KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH; go ye out to meet Him" (Mat. 25:6).

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB IS COME, and His wife hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7).

We approach in this study the consideration of the crowning mystery, and yet the most wondrous revelation of truth. It is at once a mystery and a revelation. Nothing but a revelation could have suggested such an idea to our minds, or have allowed us to entertain it without being guilty of irreverence; but the revelation is made in language so distinctly figurative that the great apostle Paul himself is constrained to say of the truth which it manifests and conceals, "This is a great mystery." The revelation of Christ as the Bridegroom permeates His teaching and His parables and suggests the grand truth to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. More than once He refers to Himself in His utterances as the Bridegroom. The solemn midnight cry raised by the expectant throng is, "Behold! the Bridegroom cometh," and they that are ready are represented as accompanying Him to the marriage. He speaks of His disciples as "children of the bridechamber," who at that time had the Bridegroom with them. He alludes to "the wedding" in the earnest exhortation which He utters, impressing upon His disciples the necessity of being prepared for His coming as Bridegroom. "Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding." And He suggests the true purpose of all God's dealings with man in the parable of the wedding feast, whose opening words declare that "a certain king made a marriage for his son."

What a blessed and thrilling revelation lies couched in the following passage recorded in connection with our Lord's miracle of turning water into wine. "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him" (Jn. 2:11). In our meditations on the Bridegroom and the bride it is appropriate that we consider the marriage in Cana of Galilee. The apostle Paul frequently spoke of the vast mysteries of God and, in speaking of them, he left no shadow of doubt that naught but the revelation of the Lord could unfold those eternal mysteries. The Lord Jesus Christ began His public ministry at a wedding. May I say to you that that is important and it is profound, and it seems passing strange. Why didn't He begin at Jerusalem, the religious capital of the world? Why didn't He go to the temple to begin His public ministry? Or, better yet, why didn't He go to Rome, the power capital and political capital of the world of that day? Or why not go to Corinth, a great commercial center of the time? Why begin at Cana of Calilee at this wedding? Ah the Lord came from heaven's glory and He began His ministry at a wedding of two unknown, poor peasants yonder in the dusty little village of Cana.

But if we stand back and get a correct perspective of the sweep of the entire picture I think we will understand it. You go back to the very beginning - marriage was the first institution that God made for man. And it was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that brought the first woman to the first man. He introduced them and He performed the marriage for them and made them one. Then I look into the prophecies of the Bible and discover that there is an event called "the marriage supper of the Lamb." The Lamb is there and a people called the bride is there. And the Psalmist relates the wonderful scene in these descriptive words, "Kings' daughters were among Thy honourable women: upon Thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir" (Ps. 45:9). Long centuries later John the Revelator stood transfixed in rapturous wonder at the scene and penned these challenging and electrifying words of spiritual instruction: "Let us rejoice - and shout for joy - exulting and triumphant! Let us celebrate and ascribe to Him glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has prepared herself. She has been permitted to dress in fine radiant linen - dazzling and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints" (Rev. 19:7-8, Amplified).

Long millenniums ago at the dawn of human history the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18). What fathomless and holy truth lies buried in this remarkable statement! While God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone," I would like to give another rendition and it goes like this: "It is not good that GOD should be alone." It is my conviction that God's creation is an expression of God's own personal character and state of being. It will take the mind of the Spirit to understand what I say when I declare that when God saw Adam in his loneliness and said, "It is not good that the man should be alone," God was expressing a consciousness within Himself. God had need for companionship. This divine need is expressed by the apostle in Eph. 1:4-6, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be ... before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."

God's ultimate need was for the companionship of beings like unto Himself, of His own kind, with whom He could share His mind and heart, and whom He could incorporate into the outworking of His own eternal purposes. As we view from the Father's heart it becomes obvious that God in His paternal nature has "marked out for Himself" a vast family which shares His very own life, nature, spirit, purpose and power. I do not believe that any creature or entity which existed before man either in heaven above or the earth beneath, provided what God needed. This is the condition which prompted God in that long ago beginning to issue the wonderful fiat, "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness" (Gen, 1:26).

Little wonder, then, that we read these remarkable words, "And Jehovah God saith, Not good for the man to be alone, I do make him an helper - as his COUNTERPART" (Gen. 2:18, Young's Literal). The Goodspeed translation reads, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I must make a helper for him WHO IS LIKE HIM." Another interesting translation says, "And God made for Adam a COMPARABLE helper." That is the first symbolism of the bride of Christ. God made for Adam someone with whom he should have complete and total intimacy. God Himself had that desire so He came in the cool of the evening to fellowship with this man and woman made in His image. If the Christ is to have a bride then the bride must be COMPARABLE to Christ. That's awesome, isn't it! But how could Christ become intimate with anyone who is not comparable to Him? Would He become intimate with a little girl whom He might abuse? Would He share all He is and has with a child who is physically and emotionally unable to return mature love or participate in His activities?

