The consummation parable showed the way in which men do not instantly take on the Seed of the Anointing, even though they feel perfectly willing to fulfill the instructions from the heavens. Natural feelings within them still clamor, and their human nature is severely tested. In prevailing over the adversarial and oppressing spirits who were striving to dominate the feelings of the former earthly husbands of the Two Witnesses, Michael was also revealing His power to release every soul from the domination of the familiar spirits who have opposed and oppressed it.
Men often imagine that all God has to do is make anyone do whatever He likes and it all happens in an instant. Father does not work in this way. The world was not even created in this way. Father's ways are through process and agreement. He takes time to reveal His will, and it takes time for the will to be carried out in the soul. The taking of the soul bride of God is not by force or physical warfare. The earth has to release the soul by agreement. All of the past agreements must be abandoned willingly and intelligently under the influence and light of the Spirit upon the soul.
The work of overcoming is a great work...Our "filthy garments" will not be taken from us. We need never expect that these will be torn from us violently; we must first show a desire to rid ourselves of them. We must seek to separate sin from us, relying upon the merits of the blood of Christ; and then in the day of affliction, when the enemy presses us, we shall walk among the angels. They will be like a wall of fire about us; When we put away our sins and come to him [the Son] in faith, he takes our names on his lips, and presents them to his Father, saying, "I have graven them upon the palms of my hands; I know them by name." And the command goes forth to the angels to protect them. Then in the day of fierce trial he will say, "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." [The doors are the places in our character that we have shut by withdrawing our agreement from the adversary, and the Anointing and His angels guard those places from satanic intrusion]. The people of God are not at this time all in one place. They are in different companies, and in all parts of the earth; and they will be tried singly, not in groups. Every one must stand the test for himself. RH 11-19-08.
Some few in every generation from Adam resisted his (Satan's) every artifice and stood forth as noble representatives of what it was in the power of man to do and to be--Christ working with human efforts, helping man in overcoming the power of Satan. Enoch and Elijah are the correct representatives of what the race might be through faith in Jesus Christ if they chose to be. Satan was greatly disturbed because these noble, holy men stood untainted amid the moral pollution surrounding them, perfected righteous characters, and were accounted worthy for translation to Heaven. As they had stood forth in moral power in noble uprightness, overcoming Satan's temptations, he could not bring them under the dominion of death. He triumphed that he had power to overcome Moses with his temptations, and that he could mar his illustrious character and lead him to the sin of taking glory to himself before the people which belonged to God. Christ resurrected Moses and took him to heaven. This enraged Satan, and he accused the Son of God of invading his dominion, ..."Yet Michael the archangel...said, The Lord rebuke thee." RH 3-03-74.
Were it not for the armies of the Lord's host, led by Michael, the destruction that Satan would be pleased to witness would come to the people of God. They would be discomfited and brought to shame. But the Lord will work for His people. He will not suffer them to be defeated. 11 MR 248.
When the Son asked the Woman in the wilderness if she desired to marry Him, and she said "Yes," the Son Himself took full responsibility for the Woman. He took her entire person onto Himself, to bear her and bring her into her desired union with Him. This was not "spiritually speaking," a mere idealistic religious sentiment. No! When the Son took the Woman onto Himself to bear her through her process to consummation with Him, the Son keenly felt the Woman and bore every soul in her, more intimately than if she were a physical part of His Own body. He felt her collective soul and the spirits who accompanied each member in her.
The Son of God was marrying the land unto Himself, just as this event had been prophesied. "You shall no more be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land be called Desolate any more...for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married, owned and protected by the Lord." Isa. 62:4 Amplified. For this land to be "married, owned and protected by the Lord" was no small undertaking. This involved owning and protecting the land from every agent of hell who was contesting the consummation of its marriage to God. The powers of darkness had strong contention with the land for trying to break away from their domination, and Michael bore the satanic ire against Himself for actively drawing the affections of the people in the land away from them.
During the consummation, the Son of God would be consummating the entire Woman in the wilderness unto Himself, and He had strong and severe tests with the powers of darkness over the former agreements of the Woman. The forces of those previous contracts made by every soul in the land were still in effect, and were hard against Him as He bore her being upon Himself. There were thousands of contracts she had previously agreed to with the adversary, her former soul mate — the one with whom she had had most intimate intercourse by her consent to let his thinking and his feelings come into her. The Woman still bore his character and he was claiming that she had no right to separate from him. He contended that he had a right to destroy her for she was his to do with as he pleased, and Michael had no right to interfere. Over and over again the Son had to contend and battle with the forces heretofore in control of every man, woman and child in the land, as agreements were being broken, and the adversary persuaded to release his previous charges.
As the Son of Man faced the first event of the consummation, the excruciation of what He had been bearing was now multiplied to a superhuman degree. The satanic deluge against Father's living parable cannot possibly be described in human words. Not only was Michael greatly pressed upon by the earthly images He was being required by Father to bear and prevail over, He was also feeling strongly the sense of loss for the previous husbands. The earthly contracts had been dissolved, but the souls in those previous contracts were not automatically free. Strange pressures keep the soul locked in the effects of its previous promises.
In the very beginning of this whole wilderness process, Faithful was the name which Father first gave His chosen vessel, after He had emptied him completely and given him the most difficult instructions of reading Song of Solomon over and over again until he became melded into the vision of its divine purpose. It was three days after writing out the vision he had received in The Song that Father said to Faithful, "You are Messiah," anointing Him for His specific mission. He was to bring the Woman in the wilderness into a permanent marriage to the Father.
