Why? The Divine Revelation

To experience God today, we need to realize the Holy Spirit is leading us forward today. The Holy Spirit is establishing the Kingdom of God on this earth. It is a flowing river coming out from the throne. The current of the Holy Spirit is the one leading us onward today. God was placed in front of the children of Israel in the Ark of the Covenant leading His people to cross the Jordan and to defeat Jericho. “At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, ‘As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.’” (Jos. 3:2-4). The Lord as the Holy Spirit leads us today. In defeating Jericho, the ark led the way in circling the city once for 6 days, then 7 times on the 7^th day. No longer were the children of Israel complaining as they did when they came out of Egypt. In fact, not a word came out of their mouth. “But Joshua commanded the people, ‘You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.’” (Jos. 6:10) The children of Israel, transformed now by eating only manna, were to remain silent, with no expression of their flesh, no complains of why they were doing what they were doing, until they were to shout in unison, and the walls of the stronghold of Jericho fell down. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” (Acts 2:4) The 120 in the upper room in Acts no longer spoke from themselves, but with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. This is the Holy Spirit today, leading the church onward so we are one in the current of the Holy Spirit.

When the body follows the Spirit, there is only one flow for it is only the one mind of Christ that is expressed in the body. “…But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16) “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Php. 2:5) That is how God accomplishes His purpose so all things become headed up in Christ. “Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself. Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” (Eph. 2:20-22)

When Christ heads up all things in us, realize it is the Holy Spirit that is transmitting all the elements of Christ into us. The term “Holy Spirit” is used only in reference to the Spirit after Jesus resurrected. Before the Spirit of God was simply referred to as the Spirit. It was because the Spirit was not yet. Before Jesus died for us, with reference to time, the Spirit did not contain the elements of Jesus’s humanity, nor His death, resurrection and ascension. That is why the Spirit was “not yet”. “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7: 37-39 – Recovery Version) Before Jesus died for us, redemption had not been accomplished yet so the Spirit was not released for the disciples to receive. When Jesus’s Spirit was released to us after His death, resurrection, and ascension, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) that could enter into man. He was one with the Holy Spirit now. That is why in Acts, the saints, forming his body, were led by the Holy Spirit. “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” (Acts 16:6-7) Realize the “Holy Spirit” and the “Spirit of Jesus” are now interchangeably used in leading the saints. It is now the Ark of the Covenant before his people, the Christians forming His body, the church, today.

This Spirit of Jesus contains all the elements of Jesus’s humanity, with His forgiveness and forbearance, and is now the Holy Spirit within us, becoming a flowing river within the believers. “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water gushing up into eternal life.” (John 4:14) The Spirit of Jesus not only satisfies us so we would never thirst again, but it will satisfy those around us, supplying them with life through the expressed humanity and divinity of Christ emanating from us. The expression of Jesus in His humanity emanating from us will flow out of us to others supplying them with life. That is the Spirit of Jesus becoming our constitution. “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) This living water that flows out of us is for others to drink. That is why when Stephen was stoned, he behaved just like Christ when He was crucified. “But being full of the Holy Spirit, he looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold. I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed upon him with one accord. And they threw him outside of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man called Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! And kneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7:55-60) As he was dying, with his last breath, Stephen was concerned about those stoning him to death. Realize he was one with the Spirit of Jesus. He uttered what Jesus said at His crucifixion, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) He was worried about the very men that were involved in His death. “And crying out with a loud voice, Jesus said, Father into Your hands I commit My spirit. And saying this, He expired.” (Luke 23:46) When our spirits are one with the Spirit of Jesus, we will forgive, forebear and genuinely love our enemies as ourselves. This is how the body supplies each other so we grow together as one. The expression of Jesus’s humanity through us knits us together into one, where Christ becomes the Head, and we become His body. “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the body unto the building up of itself in love.” (Eph. 4:15-16) “Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone. In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom you are also being built together into a dwelling place of God in Spirit.” (Eph. 2:20-22)

This is what the Spirit of Jesus is doing today.

That is the current of the Holy Spirit flowing today leading us onward to establish the Kingdom of God.

That is why we must be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph. 4:3-5) When we let the Holy Spirit lead us, forsaking all else and denying ourselves, then Christ, as the Holy Spirit, could be over all and through all and in all.

Holiness is a distinctiveness of God. It is what makes Him distinct from anything else. That is the very definition of God. He is holy. So how are we to be holy?

Jesus said to us, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mat. 5:48) What did He mean by this? In fact, all the people of God was supposed to be holy, “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” (Lev. 19:2) Holiness is a distinctiveness only of God. Yet we are reminded by Peter, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Pet. 1:16) What does this mean? How are we to be holy?

