Jesus reveals an important principle of true searching that leads to success (see Matthew 7:7).

Matthew 7:7:
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

The Word of God clearly emphasizes to love God first and to put His Kingdom first in personal life. This attitude of heart results in provision (see Matthew 6:33 i.c.w. Matthew 22:37-38).

Matthew 6:33:
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 22:37-38:
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (see Deuteronomy 6:5)

38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Since God is Spirit, the things which are eternal are the things which concern the spiritual realm (see John 4:24a).

John 4:24a:
24a God is spirit, …

These may be natural acts (note: works of righteousness), but they have eternal value in the eyes of God. In order to produce works of righteousness, however, love for the Lord is required first.

If we have the love of God that we receive in Jesus Christ in our lives, it is up to us as each individual believer in what way he or she has recognized Jesus Christ.

You can love Jesus Christ as Redeemer, Savior, Healer, … whereby the highest realm of love includes the relationship to Jesus Christ as bridegroom. This presupposes that you have personally recognized Jesus Christ as the bridegroom and see yourself as a part of the bridal structure.

 

The Bridal Structure

The structure of the bride of the Lamb is a reigning city complex that shines in the glorious light of God in heaven above the earth and brings the weight of heaven to the earth. This weight includes, among other things, the words and plans of God for this time (see Revelation 21:2).

Revelation 21:2:
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

The bride of Christ is a spiritual and God-given principality called ‘Jerusalem’, which means ‘foundation of peace’. The people of God need to understand even more clearly what an anointing is in the bride of Christ, as the explanation of the Hebrew word ‘Shalom” will help us understand even more. It means ‘completeness, wholeness, health, peace, prosperity, protection, reliability, silence, success, perfection, abundance, tranquility, harmony, and the absence of hurry and disunity’.

 

The Search of the Beloved for Her Bridegroom

In Song of Songs 3:1-4 we read of the beloved who longs for her bridegroom. She is aware of the love of her bridegroom (note: Jesus Christ), which leads her to go on a quest to be close to Him and in His immediate presence.

Song of Songs 3:1-4:
1 All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.

2 I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves. So I looked for him but did not find him.

3 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”

4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

This spiritual principle is recognizable in relation to a successful search on the basis of the biblical passage mentioned.

First of all, the walk in the first love is necessary, because this is the drive to seek the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, where He currently resides in the future of the beloved.

Even if it sometimes seems as if the love of God is not present, it is only a sign that it can be found in the place in our future that God has predestined for us.

It is the fire of the first love for Jesus Christ that drives us to get up and look for Him whom our soul loves. If, in spite of all the challenges, we decide to go forward in the Spirit, we enter the governing city complex (note: Jerusalem), where we meet the prophetic presence of God (note: the watchmen => prophets), which includes the protective light (note: presence of the watchman angels; aram. ‘'îyr’; for the Hebrew word ‘city’ the word ‘'îyr’ is also used) and the directive light (note: spirit of prophecy).

It is the anointing of the prophets who are close to the heart of God and whose assignment is to draw the people of the Lord closer to the presence of God.

The prophetic presence in the city results in the finding of Jesus Christ, the beloved, and the increase of the first love. In connection with this is the remembrance of the beginnings with Jesus, which contribute to experiencing a new day of relationship with Christ as our personal bridegroom, who appeared previously in the facet of the beloved.

 

 

The dwelling in the bridal complex (note: capital => Jerusalem) leads to more knowledge and understanding about who we are as the bride of Christ.

 

It is the Heavenly Father's desire for His Son Jesus Christ that every believer gets from the status of the beloved higher to the status of the bride.

 

When we are ‘outside the city’ as believers, we are merely ‘beloved’, but the Lord longs to lead us into the realm of the bridal structure, which has a messianic understanding of the tribes of Israel and the apostles of the Lamb.

 

It is the unified structure of the bride of the Lamb that carries the message of the Tenakh (note: Old Testament) and New Testament, in which Jesus Christ is hidden on one side and clearly visible on the other.

 

The bridal structure (note: Messianic Jerusalem) is made up of messianic Jews and Christians from the Gentiles, with the focus on its pearl gates and the gemstones as foundation of the wall.

 

The tribes of Israel were placed in the Tenakh in the form of precious stones on the breastplate of the high priest (see Exodus 28:15-21) and become pearl gates in the New Testament, each bringing with it a high spiritual movement of angels.

 

This movement of angels is manifested when people in faith go through these pearl gates on the basis of the message of the bride of the Lamb, which doesn't differ from each other because they are pearls and thus point to Jesus.

 

He alone is the only true door that gives great supply in spirit, soul and body to the person who believes in Him (see Revelation 21:12-14.19a.21a i.c.w. John 10:9).

 

12 It (note: the city, the bride of the Lamb) had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.

14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. …

19a The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. …

21a The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. …

 

9 I (note: Jesus Christ) am the gate (note: door); whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.

 

The gemstones in the foundation of the wall of the Lamb's bride carry the heartbeat of the only true high priest, Jesus, who is called by His Father high priest after the order of Melchizedek (see Revelation 21:14.19a i.c.w. Hebrews 5:5-6.9-10).

