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The Marriage Supper

Posted in Spiritual Food, tagged , , , , on October 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 22:1-14

The marriage supper of the Lamb is the place in the spirit, where the sons of God receive the seed of Christ within their souls, and the long sought after change begins to occur in their soul nature. This change is variously described in the scripture, and is the “parousia,” or “coming,” in 2nd Peter 1:16,

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming (“parousia,” in Greek) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of His majesty.”

This word “coming,” as used here in the Greek, means not only the arrival of Jesus Christ, but the coming within His church, and the eventual revelation and manifestation to the world.

Contrary to old beliefs, the marriage supper of the Lamb is not in the skies somewhere in space or on another planet, but RIGHT HERE AND NOW. The word of God proves this.

Matthew 22:11-13, “And when the King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This, above all others, shows definitely that the wedding FEAST is right here on earth, and that it is not a rapture which shall take us up into the skies for a wedding feast. This we know surely, because there was a man in that feast, according to the word we just read, which should not have been there and who was cast out. THIS IS AN EARTHLY SCENE of those in our midst, who are not covering themselves with the righteousness of God, but just taking the word in their natural minds without absorbing it into their spiritual beings.

The work of the Holy Ghost is to inseminate the bride at the marriage feast with the Christ seed, so that she might bring forth Christ. If the ministry is the husband of the church, then the ministry would come forth from her, which would not be good enough.

In view of this light on Matthew 25, in the parable of the virgins, we can see that the SPIRIT is called the lamp and the SOUL, the vessel. This is confirmed by scripture.

Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”

The word “candle” is to be translated “lamp,” and the word “belly” is to be translated “soul.” Thus, the spirit of man is lit by the Spirit of God, and when it is, it sheds light into the vessel of the soul. God, speaking of Paul in Acts 9:15, says, “He is a chosen vessel unto me.”

Romans 9:21 speaks of “vessel unto honor.” From the Old to the New Testament, man, the soul, is referred to as a vessel. It is God’s revealed will that He desires man’s soul to be like his Spirit. This is the chief reason God desires to inhabit man’s soul with His Holy Spirit. This is clearly expressed in the scripture.

Matthew 6:10, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

This expression applies not only to the heavenly invisible realms of God, where He dwells in all the magnitude of His unimaginable power, but in every realm which is called heaven. Now, heaven is the dwelling place of Almighty God, and wherever God prepares for His dwelling place is heaven. Thus, if we are the “temple of the living God,” then we must be a heaven. God dwells in our spirits when we are filled with the Holy Ghost, therefore this scripture can be applied to our souls that God is making the soul of man as perfect and as habitable as His Spirit. “Thy will be done IN earth” means within the earth man or the soul man, as it is in the spirit man.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, 2nd Edition, 1995, pg. 122-124)

Thought for today: The marriage supper of the Lamb is the place in the spirit, where the sons of God receive the seed of Christ within their souls, and the long sought after change begins to occur in their soul nature.

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Creeping Birds and Creeping Things

Posted in Spiritual Food, tagged , , , , on October 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Leviticus 11:20-22

Let us look at Leviticus 11:20, “All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you.”

The analogy here is bringing to our notice the unnaturalness of a flying creature which cannot fly. This is the type of the Christian which should be spiritual, but is not. He cannot defy the law of gravity and rise above the earth, because of some defect in his nature. God says such a Christian is an abomination. In the category, we find all the carnal Christians who have a doctrine for their carnality, so that they say they are good and fine without any spiritual life. This includes those who say God is a spirit, yet they refuse to admit the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and deny the supernatural in their lives and behavior.

In verse 21, there is a qualification, and it would be good for us to take a note of this.

“Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth.”

Verse 22 names the locust, the bald locust, the beetle, the grasshopper after his kind.

These creeping, flying things show that there are those who are not able to stay aloft in God or in things of the Spirit, but we should not reject them, because these will be able to survive spiritually when they are absorbed into the body of Christ. The reference to the body of Christ is not a reference to a group or a church organization, but a body of people which have entered into Christ through death to self and death to sin, whom the Spirit of God has baptized into the body of Christ. This is NOT WATER BAPTISM, NOT THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST, but the immersion of the man into the mystical body of Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

All creeping things are a type of fleshly, carnal, unsaved man. Christians should not marry an unsaved person. Even in the different levels of Christianity, it is not the perfect will of God for marriages. We find that a sheep is a clean animal, but it does not have union with a cow, nor does the dove with the chicken. To have the perfect will of God, we must obey His orders in all things. Disobedient people will never know the right people to fellowship with, neither will they know the right doctrine, because you have to obey the will of the Father before you know the truth (John 7:16-17).

This does not mean that we cannot talk to sinners, and even love them, but it does mean that we are not to become one with them, but lead them unto Christ.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 103-104)

Thought for today: We are to talk to sinners, and even love them, however, we are not to become one with them, but lead them unto Christ.

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The Analogy of the Fish

Posted in Spiritual Food, tagged , , , on October 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Leviticus 11:9

Leviticus 11:9 gives TWO qualities which distinguish the clean fish from the unclean: they must have scales and they must have fins.

The fish with scales is shielded from the water by the scales and is not a part of the water. This is a dry fish in a wet environment. Even the eyes of this fish are shielded with a kind of “contact” lens from the water. The scales also have a rough surface which causes a certain amount of friction when the fish darts along, supplying heat to its body. So the fish draws heat from the cold water. THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE of this is that the fish represents the Christian in the world. The water is a type of the world, and the fish is a type of the Christian. He is in the world, but not of the world. He is a paradox, drawing good from an evil environment. A warm-blooded animal in a cold environment, breathing air from the water. He beats the water with his fins to propel himself, unlike the unclean fish which goes with the flow of the water, coiling and uncoiling like a serpent, to propel himself onward.