Realize human beings can never be holy by themselves. No matter how hard we try, no matter how righteous we are, no matter how perfect we think we are, as human beings, we can never be holy, as it is a distinctiveness of God. The only way to be holy then is to let God express Himself through us. That is why God says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Pet. 1:16) To be holy is a passive term. We do not make ourselves holy; we become holy for He is holy. The holiness of Christ having taken residence in us, dwelling within man, living within His believers, makes us holy.

This holiness dwelling in us needs to be expressed so God lives out of us. The only way to do this is to die to ourselves so Christ could live out of us. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20) When we no longer live to ourselves, when we no longer cherish our soul-lives (Rev. 12:11), Christ can live out of us so we express His holiness. That is why those who find their lives will lose it, those who lose their lives will find it (Mat. 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33). This concept is repeated five times in the Bible for emphasis. When we lose our soul-life, we will gain the divine life of Christ. Realize Christ will become our person and be expressed through our humanity. The love that is of God will be expressed in us to our brothers. That is how we love our neighbours as ourselves.

That is why Christ was incarnated to be a man, so He could experience what we experience in our humanity, and bring that back to God during His resurrection and ascension. Realize He brought humanity back to divinity. When Jesus resurrected, a new creation was formed. When He was born of Mary, He was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16); when He resurrected, He became the firstborn Son of God (Col. 1:15; Rom. 8:29). As the firstborn Son of God, He had a humanity that has already been tested. So when He released the life-giving Spirit to us (1 Cor. 15:45), the Spirit has all the aspects of human living in Him. It had experienced all our temptations, all our needs and limitations of the flesh, all our desires to do things according to ourselves, and was victorious over all things, subjecting all things under His feet (Eph. 1:17). Realize this is the Christ that we have now received. It is victorious in all aspects of our humanity. In fact, the love we have for each other, the joy we share, the peace between men, the patience we show each other, the kindness we express, the goodness towards each other, the faithfulness we keep, the gentleness of our hearts, and the self-control we express, becomes a display of the fruit of the Spirit, of Christ Himself, lived out of us (Gal. 5:22-23). The two natures, Christ’s divinity and Christ’s humanity, has become one now expressed through His body, us. That is why whatever we bind on this earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on this earth will be loosed in heaven (Mat. 16:19; 18:18). That is why “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mat. 6:10; Luke 11:2)

Where do we get the power to do this? Realize it is only in the power of the Holy Spirit. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:9) After the disciples received Christ and received the Holy Spirit as life to them, they were born again with an eternal life. “And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:22) They were born of the Holy Spirit, but not filled with the fullness of the Spirit. They had the divine life, but had not recognized the divine power of this life that was in them. They still needed to be filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That is why, in His resurrection, Christ appeared to His disciples for forty days (Acts 1:3). This forty days was to remind us of the forty years the children of Israel spent in the wilderness. Having crossed the Red Sea, the children of Israel were all baptized and received the Spirit as life to them, in type. Yet all those that came out of Egypt had to die in the wilderness so the world (Egypt) could be left behind. They had to lose their life to gain it. Those that were born in the wilderness depended only on manna as their source of energy. They depended on the heavenly things, the manna, as their bread of life. “Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.’” (John 6:32-33) “I am the bread of life…” (John 6:35) When humans derive their energy purely on Christ as their bread of life and live this way, they don’t need to cut off their flesh. That is why the children of Israel that were born in the wilderness were not circumcised until they reached the good land and the manna stopped. “For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised.” (Jos. 5:5) As we cross the Jordan to live with the inhabitants of this world, feeding on the produce of this land and eating flesh again, we need to be circumcised. When we gain our strength from this world, we need to cut off our flesh. “Now when they had finished circumcising all the nation…” (Jos. 5:9) “On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna…” (Jos. 5:11-12) Realize the source of our power to live this divine life must be a source that is divine. It must be of the Holy Spirit, the bread of life. That is why in crossing the Jordan, God’s people had a second baptism, in type. To cross into the good land and function in this world to win over its inhabitants, as God’s people, His ambassadors in chains (Eph. 6:20) must be immersed in the Holy Spirit. We must be inwardly baptized in the Holy Spirit. “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:5) In this baptism of the Holy Spirit, we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. Today it is simply realizing the power of the Spirit that is living within us to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Php. 1:21) We have died to our soul-life so we live Christ.

