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SLEEPING BEAUTY

(A Tale Of the Kingdom)

by

MARY JANE SEARS

We've all heard the tale of Sleeping Beauty. She was the long awaited daughter of a king. Her name was Aurora which means Dawn. Even as a baby she was promised in marriage to the son of another king in preparation for a wonderful future. A wicked witch became angry at not being invited to the celebration of the princess' birth. She cast an evil spell upon the beautiful princess that she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die when she reached her sixteenth birthday. This would prevent the princess from ever marrying, having children and living in the kingdom as everyone had hoped. As the story goes, there was a good fairy at the celebration who didn't have enough power to cancel the curse, but she knew she could soften it a little. She said, "Not in death, but just in sleep, the fateful prophesy you will keep, and from this slumber you shall wake, when true love's kiss the spell shall break."

To keep the Princess safe, a good fairy, looking like a peasant woman, proceeded to take the little princess to a hidden cottage in the woods. The King watched his daughter being carried into the night with a heavy heart. He would be without his child for a very long time. The good fairy concealed the princess' identity from her, her royal heritage and the curse placed upon her. She was even called by another name, Briar Rose.

While gathering berries in the forest for her Sweet 16th birthday cake, Briar Rose met a very handsome Prince riding upon a horse. She was very pleased to become acquainted with him and invited him to her sweet 16th birthday party. The good fairy realized that the princess was in love as she spoke of the young man and knew it was time to tell Briar Rose the truth about herself. She was told she was already betrothed to a Prince and that she had reached the age of marriage and would have to return to the palace of the king and queen.

Meanwhile the wicked witch slipped into the palace before the princess arrived. She used witchcraft, a form of mind control, on the princess and caused her to prick her finger on the spindle's sharp point. The princess was found in a deep sleep from which she could not be awakened. In order to relieve the heart break of everyone in the palace, the good fairy put them in a deep sleep as well, until the princess could be awakened.

When the young prince came to call upon the princess he was met by the wicked witch's demon like henchmen who tied him with ropes and gagged him with a cloth and took him to a forbidden mountain. He was then placed in a dungeon. But the good fairy came and released him by her powers and she armed him with an enchanted Shield of Virtue and a Mighty Sword of Truth as weapons to help him to triumph over evil.

The Prince set off to save the Princess. He had to escape the wicked witch"s dangerous domain by dodging arrows, lightning bolts and falling rocks that she put in his way. He was determined to rescue the Princess. The wicked witch had placed a wall of thorns in his path, but the Prince cut the branches with his sword of Truth and was able to pass through unharmed.

Angered by the Prince overcoming the obstacles she put in his path, the witch refused to let him go any further. She turned herself into a most hideous beast, a fierce fire breathing dragon. Now you shall deal with me, she roared. The dragon hissed and an explosion of fire from the enraged dragon's mouth swept the Prince's shield into the abyss below. As the dragon prepared to finish him off, the Prince took his Sword of Truth and hurled it at the dragon. The blade pierced the dragon's heart causing her to plunge over the edge of the cliff.

The Prince quickly made his way to the palace. He hurried through the gates past the sleeping guards, servants and royal subjects and climbed the winding staircase to the tower chamber where Princess Aurora lay sleeping. The Prince kissed her gently and she opened her eyes and smiled in recognition of her beloved. Everyone in the kingdom was then awakened. The princess and her parents rushed into each other's arms. The King was delighted at their joyful reunion. Preparations were quickly made for the wedding. Aurora's wedding garment was a lovely white wedding gown. The Prince and his beautiful bride were united in marriage and the celebration by the entire kingdom was a very joyous occasion.

Spiritual Principles

Sleeping Beauty reflects the story of the "Greatest Love Story Ever Told." It is found in the Bible and through it our Heavenly Father speaks of His great love toward us. Long ago before time began Jehovah desired a son in His image. The invisible God made a visible creation that was spiritual. He called the form of this creation the woman. In this creation He placed His mind. Both of them together were called Adam. He didn't look anything like the way humans do. It was God's plan that this creation would grow and mature and eventually be united in marriage to Him. This marriage was to be a spiritual union between the mind of God and the mind of His creation. It would produce the very nature of our Heavenly Father in them and would be called the Kingdom of God. There eventually would be offspring produced by spiritual cell division and they would be called the sons of God. Our Heavenly Father wanted to share all that He is with them.

Before Jehovah's "bride" came to the stage of maturity where she could marry, a great tragedy took place. The creation called Adam was overcome by the evil serpent and dragged down into the abyss called the physical world or hell. In stealing Jehovah's "bride", the serpent was seeking the power and energy within Jehovah's "bride" to make her own kingdom and be god herself. The Serpent's kingdom was to become a physical one of flesh and blood where Adam's descendants would acquire knowledge through evil experiences. This was something that was never intended by Jehovah.

I liken the serpent to the wicked witch. We were cursed when she stole the creation of Jehovah because all of us were in the spiritual DNA called Adam. Removing us from the presence and blessings of God was a curse unto us and we see its effects in our everyday life. The serpent is called "she" because only the Living God is male. In the spiritual realm of God, male speaks of authority and female speaks of being in submission to that authority. Of course the serpent is masquerading as a male and also as a god, and aspires to imitate the Creator to form her own kingdom. Her kingdom is evil, fearful, full of confusion, deception, torment, sickness, broken relations, endless religious rituals and ultimately ends in death. Any goodness found in it is the mercy of the Living God coming from the good side of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that we are a part of. We were originally created to be joined to The Tree of Life.

