Who is the Bride of Christ? Can a man be a Bride?

Who is the Bride of Christ? Can a man be a Bride?

Let’s examine what the Scriptures have to say about the Bride. Some people are of the opinion that the ‘Bride’ is the ‘Body of Christ’ collectively and not each member individually. Yet the Lord has made it very clear that He is in relationship with each member, in a one on One relationship, as well as the collective body. Paul clearly defines that in Ephesians 5.

The Collective Bride of Christ

25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her……26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27

The Individual Bride of Christ

21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” …………. 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” John 14:22

Clearly, Jesus is addressing each person individually or He couldn’t dwell in anyone unless ALL loved Him and kept His word.

And then Jesus talks about His preparations in Heaven for us, but each believer must come through Jesus to enter Heaven, so clearly, it is a one on One relationship.

John 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

John 14:3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

And in Song of Solomon, the Lord is referring to the intimate relationship between the one believer and Himself. He likens each of us to His stunning Bride:

15“How beautiful you are, my darling,
How beautiful you are!
Your eyes are like doves.”

16“How handsome you are, my beloved,
And so pleasant!
Indeed, our couch is luxuriant!
Song of Solomon 1:15-16

But what about men, how can they be a Bride of Christ’s?

Matthew 22 But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 “But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: 32 ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

And Paul clearly stated in Galatians 3:28:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In other words, we are all equal, all eternal souls and since the relationship with Christ does not involve sex, there is no difference between man or woman. Here is part of a message taken from the video ‘Can Men Experience Closeness with Jesus as Women’ which is also available in the complete form on the HeartDwellers.Org, PDF page.

Jesus began:
“There are a lot of men holding out on Me saying, ‘Ah, this is a woman’s thing, it isn’t for guys.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. John rested his head on My bosom, quite regularly. He listened to the Heartbeat of God, he hungered for His God and he found Me. He wasn’t about to let Me go.

“Understand that women are a little more disposed to this simple intimacy, which hasn’t a hint of carnality behind it. It is the purest love of God a soul can have in a female earthly body or a male earthly body. Is it not written that “…in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven? Matt. 22:30

“Therefore there is no excuse for shunning closeness to Me. I loved John with a love so pure, few on Earth will ever comprehend it. But in Heaven it shall be obvious to all. So to you, Bride of Christ, I say do not allow anything to lie or condemn you for loving Me and wanting to rest your head upon My Heart.”

In this video Ezekiel shares his experience as a man who is also a bride:

And finally, throughout Scripture the Lord is male, God is male, Holy Spirit is male, so it is quite naturally that God sees us, eternal souls, as the receptive part, the female, and when we receive Holy Communion we become one in flesh with Christ. God is the initiator, we are the receivers.

9 thoughts on “Who is the Bride of Christ? Can a man be a Bride?

  1. Paulette Jackson

    I have always longed for a personal relationship with Jesus, but it was always so difficult for me because I couldn’t see or understand how He could LOVE ME uniquely and personally! I always felt like I was just a face in a sea of people and if I waited long enough and got lucky He just might give me a little attention.,I would be so very jealous of other people’s intimate experiences with the Lord, but I just couldn’t see myself in that way, though. I desperately longed for it! But now I’m beginning to understand that I can be an individual Bride of Christ as well as one of the corporate “Bride of Christ” I still can’t figure out how I can have Him all to myself and at the same time He can be with His other Brides! Kinda makes me feel a little jealous! ????
    But I guess Jesus will somehow work it all out in Heaven and I can feel like I am all His and He is all mine! ❤️

    Reply
    1. Clare du Bois Post author

      Oh Precious, I just did a video on that very topic. Before He explained it to me it was a total mystery I accepted by faith. It is like Cinderella’s slipper…He gave an immortal part of Himself to create you…that part is unduplicatable, it is stunningly unique. So when your prince came looking for you, He held in His hand the slipper His Father created for you…and only you could fit into it. In this way you have brought great joy to God by stepping into His perfect will, a perfect fit for only you and a gift beyond measure. Now that Part of God is ‘complete’ so to speak, because you returned your whole being to Him. Here is the teaching He gave me: Ask Holy Spirit to help you understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrSzfUO-Dn0

      Reply
      1. Lisa

        Hi! The Lord made me see that yes, His entire Invisible, mystical Church IS His Bride, yet His Bride is made up of individual “brides”., who choose to cleave only to Him and belong to Him.. even over themselves. Like their BrideGroom, they are willing to lose their lives for His sake… just as Jesus willingly gave His entire life (on all levels) to the Father and for us all. They are willing to suffer joyfully because that makes them identified with Jesus… Who is the center of their lives.

