It's a long, long road to maturity. And there are some young people that because they've been
walking closely with the Lord, they can be more mature at 18 than some folks that are in their
50s or 60s that never let the Holy Spirit deal with their stuff.
God promises in Joel 2, 28 to pour out his Spirit on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring,
where we contend for that promise outpouring. We equip for that outpouring so that we may engage
in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss. Welcome to the podcast today.
We are going to talk about something that's very, very important about the bride and how
ready she is or is she. I had a prophetic dream I want to share with you that will help us understand.
We are so happy that you have joined us today on this podcast. We know that this is so important,
that we are contending for the outpouring and contending for the maturing of the bride. That's
really what this this episode is all about. But before we get started, we want to encourage you
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So, I had a dream recently, but it goes along with the idea of the bride being ready. Revelation
chapter 19 verses 7 and 8 talk about the bride. This is from the Passion Translation.
Let us rejoice and exalt him and give him glory because the wedding celebration of the lamb has
come and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, shining bright and clear has been given to
her to wear, and the fine linen represents the righteous deeds of his holy believers.
So, this group of holy believers, that is the bride, are mature and are walking with the
Holy Spirit and walking in this place where they are doing the works of the Lord, these righteous
deeds in tandem with the Holy Spirit, in accordance with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Philip,
would you please read 1 John 3, 1 through 3 in the Passion Translation?
Look with wonder at the depth of the Father's marvelous love that he has lavished on us.
He has called us and made us his very own beloved children. The reason the world doesn't recognize
who we are is that they didn't recognize him. Yeah. Beloved, we are God's children right now.
However, it is not yet apparent what we will become, but we do know that when it is finally
made visible, we will be just like him. For we will see him as he truly is, and all who focus
their hope on him will always be purifying themselves just as Jesus is pure. You know,
this is really the bottom line about relationship with him. It's about becoming like him. Yes.
Uh-huh. You know, whenever we catch a glimpse in the Spirit, when we're reading the Word and we
catch a glimpse of his character, it makes us, if we really love him, it makes us want to be like him.
Yes. Uh-huh. I've heard that there are Orthodox
rabbis that will only marry a couple if they look like brother and sister. In other words,
they have to be a lot alike. Yeah. Uh-huh. You know, and I remember that when I'm giving advice
to young people about who to marry, I point out to them one of the reasons why you and I have had
such a successful marriage is because our backgrounds are very much the same. Yes, that's
true. You know, we grew up in Christian homes with an understanding of right and wrong based on the
Bible. Uh-huh. And you know, we just see eye to eye on pretty much everything with regard to the
Scripture. Yeah, and plus we're musicians and... Yes....it's just a lot in common, and God just
brought us together. Yeah, and our voices even blend. You know, it was obvious that we belonged
together. You know, that little song that I wrote for our wedding. I was born for you,
you were born for me, God had planned our lives from before eternity. Should I get my guitar?
Ha ha ha ha. He made you to be my husband and me to be your wife, for you fulfill the things
that are missing in my life. And I fulfill in you the things you're missing too. It's a marvelous
song. And we've done it for a number of weddings. Yeah, yeah, it's a good song. Yeah, we each wrote
a song for each other at the wedding, and the other one never heard it until the day of the
wedding. Until the service itself. The actual service itself. Yeah, that was really quite
amazing. And then we had one that we rehearsed together. Yeah. But you know, the point is that
a bride and groom should be complementary to each other where they're filling in, you know,
one, the one has a strength where the other one has a weakness so that the two together make
a real strong couple. And where you have strengths together, you go together. And not weakness that
you don't have the same weaknesses. Yeah. You know? That's right. Yeah, that's true. We were
in Kyrgyzstan, I remember, in the lobby. And a bride and a groom walked in newly married.
