KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the
things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE
CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 134
THE WOMAN AND THE MANCHILD
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev. 12:1).
Many Christians today are
concerned with what they call the “signs of the times” or the outward “signs” of
certain events in the world which they suppose fulfill particular prophecies of
scripture and point to the end of the world, the end of the age, or the
so-called second coming of Christ. While
we do not deny that we are living in a transition of ages, the fact is these
precious people have no understanding whatever of what God is doing in this
significant hour for they are looking at the wrong
signs! Even God’s elect must
beware lest the political, economic, military, geophysical, and even religious
upheavals occurring throughout the world distract our attention from what the
Spirit is saying to the body of Christ, and from receiving from the Father His
instructions concerning His great plan and purpose in this new day of the Lord.
Jesus once told His
audience that when they saw a cloud rising in the west, they knew a shower was
coming, and that when the south wind blew they knew they could expect a heat
wave. “You hypocrites!” He said, “You know how to interpret the
appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the
present time?” (Lk. 12:54-56). They could predict the weather with
accuracy but failed to recognize HIM who had come from heaven to usher them into
God’s kingdom! You see, my beloved,
the scribes and Pharisees were able to interpret natural, outward, earthly
signs, but had no comprehension at all of spiritual, divine, heavenly signs! There are vast multitudes of the Lord’s
people today who, sad to say, are no different that those scribes and Pharisees
in that far-off day of blindness and unbelief. Like them, they are looking at the wrong
signs in an effort to discern the times! Therefore
they speak of earthly signs and miss the revelation of Jesus Christ!
Many a sermon has been
preached on the signs of the times and practically none of them have taken
note of the fact that in the whole book of Revelation the word “sign” (wonder)
is used only three times. In each case the sign is “in heaven” — in
the realm of the spirit! Not once is
there a sign given on earth toindicate
where we are in God’s great program of the ages! I remember when I was a child in the Pentecostal Church,
they always spoke about going to heaven as “somewhere” out beyond the blue, but
in due time I began to question that, because the heavenly realm is the
spiritual dimension where God lives as eternal, omnipresent spirit. It’s not on some far away “isle of
somewhere,” wearing a white night gown and playing a harp! It’s where our heavenly Father dwells as spirit, and He longs for you and
me to be joined together with Him and to dwell in His presence, and hear Him
speak to us and send us forth in the power of His Spirit until the whole world
shakes and is transformed by the presence of our God. Heaven is naught but the omnipresent realm
of the spirit which upholds all things and fills all things. It is all about us just as the air is all
about us and in our lungs and permeating every cell of our body. It
is a higher realm than the physical world of matter, but it is not a far-off
place. It is a dimension of life,
glory, authority, holiness, wisdom,
knowledge, and power which transcends every natural, earthly, and physical
thing. The “signs” given us in the book of Revelation are all in
heaven, in the spiritual world, and that is why they can be seen and interpreted only in the spirit and by the spirit! Can we not see by this that all who are
looking at wars, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, pestilences, worldly rulers and
empires, and a thousand more carnal,
earthly things are beholding
there no vision whatever of the time in which we live in the purposes of God!
In Matthew chapter
twenty-four Jesus did indeed
give His disciples some outward, earthly signs that would point to the fall of Jerusalem,
the destruction of the temple, and the dispersion of the Jewish people in A.D.
70. But those were all earthly things! The
old, outward, fleshly, natural city, temple, sacrifices, priesthood, law, and
national identity were passing away. But
I do not hesitate to tell you that Matthew chapter twenty-four and the book of
Revelation are not sequels! They
are not parallel prophecies! They
are not about the same events! They
are not addressed to the same people! And
their climax and consummation are diametrically opposite! The former is now history in the natural
world; the latter is an on-going unfolding in the spiritual world! Matthew chapter twenty-four prophesies the
end of the old Jewish economy, which happened in A.D. 70 when the Roman general
Titus besieged, destroyed, and burned the city of Jerusalem. When
his fury was finished Jerusalem appeared as a plowed field and the words
of Jesus were literally fulfilled, “There
shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Mat. 24:2). The book of Revelation, on the other hand,
is addressed to the church, the body of Christ; it prophesies of the
glorification of the church and the manifestation of the sons of God which will
result in the salvation of all nations, and the deliverance
of the whole creation from the bondage of corruption! It brings the triumph of the kingdom of God in all realms forevermore!
In the spiritual realm
something spectacular is taking place! This
is not up in the sky somewhere, not out beyond the Milky Way — this great sign
is in the heaven of the Spirit of the Lord! John
describes it as a “GREAT” wonder, which means a particular, out-of-the-ordinary,
important, significant, consequential, momentous, imposing, sublime, remarkable,
and preeminent picture, appearing in very vivid colors, is here being displayed,
not only to John, but to us as well — a
woman appears in heaven! At the
very beginning, then, we are cautioned not to take this woman as a real
character. She is a sign, a “great sign.” She is a symbolic or prophetic woman
and stands for a people of great glory, significance, and importance.