God gives us patterns in the Bible. All the patterns point to the central truth that God wants a people for Himself - a special, purified, obedient, prepared, developed, matured, loving, capable people joined in union with Himself. All other doctrines and revelations are secondary to that. God's desire for a people is the thrust of the entire message of the Word of God. Everything must revolve around that truth. It was not good for man to be alone and God was saying that it was not good for God to be alone. He wanted offspring, and Acts 17:28-29 tells us that WE are the OFFSPRING of GOD. Nature itself teaches us that pigs have little pigs and dogs have little dogs. I do not hesitate to add that Gods have little gods! We are made in His image - COMPARABLE! When once we learn this one grand truth all the Word of God begins to fall into place. My beloved, it is therefore in keeping that our Lord should go yonder to a wedding in Cana of Galilee and begin His ministry. There He went and put His seal of approval and His blessing upon it. He was there by His very presence to proclaim that UNION between God and man is the grand theme and purpose of God in creation and redemption!

As God continues to deal in this hour with a people, to bring them into His fullness, there are questions which arise concerning definitions and applications of terms which the Spirit of God is bringing forth as He speaks to His elect. Two of the terms which the Spirit is emphasizing are BRIDESHIP and SONSHIP. Some become confused by these terms and wonder whether there is a difference between the two - or whether the bride and the sons are the one and same company of people. If we have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying there need be no confusion at all. God wants us to UNDERSTAND!

It should not take much reflection to reach the conclusion that a bride and a son are NOT the same! If you are a married man with a family, think! - are your wife and your son the same? Though it is evident that they are two separate persons, what is it that really makes the difference? You may answer, "Well, one is female and the other is male." True, but that is still not the basic difference! A member of your family maybe female and yet NOT be your wife. She could be your daughter, your mother or your sister. Likewise, a male member of your family may be someone other than your son. So, while it is true that a wife is always feminine and a son is always masculine, the primary difference is one of RELATIONSHIP - the WAY in which they are RELATED to you. In like manner, through the new birth we have come into the God Family - the very universal Family which is GOD! And being birthed into the God Family we are now related to God, we have entered into a FAMILY RELATIONSHIP with Him; true, glorious and eternal kinship to Him in His very own life-form and species!

One can enter God's Family only by birth. Jesus said, "Except a man be born again...he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God" (Jn. 3:3,5). "But to as many as did receive ... Him, He gave the authority, power, privilege, right to become the children of God ... who owe their birth neither to bloods, nor to the will of the flesh, nor to the will of man, but to God - they are born of God!" (Jn. 1:12-13, Amplified). Newborn babes in Christ, and all children who have not grown up into spiritual maturity, are always referred to simply as the "children" of God without reference to gender or sex. "Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called "children of God" - and that is not just what we are called, but what we are. Here and now, my dear friends, we are God's children. We don't know what we shall become in the future. We only know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (I Jn. 3:1-3, Phillips translation). So you see, precious friend of mine, in our spiritual infancy and immaturity God does not call us either His SONS or His WIFE but His CHILDREN! A study of the various Greek words for children and sons is most helpful in understanding this truth. "Children" is our first relationship to God in His family. We ARE His children. And what we are ultimately destined to be has not yet come into view or become reality until we pass our spiritual adolescence!

I cannot emphasize too strongly the importance of this truth of relationships. Each of us is related to a great many people in a variety of ways. To my wife I am a husband. To my sons and my daughter I am a father. To my father I am a son. To my brothers I am a brother. To many I am a friend. To others I am an uncle, nephew or cousin. Obviously, this does not make me more than one person. I remain but one individual, but in my relationships to others I am different things. The Lord Jesus is spoken of in scripture as our Father, Brother, Husband, Friend, Master, King, Priest, Judge, etc. etc. Our American President, at the time of this writing (1988), is Ronald Reagan. To many he is "Mr. President" - and rightfully so. But previously he was a Governor. Would it make sense for people to start wrangling over his title as to whether it is Mr. President or Mr. Governor - a generation or two hence? Supposing he were to become a Senator from California at a later date; others a generation hence, might speak of him as The Senator. All of such names and titles are but designations of offices held, of particular relationships the person has had to the people. And yet each is, in a sense, like a DIFFERENT PERSON in each unique relationship!