And you could tell by looking at the face of the bride and groom and the parents that were with
them that this was an arranged marriage. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They did not look happy. We got a nice
picture of it too. She looked angry and he looked scared. And they were, you know, it was like,
okay, this is it. We're married now. So happy together. Wow. Yeah, yeah, it didn't look like
it was going to be easy to get this marriage off the ground, you know? And it's not that I'm totally
against arranged marriages because I know that among, for instance, we have friends who are from
India, that the marriage was arranged by the parents. But they were godly, spirit-filled
believers who were looking for the right spouse for their children. Yeah. And, you know, we knew
the bride's family, right? And she told our founder, Sister Gwen, that they had had this
arranged marriage, but they loved each other very dearly. And their parents had had the wisdom to
look for the one that is just going to be the absolute perfect connection for their daughter
and the groom's parents for their son. Isn't that what the Holy Spirit is trying to do with us
for Jesus? Absolutely. That is exactly what's going on. So I liked what you just read in 1 John 3.3.
All who focus their hope on him will always be purifying themselves just as Jesus is pure.
It's not that we know him perfectly yet, but every time we catch some new revelation of him,
it's like his life begins to start. I'm thinking about like bubbling inside of us. That aspect
begins to bloom. That aspect begins to blossom. Yeah. And 2 Corinthians 7.1 says,
having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of
the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. This is part of the growing up process
of going from the flesh life into the spirit life. And I love Hebrews 12.14 that says,
follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. You want to see
the Lord? You want to see him as he is? Work on letting the Holy Spirit work his holiness. It's
about yielding to him. It's not about, this isn't about doing works. We're going to do this because
it's the right thing to do. It's about doing this because we love him. Yes. And he loves us. And so
because of his love being worked in us, I mean, isn't becoming a bride all really all about love?
Yeah. Yeah. And I also like 2 Peter 1.4 that says, we're given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises that by these, you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust. As we push away from that dock of the world and
push out into the ocean of the love of God. Yeah, that's very well put. And push out into his
wonderful spirit led kingdom. We're being freed from all of those things that have been
filthiness in our life earlier and coming into this maturity. That's what he's trying to get us to do.
So in 1 John 4 17, it says, herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of
judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. So it's another picture of the bride becoming like
the bridegroom and representing the bridegroom in the earth. So this dream that I had early on in
November in the dream, I was in someplace that may have been like the meeting rooms for a hotel or a
conference center. And I walked past a room that seemed to be set up for a wedding. And I went into
the next room. I just noticed the room that was, you can tell when something's been set up for a
wedding. And I found this little girl who was wearing a wedding dress. It was a long white dress.
She was fixing her baby fine hair and putting on mascara. She looked to be about four or five years
old, a little bit pudgy, like she hadn't lost her baby fat yet. She wasn't an obese child.
Just how a little child kind of has that little bit of pudginess that as they get more active
and run around, that kind of just melts away. So that's what she looked like, like this little
little pudgy, not having lost her baby fat child. So I kind of assumed that she was pretending.
And so I thought I'd kind of play along with it and asked her if I could bless her
as she's preparing to be a bride. I'm thinking I'm going to help her get an idea that
you need to have a blessing before you get married, right?
Yeah, some years down the road.
Some years down the road. But when I realized that she was actually preparing herself,
like she's the bride for the wedding in the next room, I got alarmed. I got quite alarmed.
And I asked how old she was and she told me 12. Well, she didn't look 12, but even if she was 12,
that's still way too young. By this time, a man had walked in. Now he was dressed in a military
uniform. So he had like they were kind of blue colored pants with a gold stripe down the leg.
And he had on a white dress shirt, but he didn't have his jacket on or the tie or,
you know, any or the hat that goes with that uniform. I don't know what kind of uniform it
was, but it looked military. And he had a flat hair, flat top haircut. He was probably in his
fifties or sixties. I asked the little girl if her parents knew about this and, or if they approved.
And I looked up at the man as though he might know the answer to this question. And
he was about to answer. And then I woke up. So this dream was telling me, okay,
the bride is trying to make herself ready, but she's still way immature.