With anointed eye and
with unsandled foot we approach to behold this great sight. What John sees is called a “wonder” in the
King James Bible. This is from the
Greek word semeion which means a “sign.” A “wonder,” on the one hand, is something
that arrests, surprises, amazes, and astonishes. A wonder is something unexpected,
unprepared for, unprecedented, and surpassing all our experience. A “sign,” on the other hand, is a symbol
or prophecy of the reality it represents. The
purpose of a sign is to call attention to a person or a thing as special or
supernatural. It has regard to the significance of the work wrought as represented
by the vision which stands for it. And
by calling it a “sign” John reveals clearly that in the chapter before us we
must not expect a literal description of something real in the form in which he
sees it, but symbolism, and we must get beyond the outward symbol to the deeper
reality for which it stands. Thus,
the vision must be understood in
it’s spiritual meaning. Actually, there is no one who makes
the mistake of taking this chapter in the literal sense so that the woman is a
woman clothed with the real and literal sun and with the real moon under her
feet. But few ever plumb its depths
by the spirit of wisdom
and revelation from God to discern the true and deep spiritual reality to which it points!
The first sign which John
beholds in heaven, or in the spiritual realm of God, is that of a woman. She is of great and glorious appearance,
for she is arrayed with the glorious light of the Aegean sun as her magnificent
dress, she is standing upon the moon, and we are instructed that she is of royal
rank, for on her head she wears a crown of twelve stars. What a picture! And how wonderful in its meaning!
On the one hand, this
woman as to her appearance is mighty and glorious, of such a majestic nature
that even the heavenly bodies of light serve to add to her splendor. On the other hand, it must also be said
that with all her glory she has not yet reached the purpose of her existence and
is not perfectly happy, blessed, and fulfilled. For she is described as being pregnant and
in pain and travail of birth. She
lives in the expectation of motherhood, and that of a very special and powerful
son, and it is clear that she is about to be delivered. A woman, therefore, of high spiritual
stature, clothed with the glory of the sun of righteousness and crowned with the
power and dominion of divine illumination, but a woman also at the same time in
distress and in helpless condition — such a woman is that described by John.
Let us meditate briefly
on this thought of “woman.” A dear
sister in Christ has shared the following penetrating words. “Doubtless there is a mystery in the
epistles of the apostle Paul,
when he writes about women and their place in the church. He forbids women to speak in the
churches. They are commanded to be
silent, and if they would learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home,
for it is a shame for women to speak in the church (I Cor. 14:34-35). All scripture is profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. If these instructions are simply explained
as pertaining to ancient customs and conditions, when most women were uneducated
and unlearned, we must admit that they have no
value to us today.
“If women must learn from
their husbands, what of unmarried, or widows, or those whose natural husbands
know nothing of spiritual things? We
must go deeper to find what
husband is meant! Is not the believer, whether male or female, espoused to Christ? (II Cor. 11:2).Again, in I Timothy
2:11-12, Paul
suffers not a woman to teach but to learn in silence, with all subjection. If this were followed to the letter, the
church would be robbed of some splendid and anointed female teachers and
ministries. Besides, this conflicts
with Galatians
3:28, where no more distinction or preference is to be shown between male and
female than between Jew and Greek, or between slave and free. If the Greek or slave be free to speak,
why should the female be forbidden? And
the scriptures are plain that the churches had prophetesses who spoke the very word of the Lord to the
saints!
“But Paul
makes a strange and even more startling statement in I Timothy 2:15 wherein he
makes the salvation of a woman dependent upon her bearing a child! That is, IF we must accept it in the literal sense of the word. Some have interpreted this verse to mean
that expectant mothers are assured physical safety in bringing children into the
world, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. This
has apparently not proven true. Rachel
died in giving birth to Benjamin. Many
faithful mothers in both Old Testament times and New Testament times, as well as
in our own day, lost their lives as a result of childbirth. Can we not see that the CHILDBEARING which
the Spirit in Paul
was speaking about, the childbearing that BRINGS SALVATION, is NOT NATURAL
CHILDBEARING!
“Rotherham reads, ‘She shall be saved: however through means of childbearing.’ Fenton reads, ‘She will be saved because of THE childbearing.’ The Diaglott and Clementson both read,
‘…through THE childbearing.’ Out of
nine translations I have examined seven support the thought of salvation through, because of, and by means of, childbearing. Four of them definitely define it as ‘THE’
childbearing. The long hidden
mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:26-27). May I submit that ‘Christ in you’ is THE child, the holy seed, begotten of the Father
by the word of truth (James 1:18). Many
suppose that when Paul
speaks of the woman being ‘saved’ by ‘childbearing’ he is speaking naturally and
physically. But more often Paul
spoke allegorically of spiritual
realities, using natural things
as the picture or symbol. Thus he says, ‘My little children of whom I travail in birth again, until CHRIST BE
FORMED IN YOU’ (Gal. 4:19). Every believer, whether male or female,
must have formed in them and brought to birth, the new man, the Christ! This is the hope of the groaning creation
and the ‘salvation’ of the ‘woman’ who bears the manchild!”
