At our last gathering, we listened to, and hopefully heard our Lord Jesus say in part to us that:
He who loves his life shall lose it.
In other words, any one of us at The Table who sets his heart on life in this world, and consequently, relishes its pleasures, and pursues, and values life as defined and characterized by the dictates of Satan, the prince of this world, shall lose his life.
His soul shall live in the darkness of sin and death, regardless of having the eternal life of God as his spirit being.
He shall have for his peace the fickle quiet which the world gives.
Fear, with the attendant torments by the evil horde of hell shall rule his heart and soul.
His happiness is occasioned by transient issues and thus shall be intermittent and fluctuating.
His mortal body shall be subject to sicknesses and diseases variously and severally.
This life-in-death was prefigured for us by the church in the wilderness.
After God delivered Israel from Egypt, our fathers yet loved their lives in her.
They craved their idolatrous self-centered lives as the slaves of Pharaoh.
They longed for the fleshpots of Egypt.
They made for themselves a molten calf, thereby, resuscitating as it were, their worship of Mammon.
And so, in spite of the mighty deliverance wrought by God, in a bizarre twist, Israel, returned inwardly to slavery under her wicked king.
Perhaps, Israel’s inward return to Egypt may be a classic case of what is oft referred to as “the tyranny of the familiar”.
Somewhat similar to “the tyranny of the familiar”, are reported cases of horses saved from burning stables that return into the inferno to be roasted alive.
Like the fabled horses, the sons of Jacob in their hearts turned back again into Egypt.
They would not go into The Promised Land because they did not believe The God of truth.
Therefore, Israel forfeited his heritage of the life of the days of Heaven on the earth.
Separating themselves from their inheritance by their unbelief, they lived in “spiritual death” all the days of their life.
They roamed the wilderness for their lifetime.
Ultimately, their carcasses littered the desert.
Thus it is written by the Apostle Paul to you and I in 1Co 10:11–12:
(11) And all these things happened to them as examples; and it is written for our warning on whom the ends of the world have come.
(12) So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Selah.
Now, like the church in the wilderness, the church of The Firstborn also has an inheritance that was bequeathed to him by our Heavenly Father.
As the children of God, we are joint-heirs with our Lord Christ.
Our eternal inheritance is primarily two-fold:
1. A child inherits his parent's DNA by natural birth, so did we inherit our Heavenly Father’s DNA simply by being born of Him.
In our union in our Lord Christ, we are heirs of the life in The Father which is also in His Son, Jesus Christ, our God blessed forever.
We are heirs of eternal life.
Life eternal is ours now.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
2. In the natural, when a child comes of age, he takes possession of his late father’s estate that was willed to him.
Likewise, when we grow up into Christ in all facets, when we overcome Satan, the prince of this world, thereafter we enter into our inheritance of our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom which hitherto is kept in trust for us.
We are heirs of our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
However, pretty much like the preconditions for an heir to possess his father’s estate that was willed to him, our Lord Jesus gave us the only pathway to possessing our twofold eternal inheritance of life everlasting and spiritual dominion, not just in truth, but also in reality.
These are His words written to us in John 12:25:
He who loves his life shall lose it.
And he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
He who loathes his life in this world shall secure it unto eternal life.
He shall live in life eternal indeed who despises his old inherent sense of pleasure, and his sense of value, and of self-worth, which were all derived from this present evil world.
He shall be a tree of righteousness — a tree of life — planted of The Lord in Zion, the city of the living God.
He shall flourish on the banks of The Pure River of Water of Life flowing through The New Jerusalem.
He shall be full of the sap of The True Vine.
His leaves shall neither wither nor will his fruit fail.
He shall still bring forth fruit in old age.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
Furthermore, through The Prince of Peace in him, his heart and soul shall be secured as an impenetrable fortress by the transcendental Peace of God which is beyond all comprehension.
His continuous fellowship with The Spirit of God is life and power in him.
And so his heart shall be filled with the everlasting joy of The Eternal Spirit of God.
Consequently, his tongue is unconsciously and consistently moved to speak in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
He makes and streams melody in his heart to The Lord Who loved him and redeemed him with His Blood from the hands of the enemy.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
He shall be a functional priest of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.
He fulfills his priestly duties by offering up spiritual sacrifices as incense acceptable to God through our Lord Jesus.
He offered up the fragrant fruit of his inherent Love nature to the ecstatic delight of His heavenly Father.
His Supplications, Prayers, intercessions, and Thanks giving, Shall perpetually ascend as sweet incense from the earth to the golden altar before the throne of God in Heaven.
As an overcomer, he bears the fruit of the righteous nature of His Heavenly Father.
Thus he fulfills the precondition to reign as king on the earth as an heir of The Kingdom of Heaven.
Therefore, in harmony, and in sync with The Throne in Heaven, he, who Christ is formed in, shall function effectively in his capacity as king in the spiritual realm.
