Adorning His Bride (Part 2)

See the series here

 

During my childhood, I heard lots about ‘going home to be with Jesus’. Only as a young adult did I learn about returning to Earth to reign with Him for a thousand years. But only when I dedicated serious time to dissecting and deciphering the overall, strategic plan and message of The Bible, was I able to ‘connect the dots’ between these two events. That sparked a hunger and thirst to perceive more, much more than is written in The Bible! The Lord pointed me to His promises, first in Joel 2:28-29, written several centuries before the end of the 2nd age of human history; and second, through Peter in Acts 2:17-18 (written during the 1st century AD). (Please study, meditate and keep those passages in mind.) 

 

During The Lord’s 3-year ministry as a man, during the closing years of the 2nd age, He joined other ‘attentive prophets’ in His day, to personally activate His first promise.  Imagine that! He released a trove of fresh, un-written insights into Heaven’s plans for humanity, elucidating, and then going far beyond what Old Testament prophets had seeded. You recall the flak He encountered from the Pharisees of His day. They ordered His crucifixion, essentially because He claimed to be 'The Son of God', and His teachings did not parrot exactly and ONLY what Moses had written some 15 centuries earlier! Imagine that… Here's what I intuit...

His second promise pertains to us today, during the closing years of this 3rd age of history! This may be another of His repetitive patterns revealed throughout The Bible, because it definitely conforms with the pattern He repeated in Isaiah 28:10 & 13. Therefore, I intuit, The Lord may similarly release fresh, relevant insights during the closing years of each of the remaining 3 ages of our history on this current Earth. Imagine that…

Problem: Today, there are modern Pharisees who may resist what The Lord promised to do in Acts 2:17-18. Perhaps for various reasons, they may mis-perceive, and end up resisting His moves, and the workings of His Spirit in the Earth to prepare us for the pending age transitions. Their thoughts and attitudes might signal:

If it ain’t written, 

it must be fiction; 

it’s not for Christians; and

it should be stricken!

 

When I asked The Lord for more insights into His Millennial Reign, He ABUNDANTLY flooded my spirit with 33 blog posts—the most in any of my topical series. Now He has quickened in me the desire to imagine and perceive The New, Eternal Jerusalem, beginning with how and why might our righteous deeds on this version of Earth, adorn that massive city—His eternal bride, per Revelation 19:7-8 and 21:2. As I reflected on those verses, Isaiah 65:17 came to mind, in which The Lord promised:

 

For behold, I create new heavens [universe] 

and a New Earth, and the former [Earth] 

shall not be remembered or come to mind.

 

At first glance, this reads like saints on the new Earth might have a type of amnesia about this current life. I initially fell into that trap. Yet, in light of several confirming Bible passages, I understand that is not the case. Of course we will know, love and worship Jesus for His awesome sacrifice completed for us in our prior life on this current Earth. Rather, this verse infers all of the anguish and grief—‘tears of this life’, per Revelation 7:17 and 21:4, will be wiped away. The point in Isaiah 65:17 is that The Lord will remove the sting, not the story of this current life. What will carry forward are the transfigured fruits of our good works, as The Lord incorporates them into the awesome Glory of His Bride. Imagine that!!!

 

Thus, it is safe to conclude, in Glory, we saints will be cognizant of our good works/deeds done in this life. But, might we be able to correlate our works, in some ways, to how, with them, the new Jerusalem is adorned?? It’s a fair question to ponder, and to stretch our imaginations about. Why?? Genesis 6:5 and 8:21 confirm The Lord is concern about the thoughts and imaginations of our heart. Thus, He inspired, designed, and preserved The Bible as His invitation to us to catalyze our wildest, most vivid imaginations into His Mindset and plans for humanity. He FULLY intends for us to perceive and then grow in imagining this earthly life, from His unique perspective! As such, to be a bona fide Christian is to practice imagining every aspect of His Word to us! Imagining His Word promises, feeds our faith! 

Is your wildest imagination thus activated??

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With that insight, this is what I currently imagine about how our righteous works might adorn His Bride, the New Jerusalem. I am certain this will expand, per Isaiah 28:10 & 13.

 

1. Per Ephesians 2:10, The Lord pre-determined and pre-assigned good/righteous works/deeds to be done by His saints in this life. These may have been personal assignments for us to perceive by faith, and then accomplish by His Spirit. His apparent, strategic objective is to allow us to have a hand in adorning/decorating His Bride, the new, eternal Jerusalem.

 

2. The very notion of contributing to that city’s magnificent decorations immediately triggers our current, human sense of pride, even our ‘righteous pride’! On that new Earth, The Lord will purge from us every aspect of our sinful, human nature, including natural pride, leaving us with pride as He originally designed it to be—righteous. (For more on the strange-sounding concept, ‘righteous pride’, see: Missed Insights About Pride.)

 

3. In our ‘life graduation ceremony’ (at our death, or our rapture for those of us who will not ‘taste death’), our good/righteous works will follow us into Heaven (likely the new, eternal Earth). They cannot precede us into Heaven, since life on this current Earth is our Internship, during which our faithful commitment to The Lord and His ‘Way’, is tested, proven, and confirmed.

 

4. The Bible does not give us clues whether we may discern our personal contributions across that city. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13:10-15, and 2 Corinthians 5:10, gives us clear indications that we will personally know the summary status of our righteous works and deeds. The Lord will test and judge our works done for Him in this life, and use His results to apportion our eternal rewards. Part 1 ponders whether some people might have no post-salvation good works to be tested and judged. Whether they even make it in to Heaven is beyond my ‘pay grade’. In Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul says we are saved, not by good works, but for good works. Since salvation is akin to an internship program, to produce good works for The Kingdom of God (via our changed motives, thoughts, words and actions), I intuit failure to produce ANY, constitutes failing the program. That’s my take. Paul says faith without works is DEAD. Also, check out Titus 1:16. Here’s something well within my ‘pay grade’:

I don’t want to risk having a ‘reward-less’ eternity!

Do you???

 

5. Perhaps we might collectively and forever marvel at, and enjoy our collective contributions to how the new Jerusalem will be adorned. For example...

What if…one emphasis might be, not on what our collective good works triggered across life on this current Earth, but what they triggered IN and ACROSS HEAVEN, itself, and how they were then 'woven into' the Bride's adornment?? WoW!

What if…in mind-blowing ways, images of this may be projected onto and into various buildings in spectacular colors, details, and AWESOME GLORY?? Double WoW!!

What if... 3D hologram stories and plays are projected onto special stages across the city, to make the experiences incredibly 'lifelike'?

Is your wildest imagination triggered yet?? ;o)

 

Friends,

Please find the courage and faith to share this unique series

with some declared Christians who may have a lackadaisical attitude 

about perceiving, praying about, and performing righteous works and deeds…