 

14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. …

19a The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. …

 

5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” (see Psalm 2:7)

6 And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” … (see Psalm 110:4)

9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

 

These explanations reveal to us that every believer who enters into the bridal structure of the Lamb is touched and captured by her anointed apostolic-prophetic breath carrying the heartbeat of the bridegroom (see Ephesians 2:19-22 i.c.w. Isaiah 62:6-7).

 

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

 

6 I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, 7 and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.

 

This is the structure that is like the basic structure of the first Adam, because in the bride there is the last Adam and thereby the image/face of the Father is revealed (see Genesis 1:27).

 

27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

 

 

It is essential that when we as believers are already in the bridal structure, we should be concerned not to abandon the first love for Christ Jesus, but to maintain it by cultivating fellowship with Him (note: study in the Word of God) and by responding to His nearness when He requests it.

 

This becomes clear from the passage from Song of Songs 5:1-7, because there the beloved (note: woman) is already in the bridal structure and the Beloved (note: man – Jesus Christ) comes to her as the bridegroom to reveal Himself to her in all His power of revelation and transparency.

 

1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends, and drink; drink your fill of love.

2 I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”

3 I have taken off my robe – must I put it on again? I have washed my feet – must I soil them again?

4 My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him.

5 I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.

6 I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer.

7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!

 

In contrast to Song of Songs 3:1-4, the Beloved, as the Bridegroom in Song of Songs 5, approaches His beloved, as the bride.

Here He enters into the realm of the relationship of His bride (note: garden) and is deeply touched by:

While the bridegroom is touched by the devotion of His bride and therefore sets out for her, He is accompanied by the presence of the increase of these mentioned attributes and by strength (note: eating) accompanied by encouragement (note: drinking).

 

Furthermore, there is an increase in the presence of Jesus Christ as the Word of God in the structure of the bridegroom (note: love relationship of eternity). This presence is associated with great power of revelation and transparency, which involves nothing but the revelatory truth.

 

 

The presence of Jesus and His powerful touch in connection with the spiritual maturity of the beloved as His bride requires her to make the right decision at the momentum of the Lord, because maturity is essentially accompanied by responsibility (see Luke 12:48b).

 

… 48b From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

 

Here it is necessary to react promptly to the presence of Jesus and His touch, and not to run the risk of falling under the effect of nonchalance, which goes hand in hand with turning away from His presence, resulting in ‘chastisement’ (see Song of Songs 5:6-7 i.c.w. 1 Peter 4:17a; 1 Corinthians 5:12).

 

6 I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer.

7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!

 

17a For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; …

 

12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

 

From Song of Songs 5 it becomes clear that the bride was touched in her spirit by her bridegroom (note: Jesus Christ), but didn't give Him access timely.

 

=> Therefore, it is important that we seek more than a touch of Jesus Christ. It should be our desire to be continuously close to Jesus Christ.

 

There is a serious difference between receiving blessings and receiving the One who blesses.

 

There is a serious difference between receiving a touch and receiving the One who touches.

 

There is a significant difference between a healing and the One who heals.

 

There is a great difference between salvation and the Savior.

 

There is a profound difference between redemption and the Redeemer Himself. <= (note: The text set in ‘=>’ is based on a spiritual note called ‘Receiving Him’ by Chip Brogden.)

 

In order to enter into a deeper relationship with Christ Jesus, we need to go through times of challenge. During these challenging times, the adversary tries to use them against us by putting the pressure of the challenge on the soul to shut in our spirit with the feeling of hopelessness, tiredness, lethargy, …

 

The enemy’s goal herein is to emotionally make us feeling stuck in the status quo, so that we are not ready to leave the present, which has already become the past in order to enter into a deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ and follow Him as our bridegroom into the future (see Revelation 3:20).

 

20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

 

 

It is the walk in the first love that is connected with the firm elevated position of the Menorah in the personal spiritual life, which means the walk in the seven-fold Spirit of God, which gives revelation, knowledge, counsel, insight, … By the exhortation of Jesus in Revelation 2:5b this reciprocity is revealed.

 

... 5b Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

 

In order to be able to dwell in the height of God, it is necessary to walk in the love of Christ, which includes life according to His instruction in Spirit (see 2 John 1:6).

 

6 And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

 

It is the love of Christ Jesus that surpasses all knowledge (see Ephesians 3:19).

 

… 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

 

There is no other way than the walk in the first love for Jesus Christ which enables us to go ahead with a spiritual overview and to recognize the visitation of the Lord, because we sincerely seek Him alone and all that He says.

In this way, we go together with Him in responsibility and spiritual maturity into the future that He has already prepared (see Ephesians 2:10 i.c.w. Matthew 11:29-30; 1 Corinthians 6:17).

 

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 

“… 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

 

It is a constant learning and submission in our personal life to which we must be ready to experience this intimacy of the bridal structure. In this there is no room for following other motives from the realms of the world, the soul, the temptations of Satan and the demonic. We are attached to only one (note: Jesus Christ) to whom we entrust our life as a bride in order to remain attached every single day.

 

Amen and Amen.

 

In His Wisdom,

 

Daniel Glimm