She is not ready. She's not representing the bridegroom. She's not ready to be a bride.
This is not, you know, a child bride. Like, like in some cultures, they have child brides
in, in, in Hindu culture and in, in Islamic culture, sometimes they'll, there will be child
brides. And I don't know what other cultures do that too, but, but I know that there's such a
thing as child brides. Yeah, pretty young. But this, this was our culture. Well,
this was our culture, Western culture. And it was not that she should be a child bride. This should
be a mature bride and she wasn't ready. So as I've pondered this, and I actually preached a
message about it already for our Friday night live worship that we have, you can see that on our
YouTube channel or our Facebook page. We'll, we'll put a link to it in the show notes. And by the way,
you can go there anytime to our Facebook page or our YouTube channel and catch a lot of the,
the material that we have out there. There's a lot of good content from lots of several years of
material out there, but I just, I just want to encourage you that, that what we're about to talk
about today is rather different from what I preached a few weeks ago. And, and I just want
to encourage you that if, if you're interested in this message, there's more to it that you can, you
can go out and, and get there. But I, I just want to talk about some of the, the things that are
issues in the body of Christ that I think we need to address so that we can help the bride grow up.
Lots of times you find that there are adults that are grown up on the outside, but not on the inside,
but not on the inside. And when they get caught into a situation, that's when it comes out.
Mm hmm. It's true. It's true. When you get under pressure, you'll find out what is going on,
what is going on on the inside. And lots of times there are childhood traumas or wounds that will
cause you to get stunted in your growth and your emotional growth and your, your
mental maturing doesn't happen the way it should. And you're, you know, your body goes ahead and
grows up and, and you look like you're an adult, but there's something inside of you that, that got
stunted in its growth. I actually wrote about it in my book, Rich Wounds, An Eternal Perspective
on Suffering. And this is, this is something that I'm, I'm kind of passionate about helping people
understand that when you have these flesh flashes where you're behaving like you're a child,
um, you need to go back with the Holy Spirit and deal with whatever caused the wound and,
and let that, let the Holy Spirit bring you healing. You know, you can do that with, with prayer.
You can do that with Holy Communion. You can, you can use Holy Communion to help you,
um, overcome something that happened as a child. Um, Shirley Smith talked about those kind of things
in, uh, in a couple of episodes that we did with her and we can put the, the links to that in the
show notes, especially the things that caused her to end up with cancer because she hadn't dealt with
childhood wounds and she hadn't dealt with unforgiveness. Those are things that will cause
the bride to behave in an immature way. And it's important that we understand that a mature bride
representing Jesus is going to look and act like Jesus. So, you know, reading the Gospels,
read them over and over again and, and learn what Jesus did, learn how he dealt with things, learn
how he, he operated, learn how he thinks, let the Holy Spirit help you to overcome these things.
Um, our friend Dean Braxton has, has, uh, explained lots of things to us about what it's like in heaven
because he had an experience where he was there for an hour and 45 minutes and we have a number
of episodes with him and we've got another one coming up soon. And, um, he talks about how every
time he looked at the father or every time he looked at Jesus, he was more wonderful than the
previous moment. That's amazing. Yeah. And if we're made in his image, that means we should be
growing all the time. You don't just get to a certain point and say, okay, I'm growing up now
because it's probably really not true. It's not like you're 19 or 18. Well, I can vote now. I'm
an adult. Yeah, right. I'm considered an adult, but that's not always true. Yeah. It's, it's, uh,
it's, it's a long, long road to maturity. And there, there are some, there are some young people
that because they've been walking closely with the Lord, they can be more mature at 18. Yeah.
Then some folks that are in their fifties or sixties that never let the Holy Spirit deal with
their stuff. And you're always learning. And you're always learning. Yeah. Always, always,
always learning, always growing. We're going to continue to grow and learn all through eternity.
