Watch: Fiona’s testimony
Fiona shares how the Holy Spirit showed her Jesus’s love for the church, His bride, whom He will return to gather for the wedding feast. Praise God!
Click here to go to our YouTube channel.
Video transcript
Instead of Jesus being my Bridegroom, work had become my spouse. I actually had no idea that the position of my job had been elevated to such a high level. I then repented to God, that I have placed work on the throne of my heart.
Hi, my name is Fiona. I’ve been a Christian since I was very young but left the church when I was in high school. I only turned back to God to become a follower of Christ since God called me back in the last 15 years. I had a very dramatic relationship with someone who was not a Christian and God showed me how painful it was to be yoked with a non believer. Through that ordeal, I experienced how real God is. He has shown me that He is a God who listens to prayers and He is a God who rescues.
Since I came back to the Lord, I’ve learnt to lean on Him more and more. God has shown me that He is indeed all powerful and in control. He fights our life battles for us every day. I’ve had so many stories of God really coming through whenever I cried out to Him. This would range from times when work was overwhelming, when I had sibling rivalry issues at home, or when I had dating challenges. I would cry out to God and He always comes through and He answers my prayers.
Recently, I was faced with some crossroads and challenges at work. In the past in my walk with God, I’ve learnt that God’s choice is definitely much more superior than my own choice, so I wanted to get God’s guidance on what to do.
In my distress, I started praying and even embarked on a fasting journey which lasted for almost a month.
Even though I do hear from the Holy Spirit more during this fasting period, somehow I still felt frustrated as I did not seem to hear as clearly as I would like.
During one of the evenings during my fast, I was prompted to check out some Christian materials online and I was led to listen to some songs. I came across a mandarin worship song which is written based on a book in the Bible, which is Song of Solomon. Even though I’ve been a Christian for a long time, I didn’t really understand this book. All I knew is that it is a book that talks about love between a man and a woman.
When I listened to the song, I immediately knew it was a love song and I was so touched by it. I couldn’t stop tearing up. I looked into the lyrics and I realised that the lyrics were all verses from the Song of Solomon. There are a few terms in the lyrics referencing this Chinese term called 良人。 My Chinese isn’t so good so I asked my parents what this term 良人 means and they told me it means “husband”.
I felt in my spirit that it is the most romantic love song describing the love relationship between Jesus and His church.
As Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up
for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
During a discipleship group session on the next day, I was confessing to the group about my frustrations at work. I felt lost and upset about how people treated me at work. I was also expressing my frustrations that I don’t seem to hear God as to what I should do next.
Amazingly, the Holy Spirit revealed to one of the sisters-in-Christ that I have always treated God as my Shepherd, rather than as my Bridegroom.
I somehow valued His guidance more than valuing Him as my God.
When the Bible references the church as being the bride and Jesus being our Bridegroom, I had totally missed seeing this Bridegroom concept. Even though I have heard of this before in the Bible, I didn’t really know how to see Jesus as my Bridegroom.
This same sister-in-Christ explained to me that sometimes, we can place great loyalty and allegiance to a company, and the position of the company gets elevated to be almost like a personality. We can feel betrayed by the company if it mistreats us, as if we were betrayed by a spouse. She explained that my passion for answers to my work situation from God should first be a passion for Jesus Himself.
I was led to conviction about the way I spoke about work. It was as if I was married to my job.
Instead of Jesus being my Bridegroom, work had become my spouse. I actually had no idea that the position of my job had been elevated to such a high level. I have always just worked extremely hard and because I have experienced so much of God’s victory at my workplace, I ended up unduly placing too much of my allegiance to work.
I then repented to God, that I have placed work on the throne of my heart and I had to spiritually declare a divorce from all my jobs, past and present. I unyoked myself from all emotional ties formed with all the jobs I have had in Jesus’ name. I repented to God that instead of putting Him first, I have always put my work first in my daily life.
After this revelation from the Holy Spirit, I then went back to listen to the song which touched me the night before. I was then brought to tears as I realised that the song was written from the perspective of the church as the bride and it was a call asking Jesus to come back as our bridegroom and in Chinese, as our 良人.
Little did I know that deep down, my spirit was already yearning for the love of Jesus to come back as my Bridegroom..
That’s why my spirit was so touched by the song, which is about the church as the bride of Jesus crying out to Him to come back as her rightful Husband in His Kingdom.
Subsequent to this revelation, I embarked on the journey of finding out what it means for the church to be a bride of Christ, and how we ought to treat Jesus as our heavenly Bridegroom. I realised that when we journey with God, He delights in partnering with us in covenant, tantamount to that in a marriage. This talks about us becoming one mind, one heart with Jesus, and moving in perfect partnership with Him in everything through the Holy Spirit.
In the past when I lived my Christian life, I have always just gone about doing things my own way and I always thought that so long as what I do doesn’t contravene the Bible, then it’s fine.
But now I realise if the church really sees Jesus as our partner and our heavenly Bridegroom, and how He delights in sharing an intimate relationship with His church, we will more mindful about asking Him what He delights in, and not just focused on what we want.
This revelation is slowly changing the way I pray. Instead of just praying and giving God a list of my daily requests, I now ask Him to show me what pleases Him and what He wants. I realise if God is really sitting next to me, how would I talk to Him? When I think of how husbands and wives would interact in a loving relationship, you would chat and consult with each other on everything. I realise that I need to cultivate my interactions and time spent with God, just like how loving husbands and wives would interact. Learning this new way of intimacy with God is indeed new to me.
God is faithful. He showed me who I needed to spiritually “divorce” first before I can start to fall in love with Him all over again!
As and when I seek revelations from the Holy Spirit on what is the significance of cultivating this relationship with Jesus as our Bridegroom, and why the church needs to prepare herself as Jesus’ bride, I feel that there is a strong call for the church to truly understand and experience God’s intimate love. Without understanding this love and this partnership with the Holy Spirit, it is very easy for believers to just be led by their flesh and to go astray in their own ways.
As Revelation 19:7 says, Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
May the church be awakened to prepare herself as the bride for Jesus’ return and may we all learn to partner with the Holy Spirit so we can live out our true calling from God.