The Exhausted Bride:The Word of the Lord is HOLINESS- Runing the Race

Posted by lora Guthrie on May 4, 2011 at 7:13 PM

The Word of the LORD is ....HOLINESS

The Bride will be doing everything to be..... "holiness unto the LORD"

The bride is exhausted, but still running the race, until the end!

Over and over in the last weeks the LORD has impressed upon me as well as others I know in HIM, to walk in "HOLINESS". We are to walk HOLY, set apart for HIM, and HIM alone.

We should always walk in HIS HOLINESS, but NOW doing everything we can ... Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,Hbr 12:1 RUNNING TO WIN!

1Cr 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

Running to win is HOLINESS unto the LORD

We are to make all our ways straight, speaking only truth, speaking HIS words, which are eternal. The bride has not arrived, the bride is not perfect, the bride is far from being perfect, but.... the bride is striving with every ounce of energy to run the race that is set before her in holiness. The race is not a 5K, nor a 10k, or even a marathon, Far from it!

In the 90's I did long distance running, I trained for marathons, I would run up steep mountains, in all kinds of conditions rain or snow it did not matter. I lived in a town that world class boxers would go train because of the altitude. Sometimes I would run across the most notable boxers of our time. Today I do not train in the physical, but I train in the spiritual, and I can tell you, that on most days I feel like I have had a very long run, maybe 18 miles, and I am tired, and not so pretty, I am bruised, weary and hungry! But it feels like I have run a long run everyday, and sometimes I do not think I can run anymore! This is the bride!

My running days just reminds me of my spiritual journey, but it does not feel like a marathon, it feel like a Iron Man race, which last all day, and requires swimming, and ridding a bike as well as running long distance, over mountains and valleys in extreme weather. When I think of running the race that is set before me, I do not think of it as a short run, but as a Iron Man race.... This is how I feel, this is how the bride feels at the end of the long race, we are tired, we are beat up, we have bruises, open wounds from the elements. We are exhausted, just as the Iron Man/women crosses the finish line, they are not a pretty sight, sweaty, dusty, stinky, bruised, swollen, scorched, blistered, dehydrated and just ready to fall over! ( the bride)

The coach has nursed the wounds, given water, and encouraged along the way, and as the Iron Man/bride crosses the finish line, the coach is waiting with water to bath, and healing balm to sooth the pain, the sun burn and best yet..... a reward, a prize.

I see myself, as the bride sees herself, not such a pretty sight, but our Father and, our Coach/ Yeshua looks at the race we have run and sees that we have tried our best in the valleys, on the mountains, in the river, on the road. He sees we have run to HIM with open arms, and though we may be a bloody stinking mess.... we run to HIM and our eyes are fixed on HIM. But... oh how he loves to see that we have run such a race, and how he continues each day, to clean us up, nurse our wounds so we can continue to run, until our time is done.

The Bride, is like the Shulamite bride found in the Songs of Solomon

Sgs 1:5-6 I [am] black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.6 Look not upon me, because I [am] black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; [but] mine own vineyard have I not kept.( this is me, anyone else?)

The bride knows the state she is in, and the bride knows that it is only the groom shepherd KING who can clean her up, and prepare her, and at the end of the race, present her with out spot, wrinkle or blemish.That she CANNOT do it on her own, HE has to do it, the bride gives HIM permission to clean her up, make her ready.

The bride will be doing all to run this race in holiness, it may not always be pretty. We make mistakes, we run people over, we trip and fall, we get all scabbed up, puke along the way.... sometimes on those we love, some of us hobble across the finish line... but we cross it, and we press in to win... despite the cost!

How do we run the race?

In HIS Holiness!

2Cr 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

The Word of the LORD says it so perfect, why add to it, it is what it is!

Ephesians 4

Walk in Unity

1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you[a] all.

The New Man

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of[d] the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Do Not Grieve the Spirit

25 Therefore, putting away lying, “ Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,”[e] for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”:[f] do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Run with everything you have, so ALL glory and honor can go to the one who has ran the race and set the pace for HIS bride, he knows the way, the routes, the snares the traps.. HE will coach us through it! We CAN win with him as our Coach, our groom our savior!

#Sightseeing