The Whole Armor Of God - "And For Me"

"And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel." Wow; there is something going on here, that's for sure... Why is Paul saying, "And for me"? That not only would they who read this letter pray for all the saints, but that they would also be praying for him; prayer and supplication that he would be given utterance to boldly make known the mystery of the gospel. I had to think, why did Paul need boldness; because, here was a man who was a banner unto the word 'boldness'. So, I began to question the meaning of "that I may open my mouth boldly"; which caused me to examine the word 'utterance'; strangely, they had many similarities: utterance; logos: Word, both the act of speaking and the thing spoken; The Word of God, meaning His omnipotent voice or decree: boldly; parresta: the act of speaking; freedom in speaking all that one thinks or pleases, which is possible as the result of guilt having been removed by the blood of Jesus. Okay now, if that did not do it for you; how about look at the next two definitions; "make known" and "mystery". These two things rocked my world this morning; to the point that I had to scream out, "How Glorious You Are God!!!". First the words "make known": gnorizo: To make known towards or to someone; spoken as a teacher who unfolds Divine things, to announce, declare, proclaim. Now, let's look at the next word; "mystery": musterion: a person initiated into sacred mysteries; some sacred thing hidden or secret which is naturally unknown to human reason and is only known by the revelation of God. So, then I began to think about what made Paul so privy to this great mystery; and then I remembered, he had been caught up to heaven briefly, after being stoned, and lay dead for a moment. This was where he received a glimpse of God's Glory, the great mystery that is so hard to describe; to spectacular to verbalize or even imagine. Then I started thinking about us as a church, being the Bride of Christ; and immediately I was seeing a vision of Isaiah's declaration of God, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." Are you kidding me!!! Which then caused me to think on the verse here in this book of Ephesians in chapter 5 verse 32; which up until this point, I could not really get my mind around it; "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." What was Paul speaking about? He was speaking about his description of husbands loving their wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it! All throughout the eight verses contained in Ephesians 5:25-32, Paul entwines the mystery of the gospel into the marriage of a husband and a wife. In verse 25: "love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it"; verse 26: "That He might sanctify and cleanse it"; verse 27: "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."; verse 28: "He that loveth his wife loveth himself"; verse 29: "No man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:" ; verse 30: "For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."; verse 31: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. " We are the Bride of Christ; we are His Bride; we are made one in Him; glorified, sanctified, holy, set apart, undefiled; presented as a virgin bride to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, for all eternity.... I don't know what I saw this morning; but one thing I do know; as soon as I saw the train of His robe, I was undone and my chest cavity felt as if it was an empty jar. I picture a Bride, waiting at the opening into the sanctuary, adorned in white and radiant; waiting and gazing up the isle at the groom...waiting for that march music to start... "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, And let him that heareth say, Come, And let him that is athirst come, And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:17