Wilderness Betrothal

Wilderness Betrothal

Originally written in Spring 2000.

Dear friends,

Do you remember me saying that I felt like I have been in a wilderness…and at times in the desert?

And at the same time I had been getting revelation from Him about intimacy.

Well, on my plane trip back home He gave me this word.

Wilderness Betrothal

The wilderness is not always a place of punishment…or a place that we stay at until “we get it right.”

It is also a place of privacy and intimacy.

Jeremiah 2:2

“Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord:

      “I remember you, the kindness of your youth,

The love of your betrothal,

When you went after Me in the wilderness,

In a land not sown.

Israel was holiness to the Lord, The first fruits of His increase.

All that devour him will offend;

Disaster will come upon them, says the Lord.’”

I was reminded of my youth when I first fell in love with the Lord.  Moreover, He continues to say and remind me to have Him as my first love and to let Him be my “everything

I became saved at the age of 13. I was a land un-sown with His Word.

I was in a wilderness, and in that area of the wilderness there was muck and mire along with abuse and twisted perceptions of life.  He rescued me out of the muck and the mire and I have much to thank Him for.  I went after Him with all of my heart, my soul, my body…my whole being just couldn’t have enough of Him.  I would have fellowship with Him, then that wasn’t enough I wanted more and more of Him, and then I wanted to know Him even more.

This is what I call “having Him as my first love.”  And yes the relationship between us matures, and goes through challenges, and trust develops and the friendship develops, the relationship goes through different levels, but He still is my best friend and my “all in all.”

Since January of 1999 I have had a strong impression from Him for the church that He is calling her back to her first love: a love that chases after Him with all of her heart, soul, and body.  And I guess this is my attempt to explain how He has worked in my life through wildernesses in bringing me to the place of Him being “my all in all” and to explain what He is actually doing by bringing many of us to the places of wildernesses.

It is in this wilderness that He betroths us to Himself.

The study part in my NKJ, Spirit Filled Life Bible (just so you know where I’m getting this from) says that the Hebrew word Kindness conveys the concept of covenant loyalty, love, and faithfulness.

Betrothal is in reference to the Sinai covenant and is compared to a marriage vow, and God is called Israel’s husband.(see Is 54:5; Ez. 16; 1-14; Hos. 2;16)
 And Holiness in this verse as in 1:5 conveys the basic idea of being set apart to the Lord.

Our loving God provided every means for the children of Israel in the wilderness.  He was calling them to Himself to be his very own people.  He was calling them to be in love with Him, as He loved them.

He says in Deuteronomy 6:4-9

“Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  And these words, which I command, you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as front-lets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.’

Matthew 22:37-39 says, “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  “This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it:  ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

He has called us to LOVE Him with all of our being.  Just as He has loved us with all of his being, even to the point of dying for us to make a Blood covenant sealing his vow of betrothal (committed covenant love) with us for all eternity.  He shed his blood, rose again to life to cleanse us, bring us into life and unity with Him making a way for us to be His very own bride.

Is. 54:5 says, “For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.”

Hoes 2:14 Speaks about God’s Mercy on His People

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.

I will giver her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope:      

She shall sing there,

As in the days of her youth,

As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
(Remember ---Egypt had the pharaohs and taskmasters.)

Vs.16  “ And it shall be, in that day,” Says the Lord, “That you will call Me My Husband,’ and no longer call Me My Master,’

For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, and they shall be remembered by their name no more.”

Again here, the wilderness is not meant to be a place of punishment but a place of privacy and a place of intimacy.

Achor means “Trouble” and was the scene of Achan’s sin (Josh.7: 26).

 God is telling me He redeems situations where there was trouble He is bringing present HOPE in the place of previous trouble.

This is true for the situation we are in as our physical place of living as well as true for the condition of our souls…where there has been trouble He is redeeming it.  He brings us back to those places of trouble not to cause us more pain but to cause HOPE and Healing to be birthed there instead!!!!!    I have experienced this true concept as I have gone through emotional healing for a few years.

The Hebrew meaning for Hope in this scripture is tiqvah (teek-vah).  Something yearned for and anticipated eagerly: something for which one waits.

I have had two visions recently of a woman in the middle of birthing.  I saw the first one in travail and actually birthing. And then I saw the baby. And then I heard from the Lord, “Ishmael.”   And he spoke that to me for a two fold reason… one was so I could pray…and then the other was personally for me…speaking to me that no matter how miserable of a situation I feel like I am in to not go ahead of the Lord in His timing…the result would be an Ishmael.  Ok, so I will wait…and HOPE.

Hope here means to wait and to look hopefully in a particular direction. Its original meanings were “to stretch like a rope.”  In Josh. 2:18,21 it is translated “line” or “cord”; Ahab was instructed to tie a scarlet tiqvah (cord or rope) in her window as her hope for rescue.

Yahweh Himself is the hope of the godly (Ps. 71:5). 

Here is where God’s blessing on His land will transform the Valley of Achor (“trouble”) into the door of hope.”