There are so many profound and beautiful ties between Jesus and the elect, which are shadowed forth in the tender relationships between Adam and Eve; for Adam was in reality both father and mother to Eve, and then she was not only his child, but his sister as well, and also his wife. The same person can stand in varied relationships, filling different roles, while remaining the same person. All the right and natural relationships in which human beings stand to each other are meant to reveal something in God - some relation in which He stands to us. He is as a King to His subjects, giving them laws and governing them for their good. He is as a Father to His children, providing for their needs, training and disciplining them in love to become mature members of the Family of Elohim. But there is something, if one may say so, deeper than even this - something that corresponds to the tenderness of a mother, especially in her gentle power of comforting the weary and wounded spirit of her child. Isaiah cried out in the spirit of wisdom and revelation and declared, "For thus says the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; then you shall be nursed, you shall be carried on her hip, and be trotted on God's maternal knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you" (Isa. 66:12-13, Amplified).

The word "one" in the passage above is in the Hebrew A MAN. And the prophet is not thinking of a little child, but of the grown man. His words are, in the original, "As A MAN whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." The feminine name of God is EL SHADDAI meaning "the breasted - a woman's breast" and indicates the One who out of maternal bountifulness is the shedder-forth of blessings, comfort, nourishment and life. There is something in God which corresponds to that power of tender mother-comfort, something of which, indeed, earthly mother-comfort is only the shadow, the earthly reflection. Ah the motherhood of God! Consider the wonder of it! And when we get a clear spiritual discernment of these multiplied relationships of God to us, it breaks us into perfect abandonment to Him, and draws us like the resistless tide of a sucking whirlpool, down into the fathomless gulf of His love and all-sufficiency!

Children are children. Children are not SONS in the scriptural sense, for sons are those who have grown up into the nature and authority of the Father. A girl, as long as she is a child, is neither prepared for or capable of fulfilling the role of a WIFE. In order to enter into marriage a young girl must pass through years of physical, mental and emotional development. Finally, upon becoming mature in all these areas, she is fitted for marriage and her role as wife. And so is it in God's Family! The term "child" describes the believer in his walk of immaturity in God. But as one begins to grow up into SPIRITUAL MATURITY it is then that the truly feminine and masculine aspects of his or her relationship to God begin to form and become manifest. "Vive la difference!" someone once said. And starting from early childhood we all begin to notice there is indeed a difference. We become increasingly aware of it as we grow up. But it is only as fully developed adults that the true power, potential and purpose of the feminine and masculine attributes find their fulfillment.

The following words by Ray Prinzing are freighted with spiritual wisdom and godly instruction. "There are many relationships that are spoken of in the scriptures, and for years all we heard taught was on 'the bride of Christ.' Then came the unfolding of the precious truths of sonship. And soon the one was pitted against the other with emphasis on the position to be obtained, this greater than that, etc. But we are coming to see that all of these relationships are allegorical - we can draw from them all some needed instruction, but we must not reduce them to physical, carnal realms, and hold them there. And all these allegories serve to bring out the characteristics desired. Bride, groom, son, daughter, friend, etc., these are not positions and realms to which we aspire, they are but allegorical relationships used to help reveal qualities and characteristics which are essential to every believer that desires to become ONE IN HIM, fully conformed to His image and likeness. ONENESS WITH CHRIST in its full reality goes beyond being a bride, or a son, or male, or female. So regardless of the symbol at which we are looking, it is the deeper meaning and truth which we desire, and may the Lord quicken to us this vital instruction for our up-building in Him. To be perfect in Christ, complete, mature, ONE IN HIM, this sums up all the facets used to illustrate our growth and development, characteristics, attributes, etc. Dare we settle for anything less? Can any parabolic example reveal such glory? Each part reveals something unique and wonderful, but they all fall far short of expressing the WHOLE which is SUMMED UP IN CHRIST. He is ALL IN ALL, the fullness that filleth everything with Himself" -end quote.

As God becomes so many things to us, even Mother, so must we become many things to Him. When God created man male and female in His image He revealed that He is Himself male and female in His attributes and nature. In spiritual maturity we enter into relationship with God in all the facets of His nature. We may truly become the bride of Christ and the sons of the Father and many other things as well. The bride relationship bears the feminine nature whereas the sonship relationship bears the characteristics of the masculine nature. Aggressiveness, boldness, strength, valor, authority, power and dominion are among the traits of the masculine sex. Hence the Lord says to the overcomer, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My SON. To him will I give POWER over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with MY FATHER in His throne" (Rev. 21:7; 2:26-27; 3:21).

Modesty, gentleness, tenderness, love, sensitiveness and dependence are attributes of the feminine sex. Spiritually, these are the characteristics of the bride of Christ, as the apostle says, "Wives, be subject - be submissive and adapt yourselves - to your own husbands as a service to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the Saviour of His body. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things - that she might be holy and faultless" (Eph. 5:22-27, Amplified).

