Warrior Bride

I saw 7 Warrior Brides in a circle. Each Bride was wielding a jewel-encrusted sword in one hand and in the other they each held something different.
One Bride held a church.
One Bride held a group of people.
One Bride held a scroll.
One Bride held a shepherd.
One Bride held chalk.
One Bride held a cage filled with shackled demons.
One Bride held a lamp filled with oil.

As I looked at the Brides, I noticed they were identical. Each Bride lifted the items in their hands high and sang praises to God. Their voices were ethereally beautiful and though I couldn’t understand the language, I understood that they were celebrating the holiness of God and the strength of His might, they were calling for the Bridegroom and singing of His worthiness. As I watched, I understood the significance of each item in their hands, as well as who they are.

The church stands for the Apostolic Ministry.
The group of people stands for the Evangelistic Ministry.
The scroll stands for the Prophetic Ministry.
The shepherd stands for the Pastoral Ministry.
The chalk stands for the Teaching Ministry.
The cage filled with shackled demons stands for the authority we have over them.
The lamp filled with oil stands for our preparedness for when our Bridegroom comes.

Church, we are the Bride. Christ is calling for His Church to rise up and walk in the gifted callings we have. We are to be warriors on our knees and servants in the Kingdom, each of us with a place. We are to work together and partner with each other, and the Lord is raising up the Five-Fold ministry. Church – church as we have always known it is changing. Christ is our example and we are His representatives here on earth. We are to begin walking in our authority, we are to begin to take back the ground we have so complacently allowed the enemy to tread upon and we are be bold, fierce and courageous. Our strength comes from the Lord, not in ourselves.

In the story of the ten young virgins, five of them were wise, five were foolish. Five is the number of grace and the five-fold ministry contains five specific giftings. God is giving abundant grace to the five-fold ministry in this season, and we must allow it to operate. We must not hold back those who have been truly called, but celebrate with them and partner with them to walk it out and be the vessel God chooses to work through. We must be vessels of grace in this hour- and we must be ready, willing and available to battle on our knees for the advancement of the Kingdom.

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV).

Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps (Matthew 24: 2-4).

Shalom!