Learning to be His Wife

by Michelle Amirault

One beautiful quality of a new bride is adoration toward her husband. Ideally this should grow as the relationship grows. From honest adoring should naturally flow a special gratitude and praises. With heart-felt praises a shining begins from within the heart and flows or glows gloriously outward. That is why it is often easy to recognize a new bride. She is radiant. (Are we radiant?)

Now a wife is told she must respect her husband (in Eph. 5:33b). True respect is usually earned by the quality characteristics of the husband. But our Holy Scriptures do not say respect if he deserves it. It says, ". . . respect her husband."

So what does "Respect" mean? (It doesn't mean be as dead as doormat or anything they do is okay with us.) It means according to Webster's Dictionary 1. To consider worthy of esteem; hence to refrain from obtruding upon, as a person's privacy. 2. To have reference to; to be concerned with. Syn. Honor, revere, venerate.

In the Greek the word phobeo is the word I am referring to in Ephes. 5:33. It is #5399 in the Strong's Concordance and says, "by anal. to be in awe of, i.e. revere: --be (+ sore) afraid, fear (exceedingly), reverence." It is translated reverence in the KJV.

With Jesus this is easier to do the more we get to know Him by His Spirit. The truth is we are married to the One in Whom the nations will put their hope. This is surely One to be highly reverenced or respected greatly! In Matt. 12:21 it says, "In His name the nations will put their hope." In Isaiah 42:1-4 we find where Isaiah spoke this same scripture long before the physical appearance of Jesus as the Son of God and man. This was, is and shall be the plan of the Most High God, our Lord and Creator of the universe.

Now we seem to be sitting around with this hope within us. Many of us are anticipating the day when God makes this part of His Word come to pass. But it is awakening within me that we are a bigger part of this plan than we realize. We, therefore, need to get this vision of God's plan by His Spirit and then get our "orders from Headquarters" and move out in the particular works we have each been given. As we do this the Bride will reflect some of the glory of her Husband. As we behold Him we will begin to behold His Creation through His eyes and reflect His heart toward them. This is part of learning to be His wife. But our first working is by His Spirit within us to move us to be enabled to behold Him. Who is He? What is His real nature?

Let us look at a section of this scripture in Matt. 12:21 just a little bit closer. . . "in His name." This, I now understand, is not just some religious use of the words "in Jesus name" that we have so often repeated dutifully or religiously like some kind of magic formula. We were taught this, but many of us are beginning to realize that these words are powerless without the Spirit of God moving us to speak them. So what more clearly do these words mean?

Many of us by the teaching of the Holy Spirit have come to see that "in His name" means "in His nature," and/or "in His Spirit," and/or "in Him." We have found, through our walk with Jesus, that we really can not do anything without Him. Even our very breath comes from Him.

So we could say, "in His "Nature" the nations will put their hope." So what is God's nature? We can see from His many names and their meanings that His nature is Love. His Holy Written Word says that "God is Love." He defines love in 1Cor.13:4-8; (we all should be familiar with this scripture as it is being worked into us daily.) Plus we know that His love is all encompassing, never fails, fiery, where even His judgments bring forth His righteousness and have pure motives, whether we can understand them or not. And His mercies triumph over His judgments. When all this is exemplified by us -- His Bride -- the nations will indeed behold the Greatness and Magnitude of the True Living God. There will be a much clearer reflection of Him, which will enable all people to put their trust and hope in Him.

But we, His Betrothed, are mostly not walking "in Him," so we still are not reflecting Him or being His Glory as a wife is to be.

I feel strongly we each need to plug in directly and seriously to the Holy Spirit which will bring forth a humbling of ourselves, or we will be humbled in the coming storms. We need to come to a place of praying without ceasing, which is a process that develops as we grow in the awareness of His Majesty. Who would not want to commune with their first Love when they know His true nature? But I ask, Are YOU receiving His love for you? If you are, reverence will not need to be commanded; it will be an outflow of your relationship with Him. O how we need to seek His Face, till we begin to see Him everywhere and in everything. Truly beholding His love for us and His glory, we will be transformed into His spotless and glorious Bride, for in Him no darkness can remain. We will be made transparent, or WALL-FREE so that HE WHO DWELLS WITHIN US can SHINE FORTH!

UNTIL THE BRIDE REFLECTS THE REAL JESUS BY HIS SPIRIT, THE NATIONS WILL NOT SEE HIM AND WILL HAVE NO HOPE.

To me right now, instead of a glorious bride, we are like the man in Matt 12: 9-13 with the shriveled hand. Yet this is the Sabbath Day for us, as it was for that man, and we need to have "our hand" outstretched to Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, to receive His love and healing for us. We each need, as members of His Body, to be completely restored by His touch. Then we become a living testimony to a caring Father Who brings healing in His hands, first to us and then to the nations. Then our hands will gladly do the will of Him Who lives in us. The Kingdom of God is within us! We therefore need to be willing to be made pure at any cost. It is my prayer that we each spiritually stretch out our hands, (our lives, our thoughts and all our shriveled works,) and let the Master restore us that He might be glorified.

At this present point in time, instead of being full of Him and His healing love, many of us have become full of knowledge which for some reason has allowed us to be puffed up, divided, complacent, mediocre, lazy, fearful etc. None of these states bring glory to God for they all squelch the Holy Spirit within us, or make us insensitive. A lazy bride can become unappealing and dull, just like the unclean heart can make us ugly inside and out. We must walk in what we have already learned! If we have not learned to receive or abide in Him ourselves, we will not be able to be the true, sturdy bridges to Jesus we are to be. We are to become the ministers of reconciliation to all peoples. As we dwell in Him, we will die to our foolish and religious ways and realize that all of who we thought we were is based on lies and our attempts to give ourselves value. But our true value is hidden in Christ Jesus. We will see more clearly that all that gives life in us is the Christ within us. We must seek Him and seek to abide in Him. Everything else will be added unto us to do that which He has called us to do -- for because of His great love for each of us, HE HAS PROVIDED all that we need to communicate His love to others. . .HIS HOLY SPIRIT!

"Sleeping Beauty" must AWAKE and PARTAKE of the Prince of Peace. The exciting thing is -- one kiss from Jesus and we will never be the same as we are truly changed from glory to glory, or with each kiss. This is the time for each of us to come out of our sleep and know our Prince is not a fairytale!

AMEN!

Learning together with His love,

Michelle