Can we not see by this that brideship bespeaks the spiritually feminine relationship of intimate love and reverent submission to Christ, whereas sonship embodies the spiritually masculine characteristics of strength, authority, power and dominion to rule and reign over all things. Ah, beloved, let us never become so overbalanced in our zeal to become SONS OF GOD that we circumvent the marvelous reality of BRIDESHIP! The simple but sublime truth is that THE WAY TO SONSHIP IS BRIDESHIP! This is why the Spirit has given us in Revelation chapter twelve the example of a glorious sun-clad woman giving birth to a remarkable man-child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. It is the inworking of brideship that births the realm of sonship. Jesus said, "I am the WAY, the truth and the life; no man COMETH UNTO THE FATHER but by Me." Your relationship to Christ as a bride will forerun your relationship to the Father as a son. Brideship is the harbinger of sonship. It is through intimacy of fellowship and vital union with Christ, made ONE IN HIM IN LOVE that we are initiated into that illustrious glory of strength and dominion over all things as sons of God. This is a true principle in God that I hope no earnest saint of God who reads these lines will miss!

Any man can come to know something of the acts and ways of God, but only those born from above, who also FOLLOW ON to KNOW the Lord, can ever come to know Him in the most wonderfully personal and intimate manner. The depth of "knowing" Him is like the intimate relationship of a man with his beloved wife, in which love he seeks to reproduce after his own kind. In fact this is precisely the way in which the scriptures in a number of cases make use of the word "know" - to describe the giving and receiving of seed in the act of love. For example, we read in Gen. 4:1, "And Adam KNEW Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain." This statement does not mean that Adam was able to recognize his wife as she walked about the house! "KNOWING," in the sense of recognition, does not beget children! When Adam KNEW his wife he explored her emotional and physical being, and she KNEW him in return in a personal and intimate way that words could never communicate. Only by the experience of the sexual relationship does man know woman in this sense, and she him.

May the Spirit of God help us to understand that it is only in that exquisite relationship where the believing heart completely yields itself to the Spirit, the presence, the mind and the will of God, where the believer proves by his wholehearted response that he totally and truly loves the Lord, that he KNOWS and is KNOWN of God. This is the basis for Israel as a people being given the name "wife of Jehovah," and the chosen ones of this age the intimate title "the bride of Christ." As husband and wife, by means of the act of "knowing" become ONE FLESH, so Christ and the believer, by the spiritual act of "knowing" become ONE SPIRIT. "He that is joined (in union) unto the Lord is ONE SPIRIT" (I Cor. 6:17). The intimate relation and ecstasy here portrayed, are not found in the lives of any but those who are following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.

While we write much in these pages of the glorious truth of sonship, we want to contemplate in our meditations at this time what it means to be the bride of Christ. If you have never really fallen in love with the Christ of God - and made HIM YOUR HEAD and ABSOLUTE LORD - don't ever expect to be a son. If you are not truly VIRGIN in your desires toward the Lord; if you are not walking in the Spirit, keeping yourself unto HIM and unto HIM ALONE; if you have never really forsaken the company of the wanton harlot of Mystery Babylon, the carnal religious systems called the church; if you have not renounced the schemes and plans and ambitions of the carnal mind nor abandoned your love of the world and the desires of the flesh - don't expect to be birthed into that glorious company of the sons of God who shall set creation free from bondage and corruption. If you have any other love before Him, any other master that rules your life, any other lord that dictates your actions, any "reserved" areas of your life, then you have not yet learned HOW TO B-E A BRIDE to Christ! One must first BOW in feminine love and submission to Jesus Christ the Lord - as a wife - before he can pass beyond , birthed to stand tall and erect in the majesty and splendor of sonship. it's just that simple. There IS NO OTHER WAY!

Only the blessed Holy Spirit can teach us how to truly BE a bride. As I have pointed out, the key to being a wife is love and submission. We are prone to think of submission in such a carnal way. The term conjures up images of the husband ruling, bossing, lording it over, barking commands to his wife while the little woman, intimidated, coweringly complies with his every demand. But true, godly submission is the LOVE of a woman that is so pure and intense that she wants to yield herself to the high desires of her husband - a woman so in love with her man that it transcends infatuation - her submission becomes a willing and loving laying down of her own life until she no longer has a life because HER LIFE IS SURRENDERED TO ANOTHER! Her cry becomes, "I don't want my life ... I want to SHARE YOURS." Oh! most of us know so little of HOW TO BE A BRIDE!

