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This morning, as I lay upon My bed, the Father laid out to Me the mystery of Pisces and what has been occurring in the land. There have been various explanations of this heavenly sign, and they all seemed appropriate, but this morning's revelation cleared away all the questions in My mind.
The Scriptures are clear as to the marriage of the Lamb.
The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.' But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen. Matt. 22:2-14.
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' [We cannot comprehend this] But the wise replied, 'Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Matt. 25:1-13.
The signs in the heavens, and the Scriptures, all point to the same event. Everything is as clear as crystal. Jesus made it very plain that the kingdom of heaven was as a King giving a marriage feast for His son. He goes on to say that the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who went to meet the bridegroom. These comparisons ARE events in the kingdom of heaven. These events constitute the kingdom of heaven. These things occur in heaven and in the congregation that is in heaven. These are the events that purify and expose the false professors who are in earth but claim to be in heaven.
It would be well here to include a thought from Watchman Nee. His clear view of heaven is here revealed. The church dwells in heaven and that is precisely where the marriage of the Lamb takes place.
Heaven is not a place that the Church will reach at some future date. The Church is there, and never was anywhere else. ...The church is not an organization to be planned, nor is it just a company of people to be completed. It is not a concept to be grasped, nor an ideal to be attained. Like so much else that is ours in Christ, the Church is a reality to be seen with the help of the Holy Spirit through the Word. When we recognize the real heavenly character of the Church, then the heavenliness of our own renewed nature dawns upon us, and we know that our starting point as Christians is not earth but heaven. ...The Church is perfect, perfect beyond any possibility of improvement. It is the sphere in which God exercises His authority in the earth, and today, in the midst of a polluted universe, He has a sphere of unsullied purity for His own abode.
Heaven is both the origin and the abode of the Church, but not her destination. And Since the Church has never known any other sphere but heaven, the question of striving to reach heaven can never arise for her. This may seem a drastic statement, but it is a fact. Like everything else in the Word of God, it is something to be seen by the Holy Spirit’s revelation to our hearts; and not till we see it do we know our heavenly calling. That calling does not call us into heaven, but makes known to us that we are of heaven and in heaven. So the Church is not a company of Christians working their way heavenward, but a company who are actually now citizens of heaven. Remember again: ‘No man hath ascended into heaven, but…the Son of man, which is in heaven.’ The Church need not pray that she may become like Christ. She needs only to see her place there in union with her Lord.
YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MARRIED
The point being shown here is that the church is married to God and always has been married to God. The whole world is married to God. Not one soul can do anything apart from God's active participation. All life comes from Him. What a soul can do is commit adultery. The soul can choose to have an adulterous affair, but that does not constitute a marriage. There has ever only been one Husband. What the anointing of Messiah has come to show is that we are married to Him and that we are shown the reality that we are married to Him. If we are not in our appropriate relationship to that marriage, we are an adulterer. What the marriage in the spring indicates is that the wife will know she is married to Messiah. Her eyes are opened to her previous confusion. "For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim, blurred reflection of reality as in a riddle or enigma, but then [at the marriage] when perfection [of seeing] comes, we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part, imperfectly, but then I shall know and understand [my Husband] fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood by God [Him]." I Cor. 13:12 Amplified. Those who have their eyes opened to the fact that they are committing adultery by their other earthly interests (lovers), which, in reality, take precedence over their heavenly Husband, will then leave those lovers. If not, they realize they do not want to leave those lovers, and continue with them, but they will no longer be ignorant of that fact. They will have abandoned their true Husband for the candy man. The candy man is the one who sells sweets, and promises good things, but by and by bitterness is the result. Some souls have manufactured such a sentimental association with him it is well nigh impossible to let go.