His words shall be with power.
He shall decree a thing and it shall be established unto him.
He shall have whatsoever he says.
He shall have dominion over Satan.
And he shall trample under his feet all the works of the enemy.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
In addition, the resurrected Christ in him by The Spirit of life from God is the health of his body and the length of his days in his mortal body.
His strength shall be as the number of his days.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
Furthermore, out of his heart shall flow four rivers of The Pure River of Water of Life sourced from The Throne of God and of The Lamb.
These four streams of life are:
1. The streams of words that issue out of his innermost being are Spirit, and are life.
These rivulets of The Holy Spirit of God from his tongue are like oases in the desert that refresh and invigorate the rabidly thirsty soul.
2. In The Name of The First Begotten of the dead, The Spirit of life from God streaming out of his innermost being, heal those afflicted and oppressed by Satan.
3. And in The Name Of Jesus, The Son of The Living God, he delivers by The Spirit of The Lord those tormented by that wicked one.
4. The Spirit of faith in him moves his tongue to speak words that are as those of The Almighty God in their creative abilities.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
Selah.
Also at our last gathering at The Table, we sought to see the reality behind the illusion that is this world wherein we were all born into prior to being born of God.
We saw through the eyes of the Apostle John that the string of every single facet of life in this present evil world is controlled by a spiritual city in the image of a woman.
Rev 17:5
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
We saw that Babylon the great is energized and propelled by a scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
This beast is the man of sin, the son of perdition — the antichrist.
He will be revealed at the time of the end.
At that time, the dragon shall empower him, enthrone him, and give him great authority.
Meanwhile, the spirit of the antichrist has since been in the world.
This spirit is at work in the children of disobedience and also in the saints of God who live in Babylon.
He inspires and empowers them to speak words and do those things that are contrary to the nature of our Holy and Righteous Father, and at variance with the will of our God.
Simply put, the antichrist is the source of spiritual energy for all that is antagonistic to The Christ of God in word and indeed.
Selah.
Furthermore, at our last gathering, we saw that the child of God comes into oneness with the devil through spiritual sexual intercourse with Babylon the great, The Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.
We would emphatically state that the intercourse with the Mother of Prostitutes that is hereby being spoken of is NOT physical sex but it is spiritual.
Regardless, one of the numerous ways this spiritual intercourse is facilitated is by unsanctified physical sex between couples.
We saw that this spiritual union with Babylon the great is packaged and consummated in the natural as the gratification of any one of, or, oftentimes as it is, a combination of two or all of these three:
1. The lusts of the flesh.
2. The lusts of the eyes.
3. And the pride of life.
We understood that any one of us at The Table who delights in and relishes any one of this unwholesome package served as sweet intoxicating wine in the golden goblet of The Ultimate Whore, shall lose his life.
In joining himself with her, He unwittingly trades the life of his soul for the Prostitute’s transient pleasures.
Unconsciously, he swaps his heritage of spiritual dominion on the earth and his authority of The Kingdom of Heaven for slavery and drudgery and affliction in Babylon.
Thankfully, at the same gathering, we heard a voice from Heaven urge us to come out of Babylon the great.
The same voice from Heaven warned us that remaining in the adulterous unholy union with The Ultimate Harlot puts us at risk of being plagued with that which she will be plagued with when the judgment passed by God on her is executed.
And in a complementary passage written to us in Revelation 14:6–13, an angel of God also explicitly warned us of the impending judgment and the eternal doom of anyone whose heart is in Babylon, any one of us who loves this world, and who tragically ends up with the mark of the beast:
Rev 14:6–13
(6) And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
(7) Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
(8) And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
(9) And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
(10) The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
(11) And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
(12) Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
(13) And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
The angel stridently said that any man who serves the beast and his image, and receives his seal, shall drink of the pure, unadulterated, wrath of God; and he shall be tormented in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone forever and ever.
And he has no rest day or night.
In other words, he shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of The Lord, and from the glory of His power.
He shall enter into the absolutely irreversible second death.
The doom of the blackness of darkness shall be his lot forever.
In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, seven times, our Lord Jesus said to you and I that:
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
We concluded our fellowship for that day with the steps that must be taken by any one of us at The Table who chooses to come out of Babylon the great and thus escape the predetermined imminent wrath of The Holy and Righteous God.
These were our parting words for the day:
Finally, going forward, you henceforth deny yourself, and take up your cross daily, and follow The Shepherd and Bishop of your soul wherever He leads you.
Selah.
After I choose to follow the Good Shepherd out of Babylon, where does The Shepherd and Bishop of my soul lead me to?
In other words, after our hearts are detached from this world and exclusively dedicated to The Great Shepherd, where does The Chief Shepherd pasture His sheep?