I think I understand why so often men fall in love with their secretaries and leave their wives. A secretary is TOTALLY DEVOTED to the man by whom she is employed. His every wish is her desire; and a good secretary even anticipates his needs before they arise. Men are always impressed by such devotion in a woman. She has no goals of her own. Her only priority is to meet his needs. And, my beloved, when once we enter into the bride relationship to Christ we lay down our own identity and take upon us a new nature. In the feminine aspect of this nature we learn to yield - obey - this is the action of our will, giving our will over to become aligned with HIS WILL. Submission is more than blind obedience to demands laid upon us, it is the loving surrender of the will, otherwise one will soon revolt and try to throw off the yoke, or find a way of escape. But when it is OUR WILL to do HIS WILL we stand steadfast and carry on. There is a giving up, a surrender of our will, that is, the flesh-motivated will, the carnal-minded will, BUT HIS WILL IN US IS TO BE RETAINED AT ALL COST. God is working in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13), and we say "I WILL" in surrender to all of His exercise of His will in us. As one has written, "It seems that many people are more afraid of God's will for their life, than of anything else, as if it would be bad for them, hurt them, cause them distress or pain, to make them miserable, and they seem to fear yielding to His will, as if that would end all the joys of life, and yet they say they want to go to heaven. But surely heaven implies wondrous bliss because HIS WILL IS BEING PERFECTLY DONE THERE. Indeed, heaven is a state or a condition, the glory of which includes perfect oneness in His will. God loves His creation, and the 'will' of love always seeks the best for its loved one. Even in the natural, we would, if we had the power and the means to carry it out, do much more for those we love, simply because it is the nature and the will of love to do so. It is the hangover of tradition's 'monster God' that causes men to be afraid of God's will, BUT LOVE REMOVES ALL THIS TERROR. How much struggle and friction go out of our lives when we come to the point where we will have God's will, and then rest in the outworking of His will" -Ray Prinzing.

LOVE! Ah, this is the key. There is a call to love HIM so passionately, that everything else appears as hatred in comparison. When we are mere children, we love Him out of a childish, immature love. We love Him primarily for what He GIVES US. When you hear someone testify, "I love the Lord BECAUSE He saved me," or "I love the Lord BECAUSE He healed me," or "I love the Lord BECAUSE He answers my prayers and supplies all my needs," you know that you listen to the testimony of a CHILD, imperfect in love. That kind of talk is like the girl who married a rich man and said, "I love John because he provides me with a million-dollar beach house, a new Mercedes, a mink coat, and $1000.00 a week spending money!" Obviously, she loves John ONLY FOR HIS MONEY! Should John lose his wealth her love would soon die. And most immature Christians, the "children" of God, profess to love God basically out of these same selfish motives. But a true wife loves her husband FOR WHO AND WHAT HE IS! When a wife really loves her husband, she loves him just as much if they are poor and have nothing. As God brings forth a people into brideship to Christ, this people is coming to love our Lord Jesus Christ FOR WHO HE IS and not because of the blessings and benefits received from His loving hands. Children are always excited about the GIFT, but the bride is excited about the GIVER!

Do we really love Him, or are we merely using Him? Do we know what it means of come into His sweet presence, asking nothing, but only reaching out to HIM with gratitude and thanksgiving for loving us so completely. Haven't we become very selfish and egocentric in our prayers? We will pray to save America from judgment. "Spare us - don't judge us," we cry. "Give us, meet us, help us, bless us, prosper us, use us, protect us" - and that may all be scriptural in its place, but the focus is still on US. Even in our work for Him we have become selfish. We want Him to bless our service to Him to prove our faith is genuine. We want to be considered diligent, capable, successful as a sign of His blessing upon us. But the claims of the Bridegroom are paramount upon the bride - she is to love Him, not for His gifts, not for what He can do for her or make of her, but for HIMSELF!

"For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a CHASTE VIRGIN to Christ" (II Cor. 11:2). To be a virgin means to be pure, undefiled and separated unto our Lord. God is creating the desire in a people in this hour to be truly VIRGIN in their desires toward Him. We have known what it is to be conformed to the course of THIS WORLD. Then we have known what it is to trust Christ as Saviour while remaining entangled in all the defilement of a corrupt babylonish religious church system. But God is calling forth a glorious body of Christ who, because of the quickening of the Holy Spirit, is desiring to be VIRGIN separated only unto her glorious Bridegroom, unto intimate and vital union with Him! How lightly we sometimes take the purposes of God in us! It is one thing to be washed in the blood, freed from all our past sins, and quite another thing to truly be virgin in our desires to keep ourselves only unto the Lord for union with Him. Separation is coming from everything of the flesh, the world and the devil and from every vestige of entanglement with false religious babylon which we have made our HEAD in place of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just this morning I was reading a splendid article by Lyn Gitchel which I am deeply impressed to share with our readers. Lyn writes: "Today, most of God's people, that are aware at all of what He is doing, are readily admitting that we are on the verge of a new day, a new dimension in the Lord. Everywhere you can hear the trumpet call of the message that His kingdom is near. Dry and parched bones are awakening at the sound of His voice and are arising to be prepared as a mighty army to meet the enemy and take the kingdom. The word "kingdom" is heard more than ever before... and expectancy... is arising in the hearts of those who are waiting for Him.

