. Her true glory is that she was in the Lord’s heart from the very beginning; it has never changed and never will. She is the passion of God. Because of this there will be a whole new revelation of the coming wedding feast. The greatest joy of the creation will be to see the Creator’s joy in His bride. This is the joy that will begin to motivate the new breed of ministry, some of whom will also be the greatest artisans of all time, and will be truly filled with the Spirit.
I am not just talking about painters, sculptors, or musicians in this art, but the true apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, who were given for the equipping of the saints to become the church we are called to be. They will be so creative in their ministries that ministry will become one of the most compelling attractions of all. The crafting of words in messages will start to come with such creative power that multitudes will be drawn to their oratory. This is not about entertainment, but an anointing on the art of speaking that the Word of God is worthy to be adorned with.
Creativity, the basic nature of the blessed Creator, will shine through His church as a witness of His nature. Because her heart will be in such unity with the Creator, creativity will flow from everything she does. The greatest music, the greatest art of every kind, will come from the church as worship to the Lord. These gifts will also both draw and equip the bride for her highest purpose—her union with the King. It will begin to draw the nations to the feast.
Summary
As I write this, it is only a few weeks after this prophetic experience and it still dominates my thinking. It has also reoriented my understanding of some basic issues. From the beginning of my Christian life, I have had an understanding of the importance of the church and how essential a healthy local church life is to true Christian maturity and to being positioned to fulfill our purpose on the earth. Therefore, I have always sought to build the local church in all that I do, and to keep a heart for the whole body of Christ. Even so, before, I had seen the church as a means to an end—the means for preparing the way for the kingdom to come; this is her calling of course, but not her main purpose.
This is her calling of course, but not her main purpose. I saw the kingdom as a higher purpose, but that has now been reversed—the church is the higher purpose.
This may seem subtle, and I do not think it will change any of my teaching as much as it will change my devotion and orientation. I now have a fire on me for the church that I have not had before. I feel a burning desire to see her become all that she is called to be, and to be the bride that our King is worthy to have.
I think it is more than important to have an understanding of the kingdom—it is crucial. The kingdom was the message that the Lord came to preach, and it is the gospel of the kingdom that must be preached before the end of this age can come. However, the way that we can best help prepare the way for the kingdom is to help the church become what she is called to be.
The Lord is not going to come back to set up His kingdom until His bride is ready for Him and ready to rule and reign with Him in the kingdom. The Lord loves the earth and all it contains. He will restore it to its original purpose as a true paradise, but it is the bride which makes His heart beat faster, and a main reason for the creation is to enjoy it with His bride.
We may think that for the church to see this it would make her arrogant and egocentric, but there are enough forces in the world determined to keep her humble. She needs to see her high purpose to start to live in a manner worthy of her calling. Christians, as the church, are the true royalty in the earth, and she must start to carry herself with the dignity and respect of her most royal blood. Of course, this is not to be served, but to serve, and to do it with all of the authority she has been given.
Because of this, one of the most important things that all of us can do is find our place in His church, and begin to do all that we can to help her become ready for Him. The true friends of the Bridegroom will never give up on this because of their love for Him. They will not let any disappointments or discouragements deter them from this purpose. The Lord will have a worthy bride, and those who love will never quit until He does. This is the new breed.
A few days after I had this revelation, I shared it with Bob Jones. He immediately related it to an astronomical discovery that I was not aware of, which is the recent finding of “the father of all supernovas.” The heavens are given for signs (see Genesis 1:14; Psalm 19). This is a major sign and a timely one. It is believed that at the heart of a supernova there is matter so dense, so heavy, that a teardrop size amount of it would have more weight than all human beings on the earth. This matter is so heavy that it has such a gravitational pull that it creates “black holes” because this super gravity even keeps light from escaping it. This supernova is supposed to be much larger than any ever discovered before. If it is the greatest of all, then the weightiest matter in creation would be at the center of it. That is what I saw in the middle of the ball of fire—the weightiest matter in the universe because it is what matters to God the most.
The discovery is no accident, and its timing is prophetic. I expect those who gaze into the true heavens are likewise going to discover this weightiest of all matters, the Lord’s love for His bride. Just as supernovas create the biggest explosions in the universe and the greatest light emitted in the universe before they become the “black hole” by the denseness of their gravity, I am expecting a similar explosion of greater power than has been released before, and greater light than may have ever been seen before through the church. By this, she is going to be transformed very quickly into all she is called to be.
The earth hardly even qualifies as a speck of dust in the expanse of the universe. Why would it be given such importance? As King David pondered in Psalm 8, what is man that God would even consider any of us? He is looking for a bride, a companion, to share His creation with— to share eternity with. That is your calling. There is no higher calling in all of creation than to be a part of His bride, the church. She will even ultimately judge angels, sharing His authority, sitting on His throne with Him. As we get closer to Him, we will begin to walk in this.
Again, the main thing that we can do to help the earth in a permanent and lasting way is to help the church become what she is called to be. The most effective way that we can do this is by loving God more, knowing Him better, abiding in Him, and directing the church’s attention to who He is. The church is in desperate need of knowing who she is called to be, but it is not by knowing who we are in Christ that we will be changed, but by knowing who He is in us. We do not want to worship the temple of the Lord, but the Lord of the temple. Even so, as we come to understand His love for His bride, we will do everything we can to help her get ready for Him because of our love for Him.