When Messiah, the anointing, came to the land He stated, "It is not I who commits adultery, it is you." That which you think you own is Mine and always has been Mine. I am the True Owner and the Husbandman. Have you not read, "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants"? Did you not think I would come to receive that which was Mine and that I would receive it with interest? I am the King of Love. I am the only True Husband. You have gone over to other gods, to love those things which you have given authority over you, and you have desired them, making love to them. The marriage in the heavens is simply the restatement of what I have already decreed. It is the light shining in a dark place to illuminate the befogged minds as to their true responsibility. I have not divorced you, you have divorced Me and gone whoring. Now that I have invited you back to My bed, your earthly lovers protest and scream, "adultery" and you have listened to them. The earth beckons and threatens. I have come to claim what is Mine. I have come to show that your lovers will not satisfy you. You know they do not. Monday morning comes and you have to look at your ceiling, wondering when your lover will save you. Messiah, the anointing, is the only Savior there is. He is the only One Who can bring peace to your troubled soul. Stop pretending you would like to try and marry God. Stop pretending you would like to get a better husband. By this you believe the lie that you would be committing adultery against your earthly lover by marrying God. Open your eyes you blind, and your ears you deaf. I am your Husband. You cannot work hard to marry Me. You are married to Me! Stop your adultery! That is all. Lay down your other lovers. That is all.
One who is from the earth might now object, "Now wait just a minute. One should not mix the earthly with the spiritual. One should not mix spirit and flesh." O vain man, have you not read what would happen when Messiah comes? "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2Thess. 1:7-8. Have you not also read, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" 2 Pet. 3:10-12. I bring fire and I burn up all things previously in existence. There shall be new heavens and a new earth. How can spiritual things be mixed with earthly things? Earthly things are clean dissolved. They are done away with one blast from My trumpet. "The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly." Isa. 24:19.
One can know when he is not an adulterer. Ellen White makes it plain.
It is true that there may be an outward correctness of deportment without the renewing power of Christ. The love of influence and the desire for the esteem of others may produce a well-ordered life. Self-respect may lead us to avoid the appearance of evil. A selfish heart may perform generous actions. By what means, then, shall we determine whose side we are on?
Who has the heart? With whom are our thoughts? Of whom do we love to converse? Who has our warmest affections and our best energies? If we are Christ's, our thoughts are with Him, and our sweetest thoughts are of Him. All we have and are is consecrated to Him. We long to bear His image, breathe His spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things [if we have stopped committing adultery].
Those who become new creatures in Christ Jesus [return to their true Husband] will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Galatians 5:22, 23. They will no longer fashion themselves according to the former lusts, but by the faith of the Son of God [the Messiah] they will follow in His steps, reflect His character, and purify themselves even as He is pure. The things they once hated they now love, and the things they once loved they hate. The proud and self-assertive become meek and lowly in heart. The vain and supercilious become serious and unobtrusive. The drunken become sober, and the profligate pure. The vain customs and fashions of the world are laid aside. Christians will seek not the "outward adorning," but "the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit." 1 Peter 3: 3, 4. SC 58
In the first parable, all were invited to come to the marriage. When we were called out to separate from the pretense of various religious bodies, the various churches, and certain of those who had no church, were invited to the wedding. They were all invited to return to their true Husband.
But he said to him, "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'" Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:16-27.
Many made excuses for not coming to the great feast. They had various reasons they could not come away from their self-interested world. They got a new job or were married. They could not learn the lessons of releasing their family for the purpose of the marriage with the Son. Some of these individuals now want to come to the new land and "visit." Some have asked to live here. This visiting, while they have rejected the Lord and His glory, is offensive to heaven. The Lord is angry, the Scriptures say. There are those who would like to enter heaven so they can receive the benefits provided there, but they have no love for the Savior. They want to remain in an adulterous affair with the true Husband's enemy and bring that enemy to the land to live with them here.
Now the test comes to those who profess to having come to the wedding. They are tested as to whether or not they have the wedding garment on. They are tested as to whether there is oil in their lamps. Everyone would say they are going to the wedding. Everyone would say they are waiting for the bridegroom.
The image of Pisces' description is clear. Fish have historically been used to represent the Christian. In the heavenly sign the two fish are swimming in different directions. They are held together by a rope, and at the bottom of the rope is the head of the serpent. One fish is swimming furiously to the wedding and its head faces toward the highest point in the heavens. The other fish is swimming furiously back from whence it came. It is swimming back to Aquarius and his flood. The two are tied together in their circumstances. These fish represent the two classes of believers who are in the congregation. Both claim to be going to the wedding, but they have different spirits. One fish has oil in its lamp, the other does not. The experience of the two fish is clear. One is swimming furiously in the wrong direction, since it cannot see the vision. The other is going forward to where the Lamb is looking. The Lamb is looking at the marriage. This contest is going on in the soul. This struggle between "being normal" and being married to God is felt in the heart.