When we realize the power of the Spirit living within, we become witnesses of the Spirit that is living within us. We become witnesses of the Spirit today that is operating within us as Christians. When Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus, He said to Saul, “But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;” (Acts 26:16) Realize the Spirit living in us not only gives us utterance so we speak the words of God as a minister who teaches, but we are appointed a witness of the Spirit living within us. A witness is one who provides testimony—testimony of the reality of the Spirit that is living within. The Spirit not only makes real to Paul the things which he had seen, it makes real to him things in the future that are about to come, when the Spirit will appear to Paul in “the things in which I will appear to you.” (Acts 26:16) Today as we live this life, the Spirit is appearing to us moment by moment in all things, bringing us into a heavenly way of living and behaving that is of the Spirit, of the Christ that is living within us. We live and walk by the Spirit. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:25) As Christians, we become witnesses of this reality. That is why, “And they overcame him (Satan) because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their [soul]-life even when faced with death.” (Rev. 12:11) As witnesses of the Spirit, the word of our testimony is Christ’s reality lived out of us. That overcomes Satan. As Christ lives out of us, the reality of the fruit of the Spirit is expressed in us. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” (Gal. 5:22-23) all the reality of the fruit of the Spirit, Christ Himself, is expressed from us. We “belong to Christ Jesus [and] have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal. 5:24) We did not love our soul-life even when faced with death (Rev. 12:11) and have presented ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Rom. 12:1). “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20) “If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:23)

This is how the body of Christ is built in one accord. We no longer separate ourselves according to what we hold as somehow “more righteous” in the church. There is no longer groups of Christians, but just one body of Christ. When we let the Spirit lead us, we are all one body. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” (Eph. 4:4) We no longer hold up ideas that separate, but we simply let the Spirit lead, just as the ark of the covenant led the children of Israel as they crossed the Jordon and as they defeated Jericho where the walls were shaken and came tumbling down. “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them…” (Acts 4:31-34) Realize the apostles in Acts defeated Jericho, shaking it to its foundations. When they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were led by Christ living within them. They did not speak from their soul-life, but spoke only the word of God with boldness. They were witnesses of the Spirit, giving a testimony of what they saw of the resurrected Christ. They were now in one accord as a people, doing whatever the Spirit wanted and going wherever the Spirit led them. “They answered Joshua, saying, ‘All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.’” (Jos. 1:16) The congregation of believers formed the one body of Christ—they were of one heart and soul. They did not claim that anything belonged to themselves personally, but all things were common. Realize this implies that they had given up their soul-lives in this world. They had entered into the land flowing with milk and honey so “abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them…” (Acts 4:33-34) This is the reality of the one Spirit and one body of Christ.

May the Lord open our inner spiritual eyes to see this reality today so we would be overcomers in His church.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” (Eph. 4:4)

Praising God is not asking God in prayer for something; it is declaring that Christ has won the victory. Our praising of God is a declaration of His victory. Our fervent praise of Him in unceasing prayers (1 The. 5:7) not only keeps us in the temple, bringing us into oneness with Him (1 Cor. 6:17), so we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) and move and function as His body (Eph. 4:12); but it declares God’s victory over heaven and earth. To gain this victory over the earth today, realize we don’t fight, we simply need to claim the victory in Christ.

Realize that the church is like Joshua today, entering into the good land to win its inhabitants over to Christ. When Christ is sown into unbelievers (Mark 4:1-20) and grows out of them so they have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27), we begin to enjoy the expression of Christ in His body. We enjoy the richness of the expressed Christ in each other. The reality of the Triune God expressed through the Spirit of reality (John 14:17) living inside each one of us is the milk and honey we enjoy flowing from this good land. This is the enjoyment of the all inclusive Christ expressed in His body today.

When Christ flows from us in our humanity, realize our flesh of sin is no more, we now express Christ in His holiness through the body. That is why when we are fed with manna, we don’t need to be circumcised in our flesh, just as the children of Israel, when they only fed on manna, remained uncircumcised. “For all the people who came out were circumcised; but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised.” (Jos. 5:5) When the source of our strength in our life is based solely on manna, on Christ alone, we don’t need to be circumcised as our expression is only of Him and not of our flesh. So the expression of our flesh does not need to be cut, just like the hair on the high priests. “They shall not make any baldness on their heads; nor shave off the edges on their beards, nor make cuts in their flesh.” (Lev. 21:5) Realize when Christ is our all in all, and we only express Him, there is no expression of our flesh, so we do not cut it. When Christ is all that we express, we have “clothed ourselves in fine linen, bright and clean” (Rev 19:8). We have made ourselves ready as the bride for Christ (Rev. 19:7).