To help us with the response to our question, we would begin by looking to the graphic illustration depicted for us by Israel.
Israel’s exodus and subsequent journey into The Promised Land was a physical type of the spiritual reality of our union in our Lord Christ.
Three distinct phases are portrayed for us by Israel:
Firstly, Israel’s deliverance from Pharaoh and his domain was a type of our rebirth.
When we were born of God, we were translated from Satan’s Kingdom into The Kingdom of God.
Secondly, Israel’s passage through the wilderness on his way to The Promised Land prefigured our transition through the spiritual wilderness that is this present evil world.
This world is otherwise called Babylon the great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.
Thirdly, Israel’s entrance into, and his possession of his God-given heritage of the physical land of Canaan represented our spiritual destination as The City of God, The New Jerusalem.
The Apostle of our Lord Jesus wrote to us of this city in Hebrews 12:22–24:
Heb 12:22–24
(22) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
(23) to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are written in Heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
(24) and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
The Apostle Paul wrote that we come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, The Jerusalem whose origin is Heaven.
Of this Heavenly City, the Apostle John also wrote to us in the 21st and 22nd chapters of the book of Revelation.
We would be feeding on verses 9–11 of the 21st chapter:
Verse 9:
And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
The Apostle John was consciously in the spiritual realm.
While he was there, he was invited by an angel of God to see the bride, the wife of The Lamb.
In other words, the Apostle was going to be shown in all her splendor, the church of The Firstborn, which is His body.
Verse 10:
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God,
The Apostle was ferried in the spiritual realm to a great and high mountain where he was shown the bride of Christ.
This elevated location for the sighting of The Lamb’s wife is in sharp contrast with the wilderness where the Apostle was shown the other woman, that great city, Babylon.
The mountain-top location is not without its significance.
Prior to the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, God often communed with His saints on physical mountains.
However, in His divinely ordained encounter with the woman of Samaria, our Lord Jesus nullified physical mountains as the rendezvous for our Heavenly Father and His children.
He said the hour is coming and now is when our communion and fellowship with our Heavenly Father is in our hearts.
What was the Apostle John shown on this mountain?
What did He see of the bride of Christ?
Verse 10:
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God,
He saw the bride, the Lamb’s wife as that great city, the holy Jerusalem.
Our Lord Jesus spoke of this city in Matthew 5:14:
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Furthermore, the Apostle saw The Lamb’s wife:
Verse 10:
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God,
He saw her as she as she was birthed out of Heaven from God.
Now, those who were with us at a previous gathering at The Table may recall that we saw that in our union in our Lord Christ that we came out of God from Heaven.
It is the birth of the church of The First-born through our union in Him that the Apostle John saw in the spiritual realm.
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Father of glory, grant unto us all to see this fundamental truth of our origin and thus enable us to walk in the light of Him — to walk as strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Amen.
Moving on to verse 11 of the 21st chapter of Revelation, the Apostle saw the city of God as:
Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
He saw that the wife of The Lamb has the glory of God.
Our Lord Jesus had revealed this glorious truth to us as He spoke to His Father about His greatly beloved bride in the 17th chapter of the gospel of John.
In verse 5, He made this request to His Father:
And now Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
He requested of His Father that He be glorified with the glory of His being.
He asked of His Father that He should be made all that He is.
And in verse 22, the accomplished purpose for His request is revealed in His words:
And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one,
Our Lord Jesus did not say that in the age to come He will give us the glory of His Father’s being.
He said he has given us the glory of His being.
In other words, in our union in our Lord Christ, we are in essence the glory of God.
Glory to God!
Praise The Lord!
Alleluia!
Selah.
Going further in beholding The Lamb’s wife through the eyes of the Apostle John, we may recall that at our previous gathering, we saw that the adornment and sparkle of that other woman, Babylon the great, is external.
Her glitter is a reflection of the natural light of the sun or the moon for she has no light intrinsically.
However, in a complimentary verse written to us in verse 23 of the same 21st chapter of the book of Revelation, a sharp contrast between the Mother of harlots and The Lamb’s wife is revealed:
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
The bride of Christ has no need of external light: she had no need of the sun, or of the moon, to shine in her.
The source of her light is revealed thus:
Rev 21:23
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
The wife of The Lamb is illuminated within with the glory of God.
God’s glory radiates within her.
Furthermore, the Apostle John saw that:
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
The Lamb is the effulgence of His wife.
What can be seen of the light of the glory of God in her is The Lamb.
Simply put, Christ in her is the radiance of the glory of God.
The Lamb as the radiance of the glory of God is corroborated in Hebrews1: 3:
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The Apostle Paul wrote that Christ is the outshining of the glory of God.
And again, he wrote in 2Corinthians 4:6:
The Scriptures say, “God commanded light to shine in the dark.”
Now God is shining in our hearts to let you know that his glory is seen in Jesus Christ.