On Passover, April 8th, something changes. The sun enters into the rope that binds them together. The Lamb is looking toward the marriage and His foot is on the rope that has bound the two opposing forces together, who claim to be waiting for the wedding. On Passover the rope is cut by the Lamb. Those with oil will go on to the wedding. Those without will go back from whence they came. When the rope is cut, one force is now pictured as not tugging against the other any longer. Each fish is settled into where he has tended. When Israel was in the struggle, during the time of the plagues upon Egypt, they felt the misgivings and tuggings from both sides of the issue. They wanted the security of their previous state, yet, they wanted the promise of the new land. Passover cut the rope and the people went forward who put blood (the life and Spirit) on their doorpost.
At Passover, 1994, when we were ending our stay at Castle Dome, the same event occurred. Right after Passover when the church was instructed to go their way, the sun passed directly through the rope that tied the straining fish to those who were ascending upward. The sun cut that fish free just as it is doing once again. The difference this time is that when the rope was cut in 1994, the remaining rope still tied to the believers had the serpent's head still in it. We saw the result with more fallout later in that year. This year, seven years later, the cut rope leaves the serpent with the fish heading away. The devil himself is cut off and that corresponds to the verse, "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
This struggle might be more graphically portrayed by one's desire to be a "normal" Christian. "I just want a normal world. I don't want to be bad, I just don't want these continual stretches of my emotional state. I don't like not having my life in a nice organized, and somewhat predictable place. I am weary of the constant tugging of my desires for something other than heaven." Millions of martyrs died denying the "normal" world. Some were burned, others were eaten by lions, and others were crucified or beheaded. These faithful ones might well have had a nervous moment or two.
Passover week ends the 14th, and during the entire Passover week the Sun is cutting through the ropes that have bound the two professors together. They both have said they want God, but their hearts were sharply divided and there was much confusion. They both went to receive the bridegroom, but only five of the virgins could receive the blessings of meeting Him. The other five were left in darkness to follow their natural senses. They said they wanted to marry Michael, but they did not marry Him. Their true love was still centered on their adulterous affair with their earthly desires and their worldly loves.
By the new moon of the Lamb in April, the true believers are pictured resting in Him and preparing themselves for the wedding, which takes place in Taurus in May. The other fish in the heavenly portent is long gone, back to the flood from whence it came. No longer will the two inhabit the same place.
When Jesus was crucified for the sins of men, having to take those very sins upon Himself, He was made to literally experience the lostness of the sinner. He was, as if a sinner Himself, experiencing the condemnation of sin. He bore the weight of that darkness upon Himself. He was aware that He followed His Father's will, but everything in His visual world pressed against Him that He was a transgressor, responsible for causing confusion and unrest in the land. He was thrust upon by the indolence of His closest followers and the unbelief of the crowds. The authorities in the land all accused Him of being devil-possessed. He was a perfect offense to the present and stable order. He was asking people to hate their families and give away all of their hard earned money, that they might follow Him around. It was a totally disgusting thought to the citizens who made something of themselves. The followers of Jesus were the very lowest of society. Jesus had to bear it all in order to simply open to the people the truth about their heavenly Father. There was nothing more sacred than the temple in Jerusalem. Nothing was to be kept more inviolate. Jesus was now presenting Himself as the temple and treating their earthly shrine as somewhat insignificant. It was being made obsolete. This was unthinkable. Jesus had to continually bear the abuse and pressure of this present revelation. He was "making Himself God." Good people were disgusted with His presumptuous statements and His apparent lawless behavior.
So today, in like manner, the Messiah has had to bear the experience of those without oil. He has had to feel the full weight of their lost state and their earthly view of reality pressed upon Him. He has had to bear the view of their earth upon Himself and feel it as if it were His own view. I was made to bear the most heavy weight when caused to feel the experience of those foolish virgins. In a single day the consummation of the marriage seemed greatly offensive to me. I saw as those with no oil see. Tears were running down My face and I felt the great heavings of My utter contempt for what the marriage entailed. I felt the full weight of the picture before me of broken families, the sad, lonely previous husbands and the parentless children. I was greatly grieved at the thought of it. As the tears ran down My cheeks like rivers, I held My hands up to God and said, WHY? Why, Father, did You do this? WHY are you doing this? I did not pray for mercy or help. My utter desperation was void of all instincts to preserve Myself. I would have loved death rather than being saved from anything. I didn't want to be saved considering the vision I was seeing placed before Me. I felt forsaken, abandoned and deserted by God. More than this, I felt like I had been set up. I had been made to carry out some evil deed so that I might be destroyed in it. I felt like I had been caused to believe a lie so that I might be ended. What was actually occurring was that I was, at that moment, being caused to believe the lie of My natural senses, so that the anointing of Messiah might be cut off; and it was cut off by my natural senses. I could only see out of My natural senses; there was none of the previous light that had flooded Me before this.