WHO IS THE WOMAN?
Now who is represented by
the woman John sees?
It is not hard to
understand what is meant by the symbol of the “woman” — almost immediately we
recognize her as the true church, the body of Christ. This is not a reference to any or all of
the various religious systems and organizations of man which call themselves “the church.” The church — from the Greek ekklesia— means simply “called
out.” It is composed of those who by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost have been called out
of this world’s system, to become a part of the new creation species of which
Jesus Christ is the Head. “For by
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” (I Cor. 12:13). The body of Christ is a living organism, and the life of each member of that
body is the one and selfsame Spirit. God has separated each member unto Himself
and has placed each member in the body as it has pleased Him. Whatever our place, position, and function
may be in the body, the calling is HIS. There
are many levels of development, expression, and function, but all make up one
glorious multi-faceted manifestation of the indwelling
spirit of life.
The woman is the virgin church. We know this “wonder” or “sign” indicates
a marvelous development in the church realm, because the church has not been who
she is supposed to be nor has she done what she was called to do. This woman is in the supernatural realm,
she is a supernatural woman in a supernatural state of being. The fact that she is a “sign” signifies
that she is not the whole church — she is something unique, remarkable, out of
the ordinary, phenomenal, incredible — something supernatural in the heavens of
the Spirit of the Lord! She is
moving in the highest realms of the Spirit! This
is a truly spiritual church as contrasted with those to whom the
apostle wrote, “I could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal” (I Cor. 3:1). This woman speaks of a people with a
revelation and an indwelling life, who is about to come forth into the reality
and power of that revelation and life. She
is a people of God that is not content to just see a revelation, but yearn for,
long for, and travail for that revelation to come forth into full manifestation.
As God continues to deal
in this hour with a people, to bring them into His fullness, there are some
questions which arise concerning definitions and application 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 distinct 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 may be female and yet not be your wife. She could be your daughter, your sister,
or your mother. 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 each is related to you. In like manner, through the new birth we
have become consciously aware of our identity in 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 our heavenly Father 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 (when we are mature). We only know that when He appears (
revealed in us) 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 through and beyond
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 siblings 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 play different roles. The Lord Jesus is spoken of in scripture
as our Father, Brother, Husband, Friend, Master, King, High Priest, Judge, etc. All such names and titles are but
designations of offices held, of particular relationships Christ has to us, or
we have to one another. 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 in that long ago beginning; 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, wearing, as it were, different hats, 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 even than 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 declaring, “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 Shadai 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 the 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
is from the Greek huios meaning a mature son, one who has
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 a 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 the masculine attributes find their fulfillment.
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 the great truth 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. A dear friend has expressed it so
succinctly: “Sonship has a power — the power of knowledge, authority, and what
might be called heroic deeds; but brideship has a power, also — the power to
submit, to lay down one’s will, to yield to another. Sons have the power to be strong; the
bride has the power to be tender. While
it was the masculine nature of Christ that gave Jesus such resolve to face the
cross, to set His face as a flint toward Jerusalem,
for example, it was the feminine nature of Christ which could say, ‘No man can
take my life from me; I lay it down willingly. I have power to lay it down (feminine),
and I have power to take it up again (masculine).’ Both aspects at work in the same man; both
aspects at work in the same body of believers; both aspects at work to fulfill
the purposes of God!”
The bride relationship
bears the feminine nature whereas the son relationship bears the characteristics
of the masculine. 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). Clearly
the full overcomers are identified as the
sons of God with power and authority!
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. So ought men to love their wives as their
own bodies. He that loveth his wife
loveth himself. This is a great
mystery: but I speak concerning Christ
and the church” (Eph.
5:22-28,32).
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 over-balanced in our zeal to become sons of God that we circumvent the
marvelous reality of brideship! The
simple yet sublime truth is just this — THE WAY TO SONSHIP IS BRIDESHIP! This is why the Spirit has given us in the
Revelation the example of the glorious sun-clad woman giving birth to a
remarkable manchild who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. It is the inworking of brideship that births the realm of sonship! No woman, no son! Jesus
said, “I am the way…no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Dear man of God; dear woman of God; 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 and
inviolable principle in God that I pray 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 often make use of the
word “know” — to describe the giving and receiving of seed in the act of love. For example, we read in Genesis 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! Oh, no! “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 on a personal and intimate level 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 blessed 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, to 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
Yahweh,” 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 which is joined (in
union) with an harlot is one body…but
He that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit” (I Cor. 6:16-17). 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 manifest as 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 not truly forsaken the
company of the wanton harlots of Mystery Babylon, the carnal religious systems
of man called the church; if you have not renounced the
schemes, plans, and ambitions of the carnal mind nor abandoned your love of the
world and the desires of the flesh — you cannot expect to be birthed into that
illustrious 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 lordship
that dictates your actions, any hidden and “reserved” areas of your life, then
you have not yet learned HOW TO BE 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! The glorious woman must give birth to the
manchild!
