The Groomsman’s Journal
“He who has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the groomsman who stands by and listens to Him rejoices greatly and heartily on account of the Bridegroom’s Voice. This then is my pleasure and joy, and it is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:29-30 Amplified Bible
Week One The Bridegroom Speaks About Love
The Bridegroom’s Word, Written on your Heart
The love of God is immense and multifaceted. Read through these scriptures and write down every thought you have on God’s love. What is the Bridegroom speaking to you personally about His love? Define and journal the characteristic of His love that He is speaking about in each scripture. How can you apply these precepts on God’s love to your life? Pray this week that God’s infinite love becomes more evident in your life and your finite love fades away in the light of His glorious love that is increasing in you.
WEEK ONE: DAY FIVE-SIX
Revelation 3:19-21 Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I rebuke and discipline [showing them their faults and instructing them]; so be enthusiastic and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will]. 20 Behold, I stand at the door [of the church] and continually knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him (restore him), and he with Me. 21 He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant to him [the privilege] to sit beside Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down beside My Father on His throne. Amplified Bible
“FleshOut” My Thoughts On God’s Love:
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The love of God is powerful and when I am holy aligned with it, I am being changed by it.
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I must give God’s love a voice in my life, this is what restores my devotion to Him, creating a wholly-holy heart in me.
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Be shamelessly committed to God. Wholly-Holy-HIS.
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Honor comes to us as we prepare to endure. Endurance is the fruit of a wholly-holy love for God. Undivided heart.
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Prepare by fleshing out, endure by putting God’s truth in and you will be honorable, shameless, undivided in heart.
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The word of God is powerful and as I submit my life to The Bridegroom’s Voice, He shatters the cultural indifference in me.
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God’s love can help us conquer anything. His love can help us through the hard places of life and it won’t be the easy way.
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God teaches us hard lessons for good Kingdom reasons, He always has a purpose in all things touching our lives.
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It is really important to take time to listen to God, hear His Voice in our lives and not dismiss the checks the Holy Spirit does in our spirit to warn us, guide us and teach us.
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Honestly, I think God’s Presence is a huge gift for our obedience and submission to Him. It is not fun being out of His Presence!
“TruthIN” The Characteristics Of God’s Love:
Powerful, restoring
“TruthIN” Application To My Life:
The Word of God is a powerful voice in my life. It fleshes out shame and establishes a firm holiness hold on my soul. It shatters the indifference that I have picked up from my culture. When I submit myself wholly-holy to God, He disciplines me out of His compassionate love for me. I am not whole in my love relationship with God if I shun this part of God’s love for me.
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James 1:17-18 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes]. 18 It was of His own will that He gave us birth [as His children] by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creatures [a prime example of what He created to be set apart to Himself—sanctified, made holy for His divine purposes]. Amplified Bible
“FleshOut” My Thoughts On God’s Love:
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God’s love is good, perfectly good and is gifted to us in a wholly-holy way.
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God’s love is steadfast, it does not change with our cultural tides.
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The in and out of God’s love changes not, it is perfectly gifted in every moment of our lives.
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God’s voice, His Word is a message of truth, it is a purity of right living that increases the love of God in us in that passionate God way of sacrificial giving.
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God’s love contains every beneficial thing we need as human beings. His love is the fullness of truth, absolutely genuine! In this world where relatively very little is genuine or true, God’s love brings refreshing life to truth!
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What I love most about God’s love is it was tested and came out of a huge life trial completely and perfectly intact.
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God’s love brings our spirit to life as our destiny is validated by accepting the genuine truth of His salvation. Jesus! Infinitely So!
“TruthIN” The Characteristics Of God’s Love:
Gifted, Perfect, Sustaining, Unchanging, Consistent, Good, Changeless
“TruthIN” Application To My Life:
My love is dictated to by the tides of my ever changing culture, therefore my love goes in and out with the tides. This needs to change. I need to decrease, God’s unchanging, steadfast love needs to be what sustains me and changes me to be like Him. To live out of His perfect love would be incredible, I would experience a stability like no other, a sustaining love that the world can never give me. God birthed His love in me by giving me the living Word, gifting me His Son, Jesus Christ, my Bridegroom. When my love stops changing and becomes steady through all the circumstances of my life, then I know God has increased and my love for Him is becoming perfect in the sacrifice of giving. A love that is not gifted is not sustained wholly-holy by God. A giving love is a good love, giving perfects love, it completes it in that changeless kind of way.
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Romans 8:31-39 So what should we say about all of this? If God is on our side, then tell me: whom should we fear? 32 If He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on our account, then don’t you think that He will graciously give us all things with Him? 33 Can anyone be so bold as to level a charge against God’s chosen? Especially since God’s “not guilty” verdict is already declared. 34 Who has the authority to condemn? Jesus the Anointed who died, but more importantly, conquered death when He was raised to sit at the right hand of God where He pleads on our behalf. 35 So who can separate us? What can come between us and the love of God’s Anointed? Can troubles, hardships, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, or even death? The answer is, absolutely nothing. 36 As the psalm says, On Your behalf, our lives are endangered constantly; we are like sheep awaiting slaughter. 37 But no matter what comes, we will always taste victory through Him who loved us. 38 For I have every confidence that nothing—not death, life, heavenly messengers, dark spirits, the present, the future, spiritual powers, 39 height, depth, nor any created thing—can come between us and the love of God revealed in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord. The Voice
“FleshOut” My Thoughts On God’s Love:
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Nothing separates us from God’s Love. Absolutely nothing.
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God’s love has been tested in sacrifice for us and has come out pure gold.