"All this is good, but I have become aware of one thing. In all the striving for perfection, teaching of the kingdom, and preaching of the gospel of redemption that will be completed this side of eternity, we are strangely far from the real goal of it all. Some are striving for a greater understanding of the scriptures and the things of God, and some for a bigger and better revelation than ever before. Some are striving to become like Him, formed into His image; some are looking to become His dwelling place on this earth. Some are seeking to become mature 'sons,' and others are looking towards becoming the 'order of Melchizedek.' All these are fine goals, but they are not THE GOAL that God intends for us. The goal, and the only goal, is set out in the first commandment which bids us seek God first with every part of our being. To move into Him; to establish a ONENESS WITH HIM - this is the only central goal of it all. So often we are seeking something so close to the real thing - and yet not the real central goal. We seek God in order to receive something from Him - or to be made holy, or like Him in some other way. We seek Him to have Him dwell in us, or to have His power, or joy, or peace. None of these are wrong! They are just not the goal!

"What kind of response do you think you would get if you were moving into a love relationship, with the intention of marrying that person, and then, when they asked you why you wanted to enter into that depth of relationship with them you replied, 'So that I can become like you!' or, 'So that I can have your power!' Too often that is the way we look at God. We have sought to come close to Him so that we might become like Him, or so that His power might be seen in us. Both are admirable desires, but they are not desires that will be fulfilling to the heart of God. He wants us to draw close to Him, not that we might become like Him, or that His nature be found in us (though, inevitably, that will happen), but solely to draw close to Him BECAUSE WE LOVE HIM FOR WHAT HE IS. He wants us to, come to Him WITH NO OTHER INTENTION in our hearts but to fellowship with Him, to love Him, and to appreciate Him, sharing with Him all the love-flow of our hearts. Everything else, no matter how fine a goal, must be second to that!" -end quote.

To the venerable prophet banished to the desolation of Patmos came the rousing command, "Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev. 21:9). To understand what the Spirit means by the term "bride" we must break away from our western concepts of what a bride is. Bride in Hebrew is KALLAH meaning "the completed one" or "the perfected one." It reveals the concept of a woman being completed once she is married to her husband - and, as Paul so beautifully expresses it, "YE are COMPLETE IN HIM!" When two become one - right man - right woman - they are totally dependent upon each other. They will never be anything without the other again. Each sex is incomplete without the other. In Genesis, before ever Adam named the woman God took and builded from his being, he did some explaining. The Hebrew actually reads, "And Adam said, This one (she) now bone from my bones, flesh from my flesh, this one, (she) shall be called woman (ISHAH), because this one, (she) was taken from man (ISH)" (Gen. 2:23). Adam said, "This-now," or literally, "this one, she." There is no verb here. You don't need a verb at a time like this! Remember, the Lord is bringing to him the most perfect and beautiful woman ever formed. It just took his breath away when he saw her! "This one, she bone from my bones" - Adam knew that something was missing from his very being and that this woman would complete him. What was missing would come back with INTEREST. So he adds, "Flesh from my flesh, this one, she, shall be called ISHAH (woman)." Why? Because she was taken out of ISH (man)! once the woman is given to him they become ISH and ISHAH. When ISH and ISHAH are joined together they become ONE; he fulfills her and she completes him. She is the bride, the "completed one,"  the "perfected one."

In Rev. 21:9 the messenger entreats the apostle John, "Come hither, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." The message is clear - "Come hither and I will show you a COMPLETED PERSON, a PERFECTED PERSON, or, if you please, a CORPORATE BODY OF COMPLETED AND PERFECTED PEOPLE!" The holy city of New Jerusalem is the beautiful symbolical representation of the virtues, nature And glory of the Lamb's bride. Meditate deeply, precious child of God, on the symbolisms of that city, for they serve as an instruction manual outlining the processes by which one is ushered in to that most precious and intimate and glorious relationship with God's Lamb.