Selah.
Now, man is a tripartite being.
We are spirit and soul and body.
In our union in His Son, the glory of our Heavenly Father’s being is our spirit.
But in our infancy, our souls are opaque.
We are impervious to light because of self.
We are impenetrable to light by reason of the old code of the flesh written in our minds.
Therefore, for the light of the glory of God to radiate unhindered through us, our souls must be transformed from being impenetrable to light to being transparent.
Our Lord Jesus revealed this transformation as the precondition to be fulfilled in those who would be the earthen vessels through which the light of the glory of God would shine not only in truth but also in reality.
He made this known to us through His Apostle John in Revelation 3:12 where He began by saying:
Him who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will go out no more.
He said He would make the saint who overcomes the evil one an immovable pillar in the temple of His God, which is the church of The Living God, the pillar and the ground of truth.
The overcomer made of The Lord into a fixed pillar in His house is reminiscent of Anna, a prophetess.
Anna was in the company of those in Jerusalem that looked for the prophesied redemption in their Messiah Who was to come.
And also of Anna’s company, was Simeon.
Simeon’s singular heart’s desire and sole purpose for living was to see The Salvation of God in the birth of our Lord Jesus.
These two saints of God, Simeon, and Anna, exemplified for the bride of Christ her dual heart disposition.
As one, they typify the heart of the Lamb’s wife in these two tendencies:
1. The intensity of the yearning of her heart for the return of her Bridegroom.
2. Her hearty and ceaseless interim service rendered to her Husband in His absence.
Like Simeon, the Lamb’s wife lives for the day that she will be physically united with the lover of her soul.
The intense longing of The Lamb’s wife for her husband is not unlike the way a wife who is fully secured in her husband’s love for her would yearn for his return from a business trip he undertook overseas.
This faithful wife would be marking down the calendar days and ticking off the hours of the clock, whilst waiting for him to come back to her.
Here’s The Point:
The Singular reason for the being of the the Lamb’s Wife if for her Husband.
Furthermore, like Anna, who served God in His temple day and night, the bride of Christ heartily serves her Bridegroom in His house till He comes back for her.
The Lamb’s wife diligently serves Him in His saints until He returns and they are united forevermore.
Selah.
Our Lord Jesus continued with the precondition for any one of us at The Table in whom the light of the glory of God would shine unhindered, by saying of the one who overcomes the world:
And I will write upon 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.
He said He would write three names on the saint who overcomes Satan, the prince of this world.
These names inscribed on the overcomer are of utmost significance even as we had seen at a previous gathering at The Table.
These three names engraved on those who overcome the evil one are:
1. The Name of His God:
The import of the overcomer sealed by our Lord Jesus with the name of His God is that he is one with God in truth and indeed, even as He and His Father are one.
Our Lord Jesus exhorted us to grow up into our Heavenly Father in words and deed as is written to us in Matthew 5:48:
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
The Apostle Paul sought to comply with this exhortation.
To attain in his mortal body the goal of God in his union in our Lord Christ was his sole quest as he wrote to us in Philippians 3:12–15:
(12) Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
(13) Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
(14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
(15) Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
The Apostle Paul also exhorted you and me who seek the fullness of God to follow him as he followed our Lord Christ.
The second name written by our Lord Jesus on the overcomer is:
2. The Name of the city of His God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from His God:
Earlier on, we saw that The Lamb’s wife and the Heavenly Jerusalem are one and the same.
So the significance of the overcomer being called The City of God is that he would be His bride indeed.
The light of the glory of God shines unhindered through him.
It is in these overcomers, who are of Anna and Simeon’s company, that the words of the psalmist written in Psalms 50:2 thus find their fulfillment:
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Furthermore, the overcomer as the bride of Christ has made herself ready for her Bridegroom.
And thus he shall be accounted worthy of Him at His coming.
He shall walk with The Lamb in white: for he is worthy.
The door shall not be shut in his face at the marriage supper of The Lamb.
On that day of the wedding feast, he shall not be told these awful words written to us in Matthew 25:12:
But he answered and said, Truly I say to you, I do not know you.
The third name written by our Lord Christ on His saint who overcomes is:
3. His new Name:
When our Lord Jesus overcame the world for us, He was not only glorified with the glory of God’s being but He was also granted to sit in His Father’s throne.
He stated this in Revelation 3:21:
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.
The overcomer being called by The New Name of our Lord Jesus reveals that he partakes in all its fullness in the glory of our Lord and Christ.
He who overcomes shall not only be one with The Lamb even as a man and his wife are one flesh but he shall also be granted to sit with Him in His Father’s throne, reigning and ruling with Him for all eternity.
At this point, dearly beloved saints, we will conclude our meal with the words of the Apostle of our Lord Jesus written to us in 1John 5:4–5:
(4) For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
(5) Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
