The Bridegroom’s Secrets for His Betrothed
By Ana Mendez Ferrell
To His betrothed the Bridegroom entrusts the deepest secrets. He opens His heart to her in order to entrust to her parts of Himself that He does not share with servants, daughters, or sons, but only with her.
There is a love that comes from God which is not like the love of the father, the friend, or the teacher. It is a passionate love—a love that runs like liquid fire through your veins. It is a love that ignites the spirit and encloses you in an embrace that takes you to places reserved only for the wedded bride.
This love strives for total possession. It is not content with fragments of love; it wants everything. It will do whatever can conceivably be necessary to remove every obstacle that comes between the Bridegroom and His beloved. Like an impetuous river that no one can stop, He levels and tears down everything that separates Him from His greatest love. This kind of love, which is necessarily destructive, shakes the ego, love’s mortal enemy. The Bridegroom’s love rises like an enraged lion against the strongholds of fear with which people try to protect their hearts so that they may love only with reservations.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. But whoever is afraid is not perfected in love. 1 John 4
This kind of love permits no half measures or hearts that are afraid to surrender themselves. It tears pride and independence to pieces. It will demand everything from you in order to be able to pour itself into you. It will often trample “common sense” underfoot and put Pharisaism and religious ways of thinking to shame. This kind of love has no regard for formalism or human structures. It is like Jesus, who set people free and healed them on the Sabbath without concern for earthly regulations. For love stands above rules. It is God’s greatest attribute. It stands higher than justice and wisdom and the law.
God’s marital love is like a consuming fire; it will lead you to places that fill you with fear and terror. When the limited human soul sees how far God can go in His love, it is at first filled with fear. Then He will ask you the question: “Will you follow Me wherever I go? Do you love Me so much that you want to become one with Me in everything I am, including the dimension of My love?”
“This is how I love,” God says. “Every day I place My open heart without reservation into the hands of every single person—and every day they tear it to pieces. And the next day I do not give them less of Myself, but once again lay down everything without reservation to let it be destroyed anew.
The reasonable person is afraid of love, for love costs everything. In the fallen world love and pain are inseparably joined. Yet the true bride of the Lamb, who enters the marriage covenant with Him, will follow Him everywhere. She asks no questions; she simply follows. She trusts blindly, and even when exposed to death she continues to trust, for she knows the heart of her Bridegroom. And death is for her the final victory that will unite her forever and eternally with her Beloved.
When the Lord prepared my heart for the great trials that were to come upon my life, He gave me a dream that shook me to the core: I saw myself flying through space. Our planet appeared small in the distance. Then I saw an enormous silver pistol. At that moment silver bullets shot out of the barrel; one after another slowly approached the Earth. As if through a zoom lens, my spirit penetrated the atmosphere until I could see the people in every detail. The enormous bullets came, and everyone fled through the streets crying, “No, we don’t want this!” The bullets then fell upon the Earth and burst apart.
Then among the agitated crowd I saw some who had remained calm and, smiling, stretched out their hands and waited until the bullets came down upon them. When the bullets penetrated their bodies, the silver became light and the indescribable glory of God overwhelmed them. Piece by piece these people were transformed until only the image of Jesus could be seen.
When I awoke from the dream, I asked the Lord, “What are those bullets?”
“My love,” He answered.
“Your love? And why are they like pistol bullets?”
“Because this kind of love kills. Whoever knows the depths of My love also knows its price, and what it means and costs to truly love. Many want only My blessings, but they do not know Me, although they ‘know something about Me.’ To know Me means to take hold of all that I am, to understand it, and to make oneself one with Me.
In these last days I am choosing from My people those who will be My bride, who enter into the marriage covenant with Me. These are those who have died to the world and all its desires in order to follow Me. And I will glorify Myself in them, and My glory will become visible in them, for those who honor Me I will honor. The world will recognize who truly knows and sees Me, and who knows Me only by hearsay and fears people more than Me.”
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