In Matthew 25:6, Jesus says, “Come to meet him!”. He is calling to you to come closer as a bride. At a high level, he is calling us to 3 things – his Heart, Holiness, and Help. This is not some future event being discussed. Right now, he is inviting us to know his heart, walk in his holiness, and help him expand his kingdom across the earth. He wants to be and do with you! How exciting! He created you for this!

Jesus is calling his bride to his heart.

We all meet Jesus for the first time as savior and forgiver of our sins. But it does not end there. He wants you to know him. He wants you to know him as he knows you. It sounds scary, but it is not. In the beginning, he created you. He made you the way you are because he liked you. Getting to know his heart is more than knowing his opinions. It is also knowing his emotions, dreams, and desires.

A calling to his heart is a call to intimacy. We often fear intimacy. Because of rejection, abandonment, fear of being known, we can put up a wall around us. We don’t allow anyone to get close because of trauma we have experienced. When we ask for intimacy with Jesus, we soon realize he is a safe place. As we draw closer to him, he also starts healing the places of trauma in our lives. You can trust him. He is a safe place.

You may ask, how do I get to know the heart of Jesus? The key is Holy Spirit. In Matthew 25, the virgins that met Jesus had oil in their lamps. The lamps were symbolic of their spirits. The oil represents Holy Spirit. Ask Holy Spirit to teach, show, and introduce you to Jesus. One of his primary jobs is to prepare you to be the ‘bride’ to Jesus, the ‘bridegroom’. He enjoys introducing you to him!

Christianity can be consumed with doing right. It is a strange concept to realize that Christianity is to be passionate about Jesus instead. It is to be full of expectation about knowing Jesus. He wants us to grow closer to him, which creates a longing for his presence and eventual second coming. This passion can make us feel uncomfortable depending on our background. But Christianity without passion is boring and routine. God created us for passion!

Holy Spirit is challenging the body of Christ to become the bride of Christ. This involves moving from a base of salvation and doing to being with him. It is a strange concept that we can be passionate about knowing Jesus, but we can. Here is a quote from A. W. Tozer, “When we really experience Jesus Christ we learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, and lofty admiration. The reverential fear of the Lord mixed with love, fascination, astonishment, admiration, and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most purifying emotion the human soul can know.”

But if we aren’t careful, our focus can be on the wrong thing if we only look at what we are doing. A better question than, “am I doing right”, is to ask, “is my love for Jesus growing?” When you love Jesus and get closer to him, the ‘doing right’ will take care of itself.

Jesus is calling his bride to be holy.

Revelation 19:8 says that the Bride (us) will wear pure linen. So how do we get this purity or holiness? Holiness comes by hanging around him. John 15:3 from the God’s Word Translation says, “You are already clean because of what I have told you.” We do become holy by what we do or not do. But not what man or traditions tell us, but by what Jesus tells us. Intimacy comes before holiness. It is in intimacy we hear his voice. As we hang around him, he will communicate how we are to change. If we change without intimacy, it is not true holiness, but a wrong form of godliness. So focus on hearing his voice and holiness will follow.

2 storms are raging in America. A storm of lawlessness and a storm of holiness. They are opposites of each other. Lawlessness is doing what you think is best. Holiness is living the way Jesus thinks best. Holiness is walking with Jesus and obeying whatever he asks. Avoid living by your own law. It leads to deception and eventual death. Two types of blessings are coming. REIN and RAIN. Reigning in will eventually come to lawlessness and good RAIN is coming to those who walk in holiness with Jesus.

So, we could phrase the question about holiness like this, “Are you doing what Holy Spirit is asking of you?” Every day, make sure you position yourself to hear if Holy Spirit speaks to you. Take ‘pause’ moments during the day and tell Holy Spirit you love him and appreciate him walking with you. This will create times for him to speak to you if he desires. It will also create peace and increased stability in your life.

What level of holiness can we expect from walking with Holy Spirit? Are you ready for this? 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we ‘take captive every thought’ to make it obedient to Christ.” You will find yourself over time even getting your thoughts holy. I know, I know. It will be over time. But Holy Spirit is making us holy to the thought level. Have you found Holy Spirit telling you to think this way? I am sure you have. So there you go. It’s already happening. He is making us holy in mind and emotions too.

I know many times it is hard walking with Holy Spirit. He can be a high requirement God. But he is getting you ready to be the bride of Jesus. He takes his job seriously. Realize he wants the best for Jesus. Revelation 21:9 talks about how the goal is turning the body of Christ into a Bride. “Then one of the seven angels…talked with me saying, ‘Come, I will show you THE BRIDE, THE LAMB’S WIFE'”. In verse 18 of this chapter, it says “The city was pure gold, like clear glass”. The city is the Bride. So He is turning you into gold! He is helping you remove impurities and bringing fire to remove anything that is not gold. It is a good thing! You are going to shine like Gold!

Jesus is calling his bride to be his Helper.

What does it mean to be Jesus’ helper? It parallels the roles of Adam and Eve. It says in Genesis 2:18, “I will make him (Adam) an help meet (Eve) for him.” This word ‘help’ needs explaining. It does not mean physical help to do work like meals, laundry, clean house, etc. It is also used in 15 other places in the Bible to describe the power of heaven coming militantly to ‘help’ humanity (Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalms 20:2; 33:20; 70:5). He was saying, “You need someone like God to stand alongside of you if you are going to succeed.” This is the help that Holy Spirit is training us to do as Jesus’ bride. What a role!

Your role as a bride to Jesus is to help Jesus in strategic level assignments to expand his kingdom. Does Jesus need the help? No. But he chooses to accomplish his tasks with us. Everything Holy Spirit asks you to do is to prepare you to be a ‘helper’ strategic level partner with the bridegroom Jesus. We are learning to rule and reign with Him. What ever Holy Spirit asks you to do is going to be more than worth it in the end.

I want to encourage you today to respond to the call ‘Come and meet him”. I have told you about 3 things that he is calling us to. But it will be MUCH more than these 3 things. You were created to meet him. So today, tell Jesus yes. Tell Jesus ‘I Do’. Tell Jesus I want more of you. You will never regret it!