We are told that: in this, our day, shall the Kingdom of Heaven be likened to ten virgins. Virgins are pure and undefiled: not the common run of Christians who have defiled themselves with every lover-idol they can find and have departed from a walk in the Spirit of God and slithered off into the ditch, there to slop and flounder around in error and deception and ignorance and fleshly religious activities of every kind. Virgins are not even defiled with women - with the organized church systems. They follow the Lamb whithersoever HE GOES, and not human leaders who have set themselves up between Christ and His saints (Rev. 14:4).

These ten virgins took their lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom. Not very many people who name the name of Christ are doing that! Not very many know who or what the Bridegroom is, and therefore do hot know where or how to meet Him. Not very many Bible students even suspect that the coming of the Bridegroom is different than the coming of the King or the coming of Christ in other dimensions. Not knowing who or what the Bridegroom is, they therefore cannot know how to go forth to meet Him. Most christians, unfortunately, are busily preparing themselves to go "up" to meet the Bridegroom. All their fuss and stir will be in vain. For no one will ever go "up" to meet Him! There is not one scripture in the entire Bible that speaks of being "caught up" to meet the Bridegroom or to eat the marriage supper in the sky. The preachers have the coming of the Lord all muddled because they cannot with their carnal minds distinguish the difference between the facets of His coming. They have confused His coming as the Sun of Righteousness with His coming as Judge. They have confounded His coming as a refiner's fire with His coming as the rain. They have mistaken His coming WITH His saints for His coming IN His saints. They know nothing of the distinction between His coming as King and His coming as Bridegroom. To their unenlightened minds there is but one single coming of Christ when He crashes down through the clouds of earth's atmosphere. Most saints today are not preparing to meet the Bridegroom, but are trying to fix themselves up so that they will be all ready to be whisked away into the clouds instead. But not so with the virgins. They are in the right place at the right time, and all looking for a very blessed event - the coming of Christ as the Bridegroom. And they are spiritually intelligent enough to know that no one will ever go "up" to meet the Bridegroom. But in order to meet the Bridegroom, one must go "out." "Go ye O-U-T to meet Him" (Mat. 25:6). And the only way one may go "out" to meet the Bridegroom is to "come out" from among the world and the flesh and the harlot churches with their idolatries and miserable distortions of truth, to be JOINED UNTO THE LORD in intimacy of fellowship and vital union.

The cry was, "Behold the Bridegroom!" This addresses the heart. It is not an historic event. As sure as you hold any truth intellectually you will eventually become an opposer of it. If you hold the coming of the Lord as a singular historic event I am bold to say that He will come and you will not recognize Him in His coming and you will oppose Him when He comes just as did the Jews of old. The coming of the Bridegroom is that revelation of the Christ that causes you to know that you are united to Him; it is the conscious knowledge and the experiencial reality. You cannot understand the relationship of the bride until you know UNION. You cannot be in that particular concert with Christ which the name of bride expresses until you yield yourself to be made ONE IN HIM. And this is a present reality! If you say the bride is only future, if you say the coming of the bridegroom is in the sweet bye and bye, you ignore the words, "The Spirit and the bride SAY, COME" (Rev. 22:17). When I know that I am united to the Christ I am so identified with His interests that they are paramount with me. Few know it. A wife is one who has reached full maturity, one who has given herself completely and unreservedly for her lover, one who has lost her own name and identity to take his. She has left all to follow him. The result of such a union is, as stated by Paul in Rom. 7:4, "that we should be married to another, even to HIM who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God."

The word "bridegroom" is from the Hebrew CHATHAN of which the root meaning is "to contract affinity." According to Webster affinity carries these shades of meaning: 1. relationship by marriage. 2. close relationship; connection. 3. a similarity or likeness implying common origin. 4. a spontaneous attraction to, or liking for, a person or thing. 5. a person of the opposite sex who especially attracts one. 6. the force that causes the atoms of certain elements to combine and stay combined.

For millenniums it has been believed that people who have the same birthdate, the same hour of birth, and were born on the same longitude and latitude generally live parallel lives. It is an affinity - a relationship, resemblance, likeness, connection, correspondence under the stars. Joseph Goodavage recorded the true story of two unrelated women who met for the first time in a hospital room in Hackensack, New Jersey in 1939. Their last names were Hanna and Osborne, but they had the same first name - Edna. Each woman had a baby at the same time; the babies weighed the same and were given the same name - Patricia Edna. Here is what their conversation revealed: both husbands were named Harold. Each Harold was in the same business and owned the same make, model, and color car. The Hannas and the Osbornes had been married exactly three and a half years and had the same anniversary. The babies were their first. Both fathers were born in the same year, month, and day. The mothers too had the same birthdate - and the same number of brothers and sisters. Each Edna was a blue-eyed brunette, same height, same weight, and wore the same size clothes. Each family owned a dog named Spot - same mixed breed, same size, and same age.