Beating his way through the waters with his fins is a type of the Christian overcoming the world. Slithering along like a serpent is the type of a person who has to go along with the world in order to make headway. This is unclean. BE REMINDED, WE ARE not discussing NATURAL FOOD, but SPIRITUAL principle. For those who think of this in the natural, I will quote this scripture and leave it there.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:1-5).

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 98-99)

Thought for today: That we be clean fish which is a type of the Christian overcoming the world.

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Feasting on Jesus Christ

Posted in Spiritual Food, tagged , , , on October 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: John 6:48-51

The whole operation of the third church realm, as represented with the Table of Shewbread in the Tabernacle of Moses, is a type of man feasting on Christ.

John 6:48-51, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

This does not merely represent man feasting on the word of God from the pages of the Bible, BUT it represents man feasting on the living CHRIST Himself. Feasting on Christ is a spiritual business, not a memorizing of scriptures or any other physical act, but an entering into the Spirit, and a submission to the Spirit of God, who is able to feed us with the living word.

We feed upon Jesus Christ in three dimensions.

(1) The Christ Within – Christ is in the Holy Ghost. When the believer receives the Holy Ghost, he receives Him in his spirit. Immediately, the Holy Ghost begins to energize the soul, so that the Christ might enter. The still, small voice within the soul of the believer should be nurtured and obeyed. Very often, our tendency is to obey the voices from without, and to reject the voice within. As a matter of fact, the majority of the churches teach that we must obey our leaders, and that women must obey their demon-possessed husbands, no matter what they say or what they do. I am teaching that we obey the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost in the believer will lead us to obey good and not evil. If a woman takes this as license to rebel against her husband, or if any Christian takes this as encouragement to rebel against his leader, then that Christian is not hearing the voice of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost leads us into all truths.

(2) We feed on the Christ in the body of believers. Those who have gone before left us very real teachings and examples which we should keenly observe and follow. Since there are so many counterfeits, we have to depend on the Holy Ghost. God, therefore, will send to the body the necessary spiritual food they need. In the assembly, there is a movement of the Spirit, which cannot be found anywhere else. Where the two or three are gathered together, the Spirit will move with gifts and blessings which are not present anywhere else. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25). Two words stand out in this quotation: “ourselves,” and “together.” “Ourselves” in this passage means those who are one with you in the Spirit, and “together” means being in one accord. On many occasions, many assemble, but they are not together and they are not the “yourselves.” Sometimes we gather together under man’s auspices, and man dictates the terms upon which we meet, therefore God is secondary in the gathering or the assembly. Every assembling of Christians must have God as King of the congregation, and He must be thus recognized in our gatherings. The following scripture will bear this point out.

Matthew 18:19-20, “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

This passage clearly shows that Jesus Christ attends our meetings, and that the key of our gathering is being “together.”

(3) We feed on Christ in a third dimension in His presence and person. This means that the man Christ Jesus is walking about our houses, in our bedrooms, in our dining rooms, in our living rooms and in our churches. He is not there as a visitor to whom we will show kindness, but as Lord and King. If this is so, then we WILL feed on Him night and day, sleeping or waking.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 92-94)

Thought for today: If we make Jesus our Lord and King, we will feed on Him night and day, sleeping and waking.

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Fresh Bread from Heaven

Posted in Spiritual Food, tagged , , , on July 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 6:11

Did you know that when a preacher preaches something wrong, the congregation should be able to tell him that he is wrong? The people are going to feel it that he is wrong. And when he is wrong, he must quickly correct his wrongness.

When my wife, Mavis, sits in the congregation and I give a word, every time that I make a slip (because sometimes you slip in your human thinking and say the wrong thing), she feels it. You see, once you are in the Spirit following the spiritual flow and somebody makes a break, you feel it right inside of you.

This is why I couldn’t go to the churches on Sunday morning. I made that mistake so often. It is so painful to go into a church and see them playing around, because it is all psychology, all humanness. A message comes forth and it is properly homiletically psychological message put together on Saturday night. Do you see what I mean? It blesses those who don’t have the discernment of the Spirit. The person with the discernment of the Spirit is turned off and hurt because what you were listening to was human and not God. They were talking the words of God, of course, but let me tell you something, that is not feeding the flock. Do you know why?

You can take the Word of God and say that you are going to feed the flock with the Word of God. You put the Word of God in such a way that it is saying something else than what Jesus Christ wanted to say to that congregation at that specific time. Maybe that word could have been preached at another time while God wanted to say something else to that same congregation. Therefore, it is only the mind of Christ that we can feed from. Do you understand me? The right food can only come from the mind of Christ.

It is like you have a taste for a certain food; you feel like you could eat fish today and you get fish and you feel satisfied. But tomorrow you don’t want fish; you want some steak or something like that. The next day you feel for chicken. It is so that God ordained your body and your body calls for the thing it needs. When you feel thirsty, what do you think is happening? Your body is crying out, your blood wants some liquids, some water. Do you see what I am saying? This sort of thing functions in the body of Christ. It is only the Holy Ghost that can really tell the body what message it needs right now, or tomorrow, or so and so. This is why I do not believe in fixing the message from the previous night. As far as I am concerned, I want the fresh bread flowing from heaven today.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 13-15)

Thought for today: The right food for the people of God can only come from the mind of Christ.

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