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God’s love has no limits. It is boundless.
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God’s love has no cultural baggage, it is freely given, no strings attached
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No matter what comes into my life path, God purposefully so, I will always taste victory in Jesus, Who loved and loves me wholly-holy.
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Nothing can come between God and me.
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Jesus loves me with the kind of love that sits with God and pleads on my behalf.
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Nothing changes God’s love, nothing ever can or ever will change it. His love is lavished on us and is completely for us.
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When I think God is not for me, I must be crazy. How can He not be for me when He sent His only Son to die for me.
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Sometimes I feel incredible guilt and I feel like I will never make something out of myself that God would be proud of. But God’s love says otherwise. He loves me, just where I am at, just as if I never sinned.
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Nothing separates me from God’s love, nothing. Death did not keep Him from being and saving me and the power of His love keeps me always.
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God’s love is a forever keepsake. It does not tarnish. Sacrifice has made it pure forever.
“TruthIN” The Characteristics Of God’s Love:
Conquering, Unlimited, Giving All For Us, Justifying, Always Victorious For Us
“TruthIN” Application To My Life:
There is absolutely nothing that can come between God’s love and me. Inseparable is a characteristic of His love that is proven by His constant reaching for us from every moment into our every choice, He is guiding us, charting our course purposefully so. This is genuine love. God’s love will never be changed by anything or anyone in this world, it will always be reaching for us and always be for us wholly-holy and purposefully so. Jesus loves me with the kind of love that sits with God and pleads on my behalf, He is all in for me and this does not change with my ever changing life. Jesus love for me is constant, consistent and always conquering. The love of God is a victorious love and nothing can change that.
My Reflections As I Listened To The Bridegroom’s Voice As He Spoke About His Perspective Of Love:
My Groomsman’s Journal Reflection And Response:
My Reflection
Characteristics Of God’s Love:
God’s Love Is
Committed, Trusting, Enduring, Intimate. Undivided, Forever
My Thoughts On God’s Love
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Written on my heart, this is the reach of Your love. It is not outward only, it is deeply inward.
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Heart to heart and Spirit to spirit this is the depth of intimacy God gives and God desires.
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God’s promises are a strong foundation of His love. I need to incorporate them in my day to day living.
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To love God more, to know more of Him and His ways, I need to let go of my personal agenda.
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God’s love is fresh and new and when I hold on to what is old, I miss the refreshment of His love. My spirit is stale.
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Tradition can’t give me a true aspect of God’s love for me. Relationship is key. I must be openhearted to God.
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The culture makes what I am “growing through” more important than what I am growing to. I don’t belong here.
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To worship God heart to heart, I need to let go of my citizenship here and establish my Kingdom life, make it first. My first priority needs to be God’s Kingdom.
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I don’t belong here. I don’t belong to this world. I belong to God, I belong in His Kingdom. This needs to increase in me and then I will love God perfectly.
My Response To The Bridegrooms Voice On Love:
Fleshing Out My Worldly Viewpoint Of Love
I need to let go of my personal life agendas and then I will be able to let God love me more, and I love Him most. Surrender is the key to a vital love relationship with God. Turning away from this world and fully facing the Kingdom of God is the key to a heart wide open to God’s love. When things don’t go as I plan in the small and the big life changes, I want to continue to believe in God’s Love for me, I don’t want to skip a beat. I know that means an active-relational faith.
Learning How To Have An Active-Relational Faith
When life throws me a curve ball, if I have an active-relational faith with AWE-GOD, I should be able to hit it out of the park. I love the idea of a love that bears the mark of possibility. There is nothing impossible with God’s Love. How cool is that?! I need to increase in my faith.
Gaining A New Life Focus
When things do not go as you plan, will you still believe in Me? Will your heart still soar with faith and believe that there is nothing impossible with My love? Do I love You, Lord despite my state of affairs? I guess a rephrase would be, do I trust You completely? I want my life focus to be the love of Jesus. I want my life to be about growing in love with God, not about what I am going through here.
Transforming To An Enduring Love
God’s love endured and it did so in an incredibly excellent way. Will mine? Will I endure with God, will I tolerate, bear, undergo, suffer, last and continue to be His in all the situations of my life. Will my personal agendas and plans for my life be a constant condition for my love of God? My will tends to buck up in hard situations when things happen that I did not plan for.
Changing My Will To A Position Of Willessness
Will my will keep me from giving my heart completely to God and being constantly in love with Jesus? When things do not go my way and my plans suddenly change, in that moment I have a choice to make. Will it affect my love relationship with Jesus? Am I in and out of love with Jesus according to my personal circumstances? Ouch! This question digs deeply in my soul.
The Bridegroom’s Voice is a book penned by KimberlyMac as Jesus spoke to my heart His Kingdom perspective to “flesh out” our souls and prepare us by putting His “Truth in” our spirit, truth which will help us endure this life season and bring honor to God and His Kingdom. The above is taken from The Groomsman’s Journal of KimberlyMac from The Bridegroom’s Voice week one where the Bridegroom shares with the Bride His perspective of what love is. The above journal is my response to the truth Jesus has shared with me from day five and six of our conversation about love.
***I highly suggest you purchase a copy of The Bridegroom’s Voice and start your journey with the Bridegroom, Jesus, listening to His Voice, fleshing out your soul and letting Him put His Kingdom truth in your spirit. You too can have a Groomsman’s Journal.
***If you are on the Journey with The Bridegroom’s Voice, please leave a comment to share with others from your Groomsman’s Journal. Thanks for being an encourager. God bless you MUCH, KimberlyMac