Unfortunately we are not there today. That is why we need to submit ourselves to Him. When we first believed, coming out of Egypt and being baptized in the Red Sea, we had lots of complaints about what will happen to us in the wilderness. But as we ate the manna daily, eating Christ as our daily bread (John 6:35), we were “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:17) so we could be built into His church. On stepping into the Jordon, when the ark of the covenant was leading the way, the waters dried up as the priests’ feet touched the water. “And when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of the harvest), the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off.” (Jos. 3:15-16) On entering the waters of death in this world, when Christ works through His body, all we need to do is touch our feet to the waters and it will dry up. Then in the midst of the waters, we stand firm. “And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm of dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.” (Jos. 3:17) It is in the midst of the waters of death that Joshua builds the church. “Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day.” (Jos. 4:9) God begins His church in the midst of the Jordan, but then His body, represented by the twelve tribes of Israel who are God’s people, are to select twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan and bring it out to Gilgal. “Take for yourselves twelve man from the people, one man from each tribe, and command them, saying, ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.’” (Jos. 4:2-3) “Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.” (Jos. 4:19-20) Realize the church as the body of Christ, which was built at first in the waters of death, has now come out of this world. Christ has sanctified it and placed it on the good land in victory. This good land Christ has already given to us. “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given to you, just as I spoke to Moses.” (Jos. 1:3) On this good land, we are to do nothing but follow Him. The ark of the covenant led the way to victory for Israel. The Spirit now leads us in victory over this world. That is how we possess this good land. That is how we win over the inhabitants of this earth to Christ .

On this good land, we are in one accord, following the Spirit. We don’t express ourselves, not to even let a word proceed out of our mouths (Jos. 6:19) until the Spirit within us gives us utterance, telling us to “Shout!,” because we are filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4). “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to who belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Pet. 4:11) When we speak, we must be filled with the Spirit and it must be the Spirit giving us the utterance. “And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Eph. 6:19-20) When we talk to unbelievers, the Spirit speaking out of us will touches their spirit, so they will understand. Realize as a member of His body, we are only an ambassador of Christ in chains. We don’t speak from ourselves but from the Christ that is dwelling in us. That is how His body is maintained in one accord, speaking boldly as we ought to speak. There is no head but Christ. When we speak, it must represent Christ as we are ambassadors is chains. When we open our mouth, realize it must be Christ. We must be filled with the Holy Spirit so He speaks out of us. “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” (Acts 2:4) When the Spirit speaks out of us, we declare His victory.

When we use our mouths to declare His victory, we have shouted in unison. When the body speaks this way, the strongholds of the enemy will fall down. On the seventh day, the day of our Sabbath rest, the walls of Jericho fell. The strongholds of this world, no matter what it is, cannot withstand our shout of victory. No matter what circumstances in this world we find ourselves in, when we shout His praise in unison as His body, we have won the victory. That is why we simply need to claim the victory in Christ who has now sat down on the right hand of God and we are seated with Him. “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Eph. 1:19-23) “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-7) Christ has already won the victory. We, as His body, simply need to claim it. Realize when all things are in subjection under His feet and we form His body, all thing are in subjection under His church. That is how we win over the inhabitants of this land to Christ.

Realize as Paul was praying, even in a prison cell by himself, he was one with the body. That is why he said, “And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19) Paul never saw himself as being eloquent in speech or someone leading the way. “Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent.” (2 Cor. 10:1) In front of people, Paul is small. “For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.’ Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are in deed when present.” (2 Cor. 10:10-11) Paul is very small in his flesh before the saints. That is why, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.” (Eph. 3:8) Only when we are small, can God freely speak through our bodies. So to the smallest members of the body, be encouraged to “Shout” when the Spirit gives you utterance, to build up the body of Christ.

Through the Spirit, He is working in us, expressing Himself out of us for the enjoyment of all the members of Christ. Our testimonies of what God is doing in our lives is how we conquer the enemy. “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their [soul]-life even when faced with death.” (Rev. 12:11) What we say is not only our testimony, but our declaration of Christ’s victory in our lives and over the inhabitants of this land. When we claim His victory by our testimonies, we have unfurled our banners (S.S. 4:12), blowing our trumpets declaring our victory, and praising Him.

As the body of Christ, let us shout together in praise, for Christ has led us to victory.

In His victory, Christ has not only brought divinity into humanity, freeing us from sin, but the fineness of our linen that is bright and clean, is because He has brought humanity into divinity.

To mature in Christ means the Spirit has won the spiritual war between our flesh and the Spirit by our love for God, submitting our will to His will so He can do everything in us and Christ becomes our all in all. By taking God as our Sabbath rest, we have won the war. This is how Christ builds His church on this earth today. He does it actively in us when we are submissive to Him. This is typified by how Christ led the nation of Israel to conquer Jericho and take the good land.

When the nation of Israel was brought out of Egypt, they walked into the wilderness for forty years so they could be entirely transformed, by feeding on food from heaven, into a new creation that was ready to take the good land. All that was from Egypt, their former way of life in their flesh, had to die in the wilderness so the people who are transformed by the eating of the manna, now forming their very bodies, could cross the river Jordon and enter the good land. Just as Moses, the deliverer, who was a type of Christ, left the children of Israel to conquer the good land, realize Christ has also left us in His human form so we, the ones that are transformed inwardly, are to conquer this world and build His church. Because of Satan’s usurpation, this earth in entirely inhabited by the enemy at Moses’s time. No one else had received the manna but God’s people. The children of Israel were facing what seemed like an impossible task.

