Vision of the Bride of Christ

"Isn't it here? The wonder?  Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it?  Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with blinding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur?  The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here.  Who has time or eyes to notice?
All my eyes can seem to fixate on are the splatters of disappointment across here and me."
--Ann Voskamp in 1000 Gifts

In this day and this time, I identify well with Ann's processing of the death nightmare she dreamed.  I identify with her struggle to first recover from the shaky nerves that were its residue, and then to process it, to receive it as a thing that had good hidden in it somewhere.  "...how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  Matthew 7:11

June 27, 2005
Last Sunday in church, a woman stood up and gave a word of encouragement about Jesus waiting as a bridegroom for us to come down the aisle to him.  It confirmed a vision I had about a year ago.

In this vision, I saw a a beautiful woman.  Her countenance was radiant.  She had graceful beauty in her physical face, but she also had wisdom and humor in her eyes and her smile sent forth a message of peace.  I have never seen a face that so completely encompassed all that is beautiful.

She was walking, lifting her floor-length skirts so as not to tread upon the ripples in the skirting.  The gown she wore completely held my attention.  I had never seen such fabric!  Surely when we dress a bride even now, we have some deep spiritual sense what the Bride will wear, for we dress brides in gowns laden with sequins and pearls, which are a very crude facsimile of what adorned this dress.  If I had to name a color for it, I'd say golden-peach.  But overlaying that fabric were what appeared to be a sea of transparent bubbles.  They rose up in all sizes; and as they swelled they swirled warm colors across their surfaces...reds, pinks,  oranges, coppers, yellows...until they popped, only to be replaced by more bubbles.  As she walked, I pulled my "gaze" back from studying a few bubbles to seeing the whole garment, and was enthralled by the effect this sea of bubbles had.  Sparkling, flashing, gleaming, swirling and especially ever moving, ever renewing.  The thought occurred to me that I was surely not in a natural dream, for looking at the woman walking and her gown--felt so good, I realized with surprise, I could happily stay in that moment forever and never grow tired of the vision of her.  Never has a visual stimulus felt so internally, comprehensively good and never has a physical sensation felt so timeless.  But I knew I could not stay there...and I felt bittersweet as I woke from the dream, knowing it would fade in my awareness, as all dreams do.  Now I can describe it in words, but the "spirit" of it is locked away until the "fullness of time" I suppose.
 
I read in Revelation about the Bride that the woman in church mentioned:  "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, 'Alleluia!  For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.' And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."  Rev. 19:6-8.

When I read this, I knew what made that gown so unique and marvelous to see and why the fabric wasn't really fabric at all as I think of fabric.  I also knew the Bride made herself ready to wear it.

Then, I found that not only did St. John see "her" much as I saw her, but so did King David. 
"...The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes;
in many-colored robes she is led to the king..."  Psalm 45:13-14

Each of these discoveries stunned me.

Not much to add to this as an afterthought.  I'm still waiting to hear from the Spirit just why I was given the privilege of seeing "her" in all her Biblical glory.  Maybe it was to simply affirm that prophecy in its purest form is not passe, not dead, not of another dispensation after all.  If I saw her even in the same imagery context that John and David did, saw her and then discovered what others had to say about her from antiquity, then something out there in the prophetic world isn't altogether dead yet.