Jennifer Wilbanks was the bride that ran away. The question everyone was asking; 'why would a bride with everything run away from her dream wedding?' Plans that were laid down carefully including 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen with 600 guests like an epic movie production. Instead of being the center of a fantastic wedding she was the center of scandal. She claimed to have been kidnapped. Walking through a corridor of media at the airport in Atlanta with a blanket over her head should have been walking down the isle dressed like a queen. People across the country were praying for her in the alleged kidnapping. $100,000 reward was offered for her safe return. She got cold feet not kidnappers. She was greatly loved by the bridegroom and everyone concerned but she could not go through with it.

The fairytale of Cinderella reveals the two ugly sisters who saw themselves as beautiful brides for the prince. Cinderella saw herself as unworthy as she was.

Pharaoh saw what happens today that all the right behavior does not change a thing. A cow is a cow not because it eats grass but because it was born that way. You need to be born again from being an ugly cow.

The two ugly brides will present themselves as beautiful but God sees another.

But Cinderella has been cleansed, washed, made holy, sanctified, redeemed, atoned for, adopted, betrothed, ransomed, forgiven and saved. She is not an ugly cow. She has been born again. A miraculous transformation has taken place in her.

1. She was an enemy of God now she is a friend of God.

2. She was unlovely now she is lovely and loveable

3. She was a mere commoner now she is a royal bride

4. She was in darkness now she is in glorious light

5. She was a pain to God now the apple of his eye

6. She was cheap now she is his chosen treasure

7. She was dressed in filthy rags but now clothed with rich garments

8. She was a byword and an object of ridicule now highly esteemed

9. She was lost but now is found

10. She was like John Keats described as a nightingale without a song who is suffocated now with a new song in her mouth

So why does the bride run? She knows all the right scriptures and where to find them. She quotes them in her prayer life. She teaches them and comes under the teaching of them. But she does not know how to apply them.

She knows that God has made her holy because he took away her old heart with all its sinful desires and gave her a new heart that desires to obey God. But she lacks the power to live that out. She sins and hates it. She has a good heart but still remains powerless to line up he behavior with her heart. She has come under teaching that the Christian is 50% good and 50% bad but what the teacher implies is that you are 90% bad and only 10% good. Some take it even further to say you are 100% bad and 0% good. Where do these teachers get this from?

She has a new heart that his holy but evil is present with her. This does not mean she is evil just that it is present with her in her flesh. If you had a gold tooth does that make you a gold mine? If you have a wooden splinter under you skin does that make you a rain forest? If you have a metal bolt or attachment in one of your joins does that make you the terminator? Neither is a person who has been born again anything but holy just because the power of sin is present in their flesh. The location of why the bride runs is not in her heart but in her flesh.

Your human body will return to the dust and Christ will give you a new body like his own body when he shall return. Eight things about the bride:

1. She is holy. Many identify with what people have said about them. Unworthy, inadequate, insecure and unlovely. Even though family and friends say one thing God says another. Who will you believe? You cannot call unholy what God has called holy (Acts 10:15) "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

2. She is accepted. People may have rejected you but did God promise they would not or that they should not? God accepts you in Christ. Who will you believe? Has he rejected you, will he reject you? (Hebrews 13:5) "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

3. She is blameless. You may have failed God but is he holding it against you? (Ephesians 1:4) "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

4. She is in heaven already. Not in your body but you are seated with Christ in terms of rest over your circumstances. (Ephesians 2:6) "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…"

5. She is complete. You have already made it with God. How can you improve on perfect? (Colossians 2:10) "In him you have been made complete…"

6. She is forgiven. Can anything guilty be seated with Christ? (Colossians 2:13) "He forgave us all our sins…"

7. She is a conqueror over evil. Your circumstances may not always support this but the Word of God does. Whose scorecard are you reading? We rest in his victory. That rest is in your mind where you settle the matter. (Romans 8:37) "…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

8. She is not condemned. (Romans 8:1) "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…" Who will you believe?

(Colossians 3:1-4) "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

What are 'things above?' Perhaps the Bible refers to thinking about the streets paved with gold or the angels around the throne of God or loved one's that were in Christ? But this will not transform you. It means you should see yourself resting in Christ above all circumstances with all your needs met because your Father has everything under his control. Remember that the life you have is his life. The Holy Spirit lives out the life of Christ in you. It is your personality but his life. When you do not live like this you present your flesh with opportunity to sin.