Yes. Cause if, if the father's doing that all the time now, he's probably always going to be doing
that because he's the one who was and who is, and who is to come. And it means that he always
is what he always has been. And he always will be what he always is and always has been, you know,
he's, he's, he's our father and he doesn't change. But at the same time, he continues to get
more wonderful and more awesome and more glorious. And, and that's what the bride needs to continue
to keep in her focus that we be like Jesus, that we continue to grow and we continue to grow.
We continue to walk with him and, and let him bring us into maturity. So that's,
that's what he's, he's trying to get us to be into our prime. Hallelujah.
Yeah. So one of the things that, that you're going to find in this love walk is being like,
first Corinthians 13 talks about, and I don't want to take time to go into it a whole lot, but
cause we, we did that not so very long ago on a podcast. And we can put the link to that,
to that episode in the show notes as well. But, but just the idea of it's all about love,
it's all about learning to walk in love. It's all about his kind of love, God's kind of love
that is developing in us, that we become that mature bride that, and, and one of the, one of
the places in first Corinthians 13 in the amplified classic, there's a line in there that is so,
that's so important to me in verse five. Oh, let me read verse four. I'll just read two verses,
but you can go study the whole chapter. Love endures long and is patient and kind.
Love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy. It's good. Is not boastful or vainglorious,
does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited, arrogant and inflated with pride.
It is not rude, unmanorly and does not act unbecomingly. Love, God's love in us does not
insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking. It is not touchy or fretful
or resentful. And this is the line. It takes no account of the evil done to it. It pays no
attention to a suffered wrong. Beautiful. Unoffendable. Unoffendable. Uh-huh. It's very
good. Wow. So the bride gets into agreement with the father's heart and, and even receives
correction. And this is about learning to walk in kingdom lifestyle. So what is, what does
Hebrews 12 say? We're just going to discuss verses one through 17 from the Passion
Translation, because it so opens up the picture of, of what God is doing in our lives to help us come
into maturity. Okay. As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds
Oh, I love that. Yeah. Reminds me of driving up the mountain in the fog. It's all around you.
All around. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into.
Then we will be able to run life's marathon race with passion and determination. Yes. For the path
has been already marked out before us. We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze
onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith's perfection.
His example is this. Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his,
he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation. Wow, that's good. And now sits
exalted at the right hand of the throne of God. So consider carefully how Jesus faced such
intense opposition from sinners who opposed their own souls so that you won't become worn down and
cave in under life's pressures. Oh, it's life's pressures. Okay. If you are an olive,
what is it going to take to get olive oil? You got to get crushed. Crushed and intense pressure.
And intense pressure. Yeah. Okay. If you're a rose, what's it going to take to produce perfume?
Crushing. And if you know how they process olives, you want to get it all done by the first pressing.
That's the best oil. Yeah, the best oil is the first pressing, but there's like three major
pressings. Yeah. So, you know, it's about life's woundings and pressures and those kind of things
are meant to produce something good. So learn it all the first time. Yeah, much as you can. Yeah.
Okay. After all, you have not yet reached the point of sweating blood in your opposition to sin.
And have you forgotten his encouraging words spoken to you as his children?
He said, my child, don't underestimate the value of the discipline and training of the Lord God,
or get depressed when he has to correct you. For the Lord's training of your life is the evidence
of his faithful love. And when he draws you to himself, it proves you are his delightful child.
Fully embrace God's correction as part of your training, for he is doing what any loving father
does for his children. For who has ever heard of a child who never had to be corrected? Yeah, really.
Yeah, really. We all should welcome God's discipline as a validation of authentic sonship.
For if we have never once endured his correction, it only proves that we are strangers and not sons.
Amen. And isn't it true that we respect our earthly fathers even though they corrected and
disciplined us? Then we should demonstrate an even greater respect for God, our spiritual father,
as we submit to his life-giving discipline. Our parents corrected us for the short time of our
childhood as it seemed good to them, but God corrects us throughout our lives for our own good,
giving us an invitation to share his holiness. Oh. Now all discipline seems to be more pain than
pleasure at the time. Yeah. Yet later it will produce a transformation of character,
bringing a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who yield to it. Yes. A quick insert,
I remember a pastor, facilitator of the pastors in Buffalo said, I prayed the Lord didn't give my
children anointing but integrity. Yeah, at first he was praying. First he was praying that. Yeah.