Master in vs 2:16 interprets the Hebrew word Baali, implying “owner” or possessor,” while my husband empresses the affection of a family relationship.

Verse 19 says “I will betroth you to Me Forever:  Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.

Verse 23, “Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘Your are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’”

( Note made on 1- 20-05 ~ Writing this 5 years ago and rereading this now, I see this was a prophetic word to me from the LORD himself…..what thought impressed on me this morning….”He can’t sow her until she knows HIM. He can only sow the seed that has his exact image in their whole being even down to their DNA. The seed needs to produce after its own kind in wholeness…not just parts of the LORD.)

(Note made on 1-22-13 - seems so wildly prophetic that once again after 7 years I am reading this note again so very close to the date I last read it......on 1-20-05. I have now walked through much of what he had me write down and study during the spring of 2000. I somehow knew it then but didn't realize to what extent of the many  valley's  of achors that I would experience and the impact that each one has had on my heart that would cause my heart to bond with his and cling to him alone as my One Heart of Love).

This is so resounding of the Song of Solomon where it says He is mine and I am His.

He woos us to Himself…even in the place of privacy in the wilderness.  It is the place where we are called apart to be with him and to be His very own.

It is the place where He reveals the depths of His Love for us…His bride whom He serves in faithfulness.

God shows Hosea how his marriage relationship can be saved: through suffering and forgiveness.  That is what our God did with us.
He saved our relationship with Him through his suffering and forgiving us;  marrying us out of his heart of loving-kindness towards us with the end result of bringing our hearts into covenant loyalty, love, and faithfulness with him forever.  He serves His bride in loyalty, love and faithfulness and her heart will heal through experiencing his faithful love in the valleys of Achor.

He will have mercy on us where we have not obtained mercy from the world…the world that neglects, beats, bruises, abandons, abuses, rejects and throw us away.

And then to top this off (for now as I am sure there will be more to come) Jeremiah 31:2 says,

 “Thus says the Lord: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness--- Israel, when I went to give him rest.”

“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.  Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel!

You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria: The planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food.  For there shall be a day When the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To the LORD our God.’ ”

Once again, “loving kindness,” conveys the concept of covenant loyalty, love and faithfulness.

And here in the above scripture it is the Lord Himself who shall rebuild us.  Where the enemy has come in and trespassed our boundaries and knocked down our walls, He shall restore us.

 Isaiah 61:4 says, “And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolation of many generations.”

Ephraim is a name I have taken a few years ago as a promise and a fact.  It means “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Isn’t it oh so often that in the middle of affliction that we are the most fruitful?  It is like being pressed down, shaken together…and squeezed to see how much juice can come out of one single grape.  If the Lord is within, then it shall be overflowing and full of flavor and His fragrance.

Yes, the Lord betroths us in the wilderness, a place of privacy and intimacy.

It is also a place of privacy in our hearts and souls that He betroths us.

Our heart is the Holy of Holies, the most intimate part of us where He resides and makes His abode.  He woos us into private places of the soul and heart to marry us. He marries our spirit and soul to Himself.

It is in those quiet moments of communion with Him that we dedicate our whole being to Him…and just as He pursues us to bring us to a place where we even let Him love on us, we will pursue Him in love and chase after Him.

 It is Him who first loved us that we could even begin to love Him and be brought into that place of being in Love with Him and loving Him with our whole heart, soul and body.

We express our love to Him by what we put before our eyes and what we do with our hands. We love Him by praising Him in all of our words and all of our deeds.

His banner over us is LOVE.

A banner is the first thing we see when we see the front of a business or restaurant…and that is what the world will see when they see us.

When they see us, His bride who is in love with him, they will see His Banner of love. They will first see the love, which we live by and walk by.

His word says that we will love them as He has loved them.  He loved them so much that He sacrificed his life to have them. When we are in love with Him, we will want to love who and what He loves.

Our love walk may at times call us to sacrifice our time, our treasures, and our possessions to love those that He loves.

When we have our heart first and foremost directed towards loving the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul, and body, then the overflow is what the world will see and want.   They will  know us by our fruits which is produced out of the fertilized soil of love for our God and Husband.

1-22-2013
His banner over us is LOVE.

Does the world experience His Banner of Love when they meet you?

A banner is the first thing we see when we see the front of a business or restaurant…and that is what the world will see when they see us.

When they see us, His bride who is in love with him,
they will SEE and experience  His Banner of LOVE resting over us.

May each person experience and know LOVE when they meet us.

"Love suffers long and is kind;
 love does not envy;
love does not parade itself,
is not puffed up;
does not behave rudely,
does not seek its own,
 is not provoked, thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth;
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never fails."
1 Corinthians 13


The fruit of His Loving Spirit resting over you and flowing through you is:
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."
Galatians 5

Palms 125:2  “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people from this time forth and forevermore.”

Blessings to you Bride of Christ,
Carrie Rebecca Love Grace

Beloved Warrior Bride of LOVE

1-22-13 Tuesday 6:31 PM

Beloved Warrior Bride of LOVE

Carrie Rebecca Love Grace Jones
© Copyright 2013