(Romans 6:13) "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God…"

Never assume that allowing the life of Christ to be lived through you means you have to be passive. It is a life of active obedience of service not survival. How do you set your mind above?

If it were not possible to set your mind on things above God would not ask you to do it. But you do it every day:

Imagine a steak with a little seasoning in your favorite restaurant. It's cooked to perfection and you take a bite. It's juicy and perfect. Imagine following it down with your favorite beverage chilled to perfection. How is your body responding?

Imagine getting into a bright red Ferrari down the coast of California and the police have taken the day off. There is no other traffic or pedestrian. The stereo has your favorite music pumping out. How is your body responding?

Imagine a short with your spouse. It's the middle of July around 9:30pm as the sun sets over the ocean and there is just you two on a private beach without the kids. How are you responding?

Where is heaven?

The Bible says that heaven is somewhere 'up.' But do not think of this as billions of miles away but just ten feet above the ground. Now build a picture of where heaven is with you seated next to Christ. How many problems do you have there? How nervous are you? How hurt and wounded are you? How rejected are you? How worried about tomorrow are you? How peaceful is it? How fresh is the air? How perfect is everything in a harmony and melody of its own? How gentle is the hand of Christ? How affectionate is his voice? How loving is his face? When you set your mind on things above this way for 20 seconds in the middle of a problem your mind gets renewed.

(Romans 12:2)"…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."

You can break any habit by setting your mind on things above.

(Colossians 3:3) "…your life is hidden with Christ in God."

Overcoming the power of sin is not attacking it but setting your mind on where you are seated with Christ and the habit went away. When you concentrate your mind on fighting sin you are concentrating on death because you are now dead to sin.

(Romans 6:11) "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

This is not eastern religion, the counterfeit power of positive thinking, religious meditation or man-made counsel that is no more than psychotherapy with scripture attached to it. It is God's Word to you the bride. The abundant life is allowing the Holy Spirit to live the life of Christ through you. You will mature experientially as your mind is renewed. All knowledge is the outgrowth of obedience and everything else is just information. You can believe the Word of God and not be transformed so its just information to you. It must be obeyed by living it out. The fruit of the Spirit will show in you because you are abiding in the vine as a branch. The bride will not run when she lives this!

The Chronicles of Christ
The Lion, the Witch and You. - Part 11

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Why does the bride run? Because she knows all the right scriptures, where to find them in the Bible; coming under their teaching but not know how to apply them. Let me ask three questions:

#1 - What does the bridegroom look like?
(Hebrews 1:3) "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."

The word 'glory' has lost a great deal of its Biblical substance when describing the bridegroom. Artists made attempts to paint a luminous halo over his head or a yellow glow around him. But his glory caused the celestial angels to cover their faces and at the same time compelled to cry out 'holy is the Lord.' Christ is the radiance of God's glory but he is not glorified unless his church thinks of him that way. But it is not what we think that matters. He dwelt in unapproachable light so he created the heavens and earth and filled it with all things including mankind. Everything was to respond to that which was glorious in him. The poetry of scripture shows that the heavens declared his glory, the morning stars sang together and the trees of the field clapped their hands because Christ is the radiance of God's glory. A grasp of this helps to see how beautiful the incarnation of Christ was. He was begotten not created.

(John 1:14) "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory…"
(Colossians 1:15) "He is the image of the invisible God…"
(Colossians 2:9) "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…"

The unapproachable became approachable because his love is so unrelenting. Even so, people did not always see what was before them.

(John 14:8) "Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.' Jesus answered: 'Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…"

How can Christ be God? This is something that men have wrestled with for centuries. The best explanation is that I am a son to my father, a husband to my wife and a father to my children but I am one person. Water comes in three forms depending on the temperature of liquid, frozen or a vapor but it is one.

