Session 6_The Voice of the Bridegroom in the Wilderness.doc

Voice of the Bridegroom in the Wilderness –  

SESSION 6 – Foundations & Lifestyle of the Forerunner Ministry—Deborah Hiebert             

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SESSION 6— The Voice of the Bridegroom in the Wilderness

I.                   the Forerunner ministry is about spiritual romance

“He who has the Bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.  Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.”  Jn. 3:29

A.                 The very core of the forerunner ministry is in hearing the voice of the Bridegroom.

1. 1. 1. A spiritually romanced heart is one that is exhilarated and fascinated by God.  It speaks of being motivated by gladness in Jesus.  Spiritual romance is about being caught up in fascination by the beauty of God.  (Ps. 27:4; Rev. 4:8) It has nothing to do with earthly sensuality.  The language of “Divine kiss,” “holy romance,” “romanced by Jesus,” must all be understood as expressions of a fascinated heart in obedience.
      2. God motivates His people with the romance of the Gospel.  He empowers the human spirit by fascination. 
      3. The superior pleasures of the gospel are far more powerful than the inferior pleasures of sin.
      4. When we become motivated by lovesickness for God gripping our hearts, we enter into lives of obedience out of desire, affection and fascination.
      5. The forerunner ministry only works effectively out of the overflow of a lovesick heart; a heart fascinated by the beauty of the Lord.

B.                 How do we hear the voice of the Bridegroom?

1. 1. 1. We hear His voice through receiving a new paradigm of His heart and personality. We begin to view Him as a Bridegroom God. 
      2. We come before His fiery affections day after day and open our hearts to Him.  We posture ourselves to receive the River of Pleasures that flows freely from His heart. 
      3. What does it mean to come before a fire of desire?  We fill our minds with the scriptures that speak of His affections and we meditate on who He is in His personality. 

II.                John the baptist is a picture of the forerunner ministry

"Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.  (Matthew 11: 11-12)

A.                 John is a man who was romanced by God in the wilderness.

B.                 John entered into a life of spiritual violence by feasting Himself on God’s desire for Him.

C.                 What does Jesus have to say about John’s life? (Matthew 11)

1. 1. 1. Jesus describes John as the premier example of radical obedience in a supernatural generation.
      2. 1. 3 transitional generations: Moses, apostles, and the generation when the Lord returns. A supernatural generation (in the way I am defining it) is a generation in which the majority of the people witness the power of God on a regular basis.
      3. Spiritual violence means holy spiritual intensity

D.                 John was called the Father’s messenger (Matthew 11: 10)

1. 1. 1. He is the one the Father sent before His own face to prepare the way for His Son.

E.                  Jesus said He was the burning and shining lamp. (John 5:35)

F.                  The Lord took the end of the age anointing and put a down payment on a man named John the Baptist.

1. 1. 1. John was by no means the fullness. He was the down payment. John the Baptist was a living illustration 2,000 years ahead of time to a company of forerunners at the end of the age.
      2. John is a living example of a forerunner. He is the living example of a burning heart of extravagant love.

III.             John the baptist gives insight into what motivates him

"He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. "He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:29-30)

A.                 The Context of John 3:29

1. 1. 1. John is at the very end of his life here. What he was saying is that his public ministry was ending and he knew he would be replaced by another.
      2. The very first year Jesus had been anointed. He was in the wilderness for the 40 days, anointed of the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. Jesus had gone into Jerusalem for the first Passover. And now Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea where John was baptizing.

B.                 One time the greatest man born of a woman pulls back the curtain and tells us what motivated him and what he felt like.

C.                 “He who has the Bride is the Bridegroom”

1. 1. 1. Jesus has a bride. Jesus is a Bridegroom. This is speaking of the reality in the Spirit that John was operating from.
      2. John is saying, “you will not understand who I am, or my ministry, until you understand the One I stand before.” You will never understand why I have grace to enter into the fasted lifestyle. You will never know why I make the life choices that I do, until You know the One I stand before. I stand before a Bridegroom King. His Father is arranging a wedding for Him.
      3. The Carpenter from Nazareth possesses a Bride.
      4. 1. He could have said, I tell you I know the end. In the eternity of God the Father, He possesses a bride. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. There is not a devil in hell or a man on the earth that can stop it from happening. He already possesses a Bride in the mind of God. It is finished. He will never draw back from full obedience to the cross. He never will. He has the Bride. It is all but done.
         2. John was pointing to a new reality in the Spirit
      5. The forerunner ministry rests upon the reality of a Bridegroom God