        The Lord gave me this regarding the other issues and questions people have:
        Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Christ.. NOT through Our own Personal Opinions:

        Many well-meaning Christians will immediately negatively judge another Christian who may belong to any form of organized religion or denomination, especially the Catholic denomination. Our Lord wants us to see others not through our own eyes, but through HIS eyes… and He reads a person’s heart and motives whereas we tend to judge others by appearances.

        There are many Christians our Lord is calling out of main-stream religions, but there are many He has chosen to keep within a certain denomination for reasons only He decides. Yes, this also includes many in the Catholic Church. The Lord may call some out of that Church, but someone else may be used WITHIN that church for His purposes. These souls are not of ANY Church, but belong only to Jesus Christ.. and they remain where chooses to place them.

        Many of the Catholic saints were Catholics until the day they died, but in their spirits, they never clung to any denomination.. They clung only to Jesus. Examples of genuine saints who happened to be Catholic that died while serving the Lord WITHIN the Catholic Church are St. Francis of Assisi, Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity, Sister Faustina, St. Frances De Sales, Therese of Lisuex., Gabrielle Bossis, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, to name a few. Our Lord used the Catholic church in their lives, .. and that is where He met them and where they embraced Him.. not a church, not a creed but HIM!

        “Catholic” Prayers:

        Some have problem with Catholic prayers.. Feeling that if they say them, then they are not being faithful to the Lord. Well, if a prayer from any denomination.. including the Catholic denomination… is spoken with total sincerety and simplicity.. and one means the words they pray ., and are not just parroting the prayer without paying attention to it, then these kinds of prayers are actually edifiying spiritually and the Lord hears them just as He does with any sincere prayer. It is when they spoken as a ritual without any sincerety behind them that they have little effect at all.

        This is the same with all prayers.. including the Lords’ Prayer that He taught the disciples.

        When our Lord prayed, He prayed through the Holy Spirit and He had such a connection with the Father that His face practically glowed.. just like Moses! His disciples were envious and wanted Him to teach THEM to pray like He did. When the Holy Spirit is involved in a prayer, then yes, the Divine Chaplet Prayer becomes an anointed prayer through Him.

        The Harlot Church Mentioned in Revelations:

        The Harlot Church is actually ALL organized religion on this Earth.. it is not just one denomination. All Churchdom on this Earth has sold itself to the World’s Beast System,.. and this also includes the Protestant Churches and Baptist and Pentecostal Churches. Not one Church or religion has not allied itself in some way with this World. Even much of our Worship Music is affected and influenced by the trends of the Seculiar Music World. So not one Christian can brag that they are more in alignment with God than another. Jesus is bringing us all to Him alone.. through the Holy Spirit if we respond to Him.

        He is separating us from the Mixture of Babylon and this World System that is within each of us.. and sanctifying us to Himself as His true Bride.

        God Works With Each of Us Differently

        Brothers and sisters, we need to realize that our Lord works differently for each of us. He may require something out of us that He does not require with someone else ..

        God is calling us ALL to Himself.. often THROUGH the churches of this World where we find ourselves. Eventually His Spirit will lead us out of a particular area, after it has served it’s purpose spiritually for us. If He has done this in our lives, we must not judge those who have not felt called to come out of where He has called us out of. He may be working in their lives in a different way than He is working with us.

        We need to keep in mind that there are in every age, many true saints within all of these denominations that while they may not have been called out physically, are called out and sanctified by Him spiritually and.. made separate and unaffected by the harlotry WITHIN the church itself by the Holy Spirit. For reasons known only to Him, He chooses for them to physically remain there as His Lights, where as with another, He may call them out totally from ALL denominations.