AFFINITY means you have the same genetic makeup, you have the same thoughts, the same ideas, the same emotions, the same actions, even when you are not physically together. It is to be like another person. Bridegroom means AFFINITY - TO CONTRACT AFFINITY! The Bridegroom agrees, yea, purposes to spiritually bring affinity into the life of His COMPLETED PERSON. As the bride you will yield yourself to the process of completion and perfection in the Christ, but as Bridegroom HE IS DETERMINED THAT IT WILL HAPPEN! He is resolved that this high and holy calling be your destiny. First He attracts you, He allures you, charms you, draws you, captivates you with His love. Then He invites you to a contract, an agreement, a covenant. By the terms of that contract you WILL come into oneness with the Christ and by the very genes of your new creation life you will think and purpose and act like Him in all things. Hallelujah!

"Christ also loved the CHURCH, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that lie 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" (Eph. 5:25-27).

The Bridegroom has special qualifications. He must love the bride in a special way; He must give Himself to her; He must make a vow to her and enter into a covenant relationship with her. He is fully responsible for loving and providing for her every need. There are six things listed in the passage above that the Lord, the heavenly Bridegroom, assumes as HIS RESPONSIBILITY:

1. Loving her

2. Giving to her

3. Sanctifying her

4. Cleansing her

5. Presenting her to Himself proudly

6. Nourishing and cherishing her.

It is interesting to note one characteristic that is significantly missing from this list. Have you noticed that there is never any CHASTISEMENT spoken of in scripture with regard to the bride? The Bible says that sons are corrected and chastised, but the bride is not in any way punished! Hers is a love relationship whereby she does what pleases her Lord just because of who she is - His bride. It is the RELATIONSHIP that is the emphasis when the bride is spoken of, not the usefulness. The sons are chastened and corrected because they are given great power and authority, but the bride is loved, cherished, nourished, attired, cleansed and made beautiful because she is made ONE IN HIM. Sons are taught how to use great power and glory, whereas the bride is instructed how to fulfill and complete her husband.

The question is arising in some minds: "What company am I in? Which am I apprehended to? Am I destined to be of the bride company, or a member of the manchild? Which should I DESIRE to be? Can I be BOTH? Is there really a difference - a separation between the two?"

Ah, my beloved, we have had such a veil over our minds! May the blessed Spirit of truth quicken the understanding of all who read these lines to see and discern that what the revelation of God teaches is just this: the WOMAN gives birth to the MANCHILD - THE WAY TO SONSHIP IS BRIDESBIP! It is the relationship of brideship that births the reality of sonship. One must fall madly, fiercely, intensely in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, making Him Head and Absolute Lord, keeping oneself unto Him and Him alone, entering the secret chamber of His love, reserving nothing unto oneself. We must first BOW in feminine love and submission before we can be birthed to stand tall and erect in the majesty of sonship unto God. There is NO OTHER WAY!

Union with Christ is most assuredly NOT a physical union. To be the bride of Christ does not mean that we experience a physical love relationship with Jesus. It is, rather, a spiritual union, joined to the Lord as ONE SPIRIT. Since it is a spiritual union it does not necessitate the PHYSICAL PRESENCE OF THE MAN JESUS as Bridegroom. Gaze not, my brother, my sister, into the sky to behold Him coming down through the clouds. You will never see the Bridegroom riding upon a cloud should you stare into the heavens for long millenniums to come. The coming of the Bridegroom is a spiritual coming forth of the Lord unto His elect bride. Do you not now hear the cry reverberating down the corridors of your soul - "Go ye O-U-T to meet Him!"

So many Christians today are satisfied with merely an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour. Their eyes are blinded to eternal values, and any efforts to lead them on to higher ground are rebuffed and resisted by a human reasoning which asks why one should waste time on them since they are saved. But salvation, while it is the most astounding miracle of the ages, yet is the birth of a MERE SPIRITUAL INFANT. There are many further steps which must follow this birth if one is to come into all the glories and the full heritage which is prepared for those who follow on to know the Lord. And not one of us has come all the way up to our full privileges in Christ. There is great glory and heavenly wealth awaiting those who become fully equipped unto God's great plan and purposes. Salvation is nothing more than the beginning of an eternal, heavenly, God-kind of life. Then the recipient may remain a baby spirit delighting only in the FACT of its childish spiritual existence. Salvation is a free gift, through unmerited mercy and favor: a new heavenly life begun by means of the new birth. But the outworking of the divine PURPOSE for that life is realized only by those who have salvation, and then go on to grow up into the "measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ."

May God help us to truly BE A BRIDE that we may also learn how to BE A SON that God may in and through us BE ALL IN ALL!

Next to Part 28

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