Welcome back and thank you for rejoining me as we unpack the third vignette within the dream: Spirit – the veil of white roses in Vineyard Days – Selah X ~ Christ’s Bride, Part 4.
Holy Spirit sees to it that I often receive messages at both a personal and corporate level. It’s been like that for as long as I can remember since I began clearly hearing from Him. By clearly, I don’t mean to imply instant understanding, though at times there are elements that are crystal clear. That’s usually because, as has been His pattern with me, I have had to live it first, then light bulbs go on. Like the dream, most often understanding unfolds over time – sometimes in a matter of a few days, other times over a longer period, even years.
Understanding 1 requires the Spirit and the Word. Like the protection and pinions in Part 3, you can have one without the other. But as I asked, why would you? If the becoming Bride relies on moves of the Spirit without the pinions of righteousness and justice in the Word (the foundations of God’s throne)2, she will be tempted to speak and judge from her own will and reasoning. Likewise, relying on the Word without the Spirit is the equivalent of living and ruling by the letter of the law – which is death. The Spirit gives life. Christ’s Bride, who will share His throne, will do so from all of her wedded being.
The Veil
Did you know your lips can curve in a smile at the same time your eyes are popping question marks? Coming out of my sleepy dream state, I felt an involuntary smile and sense of warmth as I recognized the ‘entwined wood vine’ around which my fingers were curled. I have not spent seven years experientially writing Vineyard Days for a way to pass time.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
No need to wax long here. The obviousness of the vine as the headpiece to which the veil was attached is clear enough. There were, however, several details that required some thoughtful reflection. (One was ‘why roses?’).
The veil being made of real, fresh, living white rose blossoms – not fabric or plastic – bespoke of no imitation. We have all defaulted to a replica at times, playing the (for lack of a better word) copycat. Because to be real is too revealing. The Shulamite’s earlier reluctance springs to mind; as do the five Flawless posts and Molid (Mo-leed), to be unresidenced in the Bride.
Real-time Interlude:
Part 4 has been underway over the course of several days. I took a break over the long Easter weekend. However, Holy Spirit likes to show up in the middle of everyday goings-about. Fingerprint one occurred when my husband and I drove out to place fresh flowers on his mother’s grave in a rural cemetery. No other graves had real flowers; but there was quite a variety of fabric and plastic ones. The water pump had not yet been activated since winter’s end and there we were with fresh flowers in hand. What to do? (We found water nearby). With this post pinned to the front of my thoughts, the contrast was so fitting I took pictures.
Fingerprint two was in a scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. I can’t count how many times we’ve watched the film, but like an embedded code suddenly cracked open, I saw and heard it fit with my dream: Jesus, already badly beaten, was approached with the crown of thorns fashioned from, as his tormentor crowed, “a most bee-yoo-ti-ful rose”. Placed on his head, it was ground into his brow until the thorns went deep, and yet more blood freely flowed. I cry over the glimpse of stunning beauty of His resulting Bride’s veil of white roses.
Its Length
We’ll come back to the gasp-worthy beauty of its design, after we examine the significance of its length. It was several days after the dream that one of my questions was answered in a flash of insight. Waking from the dream I recognized I had expected the veil to be sweepingly long, trailing like a train (think Princess Di’s veil of 153 yards of tulle). That it was three to four feet long seemed too abbreviated. However (I love that word…), Holy Spirit does not misconstrue details.
“What else is ‘three to four’ long?” Ah. That would be the generations – “to the third and the fourth…” Wait a minute.
Found in Numbers 14, it tells of God’s punishment of the guilty one’s children to the third and fourth generation (vs 18). Believers have breathed a collective sigh of praise when reminded that this same Lord God has promised to show His love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. The veil’s length took on meaning.
Mind of Molid or Mind of Christ
I believe the Word of God is specific. There has been a weightiness surrounding the generations. Even as believers press in, Molid rears his generational mindset, an ‘(insert the family name) way’ that has been passed down the family line. A lot of families are alive as three and four generations (sometimes with the blessing of another one, captured in cherished five-generation photos). There is a reason the Word instructs us in the efficacy of keeping short accounts.
Multiply that to a thousand generations and it isn’t hard to see why contentedly sleepy believers sing His praise: it’s easier to mentally send the generational ‘garbage’ down a river that long past. Sleep comes better when you count the blessings of a thousand. It just takes not dealing with your own and the effects of ‘three or four’ generations’ sin. Been there, done that. Now repeat. A rendition of Molid at his flawed finest.
For the Shulamite-Bride, this goes beyond a “thousand generations” gratitude and thankfulness that somehow, God’s got this. He most certainly does. Which begs the question that confronts her (and us) at every turn: “Why, then, the reluctance to participate in one’s own unveiling with Him?” I know it’s easier not to when trust has been violated so many times in so many ways by so many people. Regrettably, violation of trust is not going to end until Jesus returns.
That’s fuel for the fire of why you and I, if we have a Shulamite heart serious about being made ready for our Bridegroom, will relent to relentless Him. He is the only One who will not violate our trust as He sets about be-truthing us to Himself. Muted white coming fully white and alive!
I AM
Mind of Molid or Mind of Christ. Here and now, for the becoming Bride, it’s about exchanging Molid for I Am. Simply put, Molid doesn’t think like Christ. Only one Head perfectly fits in order for life to flow, and that abundantly – as God purposed from eternity past for eternity future.
~ Gracefully Free
Note: With a few more thoughts yet to share, once again I invite you to Selah here with Part 4. I am aware there is a lot in this post. The beauty of the written word is that you and I can revisit it as many times as we wish. Bless you richly, my Shulamite-hearted friends, while I write a bit more.
1 Proverbs 3:5
2 Psalm 97:2
(You may read the dream here: Vineyard Days – Selah X ~ Christ’s Bride;
and post-dream Part 2: Vineyard Days – Selah X ~ Christ’s Bride, Part 2;
and post-dream Part 3: Vineyard Days – Selah X ~ Christ’s Bride, Part 3).
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