        All churches on this earth are imperfect.. and are but the husk that our Lord condescends to use .. until mankind is brought into His perfect Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. Then all the “husks ” will fall away and be no more.., and all will be brought under His perfect Kingship and dominion.

        TRUE UNITY:

        It is the Holy Spirit alone, Who can bring true unity between mankind of all denominations. Ecumenicism is merely man’s own attempt at unifying all religions as one. True unity comes only through Christ .. through the Holy Spirit. My great aunt was a Catholic Nun. My late pastor was a non-denominational pastor.. who was baptized by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought the both of them together, because both LISTENED to the Holy Spirit however He chose to spoke to them .. and they both belonged to HIS Invisible Church and Kingdom .. regardless of the fact that one was Catholic and one could be classified as Pentecostal.. It’s all through our Lord, folks.. Unity is in and through Him!

        Reply
    1. Clare du Bois Post author

      His Heart is a place of comfort…John the Beloved apostle rested his head over Jesus Heart. The Lord promised, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:20. Also read the post, ‘Can I Know God Personally.’

      We worship God in Spirit and in Truth John 4:24. We enter into worship from our hearts but also in our ‘mind’s eye’ or the screen of the Spirit. When we visualize something, we don’t see it in the physical world, we see it on the spiritual interface…the screen of our mind in cooperation with our Spirit man. During worship or whenever He chooses, in dreams and visions, the Lord reciprocates and reaches out to us in that place so we can experience Him in the Spiritual dimension. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8

      As I explained in ‘Can I Know God Personally?’ When a believer yields themselves to God, loving, obeying and surrendering his life to God’s will, Jesus takes up residence along with the Father and Holy Spirit, in the believer’s heart. So when we worship in spirit and in truth, we are deliberately joining our thoughts, attentions and affections to God’s in our heart and through the Screen of our mind, there is created an interface with the spirit world, whereby God becomes very real and perceivable to the spiritual senses. Of course the spiritual world which we normally cannot see but is swimming with life, also hosts evil spirits, this is also the dimension for them. BUT when you begin your seeking of the Lord in worship and repentance, you exclude these evil beings and are even given angelic protection from them.

      Practice makes perfect here, the more we seek Him, the more we find Him, the more we find Him, the more we Love Him…that’s a Kari Jobe song, very beautifully illustrating the answer to your question. I’m going to be doing a more in-depth teaching on this so check back later. https://youtu.be/NI_1YliutzA Here’s the Kari Jobe song. Thank you for asking, that was a good question.

      This playlist will get you started. https://youtu.be/jP_pRRWhyAs?list=PLJPAM4w-f9t6ZsrqlhTC1hfgEWjsMnIJK

      Reply
  2. Salvada T

    I hate gay people to be honest, how can male and male be a bride ?

    I know a father and son relationship make sense. ….

    Reply
    1. Clare du Bois Post author

      Dear Brother, this has absolutely nothing to do with sex. Please listen to the video I did on this topic. This is a SPIRITUAL relationship, NOT CARNAL. This is agape, brotherly love, not erotic love. The Bride of Christ is only depicted as a female because God is the masculine element, the Creator and we are the receivers of His magnificent gifts and love. It is a union of hearts not sexual or of the body. I hope this helps you to understand. THERE IS NO SEX, NO PERVERSION, IN HEAVEN.

      I do feel it is important to mention that we cannot love God and hate our brother…we can hate the sinful behavior but still by the grace of God love our brother.

      15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 1John 4 Much love to you Salvada, Clare

      Reply
      1. Wm.

        Amen. Isn’t it the obvious meddling of the enemy, when our culture has been programmed immediately to the sexual interpretations. Most have a narrow or damaged emotional capability in understanding the idea of “love”‘ between man and woman and more commonly the inability to fathom the unconditional love of the spiritual realm and Love of God the Father. Even less appreciating the complex linguistics and meanings in translations in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek which lays our foundation in the bible. The adversary has really done a number on the world. For anyone reading who is not a believer yet; I didn’t know any of these things either and I was just as bad as any. But God can light a fire in you and will when you get a taste of what you know is the truth – about history and coming history, exactly as is written in the bible.

        Reply

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