LESSON 18
The Bride of Christ
We have been dealing
with the presence of God and with the power of the high praises of God. There is a way in which we are to approach
God and a purpose in it. Before the return
of Christ, there is a manifestation of the presence of God that will break
forth unlike anything the world has seen up till this time.
We have seen many waves
and manifestations come upon the earth.
Unfortunately, every time a new manifestation or blessing comes on the
scene, we flock to that new experience and camp out. We think we have arrived. In every touch transformations take place,
but we are not to stop there. When you
receive a fresh touch from God you haven't arrived yet.
God has sent a wave of
joy to the Church to refresh, to heal and to birth a hunger back into our
spirits again. He did this to move us
from where we were at. We are not to
stop there. These moves of God, like
holy laughter, are not the endtime revival. They are part of what prepares you to walk in
the endtime revival.
These manifestations are
not the endtime move.
They are preparation for what God is bringing us to. Step by step, line upon line, precept upon
precept.
It is also experience
upon experience to prepare us for the final manifestation of the Glory of
God. God is bringing and leading us to
the fulfillment of His purpose for the church.
Eph. 1:9-10 Having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of times he
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, and which are in earth; even in him.
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There is a purpose which
God has set forth from the beginning.
His intention was that at the last times, at the climax of the ages, at
the point preceding and coming to the return of Christ, when Christ rules and
reigns on this earth, and the devil is bound a thousand years; at that point
there was an event that was to take place.
Everything in the church from the beginning of the church and everything
from the beginning of the world has been leading up to this event.
Our spirits must cry out
for more. There will be manifestations
that will be undeniable and unmistakable moves of God. There is going to be such a sovereign move of
God it will shut the mouths of critics, skeptics and doubters. These manifestations will be more than
experiencing joyful laughter, dancing in the Spirit, being slain in the Spirit,
or being filled with the Holy Ghost.
We thank God for those
things, but God is about to do a new thing!
2 Chr
7:2-3 And the priests could not enter into the house of the
LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD'S house. And when all the children of Israel saw how
the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD upon the house, they bowed
themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped,
and praised the LORD, [saying], For [he is] good; for his mercy [endureth] for ever.
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God is going to fill His
house with His visible glory. Just like
the children of
We have to go beyond the
blessings to the place where the power of God will so
permeate our lives that there is no longer any doubt that God is real. We will no longer rely on scientific knowledge
as proof that
God is real, but on His visible Glory and the manifestation of His
presence.
The world will see a
visible manifestation of God’s glory, then the world
cannot deny that God is who He claims to be.
The world will know that He is Jehovah God and that His Son Jesus came,
died on the cross, and rose from the dead.
The world will reject Jesus in the face of understanding, not in
ignorance.
Before Jesus can return,
something else must take place. An incredible release of God’s power and presence,
the manifestation of God’s glory, will be revealed so that the world will know
that Jesus is who He claims to be.
1 Cor.
2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing
words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
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We must come to a place
where there is a constant manifestation of the signs and wonders of God. Where is the manifestation of glory that
comes upon a place and makes people not want to leave church for 72 hours or
even weeks? Where is the manifestation
of God's glory that causes people to start to confess their sins before God
without a message being preached? Where
is the glory that would fall on people, that instead of being slain in the
Spirit for three minutes, they were slain for three days? Where is the glory that split the seas,
stopped the wind and the waves, and caused cripples to pop up out of wheel
chairs?
The glory, God’s
presence, will not just fill the building.
It will fill the house. It is the
one thing that will draw the people into the church and see them changed.
1 Cor.
YOU are the house, the
temple of the Holy Spirit.
If Moses stood before
the presence of God and his face shone with God's glory, how much more shall
we, being born-again and having the Holy Spirit, show forth His glory? We don't understand who we are and who it is
on the inside of us. Most of us still
view our relationship with God as just an opportunity to go to heaven.
That is not why God
saved you. Jesus didn’t come just so you
could go to heaven. Jesus didn’t come
just to forgive you of your sin. He came
for an eternal purpose. When you
understand the purpose for which He came, it will change the way you act and
the way you think.
God longs to reveal
Himself. More than you want to know Him, He wants you to know Him.
Eph. 5:22-27 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto
the Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be]
to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish.
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Jesus is coming TO
His church before He comes FOR His church. He is perfecting. He’s purifying. He’s doing a work on the inside. He is coming for a church without spot or
blemish. He is coming for a church that
will stand for Him and serve Him in the face of persecution. We don’t have to wait for the rapture before
we will see the glory of God manifested in the church.
Eph. 5:28-31 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He
that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones. For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his
wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
We are members of His
body, of His flesh and of His bones.
Jesus left His Father, came to this earth and is joining Himself to His
bride, the church. Christ and the church
shall become one flesh.
Eph.
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Eph. 1:9-10 Having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good
pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of
times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven, and which are on earth; [even] in him.
God speaks of the
spiritual. We are members of His body,
baptized in the same spirit and joined together in one flesh. Just as a man and woman are joined together
as one flesh, so is Christ and the Church.
We're not just being
saved and forgiven so we can go and be with Jesus. He had to forgive us to make us His
Bride! We are going to be joined with
Him as one flesh for eternity. God has determined and made a plan that He (the totality of all
that He is and all that He has) would dwell Himself with us. God's plan for man is to join man with the
Godhead.
1 Cor.
Col. 1:26-27 [Even]
the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is
made manifest to his saints: To whom God
would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The word glory here is
the Greek word doxa. The closest translation is all that God is
and all that God has.
The mystery of the
gospel is this, Christ in you the hope of all that God is and all that God
has. Christ died so that you could have
all that God is and all that God has.
John 17:20-21 Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word; That they all may be one; as
thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Jesus prays that we will
all be one in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.
Forget the lie of the
devil. You are not like the angels or
any other creature God created. You are
the only being created destined by God, not to just be with God or to worship
God, but to be eternally joined to God.
It is Christ in you, the
hope of glory. Christ has planned that
in the fullness of time (Ephesians
In Review:
1.
Memorize 1 Cor. 6:19.
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2.
Describe the relation of God to man as compared to a man and his
wife?
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3. What
is God’s plan for man?
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4.
Define doxa.
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