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 no longer want my life…I want to share yours.” Oh! many 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 name, 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.
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 has done such great things for me, He
answers my prayers and supplies all my needs,” you know that you listen to the
testimony of a child, imperfect in love. Everything centers in them and what they get out of it. That kind of talk is like the girl who
married a rich man and said, “I love John because he provides me with a beach
house, a new Mercedes,
beautiful diamonds, a mink coat, vacations around the world, and a $1000.00 a
week allowance!” Obviously,
she loves John ONLY FOR HIS MONEY! Should
John lose his wealth her love would soon wither and die. And many immature believers, the little
“children” of God, profess to love God out
of these same base and 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 gifts, but the bride is excited about the GIVER!
Do we really love Him, or
are we merely using Him? Methinks
that the prosperity crowd today are primarily using Him! Do we know what it means to enter into
His lovely presence, asking nothing, reaching out to Him in the beauty of His
holiness and with gratitude and thanksgiving for loving us so completely. Haven’t we become very selfish sometimes
and ego-centric 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, deliver
us, protect us, bless us, prosper us, use us,” — and that may all be good in its
place, but the focus is still on US. Even
in our work for Him we 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 bride wants none of this. She prefers to be shut up alone with her
Lover! The claims of the Bridegroom
are paramount upon the bride — she loves 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!
The question is arising
in some minds: “What company am I in? Which
am I apprehended to — brideship or sonship? Am
I destined to be of the sun-clad woman 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 us is just
this: The woman gives birth to the manchild — THE
WAY TO SONSHIP IS BRIDESHIP! It
is the relationship of brideship that births the reality of sonship. That is the great sign John saw in heaven, a woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; she is with child, crying, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered! One must fall madly, fiercely, intensely
in love with the Lord Jesus, making Him Head and absolute Lord, keeping oneself
from all others, unto Him and Him alone, entering the secret chamber of His
loves, reserving nothing unto oneself. We
first bow in feminine love and submission before
we are birthed to stand tall in the
majesty of sonship to God. There is
NO OTHER WAY!
Union with Christ is most assuredly not a
physical union! It is a spiritual
union, joined to the Lord in one
spirit. Being a spiritual union,
it does not necessitate by any means the physical
presence of the man Jesus coming
as the Bridegroom. Many believers
entertain the mistaken notion that the marriage of the Lamb portrayed in chapter
nineteen of the Revelation can only take place after Jesus has physically come
back to earth. Gaze not, my brother,
my sister, into the sky to behold Him coming down through the clouds. I tell you the truth when I say that you
will never
see the Bridegroom riding upon a cloud should you stare into the heavens through
long millenniums to come! Just as a
physical man joined to a physical harlot is one
flesh, so the Lord’s new creation
spiritual people joined to the Lord who is
the Spirit are one spirit. It has nothing to do with either Jesus
or us as flesh and blood people! Surely
the song of the bride is this:
Shut in with God in the secret place,
There in the spirit beholding His face;
Gaining new power to run in the race,
I
love to be shut in with God!
The woman with the crown
of twelve stars is a great sign in
heaven. This woman is surpassingly
glorious before her child is born. I
write these things, holy brethren, because to me the truth is so very evident
that the manifestation of the glory and power of God upon this virgin bride of
Christ precedes the
manifestation of the sons of God. The
woman is manifested in great glory in the heavenly sphere, although
it is quite evident that she is right here on earth at the time. Paul spoke
of the wonder of this woman in heaven in these words, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in
heavenly places might be known by
the church the manifold wisdom
of God” (Eph. 3:10). We have rejoiced to see that she is
clothed with the sun and has conquered the moon, but let us take into further
consideration that her head is crowned with twelve stars and she is crowned before her son comes to birth, not
afterwards. She has a great
authority given her before the manchild is born, and she is a
glorious church without spot or wrinkle, and her dominion is not given because
her child is born as the manifest sons of God, but is given her of God before the sons are manifested, while
they are still hidden in the womb. There
shall be manifested great anointing, power, and glory upon God’s true virgin
church ere the sons of God arise to reign and restore all things back into the
life of God again. Aren’t you glad!
To be
continued…
J. PRESTON EBY
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