The first step to becoming a bride is to say yes! We say yes to our King, our Maker and our Husband (Isaiah 54v5).
We plan with our Husband - what will the future look like with Him and we start to put those things in place to prepare for that future (Jeremiah 29v11). We put things in order and we prioritise what is important. We should be considering the things that will impact the journey we are embarking upon.
We need to deal with the things of the past. Just like when we do pre-marital counselling to prepare us for marriage and help us identify and understand the things of our past, the templates we were modeled, that will contribute to how we interact in the marriage (Ephesians 4v22-32). Things like patterns and behaviours of our family of origin, things that get passed on. How did our family communicate or deal with conflict? Was it okay to express emotions or not? What were our early templates for how we treat a spouse? What were our early templates for finances and stewardship? We need to "clean up" so we are ready for the marriage, so we don't bring too much baggage or wounding into the marriage. We need to deal with those things so they don't taint the beauty of what marriage can be and get in the way of what God’s will in our marriage is (Isaiah 61v3).
We prepare our wedding garments. We get ready for our Bridegroom (Ephesians 5v27). Dealing with those things we need to is part of preparing our garment. It may be a constant process throughout the spiritual marriage, but it should be a process of going from glory to glory! (Philippians 2v12-13, 2 Corinthians 3v18). Remember, we are His already but He still has to fetch us to Him. Let us be prepared like the five wise virgins (Matthew 25).
We invite people to celebrate the wedding. We all need those people in our lives that can support us and that we can be accountable to. As a warrior bride, we become part of the body of Christ. We become one with them in the spirit (Ephesians 4v16). Just like we become one with our spouse, we become one with our Bridegroom and His body which is the church (1 Corinthians 12v27).
Once we are married, we equip ourselves with the things we need in order to fulfil our role (Matthew 19v4-6). We learn what it is to be a bride, we learn what we need to know to be a parent and what we need in order to facilitate the process.
We learn what healthy submission looks like to facilitate God's design for marriage and in our marriage to Him (Ephesians 5v22-27). We need to be covered and protected by our husband who needs to model how Christ loves the church (Colossians 3v18, 1 Peter 3-7). As a loving Husband, we need to allow Christ to cover us, we need to trust Him. We need to learn what it is to be a bride of Christ therefore we need to study His Word, as it is the manual to the bride, and we need to spend time in prayer and worship, building intimacy with Him just as we need intimacy with our spouse (Hebrews 13v14).
We need to arm ourselves for protection of the marriage and our household. We need to be brave and courageous in our marriage and for our family (Joshua 1v9). We do this with our spouse. We set parameters in which the family functions - “house rules” to keep the family safe. We put in a security system, if need be, to keep us physically safe and we have a wall or fence around our property to keep us safe within those borders. We have those security measures in place like emergency numbers in case of accident or injury, people we can call to help and so on. We pray for our family (Joshua 24v15). Spiritually, we arm ourselves in the same way. Ephesians 6 gives us weapons for our journey, because we know the enemy will come against us at times. We need to know how to protect what is ours in the spirit. Our prayer life needs to be rich and we need to know how to do warfare when we need to (Philippians 4v6). Again, the Word of God is our guide to our “house rules” and the parameters that are set, we do with our Husband (Psalm 119v105). We need to have safe people in our lives we can call on in hard times to uphold us and support us in prayer and in whatever way we need help (Galatians 6v2). Let us also not forget that we have angelic hosts that are also there for our protection. We can call on the Lord to dispatch angels on our behalf (Psalm 91v11).
We need to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1v28). In the natural, this can be fruitful in bearing children, we transmit something of ourselves. We are preparing arrows to go out into the future for the next generation (Proverbs 22v6, Psalm 127v4). We take care of our finances and we have good stewardship over what God has given us, we need to increase in all areas of our life (Matthew 25v14-30, Ephesians 5v15-18, 2 Corinthians 9v6-7, Deuteronomy 8v17-18, Colossians 3v17, Matthew 6v20). We need to give to others of ourselves and be able to transmit into their lives from our own experiences and wealth from God, which is in our hearts. We should help them on their journey and enrich them through our sharing and giving. Nothing God has given us if just for us. Whether it be finances, lessons learned, problems overcome, knowledge gained, the gifts and talents God has given to us - it is for us to share with those that need it and to impart something to their lives. A testimony is a powerful thing to share (Revelation 12v11, Acts 20v35, Ephesians 4v28, Leviticus 19v9-10, 1 Timothy 4v14, 1 Peter 4v10-11) .
There are many aspects to being a Bride of Christ and honouring Him as our Bridegroom. As we grow in our marriage to Christ, we learn more, we submit and yield more and eventually, we see the fruit of that. Just like we need to constantly work on our marriage in the natural - being committed, communicating well, being faithful, staying connected and fostering intimacy and safety and giving of ourselves - we need to do the same as the Warrior Bride of Christ. We need to allow Him to grow us in our marriage to Him, and be willing to learn from Him as a loving Husband (Hebrews 12v11, Matthew 11v28-30).
May you be blessed today in Him!!