The Spirit and the Bride Say Come
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17
Some people believe God is a far away distant God who is not involved in their day to day life. It was a group called Deists you believed God sort of wound up his creation and turned it loose to be on its own. Such theology and reasoning makes no sense. Why would God create us and then ignore us? The truth is God is active in our world and in our individual lives.
God loves us. That in itself is amazing. He’s interested in the life of every person on planet earth. His great desire is that all of us come back to Him—come back into relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said that He came to seek and to save the lost and the Bible is clear, we’re all lost because of our sin. That’s why Jesus came. That’s why He died on the cross.
Once we come to know Christ we realize that He wants us to go tell others about His love for them. Honestly, we don’t do a very good job of that. Sometimes I think it’s because we fall prey to the idea that God is distant from us and when we go to share Christ we’re on our own. But Revelation 22:17 corrects this faulty thinking. “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” We as believers are the bride of Christ. We’re even going to have a celebration in heaven like you’ve never seen called the marriage supper of the Lamb (The Lamb is Jesus). You can read about it in Revelation 19:1-10. So when it states that the Bride says, “Come” to others who need to drink from the well of salvation that Jesus offers it’s talking about us who know Christ. But notice, it also says that the Spirit says, “Come.”
So the Holy Spirit of God is actively involved in our efforts to bring the lost back home to the Father’s house. We are not alone! As a matter of fact the Holy Spirit goes ahead of us to prepare people for our heartfelt invitation to Christ.
The work and activity of the Spirit is an amazing thing. Because He is God He is able to be everywhere at once. Because He is God He knows everything about everybody including their deepest fears and their most painful hurts. He is able to speak into the hearts and minds of the lost. He is able to orchestrate events surrounding people to awaken their hearts to the things of God. Jesus said He, “Convicts the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment.” That means He makes them aware of their own sin and of Jesus’ righteousness and their need to believe on Jesus. He’s good at what He does!
Since the Spirit works with us when we extend an invitation to the lost to come to Jesus it would behoove us to get to know Him better. It would make sense to learn how to hear His voice and learn to be sensitive to His promptings. And it would make a whole lot of sense if we also learned to trust Him and ask Him to fill us with His presence and power. You see, because He is God He is all powerful.
As I think about the people who live in my neighborhood who need Jesus I pray a simple prayer often. “Lord, reveal Yourself to my neighbors. Let them know you’re real and that You care for them.” And I believe He will. The Holy Spirit goes into every home and begins to work in every heart. And here’s the thing; He waits for me to ask. You see, it is “The Spirit and the Bride” who say come. We’re a team. We work together in this holy and noble task of reaching the lost. He doesn’t have to do it this way but He does. Amazing!
Let’s partner with the Spirit of God and go do this most important thing—say, “Come.”
Pastor Dan