Where Is My Bride? Ep 1— A Prophetic Wake-Up Call

0:00 Music. Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host, Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent. Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed. Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought was possible. Enlarge her territory. Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment. Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent to silence her. This isn't just a podcast.

0:49 This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen. Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm Evo's Connie Morris and I want to thank you for joining me for this powerful series, Where is My Bride? This is not just another podcast. It is a prophetic call, a wake-up message to the church, and an invitation to you personally. Over the next few episodes, we'll journey together into the heart of God's question for this generation. Where is my bride? The Spirit of God is searching for his bride, not the polished version we present on social media, not the one clothed in ritual and performance.

1:35 He is searching for the bride who is clothed in righteousness. In prayer, the Lord showed me a vision. It was a bride standing before her groom. Her dress was wrinkled and stained. Her head bowed in shame. She had traded her true beauty for a counterfeit one. And this, beloved, is the state of much of the church today. We become a bride chasing the world's definition of beauty. We're run after false dormants, trading truth for trends, holiness for height. Purity for platforms, and intimacy for influence. Outwardly, we look polished, but inwardly, our hearts are unprepared.

2:20 But Christ is not coming back for a patched-up, artificial bride. He's coming back for a church washed, renewed, holy, and alive in Him, without a spot and without a wrinkle. So this podcast is not a condemnation, it's a mirror. It's a chance for us to take a hard, honest look at the stains of sin, the wrinkles of compromise, and the false coverings we've trusted in. The Spirit of God is asking in this hour, where is my bride? Not the one who has perfected her stage presence, but lost intimacy with the groom. Not the one who looks radiant to people, but is broken within.

3:04 The bridegroom is coming. He is not delayed and he will not lower his standard. He has already given us everything we need to be ready. His blood for cleansing, his word for washing, his spirit for renewing, and his grace for empowering. So this is a call to return, a call to repentance, a call to intimacy. My prayer is that every listener will allow the spirit to cleanse, renew, and prepare you as a radiant bride of Christ. And together, let's take this journey into the word of God. Because when the bridegroom comes, the only answer will be, will we be ready?

3:50 Will you be ready? So stay with me. This series will walk us step by step into what is meant to be a prepared bride. Each episode will dive into scripture, reflect honestly, pray boldly, and declare decrees of readiness. So let us begin. Episode one, we're going to start with the bridegroom's cry. Where is my bride? So welcome back to the Diary of Black Women podcast. I'm your host, Connie Morris, and I'm so grateful that you have joined me today. And I want you to picture this, okay? A bride standing before her groom.

4:32 Now, if you've been married before or you desire to be married, we know that's a special time in a woman's life. It's a special time in a man's life. But I want you to imagine this, that her dress isn't spotless. It's wrinkled and stained. And we know as a bride that we want our dress to be perfect. We keep that dress covered no matter where we're taking it. We never leave the house without it covered in a covering. You know, we don't want it stained. We check it out back and forth before the wedding day, on the wedding day, a couple of minutes before we walk down the aisle to make sure it's not a spot or a wrinkle on that dress.

5:14 But this vision I saw, this lady, this bride was dressed and she was in a dress, but it was stained and it was wrinkled. So instead of her lifting her head in joy, she had bowed in shame. And how many of you know this dress was dirty? So for her to even be before her groom in a dirty dress, it was purposeful. God is purposeful in his visions when he gives them to you. Like this is what the church looks like. Because you know, if you were in a dirty dress before your wedding, you would probably cancel the wedding or you have someone run out to the store and buy you another dress because how dare you embarrass your groom?

5:55 How dare you embarrass your family? But how dare you embarrass God wearing a dress that's full of spots and wrinkles? She had all this time to prepare because the wedding doesn't happen like the next day. Now some people do have next day weddings, you know, but sometimes people take a year, six months, maybe even two years to even prepare for this big wedding day. And we have been waiting for Jesus to return. And so we don't know when he's going to come, but we have all this time to prepare our hearts, to get rid of the wrinkles, to get rid of the stains, right? But instead of us focusing on that purpose, getting at being as a prepared bride, we have been distracted.

