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"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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Lords 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 to
In Matthew
chapter twenty-four Jesus did
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 its 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
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
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
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
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,
But
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 worlds
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
The woman is the
virgin church. We
know this wonder or sign
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
Gods family only by birth. Jesus said, Except a man be born again
he cannot enter
into the
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.
There are so
many profound and beautiful ties between Jesus and the elect, which are shadowed forth in
the tender relationships between
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
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 Gods 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
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 ones 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Havent we become very selfish sometimes and ego-centric in our
prayers? We will pray to save
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
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.
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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