THE WHORE, THE PROSTITUTE, THE BRIDE
STRONG WORDS AND THEY HAVE A DEEP MEANING.
THE WHORE
More than 30 years ago a doctor I once knew said "A prostitute sells herself for money and that is all she is interested in the money. I will say she represents Greed; that can be for money and even popularity. While a whore gives herself away to one man after another looking for love, looking for acceptance."
Throughout the Old Testament especially in the books of the Prophets, God's people were called in some writings Harlots and in many updated translations they are called Whores; said to be committing adultery and using words like whoredom. Looking at these words recorded for us in Jeremiah chapter 3 and in every book of the Prophets, as I said earlier. It is also said that in the Old Testament God was the Husband to Israel. While in the New Testament Jesus is the Husband of His church, His bride.
Lets go back to the Old Testament, why was Israel called a whore? God has given specific instructions that they were to have no other gods before them, He reminded them over and over that when they entered into their promise land, they were not to worship the gods of the people in the land, and over and over they continued to do so, He would tell them He was a jealous God and at times they would repent and then once more they would turn from the one true Living God, and play the whore and seek after the other gods. The prophets of God called them whores, and creating their whoredom. Why would they do that? I have read somewhere in the O.T. scriptures they would ask "where is the God of Abraham, Jacob, does He not care for us?" So what were they seeking from other gods? Acceptance from the people of other nations, love, happiness! Those are just suggestions. Many years ago when my marriage ended I became angry with God and in my anger I ran from God and though I never ran after another God, I did run after seeking love, acceptance and happiness in the arms of men, I played the whore, because I preferred my sin over my God, therefore my sin became my God. Yet as did the prodigal son, one day I came to my senses and I ran back to the One who truly loved me and He welcomed me back into His loving arms, completely forgiven. Jesus is my first love and I ran from Him and because He never let me go, I returned to my first love. That was why the Prophets were sent to bring God's people to repentance and return to Him.
Exodus 20:1-6, Deuteronomy 7:1-24, Judges 2:11-13, Isaiah 54:5, Jeremiah 3:6-8+14, Jeremiah 31:32, Ezekiel 16:1-22+, Hosea 4:12
Okay, we see how the children of God can commit whoredom, as we can today also; by chasing after the world, the flesh and the devil. Christians today can be entangled with sin and whoredom the same as Israel did in the Old Testament. They can make for themselves gods of their own imagination, fall into cult activities and beliefs (in doing this they have accepted another god other than what they had been taught by the true doctrine of Jesus the Christ.) And even now you can witness those who are selling themselves and attempting to sell God, because of greed for money, power and popularity. Remember a lifestyle of sin can become your god, your opinions can become your god (when we lift up our opinion of what is sin, what is love and it doesn't line up with God's biblical standards but in fact aligns itself with the culture around us.)
THE PROSTITUTE
So lets look at a prostitute, most you will find in God's house, false prophets, false teachers, false apostles and false pastors. These may sound good but eventually their true character will be revealed. It is written that Satan has his ministers producing lying wonders. Satan will sow tares within a church family for one purpose to sow discord and bring division. There are times that God Himself will send a lying spirit upon false prophets, as He did in the Old Testament. Most of the counterfeit will tell just enough truth to catch your attention and then suddenly you will find they will tickle your itchy years with what your flesh desires to hear. What are they selling? What is their goal? They ask for more money from gullible people because they add, God will bless you a 100 fold, the windows of heaven will be poured out on you, it is a perversion of scripture to gain for themselves wealth. Some will want to sell you something examples: anionting oil, books, promises of God if you give to their ministry. Let me clarify something here; there is nothing wrong with sowing into a ministry that is about the gospel of Christ, but be careful that one is not sowing into a ministry selling their version of the gospel of Christ, books buy books by all means, I guess for me when I hear one who calls themselves a prophet quoting from their books they are trying to sell so we can read the book and get the rest of what they are saying and meaning, that troubles me and perhaps I am wrong, but I go back to the called Prophet just speaks and declares the Word of the Lord, he tells us all of what God desires for us to hear. Because Jesus Christ cannot be sold, His word will not return void and as part of His five-fold ministry a Prophet is called to speak very clearly to God's people the word God has given them at no charge! Many attempt to build a following, a platform, a popularity, too shine in the spotlight. I am not talking about what is called a mega church many of them are declaring the truth of God's word and the people are coming because they desire to hear the truth. I must say small, medium and mega churches can house the genuine and the counterfeit. But how can we discern the difference? By staying in the word of God, by staying in prayer and by observing the character of the one we are listening to. We recognize error by knowing the truth of His word, by staying in prayer we seek guidance of the Holy Spirit who leads us to all truth, we observe how that one behaves when the spotlight is off of them, how do they talk, do they truly love others, or do their actions indicate otherwise. I will add right here, I do not listen to nor do I condone these YouTubers who want to put down pastors and call them fake, mainly because the majority of them are not even connected with a local church and they are slanders at best. If you are part of a strong believing church family, your pastors are your watchmen, they watch over their flock and guard what comes into the House of God, they do not try to be the watchmen for social media.