I have wondered at how Moses would have felt to see hundreds of fathers drowned in the Red Sea. Did he have any sensitivity to the hundreds of young children and their mothers killed by the armies he had sent into the new land? Did he have to bear the weight of the event as if he were a transgressor himself? How did Joshua feel when he ended the lives of thousands from whom he was taking their land? The Messiah brings change and the change is always painful and offensive to the previous order. Our Father seeks to free the nations from their bondage, but this is always seen as trespassing by those who are locked into their earthly love. They hold their natural ways as inviolate and sacred, using religious quotes and maxims to support their failed lives. The Father has sent His Son to show His marriage to the land, and with it comes the great revolution. Earthly bonds are broken, and those who refuse to yield to their true Husband, will be left in their earthly insanity and perish in the fire that even now comes.
My activities during that day when I was bearing the weight of the earth were bereft of spiritual import. I was totally caught up in a great number of broken things. My life was about fixing what was broken. This served to take away from Me the greatest effects of having to deal with My great sorrow of heart. It also gave expression to My own brokenness. When Jesus was crucified, He was removed from the cross before sundown. I, also, was removed from the cross before sundown that day. While I still carried the weight on Me, the living experience of those without oil had been removed from Me before the sun went down. For three and a half days I bore this weight that had begun to come upon Me the Sabbath before. It seemed I was making a covenant with the people in this week, and literally, in the midst of the week, I was cut off without hope and without help. More than this, I didn't want any hope or help. I experienced the full weight of those who are left desolate at the time of the marriage. "One will be taken, the other left desolate." This was the time of "Michael's grief." It seemed as though the anointing of Michael, the Husband, was being cut off by My upstanding "self," the normal, sensible Christian who was full of his integrity. It felt as if I were against My own self and at war with Myself. It is not wrong for a Christian to follow his good sense. It is not wrong for one to do what he reasons is right. The great wrong is when one's reason cuts off the clear direction he has had from God. When one's reason makes void all of the leading that has been given, the evil of it is seen. It was not wrong for Abraham to reason that killing his son was wrong. That reason was void, however, when the clear directions of God were given him.
After three and a half days, I literally felt raised from the dead. This Sabbath morning, the Father opened up to Me the entire mystery of Pisces and the event of the ten virgins, the five foolish represented by one fish going back, and the five wise represented by the other fish. As the Father removed from Me the experience of the five foolish virgins, I was transported back into the life of Michael. In Him there was no shadow of turning. In Him was perfect peace and the marriage was seen from Michael's point of view. I saw its perfection and Godly purposes, I saw its complete necessity, but now I had the oil to see it. I was struck with how impossible it is for man to be saved by his own good intentions and by following his own good sense. One is helpless and hopeless without the oil of God to illuminate the mind as to the events at hand. The oil in the lamp is absolutely essential for men to understand anything. After the oil of God was restored to Me, My previous overwhelmed state seemed like such an alien one. I could not understand how I could have been there. This reveals how we are completely subject to the presence of our Father for anything. From one day to the next a soul can move from one fish to the other, all depending on the oil and whether or not that soul has it in his lamp.
Michael was made to bear the wretched state of those with no oil, so that those who will turn to Him might be saved from their desolation. Their desolation has been born upon the Savior's soul. This bearing was not in an active sense, but, rather, a letting be what was being put upon Me. All personal power was gone. The bearing had more to do with yielding to what was on Me and quietly waiting for the outcome. There were no efforts to bear up; just a simple lying down of My own self to the force of the onslaught. From beginning to end the trial for Me lasted 10 days. At the end of ten days the Scriptures came to My mind. "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried (proven); and ye shall have tribulation (anguish, burden, distress) ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Rev. 2:10.