6:40 But instead of us focusing on the one who loves her, she got distracted. She chased outwardly beauty, but neglected her heart. This is a vision the Lord gave me. As I saw that broken, unprepared bride, I heard his voice, where is my bride? Now think about this. You're in front of your groom and you have on the wedding dress. The dress is spotted and it is wrinkled, but yet the groom is still calling out, where is my bride? He's not looking for a bride with spa or wrinkles. He's looking for a bride that is without spa and without wrinkle.

7:21 So it's like he doesn't even see you when you're wrinkled and when you're spotted, but we're cleansed by the blood of Jesus. So God says, I'm not looking for a bride that's polished on social media, not looking for that bride who is wrapped in rituals and performance. And one thing that really rings out in my heart is that when we talk about performance, because when you have an opportunity to serve, if you serve in any area of the church or any area, even at your job, you'll know when someone is serving from their heart or if someone is serving by performance. Performance is you're doing everything you can to be seen. Your heart ain't in it, but you definitely doing everything you can to be seen.

8:05 And you love when your name is called because you want to get the praise. Look at what Barbie did. Barbie does an excellent job and you don't realize how much Barbie is doing. Barbie does excellent work and Barbie is doing it for the praise of man. But how many of us do it for the praise of Jesus? God is not looking for bride that has perfected her stage presence will lost intimacy with the groom. God is looking for all that. He wants us to be polished before him. He wants us to only have eyes for him and he wants us to have intimacy with him. And so I ask you, if Christ came today, not tomorrow, not next week, but right this very moment, would you be ready? So let's go to the word of God.

8:54 Ephesians 5, 25 through verse 27, it reads, it says. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to him as a radiant church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless. This passage is powerful. Christ didn't just die to save us from hell. He died to prepare us as a radiant bride. He is cleansing us through his word, making us holy, removing the stains of sin, pressing out the wrinkles of compromise, and presenting us as blameless before him. But here's the issue.

9:45 Too often we confuse religious activity with true holiness. We attend church every Sunday, yet never let God touch our hearts. We never open our Bible, but we say, I heard from God. We don't even know where our Bible is. It's sitting somewhere open, but we haven't even looked at that scripture, right? We have our crosses on, we have our cross tattoos, but we're stuck on that religious activity, but we don't have that true holiness happening before us, living in true righteousness before God. We sing in the choir while harboring bitterness and unforgiveness with the person next to you. We serve on committees or pre-sermons, yet we live in secret set.

10:26 And we call scripture on social media. But ignore it in our everyday lives. These things are good, but they're not the same as being holy. Holiness is not about being busy for God. It's about being surrendered to Him. It's not about impressing people. It's about being transformed daily by His Spirit. Think of it like this. Imagine a bride who spends all her time decorating the wedding hall, arranging flowers, sending invitation, but never ever prepares her own dress. Never go get it measured to fit her body, wait to the last minute to go pick a dress off the rack.

11:07 I mean, nothing wrong if you do that, but never ever decides that maybe this dress might not fit that day, but just pick a dress and just on that day, just going to put it on. Never ever prepares for her wedding day. Everything else is in place, but not her. On the wedding day, she would look busy, but she wouldn't not be ready. And that's the church today. Busy, polished, visible, but not prepared. And Christ is not coming back for a busy bride. He is coming for a prepared bride, washed, renewed, and alive in him. The heart of Christ beats for his bride, the church. He gave his life so that she could be cleansed, renewed, and radiant in holiness.

11:54 But when we look honestly at the state of the church, his question still rings out, where is my bride? Not the crowd, not the stage, not the building. Where is the bride who is truly ready for him? The truth is this, religious activity can look impressive. But it's not the same as holiness. True holiness isn't about doing more, but about being washed daily by his word and his spirit. Christ is not coming back for a bride who looks the part. He's coming back for a bride who is prepared. Wow, no faking and shaking in the church.