The serpent wanted to prevent our marriage to Jehovah from ever taking place because she was evil and hated righteousness. We know our Heavenly Father is the King of Kings, so for the purpose of making a connection to our story, I will liken Jehovah to Aurora's father, the king. All of humanity will be the virgin princess who was betrothed from birth. We were betrothed to Jehovah, in Adam, long before this physical time line and counterfeit path came into existence. Jehovah loves us and He wants us back. Redemption is getting back that which you previously owned, so a Redeemer was promised. He would make a way of escape out of our captivity by breaking the curse of the sleep of death that is upon us.

Jehovah sent an aspect of Himself into the world to set us free. This Prince of Peace who would reconcile us back to Jehovah was called Jesus. He would be our Savior. But first He had to convince us that we belonged to His Father and that we were stolen and trapped in this world and that the serpent had brought us forth in her image instead of Jehovah's image. The truth of who we really are and the curse put upon us and our promised marriage agreement have been kept secret from us all this time, just like it was kept secret from the princess in our story.

We have been in the sleep of death for a very long time. The Lord is telling us, Awake my Beloved and come away with me. I desire you and have much to share with you. There is a wedding planned. But first you must be prepared for the marriage to the king as typified in the Book of Esther. We must be purified by the washing of the word of God as the Holy Spirit prepares us for this marriage. A great wedding feast has been prepared. We will feast on hidden manna. Our wedding garment of fine linen is symbolic of the mind of Christ formed and matured in us so that we can enter into the marriage union with Jehovah. There can be no marriage without this wedding garment. Jehovah will not marry flesh and blood because it is not of His Spirit. We are filthy and unclean and must be purified before we can be married to a Holy God. Flesh and blood will never inherit the Kingdom of God.

We must bear the manchild that Jehovah desired from the very beginning of His visible but spiritual creation. Our invisible God desires a kingdom that is visible so that His Son can be seen in us. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head and we are to be His body, the body of Christ. Only when this mind is perfected in us will we be the thought form that Jehovah imagined and planned right from the beginning.

The theme connecting our life experience with the princess is that Jesus came to awaken us out of the sleep of death, but our eyes are spiritually blinded. He is calling us, but the god of this world, Satan, has our ears deafened. Even if Jesus does awaken us, we find it hard to hear or believe that we are held captive and cursed. The dragon continually challenges any attempt by our Prince to rescue us. We have been lied to and deceived for so long that we don't know what to believe.

Like the prince in our story, Jesus had to do battle with the serpent who now has grown to be a hideous dragon, called Leviathan. Leviathan has an aspect of herself in each and everyone of us. It is called the fiery serpent. We read about it in Isaiah. The scripture refers to her as the virgin who has to be cleansed, purified and prepared to be the bride of Christ. What must she be cleansed from? She has played the harlot with the god of this world.

The church as a whole is called the bride of Christ and it doesn't matter if we are in a physical female or male body. In the Spirit, physical bodies don't count. That's why the scripture can say "she" shall be saved in childbirth. In the sight of God all of humanity is female. This spiritual childbirth coming forth in each of us is what is meant by the command, you must be born again. It is Christ who must be born again in us. It doesn't mean that we have to be born again.

Our carnal minds and physical bodies are the thought forms of the serpent. They are the creation of the serpent and are in her image. Jehovah is interested in a renewed mind to be His dwelling place or temple so we must choose or prefer Christ and obediently submit to His command "Come out of her my people." Come out of the serpent's carnal mind and see it for the idolatry that it is. Jehovah says, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Our carnal minds are offsprings of the god of this world. They have to be pierced or circumcised, completely turned over and renewed to come forth as the mind of Christ. This requires a battle unto death between the dragon and Christ to rescue us back to Jehovah. Rejecting the thoughts of our carnal mind and confession and repentance of sin is how we participate in this holy war for our salvation.

The dragon or Satan as she is known in the minds of men, continually tried to block Jesus from fulfilling His purpose of overcoming her and making a way of escape for all of humanity. We didn't stand a chance against the curse of death until Jesus came and overcame the serpent and her whole evil household along with her hordes of hell. Jesus told us the truth about this world and our condition down here in hell and then proceeded to make a way of escape for us. He is the door to the higher realms in God. As we ascend up those stairs we gain more strength and energy to co-operate with the Lord. Jacob's ladder speaks of this ascension just as the hills and mountains in the scripture symbolize the upward steps of our spiritual journey that must be taken to follow Christ out of this dungeon called hell. We must flee with our Prince from the dragon.

The Lord is making us beautiful in His time and we will be awakened from this sleep of death and be reconciled by His kiss of peace. Our God is the only true lover of our soul because His very nature is love and His love is directed at us continually.

Colossians chapter 1:17 tells us that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. He is the head and we are the body that will marry Jehovah in the fullness of time. I'll tell you a secret. The seraphim of Isaiah 6, whose cleansed earth is full of the glory of God are the redeemed fiery serpents that cry holy, holy, holy is the Lord in the Kingdom of God. Those redeemed fiery serpents have believed the truth and received the promise of being one in the Spirit with Him. They have come from the serpent's root, but are changed into Jesus' fruit and shall be a fiery flying serpent or spiritual seraphim spoken about in Isaiah 14:29.

Yes, indeed, there is going to be a wedding. Hear the trumpet. The Groom is waiting in great anticipation and the Bride has made herself ready to enter into the marriage. There will be great rejoicing in this union. In His presence is joy unspeakable and of His Kingdom there shall be no end. All tears will be wiped away and the former things will be forgotten.

Mary Jane Sears

Inspired by June Eble's Lyrics:

The invitation has been extended. In the fullness of time, He will make us thine. He shall appear in us and we shall be complete in Him for He is longing, watching and waiting for us.