That was what the apostles were facing. After the day of Pentecost, the 120 transformed people of God that were filled with the Spirit and spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance, now faced a world usurped by Satan, that they needed to conquer, so the nations can receive the divine life of Christ by believing and form His body. The earth, occupied by the nations, had to be conquered and transformed into the good land, where Christ is produced. Christ has to become the reality of the good land in us so we express Him as milk and honey. That is why we are God’s field. “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor. 3:9) The seed, Christ Himself, is sown into us transforming us, so we become God’s field, and He grows out of us as the expression of the good land, flowing with milk and honey. Realize Christ Himself becomes everything.

When Christ is everything to us, and we solely rely on Him, we don’t need to cut off our flesh. The people who had been born in the wilderness, who were made of manna, were not circumcised. “Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.” (Jos. 5:6) Their expression of the flesh was clean as long as the source of their strength is from heaven. But as they entered into the war over Jordon and were no longer exclusively fed by manna but fed by the produce of this earth, they needed again to be circumcised. Christ had been their food so long as they ate the bread from heaven. “And on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” (Jos. 5:11) When we base the source of our strength on the produce of this earth, realize our flesh needs to be circumcised so we have no confidence in the flesh. Only when Christ is the source of our strength, when He is expressed through us, do we not need to cut off our expression.

When Christ leads the way, our victory in this world is complete. “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.” (Jos. 1:3) Realize though it seems like an impossible task, to build the church and win on this earth, Christ has already given us this land. This is why Jesus said, “…In Me you will have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) He has already overcome the world. When He leads us, we will say, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.” (Jos. 2:24) Even Rahab, a prostitute inhabiting the land, realized this. “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that the inhabitants of the land melt away before you…And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” (Jos. 2:8-11) “As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.” (Jos. 5:1) Realize this is how God builds His church today. We just need to let Christ lead us. When we speak to the inhabitants of this earth, the Spirit must lead the way. When Christ leads the way, realize the people we speak to will hear the Spirit speak to their spirit. Their hearts will melt and there will be no spirit left in them. That is how God won the war through Joshua and the nation of Israel.

Realize the Ark of the Covenant went before the children of Israel. The Ark led the way to victory. When the Ark walks before us, the waters of the Jordon will part. “Now then, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordon, the waters of the Jordon will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing from above will stand in one heap.” (Jos. 3:12-13) The world that is under the waters of death will part so we could cross. In taking down the stronghold that is Jericho the Lord has to take the lead. Realize not only in the commander of the Lord’s army with us, but the Ark of the Covenant leads the way. “And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?’ And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” (Jos. 5:14-15) Realize Joshua is not longer the Christ figure as Moses was, the commander of the army of the Lord is. Joshua represents one of us, the body of Christ, and not the head, the commander. He is part of the body, a corporate Joshua who follows the Lord. The whole nation of Israel was with Joshua. “And they answered Joshua, ‘All that you commanded us we will do, and where ever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we sill obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.'” (Jos. 1:16-18) Realize the children of Israel is no longer rebelled against Moses, the type of Christ, as they did when they came out of Egypt. They had been transformed as a nation in one accord by the eating of the manna. They expressed the will of God in one accord. They have formed a corporate Joshua that follows the Lord. That is why they just followed when Joshua told them to simply walk around Jericho, blowing their trumpets and not saying a word, in doubt or in complaint. They simply let the Lord lead them to victory.

“Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valour.” (Jos. 6:1-2) In winning men to Christ, realize the Lord has given them into our hands. Their hearts have melted, they no longer have the spirit to fight us. “You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seven day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.” (Jos. 6:3-5) Satan has built strongholds in this world. “For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.” (Eph. 6:12 – Recovery Version) To defeat this stronghold, realize we have to do nothing but walk with God. In obeying God to walk around the city, the children of Israel had to do nothing to defeat Jericho. “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” (2 Cor. 10:4) They just had let God lead them to victory. That is why they blew their trumpets continually (Jos. 6:8-9) to proclaim their victory in the Lord. That is why it was on the seventh day, the day of the Sabbath rest when they were to do no labour that the walls of Jericho fell. To defeat the enemy, we are to make no noise, no expression from our flesh, nothing unclean that proceeds out of our mouth. “But Joshua commanded the people, ‘You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.’” (Jos. 6:10) The expression from our mouths has to be in co-ordination with the body of Christ so oneness is kept within the body. God has a group of people on this earth for His possession. He has used various individuals through the centuries that are like the Joshua’s of our day to recover various truths (realities) within His Word. Presently, on this earth, He has a group of people for His possession, a corporate Joshua. If you see this matter of the one body of Christ, realize you need to join these overcomers and gather yourselves in a real way to be in the army of God. Only under the corporate Joshua of our time can the body be fully build into His bride as the New Jerusalem. The strategy of the enemy had been to divide us, having us head up so many ideas in church theology, separating the body of Christ into so many groups of believers. Of the seven different churches in Revelation, realize all the differences are negative. Realize Christ is calling us all to be the overcomers so we could be formed into the one body of Christ on this earth for Him to return to claim His one bride. Only when Christ takes the lead, when all things are headed up in Christ, can the body be unified into one (Eph. 1:9-10). In this world, only when we stand firm in oneness, with Christ leading us on, can His church be built. As the Ark of the Covenant led the children of Israel through the Jordon, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe of man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” (Jos. 4:2-3) In building His church out of living stones taken out of the midst of this world, we have to stand firmly as priests to God with each other to form his body the church. Nothing of our flesh should get in the way as it is unclean. In co-ordination and co-operation with the corporate Joshua of our time, Christ will build His church. The church needs to be formed by people who overcome the pettiness of our different theological arguments, which hold no weight in reality before God. Realize only the Spirit is the common element that has been deposited in each one of us. The Spirit of reality has been given to each one of us in its fullness. There is only one Spirit. “For in one Spirit we were baptized into one body…and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:13) We are “…standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” (Phi. 1:27) This one mind is the mind of Christ. “‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16)

The mind of Christ forgives each other unlike in the times of Joshua when those who did not follow were put to death (Jos. 1:18). [Realize it can be as serious as that with what happened to Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).] So we need to forebear each other (Phi. 4:5) so we become not only a chosen race containing Christ forming a royal priesthood to the world, but we become a holy nation to fight the war in one accord to claim the good land where all the inhabitants’ hearts melt and they no longer have any spirit in them to fight, so they receive Christ into their hearts and more people are made like us, a people for God’s own possession. (1 Pet. 2:9) That is why “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Pet. 2:9) This is the unity of the one mind of Christ, so the expression of the body proclaims the excellencies of Christ who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Christ is the head who wills and works in us so the expression of the body is of Him.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mat. 28:18-20) To win the war today, we do not destroy the inhabitants of the land, we rescue them out of their death situation on this earth into the life of Christ in His heavenly kingdom. In His ascension the inhabitants of this land will melt before us. Realize Christ is timeless. In His ascension, everything has been accomplished already and Christ has sat down on the right hand of God. The land has been given to us. He has brought us into the heavenlies to sit with Him. However, we are temporal and just don’t realize it yet. We still think that we know better and need to do these various things to please God. As a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for His possession, we just need to praise God for His accomplishments through Christ, taking our Sabbath rest. Our fervent praise of Him in unceasing prayer keeps us in the temple, bringing us into oneness with Him, so we have the mind of Christ and move and function as His body. Then Christ, living out of us, makes disciples of all the nations for Christ is within us always, even to the end of the age.

By allowing Christ to head up all things in us, the invisible God, made visible in Christ and His body, defeats Satan and wins the war, recovering man into Him. By enjoying Christ as the produce of the good land, man becomes holy in Him. Realize all this is because He loved us.

[Please read this very, very slowly in your spirit with His Spirit helping you understand. If you have been following this website, this will lead you into the inner sanctum of God to see His victory.]