To all the testing time will come. By the sifting of temptation the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling to the Bible [living Word] and the Bible [living Word] only? Satan will, if possible, prevent them from obtaining a preparation to stand in that day. He will so arrange affairs as to hedge up their way, entangle them with earthly treasures [loves], cause them to carry a heavy, wearisome burden, that their hearts may be overcharged with the cares of this life [being all that they can think about] and the day of trial may come upon them as a thief. GC 626.
When Jesus was in His terrible Gethsemane, His disciples were somewhat out of touch with Him. They wondered at His dilemma and were perplexed at His mental state. When the flood came, they were completely unprepared, since no oil was in their lamps. They had been functioning according to their natural senses and had no comprehension of things outside of those senses. Jesus had two women who were witnesses from His world which bore testimony of His mission. His mother and Mary Magdalene were with Him at the time of His crucifixion. They were connected to Jesus by birth and by their soul's marriage to Him. Their love for Him transcended the circumstances He was in even though their understanding was not clear as to His mission. The disciple John was there, but in complete incomprehension. He stood by, but was no help.
There were two other witnesses to the crucifixion of Messiah who came from the world. One was the centurion. "And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God." Mark 15:39. The other of the two witness from the world was a thief who said, "Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Luke 23:42. Michael received two other witnesses this time also. The two women who stood with Jesus felt His dilemma and pain. The two women who stood with Michael were also inclined to this. They were present and with Him through His ordeal, though not in His physical presence. While in His Gethsemane experience, which began some time before the actual event, the other disciples of Jesus were busy cooking and eating. They were involved in their daily pursuits, fears and troubles. They were oblivious to His true circumstances. Their minds, instead, were filled with visions of sugarplums, hoping for their new millennium, mystified at the experience Jesus had entered, but they could give Him no help or comfort. "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me."
The time of Pisces is when the two experiences are tugging against each other. The natural senses war against the spiritual light. The two fish have been tied together with a rope and so both are in the same place, professing the same things, and seeking for a blessing. At Passover, the Lamb cuts the rope. One is Taken and the other is left desolate. One goes into the marriage, the other is left to try and buy this mysterious oil that is lacking. Some try to come into the marriage later but the Master of the feast says, I "know" you not. It is too late, after that, to enter into this precious and blessed experience. That man is left to his natural self. "I just can't buy that!" he says.
When Abraham was asked to kill his own son, it was naturally offensive to him. He was only willing to carry out the deed, because he recognized the Voice that had always led him in the past, telling him to do it. The Egyptians were highly offended by the Israelites killing animals in their religious ceremonies. The killing of animals in that way offended their higher sensibilities. Killing a sheep to somehow expiate sin was nonsense to their thinking. They believed that good works was the way to heaven, that a noble profession was the answer for the lost soul. To the Israelites and Romans, a Messiah on a cross of crucifixion was highly offensive to their sense of divine justice. There is no way that a true God would permit an innocent man to go there, especially when that man was His Messiah. This act, however, paved the way for millions of martyrs. Those martyrs paved the way for the end of an old way of thinking. While the crucifixion brought all of those changes, at the time, it offended their notion of what a Messiah was coming to do. In this age, the notion of a Messiah carrying out a literal consummation is equally outrageous. No self-respecting Messiah would carry out such an event. The "climax of the ages" and the consummation of the "marriage of the Lamb" is meant to be kept in the respectable spiritual realm in their thinking. God always uses the offensive thing to save those lost in themselves. Self cannot give up without being offended.
An interesting event now occurs in the heavens. Venus, who is the representation of human love, is seen with the fish that goes back to his flood. Mercury, the sun and moon follow on to the marriage where the seven women wait. Venus is human love and has been present through all the Zodiac this year. She was with the sun through each of the symbols and in most of them she preceded the sun. Now she is seen retreating from the scene and staying away from the heavenly entourage. Venus holds back and does not go into the wedding as the other heavenly bodies do. Earthly love cannot receive Michael as her Husband. She would like to develop some sort of pseudo love in order to retain her earthly interests and domination over her heavenly Husband, but this proves impossible. That kind of love must, at last, follow the fish without oil. The divine love of God is now seen as the only love that is fully submitted and free of self-interest. At the time of the marriage in Taurus, Venus is seen in the rope that is connected to the retreating fish. That fish is fully involved in human love and cannot comprehend the divine connection now experienced in the marriage of the Lamb. After the marriage, and the heavenly signs go to other places, Venus is seen making her way to where the wedding was, but too late for her to participate. This has been the great conflict. Mankind confuses and amalgamates heaven's love with that of earth. In this way man is kept from giving over and yielding himself up completely. There is always a token amount of self preservation and this effectively annihilates true abandonment. The anointing of Michael is bringing down so complete a yielding of Himself, He will abandon His own self-interests in order to follow His Father's instructions. Earthly love is here left in the proverbial dust.