Jeremiah 5:31, Deuteronomy 7:25-26
2Thessalonians 2:9-10, 2Corinthians 10:12, 2Corninthians 11:14, Matthew 5:15-16, Matthew 24:11, Mark 13:22, 2Timothy 3:1-8, Revelation 2:20-23, Revelation 3:1-3, Revelation 3:15-17, Revelation 17:1-6, 1Kings 22:20-23
THE BRIDE
Who is the bride? The Ekklesia the universal followers of Christ who have received His gift of salvation by faith and in repentance changed their way of believing and living. These are all born again believers in Christ we call Christians (that is the real church). Yet, as believers we gather together in our local churches, united together in fellowship, in scripture that word means we are in a partnership with Christ to serve together as one body in the kingdom of God.
Jesus Christ established His church and He is both the Good Shepherd and the Chief Cornerstone. He calls His anointed ministry leaders, not man. He plants those He will use within His churches, we gather together to love and minister to one another, to use our gifts and callings that have been placed in our lives by God and through the Holy Spirit, as we serve in God's kingdom. We start out as babes but God will grow us as we continue in His word at home, in prayer at home, gathering and worshipping our Lord and Savior with our church family, listening to the anointed message from the pulpit. God desires that we love one another as He loves us and that we stay in unity.
How often do we as Christians forget who we are in Christ. We allow others opinions to cause us to belittle ourselves, we allow old childhood memories to keep reminding us what was said about us, we think who are we that God would use us, and often we neglect to step forward and do what God has asked us to do, because we think so little of ourselves how could we accomplish anything. Those are all lies that the enemy keeps speaking into our minds, the word says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, and in another scripture we are told to cast out every argument that is against God's word, those are strongholds established in our minds that must be torn down by us. The bride, is to be without spot or wrinkle, we are to be holy (in and of ourselves we can't be holy, but in Christ we can be) what about this holiness, we put off that old man and its fleshly desires, we flee from the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the lure of Satan.
The bride of Christ loved by Jesus, He desires for us to pick up our cross and follow Him daily, this is our act of surrender as He surrendered to His cross for us, we surrender all we are, all we want, our will and we yield all to Him, we have to do it daily because daily our flesh will rise up if we allow it. He desires the best for us; yet, He tells us through scripture we will suffer, we will have troubles and tribulations, but He also reminds us we are His, we are joint heirs with Him, we are overcomers, we carry His anionting, we can do all things through Him, in our weakness He is our strength, He will never leave us nor forsake us, we have everlasting life from the moment of our salvation, His mercy is new every morning, in fact the word says "surely goodness and mercy follow after us". He took all authority away from Satan at the cross and He gave it to us, to bind and loose what is not in heaven and what is in heaven, OH I COULD GO ON AND ON!
He has promised He is coming back for His bride, that we will be saved from the wrath of God coming upon the nations. But He also says "When the Son of Man returns will He find faith?" We, His bride must stay in faith, we must not allow the world, our flesh or the devil to compromise nor corrupt us as we walk in this world we must remember we are not of this world. We are His own special people. We must keep ourselves unspotted from the world, and we must not become complacent and allow ourselves to fall asleep during our waiting. Instead we keep pursuing Jesus, seeking God, allowing His Holy Spirit to work in us and through us. Yes, we will sin but we will not stay there, we will repent and keep moving forward. Jesus came as a baby, died and rose again as the perfect lamb of God, and He is coming again, The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Alpha and Omega, our King of kings and Lord of lords. Has His bride made herself ready? I will stop because I could talk about Jesus non-stop. ❤️❤️
1Peter 1:3-19, Luke 9:23, Colossians 3:1-14, Romans 6:12-14, Romans 8:17, Hebrews 4:15-16, Ephesians 2:1-10, Ephesians 5:25-27, 2Corinthians 5:7, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
I believe this link will take you to the YouTube website to hear Michael Combs sing Not For Sale. Not tried this before so here is hoping.
https://youtu.be/gpY9WFvBCE8