For the Spirit to have victory over the flesh means we have to submit ourselves to God. Why do we need to submit to Him? Realize this is the original problem. When we took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we took something in the realm of God. “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.’” (Gen. 3:22) We, who were made of the flesh, knew something that was of the divine. The problem is we only had the knowledge of good and evil but not the ability to carry it out. That is why Paul says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Rom. 7:18) We gained a conscience but did not know how to handle it because we were not divine. This conscience became ours when it was suppose to be of God. So we add to it sometimes or subtract from it sometimes. We think we are the masters of it and sometimes ignore it all together. And other times we think we can be holy and enforce it on others. That is the state of mankind. That is why this world is full of afflictions. To maintain a good conscience, we need to submit to the living God dwelling inside our temples and not rely on our flesh to be able to do what we know is right. We need to rely on the Spirit dwelling within each one of us to live this life. To be able to carry out the good that we know requires God’s holiness. That is why we need the Spirit, returned back to us as our possession so we could be freed from the bondage of sin. As Christians who have the life of the Lord, we often think we can do things for God based on what we know in the flesh. But to do the right thing is a distinctiveness of God. Satan thought he could do it also and have the glory to himself. We are like Satan because after knowing good and evil, we think we can head up all things in ourselves. Only Christ living out of us can meet the righteous requirements of the law and make us holy in expression. That is why the Ten Commandments are all what we should not do. (Even honouring our father and mother is because we are not honouring them at present.) “Thou shall not…” the Lord tells us, because we are heading up all things in ourselves without God. Lev. 19 is full of things “Thou shall not…” do. That is why we need to submit our will to His will. We cannot do it ourselves. We cannot hold up the book indefinitely against gravity (sin) because we are finite. Only God is eternal and holy. We need to have a Sabbath rest in Him. We need to have no labour and have a complete rest in Him. The first day of our week is His Sabbath rest. When we submit our wills to His will and let God do everything for us, we no longer love our soul-lives (Rev. 12:11). Christ becomes the Head, and we become His body, fulfilling God’s eternal purpose. “Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” (Eph. 1:9-10 – Recovery Version) That is why He is the Godhead and we are the body that is the same as God in life, nature, expression and function but not in the Godhead. We become God’s people, a people for His own possession who are one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). We become holy as He is holy in all our manners of life (1 Pet. 1:15-16). We become His bride and counterpart. That is why in Christian growth, the weaker we are, the more He has grown in us and can use us. This is true Christian maturity. It is not how good we are, but how much God is realized in us. Realize we are the feeble ones, the weaker ones, the women and children in Jacob’s camp. We have wrestled with the Spirit, and He has made us limp in our flesh so we could be transformed in the spirit, giving us a new name so we now depend on Him (Gen. 32:24-32) and His sovereignty to deal with our problems, so our anxieties go away.  Only to these weak ones can the Spirit truly express Himself. Paul saw himself as the weakest of all the saints. “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” (Eph. 3:8) Paul saw himself as the smallest one of all the saints; that is why God can use him to write most of the New Testament. He has lost his soul-life; he puts no confidence in his flesh (Phi. 3:3). The more we realize that we are nothing, the more Christ can live out of us. “…For apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) as God in holy. When we are submissive to Him in this way, with plaited hair (S.S. 1:11), having shaved off all our own hair (the expression of our flesh) we will be declared clean from leprosy (sin).

When we no longer express our flesh, we would be like the priests in the temple who are holy, expressing Christ alone. “They shall not make any baldness of their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh.” (Lev. 21:5) The expressions in our flesh become Christ’s expressions as we no longer live to ourselves but Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20). That is why as priests to Him today, we don’t shave off the edges of our beards nor cut our flesh as Christ is expressed through us. To qualify us to be priests to Him, we cannot have any deformities in our flesh. That is why, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘No man of your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect shall approach to offer the food of his God.’” (Lev. 21:17) because the expressions of the flesh in the priests are spotless and without blemish as we express God Himself.

Just before Christ ascended, He gave us one last teaching. In John 21, He said as a young man, we dress ourselves and walk wherever we want, but when we grow old in Christ, we just stretch out our hands and someone else dresses us and takes us where we don’t want to go (John 21:18). As we mature in our spiritual lives, Christ dresses us in fine linen, bright and clean and takes us to places where we don’t want to go in our flesh because we have submitted to Him and walk only by the Spirit. To grow in Christ to maturity, realize it is to become smaller and smaller so God can become bigger and bigger in our lives. “The priest who is the highest among the brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes, nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother, nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him, I am the Lord.” (Lev. 21:10-12) For us to be the most mature among our brothers, we must have the Spirit as the anointing oil poured out on us, saturating our garments so our expression, what people see as our garments, is God Himself. Our head has to be covered because the headship is of Christ. We are submissive to His headship so He takes us to where we do not want to go. We do not tear our clothes as our expression is of God and we are not judged by anyone. We don’t defile ourselves by approaching anything that is dead in the old life that we have died to, even for our natural father and mother. We have become pillars in the temple of God and do not go out anymore because the Spirit has fully consecrated us as the Spirit has full control of our lives so we bear the name of God Himself on our being. “He who overcomes, I well make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore, and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” (Rev. 3: 12) Realize this is why we are like God in life, nature, expression and function so He can put His name on us and we become the New Jerusalem collectively. Realize it is only in our weakness that He shows His strength. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) When enough members of the Body of Christ, His church, realizes this in reality, Christ will come back to claim His bride. When He comes, it will be a manifestation of His coming (I The. 2:8) because He has already returned to us within the saints who have matured in Him and hold Him as their possession. The Christ within these matured ones will simply be manifested at His coming. Dear saints, we simply need to submit to Him so Christ will live out of us as the expression of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). That is the purpose of man. Then what we do physically in this life will be an outward manifestation of His inward coming. That is why when He comes back this time, unlike the brightest star that shone over the city of Bethlehem at Jesus’s birth, it will be the morning star that arises in our hearts (2 Pet. 1:19). This is the secret that the whole church must see within their hearts to make ready the bride for the Bridegroom. When the morning star arises in our hearts, the day is dawning and Christ is coming as the light to shine in the darkness of our night.

