Is your relationship consummated?
Posted by appolus on December 2, 2020
So the Cross is as much a part of the consummation as it is of the initiation, and by its operation in the life as a principle and power the Lord will come for “a people prepared.” This preparation relates to heart condition and not to mental apprehension of prophetic truth. (T.A.Sparks)
A great truth revealed hear by brother Sparks. If all we have is initiation then all we would have is a loveless marriage that was never consummated. In the natural a marriage that is never consummated is grounds for annulment.
There are people who come to the cross because they desire to be saved. They are looking for all the benefits that come from salvation. They want to enjoy the blessings and the grace and the mercy of God. Yet they want no part of the suffering of God. They are quite happy that Jesus picked up His cross but they themselves find the notion of picking up their own cross an offensive one.
There are whole theologies devoted to the notion that since Christ suffered then we do not have to. And it attracts millions of adherents. Cross-less denominations and movements. There can be no consummation with Christ outside of the cross, our cross, willingly taken up. It is as much a part of the genuine saint as is the abiding.
As we abide in Him and willingly take up our crosses daily, then we get to “know,” the truth. Joseph did not “know,” Mary until after Jesus was born. Know, in this context, is the Biblical word for intimacy between a man and a wife, where they become one flesh. One must “know,’ the Lord spiritually. No one ever wants to hear the words “depart from me you workers of iniquity for I never “knew,” you.
An annulled marriage is erased from a legal perspective, and it declares that the marriage never technically existed and was never valid. Think about that, a marriage that was never consummated and then annulled means that in never actually existed and what did exist was never valid.
Jesus is coming back for a consummated people, a people made ready by “knowing,” and abiding in Jesus. It is indeed a heart condition and has nothing to do with any mental apprehension of a prophetic truth. A mental assent to an abstract prophetic truth in no ways prepares anyone for the fulfillment of that prophecy.
A Call To The Remnant 
Prayergate said
It reminds me of the attitude many Christians have when they read, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching”.
They think “watching” is continually looking for the rapture to take place!
appolus said
Yes indeed brother. Watching is abiding and taking up the cross daily and staying faithful and going deeper and seeing all the allurements of the world slowly fall away until all we have is Jesus as the abundance of our hearts…………..bro Frank
Kimberly Mcbride said
Phil 3:17-21
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
You can feel Paul’s groanings in this letter. I believe there are the same groanings going up to God because of the enemies of the cross, as we watch a cross-less Christianity, minding earthly things, especially in this country.
No one knows what a tremendous blessing persecution and hardship to the saints would bring, Even to my halting flesh to endure suffering. It is good. The cross of Christ. The sufferings by which God welds us to Himself.
“Joy is not the absence of suffering but the presence of God.”
— JANET ERSKINE STUART
Blessings
appolus said
I have always noted that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, not Jesus Himself. They desire Him and the glory and all the benefits of His realm, but they despise the notion of His cross. I love the quote by the way…….bro Frank