For the friends of The Bridegroom...

Grandma asked me to go help my brother find a job. I said to my friend standing next to me 'not sure this woman knows that I have my own problems; with all of the issues on my plate now, she wants me to help him find a job?'

Nevertheless, I went looking for him...

I was surprised when I found him living in the servants quarters, I found him in a room that wasn't so nice, his physical condition was really bad, he was pencil skinny, he looked malnourished, his clothes were in tatters, he had on a pair of shorts and top, they looked like rags. He had someone with him, which I came to understand was his personal assistant. My brother, who looked like a famine and a tsunami had walked through his life, had a personal assistant. This personal assistant was robust, he had on a nice looking print shirt and a pair of trousers - he was well dressed - definitely very healthy looking. He spoke very flamboyantly, I guess you could say that he pontificated... He had a lot of confidence in himself, he boasted and put himself forward, it was kind of like - he beat on his chest saying 'I am PA, hear me roar!' Whilst I was still getting my head around why my brother who looked like he hadn't eaten in a year or changed his clothes in six or have two pennies to rub together had a PA?! I saw sadly that he seemed to have a lot of trust in this PA of his, had a lot of confidence in the PA's abilities and saddest was that he couldn't see himself. My brother couldn't see that he was wretched...

You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Rev 3:17

I woke up and my first thought was - what's going on, is my brother Moby alright? But as I shared with In God's Company on the prayer line, I knew it couldn't be Moby- first Moby is not skinny - he would have a go at me for saying that, plus it didn't even look like him. And then it hit me (I have had a series of dreams about this person) I realised who it was and when I realised what God was asking - my next thought was fear! Fear, because I didn't think I was up to the task but you know what, I may not be, In God's Company members may not be but Christ is and it is He who lives and works in us to do according to all of His good pleasure.

If the revelation of God's plan produces fear then the revelation of God's power produces FAITH.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves; 2 Corinthians 4:7

Jesus has a bride and her name is called the Church. He is The Bridegroom and He needs His friends to get her ready.

Luke 1:17 'And he will go before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous - TO MAKE READY A PEOPLE PREPARED FOR THE LORD.'

The above was written about John the Baptist, he was a true friend of The Bridegroom. My question to you today, if you are christian and reading this, what is your position? Are you a friend of The Bridegroom?

The friend of The Brigegroom is one who attends to the Bridegroom, he waits and listens for Him and is full of joy when he hears The Bridegroom's voice. He says my joy is complete when I hear The Bridegroom's voice. The friend says He must be greater, I MUST become less. John 3: 29-20

The friend has no agenda of His own at the wedding, the bride belongs to The bridegroom and his job is to prepare the way for The Bridegroom. Get things ready for His arrival, sets the stage and gets the bride ready for her Groom.

The dream I had was about the Church, the man in tattered clothes is the Church, the PA are the add ons, the lesser things - tools to assist, aid in some way - which have taken over the weightier things. Majoring on the minor, we have minored on the major...

Some of us know these things - we know things are not as they should be, we know things are not right but we say: well, what can we really do?

Well, here is what we can do. We can do what they did in Barvas on the Island of Lewis during the Lewis awakening; we can do what Daniel did in Daniel 9:4-19.

The answer to the question of what they did is: they prayed, they interceded, they called on The One greater than them. Daniel stood in the gap for Israel, confessed her sins and petitioned God in fasting. In Barvas, they turned to prayer, two old ladies (one blind) 82 and 84 years old were some of those people who took the call of God to heart - what is your excuse? what is my excuse?

With our ministry In God's Company, we recognise that this is our primary assignment for now - intercession for the body of Christ. We are a group of friends who come together on the telephone lines once every week to pray, we belong to different churches, we live across different countries, some of us have never met each other and we are few in number BUT CHRIST IS MIGHTY IN US.

I ask you today as the local presbytery did on the Island of Lewis: Consider now the low estate of the church - the body of Christ. And ask yourself if you truly love Him, what will your contribution be?

Let me tell you one thing, when we stand on behalf of the body of Christ before God, we are standing for OURSELVES, we are not doing anyone any favours. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We do not presume to be holy, we stand on the blood of Jesus and we say Bridegroom - we are here to do Your will. Judgement will begin with the household of God, if revival & harvest in the greater public must come, God will clean up His bride first. I pray that we will not get swept away in the clean up. The Bible says to us to judge ourselves so that we are not judged. The Bible also says God disciplines the one that He loves and chastises the one that He receives. He must chastise you if He is to receive you. Do not allow the chastening of the Lord to be grievous to your soul because that can be a sister to pride. And we know where pride leads to...

I have told you what I saw & heard and I know that it is true.

I personally believe that the body of Christ needs to return to proper & regular corporate prayer - serious worship & tarrying before the Lord. We are always in a hurry, everything is scripted, I pray we don't write God out of our scripts. We need prayer meetings where people are on their faces on the floor before God, not the one where you walk in and out leisurely - chew gum, buy drink, text a friend, go out, come back. There is a place for conferences & corporate meetings so please don't get me wrong but there is another place for tarrying before the Lord, and there ain't nothing old school about it. God responds to hunger. See, I went to a boarding school where at the time, students were not allowed to have their own Christian meetings. Yes, we suffered persecution and we were only between the ages of approximately 12 to 17 years old. Let me tell you how we met sometimes (somebody got the key for the home economics room from a teacher and we would sneak off at night), we could not turn on the lights in the room so as not to get caught, we met to worship, pray & share testimonies to encourage each other - we couldn't see ourselves in the dark - so pls tell me if you can text your friend in there or really if you can chew gum? We met in the dining room after people were done eating late at night sometimes, we used the choir practice meetings which we were allowed to have as an opportunity for also tarrying before the Lord. I had some friends, we were prayer partners, we would go into the wooded areas of the school, very quiet, to pray - especially to intercede and we did not just go for a few minutes. I would do you a disservice not to tell you the truth. We were children but we paid a price for His glory. In many of those meetings, we would feel the tangible presence of God, nobody laid hands on me when we put on a tape of a preacher preaching in one of those meetings and as soon as the man's voice boomed from the tape, I blacked out under His glory. When His glory hoovers over a place, no one needs to lay hands much for people to know God is there. I would do the new Christians today a disservice if I did not share these things because I am not sure how much opportunity they have been given in recent times to truly experience God for themselves within corporate settings. The individual walk & tarrying is extremely important and so is the corporate one.

Jesus said 'my house shall be called a house of prayer' See Matthew 21:13 M

In beholding His glory - herein we are being transformed - that is what the presence of the Lord does, it changes you. That is why prayer & worship are important. We have lambs among us, that the sheep must lead into the Shepherd's presence. I don't think it is good enough that we pray individually only, just as it is not good enough that we only pray corporately.

There are divers gifts within each of us, that when we come together like that, the Lord speaks and we bless one another, we miss out when we can not come together. Do not forsake the assembling of the saints - this  also means an assembling of the gifts God has placed in each of us - the gifts need to come together to form one whole so we can truly function as a wholesome body.

Thank you for reading and God bless you.