Our submission to Christ is this secret the whole church must see because the perfection of the bride is how God wins in this war with Satan. When the bride has made herself ready is when the warrior has won the war. That is why in Ephesians 5, as the bride, we are to be submissive to our husband, and in Ephesians 6, we are told how to prepare ourselves to dress as the corporate warrior of God. When the bride has made herself ready, she is dressed in fine linen, bright and clean (Rev. 19:8). Realize this is our warrior outfit, dressed in fine linen, white and clean (Rev. 19:14). When we have put on this outfit, which is Christ Himself, we have won the war. That is why the bride and warrior are linked together. As the bride of Christ, to be His counterpart, we must submit to Him (Eph. 5:22-24) because this wins the war. Realize we are the battleground. The way to make us submissive is to love Him. Realize when we love, we will do everything for our counterpart. The love that Jesus asks of us is a self-sacrificial, unwavering, absolute love, an “agape” love, that is of God. In His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15) Notice Jesus refers back to Simon’s birth name in the flesh as the son of a man, John, and not as Peter, his new name as a rock on which Christ builds His church in the Spirit. The term He uses for “love” in the first two instances He asks this question is, however, an “agape” love. The “agape” form of love is the self-sacrificial unwavering absolute love that God has towards us in dying for us on the cross to save us. God is this love. It is this love for us that motivated Jesus to die on the cross for us. He asked Simon, who was a man in the flesh, does he have a self-sacrificial love for God. Simon, son of John, do you love me in a self-sacrificial unwavering absolute way. All Peter could say was, “You know that I love you.” This was not a straightforward statement of love because Peter knew he denied the Lord three times already. So the word Peter uses all three times for love was “philos,” a type of brotherly love in friendship. So when Jesus asked a third time, He used the word “philos” for “love” and settled for a human kind of love that is of man. When we are young, that is the only kind of love we could offer to God as we are still doing everything in ourselves. As we grow into maturity in Christ, more and more of Christ has been experientially realized by us and lived out of us, as we submit to Him so He dresses us in fine linen, bright and clean, expressing out of us and taking us to where we don’t want to go in our flesh. We love Him today because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). When we love Him through Christ in a self-sacrificial unwavering absolute way, God’s kingdom will be manifested on this earth. As we realize we have been brought into the heavenlies to sit together with Christ (Eph. 2:6), the realities of the heavenlies will be expressed on this earth. So whatever we bind on this earth will be bound in heaven (Mat. 16:19; 18:18). Realize that is how Satan, who has been cast to this earth (Rev. 12:9), will be bound by Christ living through us. And whatever we loose of this earth will be loosed in heaven. That is how the Spirit will bring freedom to all of creation and be victorious over Satan through us. “That the creation itself also will be set free from slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:21) Christ has won the victory by living through us. The body of Christ has reached full maturity. That is the consummation of this age. Then we will spend an eternity in one Spirit with our Lord.

“Draw me after you and let us run together. The king has brought me into his chambers.” (S. S. 1:4) “…I found him whom my soul loves; I held him and would not let go…” (S. S. 3:4), as the bride clings to her beloved. “You are as beautiful as Tirzah, my darling. As lovely as Jerusalem, as awesome as an army with banners.” (S. S. 6:4) Realize the bride and the warrior are again linked together. As the bride, we are the transformed stones that are the building blocks of the New Jerusalem, formed as the bride for Christ. “And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Rev. 21:2) When the bride has made herself ready, Satan is defeated, so the army unfurls its banner in victory. “Who is this that grows like the dawn, as beautiful as the full moon, as pure as the sun, as awesome as an army with banners.” (S. S. 6:10) Christ, who is light, shines forth from us as reflected light shines forth from the moon in the night of this age of darkness. He is hidden in us as the hope of glory but is glowing like the dawn until He shines forth fully from His bride as the sun, having burnt away all our dross (Isa. 1:25), so we are bright and clean. The problem God had in the beginning when “darkness was over the surface of the deep” (Gen. 1:2) is over as He becomes our light shining out of darkness (John 1:4), “because the darkness is passing away and the light is already shining” (1 John 2:8), until the bride makes herself ready, dressed in fine linen, bright and clean. We are as awesome as an army with banners as we have been transformed fully to the same image of Christ winning the war victoriously. That is why we will see Him, and He will put His name on our foreheads because we and Him are one. “They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night, and they will not have need of the light nor a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them, and they will reign forever and ever.” (Rev. 22:4-5)

“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” (Rev. 22:7)

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendent of David, the bright morning star.” (Rev. 22:16) See His Spirit shining within your spirits.

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes take of the water of life without cost.” (Rev. 22:17)