12:36 Let's look at some questions, reflection questions that you need to ponder in your heart and see what are your answers to these. Have I confused doing things for God with actually being close to Him? Many times we show up at the church and we forget that God is more than just coming to church. He wants intimacy outside the church. Not just on Sunday or whatever day of the week you have your weekly service. Maybe it's Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday, Wednesday, whatever day that is. He's looking for a relationship outside of the church. You know, so have I confused just my service or my intimacy? Am I hiding behind church work instead of letting Jesus deal with my heart?

13:18 A lot of time this does resurface. Can you pray for me? My heart is, you know, something's going on. Kind of maybe shows that I'm only just surface level with Jesus. God wants us to go a little bit deeper, just like a bride and a groom. When their wedding night comes, it changes the relationship after that day. And God wants us that when we say, Jesus is my Lord and Savior, he wants that relationship to take a shift. He wants it to become more intimacy, just like a bride and a groom. If Christ returned today, would he find me prepared or just busy? And it's the story of Mary and Martha.

14:00 And when Martha was busy prepping for Jesus, you know how we prepare for an event? Jesus is coming to your house. So Jesus is coming to your house. We don't wait till the day he get there to start cleaning and getting things in order. That should already be in order, right? So Martha's still running around getting things in order, but Mary did her part. So Mary said, Jesus is here. My part is done. I'm going to sit here and listen to Jesus. So sometimes we do put on a performance when we are in front of people or at places doing different things that we forget that the whole time you're preparing for that event, it is about Jesus.

14:41 Right. So Mary thoughtful said, hey, I'm sitting at Jesus feet. Whatever's not done will get done when Jesus leaves. And Martha was mad because Mary decided what was needful for her is not to keep putting on a performance act, but also what to say, hey, I need to do, I need, that's so good right now. I got to do something on that one. That's really good. Yeah. So Martha says, look at Mary, tell Mary to help me. And Jesus says, no, Mary is doing what's needful for her right now. Martha, you need to sit down and do the same thing and stop thinking about performance and get over here and sit down and get under my feet because I'm not going to be here all day. I got things to do too, but I've stopped by to see you ladies.

15:24 And so what's important right now, it's not the dirty house because you should have already had that done because you know Jesus was coming or if he wasn't coming. It's too late now if the house is a mess, right? You ever had a surprise visitor come? He was trying to clean up while they're there. It's too late. It's just too late. You never keep your house clean. It's too late to get it clean right now, right? It's too late. And so I just want to pray and I want you to just always have your heart ready for Jesus. Always be prepared for that surprise visit, for that unexpected time when he just wants you to just spend time in his presence, amen. So Lord, Father, in the name of Jesus, forgive us for the times we've submitted to religious activity for true holiness.

16:11 I don't want to look the part on the outside. I want to be transformed on the inside. So I pray that you will wash us with your word, cleanse us with your blood, and prepare us as a radiant bride, holy and ready for your return. Decree this with me. We decree that we will not settle for interreligion. We are being washed by the word, purified by the blood of Jesus and renewed by the Spirit. I will be a bride prepared, not just busy, when Christ returns. Thank you for joining me on this. Day. Thank you for joining me with the Diary of Black Women podcast with our Chronicles series.

16:58 This is episode one, Where is My Bride? Next time we will uncover the stains that keeps the bride from walking in purity. And we'll look at how the blood of Jesus has the power to wash us completely clean. Until next time, keep your garments white, your lamp full of oil, and your heart set on the bridegroom because he is coming soon. And I will see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode. And before we close out, I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.

17:39 Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. So today, we receive that truth. You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray. You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found. So we pursue. You said you will restore us from captivity. So we declare freedom over every place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small. Thank you for always drawing near when we show up in faith. In Jesus' name, amen. Music.