But then he says, no, they need to have integrity before they really get anointed. Yes. Otherwise.
There's lots of people with an anointing with no integrity and they're in trouble.
And it doesn't go good. And verse 12, so be made strong even in your weakness by lifting up your
tired hands in prayer and worship and strengthen the weak knees for as you keep walking forward
on God's paths, all your stumbling ways will be divinely healed. Beautiful. In every relationship,
be swift to choose peace over competition and run swiftly toward holiness for those who are not holy
will not see the Lord. That's amazing. That's a powerful statement. You can be a ministry,
you know, of all kinds of different ministry, but if you're not where you should be in the spirit,
yeah, you know, it's, you're only fooling yourself in the end. Right. Watch over each other to make
sure that no one misses the revelation of God's grace. Yes. And make sure no one lives with a
root of bitterness sprouting within them, which will only cause trouble and poison the hearts of
many. Be careful that no one among you lives in immorality, becoming careless about God's blessings
like Esau who traded away his rights as the firstborn for a simple meal.
And we know that later on when he wanted to inherit his father's blessing,
he was turned away even though he begged for it with bitter tears, for it was too late then to
repent. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So Esau, when he came in from the field and he was hungry, Jacob was making
lentil soup and, you know, Esau begged, please give me some of that lentil soup. And Jacob decided to
take advantage of the opportunity and said, I'll trade you for your right of the firstborn. I mean,
they were twins. So Esau was, you know, just barely older by minutes probably. And, you know,
he said, well, what good is it going to do me to have the firstborn right, which means you get a
double portion, a double portion of the inheritance. What good is that going to do me if I'm going to
die of starvation? I'm so hungry. Oh, I'm so hungry. Oh, I'm going to die. I'm starving.
And in that moment, he valued his stomach more than his future. Wow. Uh-huh. We have to be so
careful that we don't put the flesh in front of our inheritance, in front of our destiny. Don't,
don't let that moment of, of, oh, I, I could just really enjoy this in this moment. Oh, God will
forgive me. Oh, it's, oh, what's that saying? It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
That's a really bad attitude that, that is, is giving your flesh permission to go and do something
that you know better. You know, you should not do that. And, you know, you think, you think you can
presume on the goodness of God. Well, he is going to forgive when you repent, but, but there's
something about that attitude that is going to make you like Esau and you're going to lose it in
the end. So this is, this is one of those things that we have to walk so carefully that we, that
we love God enough to obey him for the first time. You know, Romans, Romans five, three to five goes
along with this. And I'm going to read it from the Amplified Classic. It says, moreover, let us also
be full of joy. Now let us exalt and triumph in our troubles. You don't expect that, do you?
Let us exalt and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure
and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance and endurance fortitude
develops maturity of character, approved faith and tried integrity and character of this sort
produces the habit of joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints
or deludes or shames us for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who's been given to us. So when you are in a pressure time, that's the time that you need to
be looking to Jesus and thinking about what he endured so that you get the, the opportunity
and the, and the understanding and the revelation that we can actually rejoice when we're going
through something because it's going to produce good fruit in us. You know, no, nobody's enjoying
correction when it happens, but we have to get there if we want to be that mature bride.
He's got to work out the stuff and get it out of us because it, it has no place in us.
And second Corinthians four 17 says for our light affliction, which is, but for a moment
works for us a far more exceeding an eternal weight of glory. That's what this is. We're trying to,
to leave behind the flash and get with the spirit. Let's, let's look at Galatians five 13 to 26 in
the passion translation. Beloved ones, God has called us to live a life of freedom in the Holy
Spirit, but don't view this wonderful freedom as an opportunity to set up a base of operations in
the natural realm. Oh, that's so well put. Freedom means that we become so completely free of
self-indulgence that we become servants of one another, expressing love in all we do. Beautiful.