D.                 I am one “who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled”

1. 1. 1. John is filled with the joy of intimacy with God
      2. How is an ascetic in the wilderness of Judea filled with joy?
      3. 1. He is a man committed to prayer and fasting in the wilderness.
         2. He has entered into an internal reality with a Beautiful God who burns with desire.
         3. “stands”—an active pursuit to receive revelation of God through prayer and fasting
         4. “hears”—He has made a way in his life for the voice of the Bridegroom to be heard. He has calmed and quieted his soul, leaving the business and distraction of the city in order to encounter the Voice of the Bridegroom God.
         5. The ministry at the end of the age is to ADORE HIM. (2 Thes. 1:10). It is the hour when deep intimacy will be brought forth from the human heart. Can you imagine the height of human expression of love? The context of the end of the age is to bring this forth. The corporate body of Christ will express the depths of love that He will express to His Father.

E.                 “He must increase, I must decrease”

1. 1. 1. Jesus is going to replace him in terms of the public profile of ministry.
      2. My life has come to an end of the story. The only thing he would ever say about himself is, “I am a voice in the wilderness. That is all I am.”
      3.  
      4. Jesus’ beauty is going to be progressively be unveiled and revealed and man’s frailty is going to be revealed. (Is. 4:2; 33: 17; 40:5-8)

F.                  A voice in the wilderness

“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness; make straight the way of the Lord.” John 1:23

1. 1. 1. When we hear the voice of the Bridegroom, we are content to be a voice.
      2. 1. Before we have heard the voice of the Bridegroom, we want to be a name and a face.
         2. The voice of the Bridegroom fascinates and exhilarates our spirit in a way that makes us content to remain nameless and faceless.
      3. John was a voice. He as not giving something that he memorized. He was giving something that burned in his spirit in his secret history in God.
      4. He was a voice, because He heard The Voice.

IV.             Forerunners with the spirit of John the Baptist

“The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11:12

A.                 We are in a whole new era of significantly increased privilege and therefore significantly increased dedication.

1. 1. 1. Our dedication protects us from the increased warfare.
      2. Our dedication brings us into intimacy.
      3. Our dedication satisfies God’s jealousy for a partner.

B.                 Our dedication protects us from the increased warfare

1. 1. 1. One reason He increases responsibility is for sheer protection of His people because when there is an increase of power there are new levels, new devils.
      2. In the economy of God the Lord allows a greater intensity of attack.
      3. When He increases more, He allows the enemy to rage more but he has equipped the people to do it.
      4. 1. Sorcery and occult activity will escalate

“for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.” (Rev. 18:23)

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with hot iron.” (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

2. 2. 2. 2. Fear will prevail

“men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.” (Luke 21:26)

3. 3. 3. 3. Emotional brokenness

“and then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. “ Matthew 24:10-12

C.                 When God gives more He longs for a greater partnership with Himself

1. 1. 1. When He gives more, He wants the giving of more privilege to bring people into greater intimacy and unity with the big picture…bridal partnership.
      2. The highest level of bridal partnership is in eternity but at each transitional time it increases more for what God’s jealousy wants from people.
      3. It was not until the generation of Moses that He pronounced himself as jealous to the first transitional generation.

"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.  (Deuteronomy 4:24)

D.                 The Forerunner will develop a personal history in God before the calamity strikes the earth.

1. 1. 1. Encountering the Bridegroom God

“As a Bridegroom rejoices over His Bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5

2. 2. 2. The God of my strength (Psalm 18:1-2; 116:8)

“I will love You, O Lord, my strength…my God, my strength.”

“For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.”

3. 3. 3. My Deliverer (Psalm 18:19)

“He delivered me because He delighted in me.”

4. 4. 4. My Comforter (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation/comfort also abounds through Christ.”

E.                  The Forerunner says yes to a life in the wilderness.

1. 1. 1. Fasted lifestyle—voluntary weakness
      2. 1. A life of prayer
         2. A life of fasting
         3. A life of giving
      3. Involuntary weakness
      4. 1. Thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7)
         2. Prison sentences—David, Joseph, etc.

V.                 developing our personal history in God

A.                 God’s method of preparing the forerunner

1. 1. 1. “I will allure her, I will bring her into the wilderness” —Hos. 2
      2. God takes us to the wilderness where we can hear no other voices but His.

B.                 God is alluring this generation, He is initiating. All we need to do is respond.

1. 1. 1. To live in the wilderness we have to be drawn by God. 
      2. ...