“And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17, NKJV).
At the centre of God’s eternal plan is His intention to acquire a Bride for His Son who would receive and reflect His eternal love. Paul presented marital love between a husband and a wife as a metaphor for the eternal love between Christ and His church (Ephesians 5:25-32). One of the great epochs of the end time will be the marriage feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19: 6-8), when the Father will present the glorious church to His beloved Son. Then will come to pass the prophecy of Isaiah that “He shall see the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied…” (Isaiah 53:11 KJV). Raising and preparing this bride for Christ is a project that is very dear to the heart of the Father. This is the reason He created the world! This is the reason He sent Jesus to redeem us after we fell into the condemnation of sin. Paul explained, “Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)” (Ephesians 1:4-5, The Message). Our Lord Jesus sacrificed His life and shed His sinless Blood to make it possible for people to believe in Him and thus qualify for adoption into God’s family. The prerogative of identifying and enlisting those to be adopted into the family of God is reserved to the Holy Spirit, who extends the Father’s invitation to people through the preaching ministry of all believers. “Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation” (1 Corinthians 1:21, The Message). The primary goal of preaching is to invite people to Christ so they can be saved and the family of God will grow bigger. God wants a large family!
God’s plan: acquire a Bride for Jesus. ‘Come!’ – invite others to water of life. Get involved, preach, gather with Jesus, bring multitudes to Him.
The unique role of preaching in the salvation of souls makes it a highly priced enterprise which demands intimate cooperation between the Holy Spirit and the believers to be effective. Conversion is possible only when “the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” The Holy Spirit, working through the Bride (the Church), invites sinners to repentance and faith in Christ so that they may be saved. The invitation is extended to those who are thirsty, those who desire the water of life, and are willing to come to Christ for the life-giving water. One’s willingness to yield to the Holy Spirit is all that is required for any person to become incorporated into the soon-to-be-revealed radiant Bride who is the object of God’s eternal love and care. All who become incorporated into the Bride is loved by God the same way He loves Jesus –“For as He is so are we in this world” (John 4:17 NKJV). It is important to note that nothing is more important to God now than to get the Bride ready for His Son. Hence, the Holy Spirit is now busy with the task of bringing people to Christ and placing them in the family of God as part of the Bride of Christ. Whenever the last person to constitute the Bride is incorporated, the church will be raptured. The key question you have to ask yourself is, to what extent does your life contribute to this grand agenda of God? What are you doing to make sure that the good news of Christ’s redeeming love is presented to all who ought to hear it and be saved by it? Our Lord said, “He who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matthew 12:30 NKJV). This is God’s appointed season to gather “fruits to eternal life” (John 4:36). Get involved! God wants more children to fill up His large kingdom.
The more people that are brought into the kingdom of God, the less the devil has to mess with. Time is running out on us! The urgency is all too obvious to ignore unless one is under the spell of the antichrist. This is the season to bring the multitudes into the kingdom of God. If it is true that “In a multitude of people is a king’s honour, but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince” (Proverbs 14:28 NKJV), then it is time to honour the King of kings by bringing multitudes to faith in Him. Your silence and inaction are only indicative that you have chosen not to gather with Jesus. This ought not to be so. We need to re-evaluate our work to find out what is keeping the crowd away from us. Our Lord declared, “Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in” (Luke 16:16 NLT). If people are not eager to get into your church, it could be you are not preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. May the Lord use you more and more to bring many children into glory in Jesus name.
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