For love completes the laws of God. All of the law can be summarized in one grand statement.
Demonstrate love to your neighbor, even as you care for and love yourself. But if you continue
to criticize and come against each other over minor issues, you're acting like wild beasts trying
to destroy one another. Oh my, Oh yeah. Don't we see that? You know, I want to make a comment here.
We were at the table with Dean Braxton recently. Oh my. And he made a comment that I have meditated
on ever since where he was saying that talking about somebody that I don't have any idea who
he's talking about, but some friend. And he says, you know, other folks want to fix him,
but he's just my friend. And when, when we make a major thing out of a minor thing
in somebody's life, instead of pulling back and just loving them and pray for them,
and just loving them and pray for them, ask the Lord to, to help them in whatever that issue is,
if it's important to the Lord, cause he's, cause the Lord is working with all of us.
But if we try to be the Holy Spirit to other people, now there's, there's a place where it is
correct to correct the brethren, but you've got to know that you've been sent by the Holy Spirit to
do that. And not that you're trying to be like the substitute Holy Spirit doing the Holy Spirit's
job when he hasn't given it to you to do. That's another one of those immature things that where
we can just love people and love them regardless of their character flaws or quirks. It's mostly
the quirks. It's the annoying things. We want to fix the annoying things. And you know, I've,
I've had that in my heart. Sometimes I want to fix them. I just want to fix them. But if I can
just learn to, to love and love with God's love and, and pray instead of trying to intervene,
I believe it's going to bring better fruit if we do it by the Spirit and not by the flesh.
Yes.
So go on.
Okay. As you yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit,
you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.
That's it.
Yeah.
Cravings of the self-life.
For your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit and hinder him from living free
within you.
Wow.
And the Holy Spirit's intense cravings hinder your old self-life from dominating you.
There you go.
So then the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self-life of the flesh
and the new creation life in the Spirit. It's kind of like a
spiritual life in the Spirit. It's kind of like sometimes you see the illustration.
There's a little angel on this shoulder and there's a little demon on the other one.
They're both speaking into an ear.
But when you are brought into the full freedom of the Spirit of grace,
you'll no longer be under the dominion of the law, but soaring above it.
The cravings of the self-life are obvious. Sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, pornography,
chasing after things instead of God, manipulating others, hatred of those.
Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. Slow down.
Yeah. Now let's think about these in terms of the bride.
This sounds like this is 2000 years ago this was written, but that sounds just like today.
Yes. And it sounds like.
And a more of an increase of all this stuff to within even just every year it seems to be getting
worse.
Right. It's the world life. This is the world life.
The world life, the self-life, the flesh. It's the flesh.
So, you know, you've got all those sexual immorality kind of things.
So many people think that that's okay. And they're still going to church and
not feeling convicted whatsoever.
The presence of God isn't there. That's why they're not convicted.
I remember in my earlier years, I went to the more social church because there wasn't any
Holy Spirit there to convict me. It was not operating there.
There you go. There you go.
Yeah.
So go on. I just, you know, this list.
Good point.
This list is important for us to recognize if there's any one thing that we hear as Philip
is reading this. Let the Holy Spirit begin to work in us to undo these things.
Because we don't want to be in that immature self-life.
Yeah.
We want to be walking in the spirit in maturity.
I'll say those other ones again and then I'll just keep going.
Okay.
The cravings of the self-life are obvious. Sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, pornography,
chasing after things instead of God, manipulating others.
Manipulating.
Manipulating others. That's a sin.
That's a sin? Yeah.
It's flesh.
Flesh, flesh.
Yeah.
Okay. We'll go on.
Hatred of those who get in your way. Senseless arguments.
Senseless arguments.
Yeah.
You mean that's not okay?
