Transformation of the Bride by Amanda Leonard

The beginning of this week, as I was getting ready for work I had a vision. I saw the bride. She was tattered and torn. She looked so malnourished and slumped over. Her dress hung off her shoulders. Her face was thin, her cheekbones were very prominent. There was no life in her eyes. She looked completely defeated, worn out and tired of the fight. I knew that she had been in a long wilderness season and the evidence was written all over her.
Song of Solomon 8:5 "Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?"
I saw Jesus in front of her. He looked at her and took her hand to dance with her. I watched as each spin she would begin to transform. She began to mature and fill out the dress. I watched as Jesus placed His hand under her chin to lift her head. Her confidence began to strengthen and she began to stand up tall. Each time Jesus spun her around her whole demeanor would change. She began to dance with assurance, no longer tripping over her own feet. There was a fluid movement, a blissful love dance was taking place before my eyes. I watched her transform into His glory. She was beautiful, full of grace. My eyes couldn't depart from what was taking place before me, until I heard His voice.
Jesus spoke to me and said, "My daughter, stop focusing on the bride and focus on Me."
When He spoke these words to me, I saw His fiery eyes of love for His bride. I felt the longing of His heart to be one with her. His eyes were burning, burning with passionate love for her. His eyes seemed to pierce straight through her heart and she could feel how much He loved her.
It was then I realized, I was this bride. I was looking through her eyes and staring at His face, straight on, no longer looking from the outside but from the inside out. The fire of His eyes became more intense, the feeling of love that I felt He had for me became way more intense. I knew He wanted me to know that this was me the whole time and He wanted me to focus on Him, instead of the process. When I was looking from the outside, all I could focus on was the process. As I started looking from the inside of the bride, the process seemed to just fade away in the glory of His presence, in the glory of His love for me. The process no longer mattered, the wilderness no longer mattered. The process was a distant memory, lost in His eyes of love.
The Lord began to speak to me and say, "You are worth it. You are My glorious bride. You are who I love and whom My soul longs for. I've always thought you were beautiful, even in the beginning. I love to dance with you and watch your spirit brighten with My light and love for you." There were so many things He spoke to me about my worth and value to Him. Then, I watched as the bride walked as one with her bridegroom. She walked in beauty, strength, and authority, with regal ness and confidence.
As I began to have this deep knowing of His incredible love for me, Holy Spirit began to reveal some things to me that I believed were important to share with the Body. First is, to focus on His eyes and not on the process. The process can seem overwhelming but when we are in Him, it's not overwhelming at all. As we focus on His face, we can enjoy the process of transformation instead of feeling that we have a long way to go. He is the only One who can make us a pure spotless bride and He's doing it as we spend intimate time with Him. As we become more aware of our Oneness with Him, we are being changed and it won't feel like a duty of ours but it will be Him changing us, as we surrender to Him.
Dear reader, I believe the Lord wants you to be able to see this same thing for yourself. The same words that He spoke to me, He's speaking to you as well. "You are worth it. You are My glorious bride. You are who I love and whom My soul longs for." These words are yours too and there's much more. I encourage you to just spend time with Him and allow Him to tell you how He feels about you.
Holy Spirit began to show me that I haven't been able to love myself the way that He loves me. I realized it was much easier to love others and speak about His love then to receive it for myself. I knew it in Word in my mind, but not in my heart. I know we've been told that it's more blessed to give than to receive, Paul tell us in Acts that Jesus said those words. So I believe this to be true but how can we fully give away something that we don't understand to be true of ourselves. Jesus says in Matthew 22, about the greatest commandments, the first being to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." The second commandment that was like the first is to "love your neighbor as yourself." How can we love like He loves, if we don't know how much He loves us first? How can we love like He loves if we don't love ourselves?
I began to realize how I thought about myself, the words I have spoken over myself were NOT how He felt about me at all. I have focused so much on my outward appearance and how my physical body has changed over the years, instead of focusing on the inside and Him living in me and how beautiful that is! God gave us a body. If we didn't have a body to house His Spirit we wouldn't be here upon the earth at all. We wouldn't be able to spread the good news and be His glory that covers the earth like the waters cover the seas. Your body is beautiful just how He made it. He truly wants you to see that and to know it deep within. It's not about our "self-image", it's about HIS image!! As we begin to focus on His face, His eyes of fiery love, we are being transformed, we can then love ourselves and love others.
2 Corinthians 3:18 NLT "So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image."
"Father, forgive us for speaking curses over our bodies. Forgive us for the thoughts that we have had towards ourselves. You make us beautiful, in Your image. We are so thankful that we have You to focus on during this process of transformation. We ask Papa that You reverse every curse that we've spoken against our bodies, we wipe those words clean with Your blood. Lord, I ask that every person reading this will know their value and will love themselves the way that You love them, so that we can truly love others like You love. Thank You Lord for Your incredible love for us, let us never forget. Set Your seal of love upon our hearts, our minds, every part of our being. We love You so much and we thank You for loving us first! We are forever changed by Your love. Thank You for our dance together, that is transforming us with every spin."
1 John 4:19 "We love because He first loved us."
John 17:20- "My prayer in not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you have gave me, that they may be one as we are one--23 I in them and you in me--so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I want those that you have given me to be with where I am, to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me, 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFfw6OSbUwE

In His Love,
Amanda Leonard

https://timeinhispresence.wordpress.com/author/timeinhispresence/