There is a token in the land that will be occurring shortly. We have often cited the reference to the seven women laying hold of one man. It has also been noted that the seven women reside in Taurus the bull, the heavenly sign whose name and stars depict "the head or chief," "coming and ruling." He comes to judge. The wedding seems connected to two heavenly portents; the Ram and the Bull. The marriage of the Lamb begins in the sign of peace, mercy and acceptance. It ends in the Bull a month later when the marriage judges the nations.
In the Bull, the sun, moon, Jupiter and Mercury all are in attendance as the wedding feast concludes in judgment, since the time of wooing is past. One has either entered into the wedding or he has not. The seven women (The Pleiades) are also in attendance. There is another planet that will also be present that day. It is Saturn. Saturn, the planet representing the Sabbath, and whose name falls on the Sabbath, which is called Saturday or Saturn's day, represents the completion of all things. The marriage is finished. Saturn is also the sign of stability, as in resting in God. At the time of the second portent, Saturn is closest to the Sun of any of the heavenly bodies. The wedding entourage now rest from their works as God has rested from His. That planet represents everything being in its order. "And on the seventh day God ended his work [of the marriage] which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work [of the marriage] which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Gen. 2:2-3. The Sabbath is THE sign of the marriage.
The marriage occurred at midnight, the 27th of April, which was Sabbath. The Sabbath before this the Groom went out to enter into the feast and found the virgins sleeping. Now, at the conclusion of the wedding feast, we are seeing the judgment of the wedding unfold. The wedding ceremony opened up to us as to its meaning over the period of these two connected heavenly signs.
The wedding takes place in the seventh year, which is the year of rest and release. This year of 2001, we are in the seventh year since the end of the age. As it is written, "If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you." Deut. 15:12. This is the token for the great release when a previous slave to Satan's fears and troubles is set free. The wedding is with the great Emancipator.
In traditional Jewish weddings the bride encircles the groom seven times, representing the seven blessings of the marriage. For seven days the moon encircles the Sun and when she is closest to Him, they are wed. The seven blessings are here stated:
1. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who created everything for his glory.
2. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Creator of Man.
3. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Creator of Man who fashioned Man in his image after His own likeness and prepared for him out of his very self, an everlasting structure. Blessed art Thou, Lord, Creator of Man.
4. May she who was barren be exceedingly glad and joyful, with the ingathering of her children into her midst in joy. Blessed art Thou, Lord, who causes Zion to rejoice through her children.
5. Greatly gladden these beloved ones, even as Thou gladdened Thy creation in the Garden of Eden in days of yore. Blessed art Thou, Lord, who gladdens the bridegroom and bride.
6. Blessed art Thou, Lordour God, King of the Universe, who created joy and gladness, groom and bride, mirth and song, pleasure and delight, love, brotherhood, peace and companionship. May there soon be heard in the cities of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and happiness, the sound of groom and the sound of bride, the jubilant sound of bridegrooms from their canopies and of youths from their feasts of song. Blessed art Thou, Lord, who causes the groom to rejoice with the bride.
7. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who created the fruit of the vine.
On June 14, the sun and Jupiter are in the same heavenly position. This represents the Son going to the Father asking for His blessings that all things were done according to His will. This is just before the sun and moon enter the club of Orion. The wedding has been completed and the prophecies fulfilled. All things have been finished. He that believes in Me shall enter into the marriage with Me and cease their adultery, but he that does not enter in with Me will be left without, for I will not "know" them.
Not every one who says to me, 'Michael, Michael,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Michael, Michael, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast demons out of the land in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never "knew" you; depart from me, you evildoers.' Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock Michael. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them, but goes about as usual in his worldly cares of romance and buying and selling, will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand of his own human desires; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:21-27, MV).
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