It's vain. Yeah, it can lead to vain imaginations.
Resentment when others are favored. Boy, that sure happens in the church.
Temper tantrums.
That's childish behavior.
Yeah. Angry corals.
That's childish behavior too.
Only think of yourself. That's an adult problem. A lot.
Well, but that starts with childhood. I mean babies, babies are only selfish.
Self-preservation.
Right.
Born with it.
Born with, born with I'm the most important thing in the room.
Or on the planet.
Or on the planet, yeah.
To the parents who's taking care of them.
Wah, feed me. Wah, I'm wet. Change me.
Okay. Being in love with your own opinions.
Ooh.
Ooh, yeah. Being envious of the blessings of others. Murder. Uncontrolled.
Murder can also be character assassination.
Okay. One's in the spirit, one's in the flesh.
Yeah. I mean one is, one is physical and one is,
didn't Jesus say even if you're angry with your brother it's the same as murder?
Yeah. Okay. Uncontrolled addictions.
Uh-oh.
Wild.
Yeah.
Wild parties and all other similar behavior.
When's the last time you heard all this in your Sunday morning pulpit?
Mm.
Ooh. Okay. Haven't I already warned you that those who use their freedom for those things
will not inherit the kingdom realm of God? That sounds like...
It's a realm.
The kingdom of God is different realms.
Right. But...
We think of levels, but I've heard it better described as realm, not a level.
Yes.
Because a level kind of goes up, maybe one, then maybe you'll get knocked down another level,
but it's really a realm.
Mm-hmm. It's true.
It's unto itself.
And what we're talking about is the bridal realm.
Yeah.
The bridal realm in the kingdom.
Mm-hmm. And so if we're participating in any of those things, if we're allowing those things,
if we're allowing that immature behavior, we're not a mature bride.
Yeah. Okay. Let's go on. Okay, this is verse 22 and 23.
But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions.
I love this.
Joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that induces,
kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails,
gentleness of heart and strength of spirit.
Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.
Keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus, the Anointed One, have already experienced crucifixion.
For everything connected with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Messiah.
We must live in the Holy Spirit and follow after him.
So may we never be arrogant or look down on another, for each of us is an original.
We must forsake all jealousy that diminishes the value of others.
It's like a painting. You know, an original painting has the mark, has the signature in it.
Mm-hmm.
That's the one that's valuable, far more than the print that's taking after it.
Right.
So we're originals.
Beautiful.
We're not supposed to be copycats.
You know, we're not supposed to copy after each other and model after this, this or that.
We have to be our own mold.
Amen.
Beautiful. Beautiful.
I loved what you just said about if the Spirit is the source of our life,
we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives.
And that's what it is becoming into this mature bride that looks like Jesus.
I love how Song of Solomon talks about, I think it's like four or five different times
where the bridegroom is calling the bride, my sister, my spouse.
Mm-hmm.
He wants us to be just like him, that we have a brother and sister relationship
that leads to that intimate relationship of bride and bridegroom where we completely become one with him.
Yes.
And just be that mature bride that looks like him in the earth, that behaves like him in the earth,
that is doing the works that he did in the earth, that's doing the all the work that he did in the
earth, all of the exploits that like Daniel talks about, that they that know their God will be strong
and do exploits.
Yes.
And Jesus said, the works that I do, will you do also and greater works.
This comes from walking in the Spirit.
It's not about doing works for the works sake.
It's about walking in love with him.
Let's pray.
Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we lift up your bride before you.
Oh Jesus, your precious bride, the one that you want to marry, the one that that you are being held
in the heavens until this bride is grown up and mature and ready to be that wonderful bride.
Bride of heaven.
Lord, we're asking you to work on us, to make us like you.
Holy Spirit, have your way in our lives and cause your bride to grow up into maturity,
to be just like you in these days.
In Jesus name, amen.
Amen.
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Until next time, this is Sharon Buss.
And I'm Philip Buss.
God bless you with this overwhelming, loving presence.