(1 Timothy 2:25) "…one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…"

Among all the visual sights the Bible gives us of heaven including the throne of God surrounded by a rainbow, the crystal sea, the seven flames, the 24 elders, the four living creatures, cherubim, seraphim, angels and archangels, a river of life lines with trees who leaves carry healing of the nations and the new Jerusalem there will be one visual sight that will not be strange to you - Christ who is a man yet glorified standing in the center of it all. Hebrews tells us he is not just 'God's glory' but the exact representation of his being.' What is God's being? He is Maximus from Gladiator, William Wallis from Braveheart, John McClane from Die Hard, Rocky Belboa from Rocky, he is George who killed the dragon, he is the prince who awoke Sleeping Beauty, he is the prince who found Cinderella, King Arthur who fights for Gwinivere, he is Mr. Anderson in the Matrix. He is everything of courage, bravery, strength and tenderness storytellers have attempted to create.

#2 - What does he do?

God created heavens and earth to be in unity and this is not meant to be an endless contradiction because he will restore all things.

(Hebrews 1:2) "…whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."

We use the expression 'all things' referring to the things that come along in life but 'all things' in the Bible means everything that has been created in the universe. It is not an easy thing to grasp in your thinking. Do you dwell on the 'escape' part of Christianity that you are not going to hell? Or do you dwell on the social aspect of Christianity? When a father arranges an inheritance for his son, his estate, property, bank accounts and so on. The son is coming into an inheritance of things that he never owned before. But this is not the case with Christ.

(John 1:1-4) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men."

Before there was an atom, molecule, a star, galaxy, light, motion, mass or matter Christ was and all things in all places always belonged to him.

(Ephesians 1:9-10) "And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."

An architect will gather all the necessary materials together to fashion his design. God will gather all things together under Christ. Heaven and earth will no longer be a contradiction but correlated and fulfilled in Christ. We do not see it like that yet.

(1 Corinthians 13:12) "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror…"

You experience unfinished segments of an eternal plan. You do not see or comprehend the glory that will be yours as a bride. Everything ordered and created is woven into the garments of Christ from the blade of grass to the greatest galaxy. 'All things' includes angels, cherubim, seraphim, the ransomed men and women from every age, all matter, law, spirit, value and meaning. Paul said that God would bring it all together. Each part of creation will recognize its oneness with every other part. All things that creep, crawl, leap, walk, swim, run or fly will comprise of one family. This is not Pantheism where God is found in everything but everything is found under Christ the bridegroom who shares it all with his bride.

#3 - Who is doing the pre-marital counsel?

The answer is the Holy Spirit. Part of that counsel is to teach you to love righteousness and hate sin.

(Hebrews 1:8-9)"But about the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.' He also says, 'In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands."

There is a tendency to regulate everything righteous to Christ and not us. But Christ made a promise to us that took away this excuse.

(John 16:13-15) "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."

Christ did not accomplish what he did through his deity but his anointed humanity. If he lived, taught and died in his deity no one would question him. But he was like us. He did not begin his ministry until the Holy Spirit anointed him. If he performed miracles as God they would not be miracles. Christ limited himself to depend on the Holy Spirit therefore we have no excuse. The Levitical priesthood gives us an idea of his anointing. The bottom line is that God can only anoint in proportion to how willing you are. Christ loved righteousness and hated sin and was anointed to that extent. If we want that anointing we must love and hate as Christ did. You cannot love honesty without hating dishonesty, purity and impurity, truth and lies. Christ did not hate the prideful Pharisee but he hated their pride. 'Zeal' is not something we hear much about with pussycat preachers and teachers who purr instead or roar. The anointing Christ had will do one thing for your popularity - it will kill it. If you are anxious to be popular then you will not be anointed like Christ. We have the Word of God but why is the anointing not flowing? We are too tolerant of sin. The pre-marital counsel of the Holy Spirit is tough but it will build gold and silver in you not wood, clay and straw.

(1 Corinthians 11:2) "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him."




This teaching is part of a new series The Chronicles of Christ. Other teaching series can be found by clicking the links below
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 1.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 2 & 3.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 4 & 5.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 6 & 7.
The Lion, the Witch and You - Part 8 & 9.

• Promise Land to Promise Life Series
  
• Discovery.God Series