In a vision I saw a most repulsive woman who was lewdly dressed as a common street whore. Her clothes were very dirty and torn. Her face was smeared over with heavy make-up, and she was covered from head to foot with all manner of filth. I looked into her face and saw the most disappointed, sad eyes I have ever seen.

In shock, I asked God, "Who is this pitiful wretched woman?" He answered, "This is the Bride, that I will not present to my Son! Yet she is the Bride He will not reject or divorce." I began to cry out because she seemed so hopeless, and the Lord’s bride in her present day condition was so horrible and disgusting.

Then the Lord said, "I am going to transform her into the beautiful Bride, but she must first realize how she is now, and repent." Then He added, "I can do this suddenly."

Then God began to give me revelation about the curse of the unfaithful bride from the Scriptures. In I Corinthians 10:6-12 we are told that what happened to Israel is a lesson to the church today. As verse 11 states, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." In the New Testament Israel is sometimes called "the church in the wilderness" (see Acts 7:38). The failures of the church are also as spiritual adultery, such as in James 4:4: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

The church’s friendship with the world has turned the betrothed bride of Christ into a harlot. Our Lord is worthy of so much more! We must not continue in our misguided self-evaluations of our condition, evaluations that are based more on the ways of the world than the ways of God. As the Lord exhorted in Revelation 3:17-20:

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried by fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint shine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.

The church has played the harlot and God is jealous for His people. In Exodus 34:14, "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." In Exodus 34:16 He says, "And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods."

In Jeremiah 3:1-14 we have a stinging indictment that could apply to the church today:

They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers;

Yet return to Me,’ says the Lord. ‘Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you say for them like an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your harlotries and your wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlots forehead; you refuse to be ashamed. Will you not from this time cry to Me, ‘My Father, You are the guide of my youth? Will He remain angry forever? Will He keep it to the end?’

Behold, you have spoken and done evil things, as you were able.’ The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: ‘Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.’

And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,’ says the Lord.

Then the Lord said to me, ‘Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you.

For I am merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, and have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.

‘Return, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord; ‘for I am married to you, I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.’

The message of God in this vision was for us to first see our true condition just as He sees it, because there can be no true repentance if we do not acknowledge the truth about ourselves. The grace and mercy of God is, that in spite of our condition, He is longing for us to return to Him, and He has not given us a certificate of divorce. The church is His bride and He will not forsake her, but He will purify her. The Lord is not going to return for a harlot, but for a bride that is pure and spotless.