The Evangelistic Bride

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Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.
Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
1 Peter 3:1-4

God's Word makes it perfectly clear that there is another wife and another husband in His will; another Bride and another Bridegroom; a symbolic, spiritual marriage between the Body of Christ and the Saviour Himself:

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Romans 7:4

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Revelation 19:7-8

So many of us who profess to be disciples of Christ are praying for "revival." We note well-known revivals of the past as we pray for present ones - the Welsh Revival, Azuza Street, Toronto Airport, Brownsville. These revivals have all come, made a great impact, and have gone and, though many have tried to replicate their results by seeking to do exactly the same things as people involved with these revivals, they have never been replicated in such a manner.

This tells us that those events were an out-pouring from heaven sent by God, not something that was produced by man. Will God send down revival like this in the future? It seems reasonable to assume so. But, in that revivals of these types have not produced the great harvest of disciples for which so many are praying in these days, we must ask ourselves a frank question; What will produce the great latter day harvest of disciples for which so many are praying?

In that the Husband and Bridegroom has made it perfectly clear that He desires to pour out a blessing from above, might His bride, the Body of Christ, make note of 1 Peter 3:1-4 as direction on how we must change so that we can serve Him and His missing children as part of His great, latter day harvest?

In Noah's day, the earth was flooded because a 2 things; there was a great out-pouring from heaven, and the wells upon the earth opened up and began sending forth water, as well.

When we read 1 Peter 3:1-4 in light of the Bride, Christ's Body, submitting to our Husband, Christ Jesus, we see a revelation of how the "wells of the earth" can open up to produce a great flood of disciples in these latter days.

When Christ's Body begins to be truly submissive to Christ Jesus, those who do not believe will be won over without words through seeing the purity and reverence for Christ in our lives.

When we, Christ's Body, begin to turn away from the pretty things with which we have adorned the Church in the Western World (be it institutional, house church, or otherwise) in the past - the desire to organize and expand as though building an empire, the rush to be a visible part of the latest Christian "movement," the spiritual, intellectual and monetary arrogance toward our Brethren in the Third World, the slick presentations of His simple, Holy Gospel - and we begin to seek to manifest a gentle and quiet Spirit from within that God considers so valuable, the lost will see Christ Jesus lifted up and turn to Him in great numbers.

In the days of Acts, God's people met in both the temple (today's institutional churches) and in the homes. Because of the purity, reverence, and simplicity of believers in the days immediately after Christ's ascension to be with our Father, there was a place for both of these in the faith community. In much the same way, there is a place for both the vocal proclamation of the Gospel in the temple and from house to house and in the highways and the hedges, and also in the pure, reverent, simple living out of the Gospel in disciples' daily lives.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15)?
Without a doubt.

Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15)?
Most assuredly, it is the commandment of Christ Himself.

But these "outward" and "public" ministries must be coupled with the daily, unfeigned, intimate work of the gentle, quiet Spirit of God in the hearts of disciples of Christ.

When all these things - the outward and the inward - begin to take place simultaneously, the lost will respond to evangelism and discipleship as they never have before. When the meek and quiet Spirit of the messengers rightly aligns with the purported promise of the big event, those who who have been desperately searching for a Saviour will be won over to Him without words in greater numbers than ever before.

And whether God accomplishes this by having us use words or not, the end result will be as it should be; He and He alone will receive all the glory.

Nameless, Faceless, and God Gets the Glory.