Recently I was remembering the day that Messiah stood before the congregation and announced the consummation. I knew the excruciation that Faithful was feeling in Himself as He faced this literal and unearthly event, and also the weight of responsibility He was bearing for the whole land, even as He spoke the words Father was giving Him to say:
"The marriage of the Lamb" is to be consummated not only spiritually and symbolically, but literally and physically...The consummation must occur with your Messiah Husband to bring you into marriage with God Himself. The Son of Man is the vessel to marry you to the Father...This communion is My commitment to you. I mean by that, that I will faithfully carry out My instructions. I will not fail you. I am committed to your marriage with God and I give Myself up in the process of its revelation." Faithful
It is at the consummation of a marriage, that the bride sees the bridegroom "as He is" for the first time. This was going to be very true in the consummation of the Lamb, for Father had arranged the very first event to occur in exact duplication, and in such a manner that the Woman in the wilderness, the bride of His Son, would really begin seeing His Son "as He is." "When he shall appear...we shall see Him as he is." 1 John 3:2. Appear means, "render apparent, publically (evidently, openly)." Strong's Concordance.
The Woman of God had never known the Son of God in an intimate way before. Because of past familiar intercourse with the adversary, her imagination had been inseminated with his insinuations, and she had conceived the illusion that Jesus of Nazareth seemed to possess some kind of power within Himself that she didn't have. Through the parable of the consummation, Father desired that the bride of God know the Truth Himself — "as He is" — because in actuality, the reverse is true. It has been the bride of God who has had some kind of power within herself that the Son doesn't have. Throughout history, even while professing correct doctrines of "the nature of Christ," and being able to quote His words, "I can of mine own self do nothing...Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself," she has found herself quite able to do many things. Upon finding herself in distressing situations, she has had the ability to maneuver her way out of them somehow. When it looked like things weren't going the way God had indicated to her, she had the power to take things into her own hands and adjust affairs. But the Son of God didn't have, and still doesn't have, that power. The betrothed bride of the Son had never known the intimate reality of the Son's utter vulnerable inability. She had not even begun to realize His helpless dependency on His Father. This is why the Father brought the bride of His Son to the consummation of the marriage of the Lamb — to know Him "as He is."
Father said to me early in Messiah's appearing in the new land, "You shall call His name Faithful, for He shall save His people from their unfaithfulness." From the very beginning I had seen what it meant for Him to be Faithful. Faithful always followed His instructions from His Father to their completion, with undeviating integrity no matter what His feelings were, or weren't, no matter what He understood, or didn't understand, at the moment His instructions came. Father drew me to consider the cost to Himself that His Son continually made in order to be Faithful. Father opened up to me the reason why He had given the name Faithful to His Messiah. Father foreknew the excruciation that His Messiah would face when He would unexpectedly find Himself required — by His Father's incomprehensible instructions — to physically consummate the marriage of the Lamb, and to consummate it with two "covenanted women." In giving Him the name Faithful, Father was decreeing a divine reality to His Messiah, for He was bequeathing this attribute of His very Own character to Him. "You are Faithful, and You will always be Faithful, no matter what the excruciation or personal cost to Yourself, because I Myself have made You Faithful. I spoke it into You when I gave You Your name, and My word assures it. I gave You Myself, for I AM Faithful."
Strong's Concordance defines faithful as "one who kept his plighted faith, worthy of trust, that can be relied on; of persons who show themselves faithful in the transaction of business, the execution of commands, or the discharge of official duties." Plighted means "to pledge, and to expose to danger, or rather perhaps to perplexity. Plight means "to pledge, to give as security for the performance of some act. Pledge and plight are formed on the root of lay. To pledge or plight is to lay down, or deposit. To plight faith is, as it were, to deposit it in pledge for the performance of an act, on the non-performance of which, the pledge is forfeited." Webster 1828.
To plight faith is, as it were to lay your faith down in pledge for the performance of an act, the non performance of which, the pledge is forfeited. In the consummation, Father was laying down His Faithful for the performance of an act — the consummation of His marriage with the Woman in the wilderness — the non performance of which, would forfeit His marriage pledge. Father truly laid down His Faithful Son for the Woman in the wilderness, and Faithful would truly prove that He was "One Who kept His plighted faith" during "the execution of commands" from His Father: "You are Messiah; You are fully responsible for the Woman in the wilderness; You are the True Husband of every soul." Faithful kept His pledge to the Woman in the wilderness: "I will faithfully carry out My instructions; I will not fail you; I am committed to your marriage with God, and I give Myself up in the process of its revelation" — while "exposing Himself to danger and perplexity" because of this pledge to her. Father's Son would also prove Himself to be Faithful during "the discharge of official duties," when the time came to physically consummate the marriage of the Lamb. In a most unexpected way He would demonstrate what it meant to be Faithful.
Father showed me that His Son had been Faithful in Jesus of Nazareth — Jesus was Faithful also. "Think of Jesus.... He was faithful to God who appointed him, as Moses also was faithful in God's household.... Moses indeed was faithful as a servant...but Christ is faithful AS A SON..." Heb. 3:6 REB. As I read the words "Faithful AS A SON..." it put words on the very quality of Messiah which the Two Witnesses have seen from the beginning of His appearing in the new land — the Sonship of Messiah. Messiah was Faithful — as a Son. In heaven, when the Son of God had stood on the brink of His world, to come into our world, He had contemplated the cost of becoming "Faithful as a Son." What that meant was that the Son of God would be permanently relinquishing His Own life. This would be for all of eternity. To be "Faithful as a Son" would mean that He would become a helpless dependent on His Father, fully unable to exist or sustain Himself, fully unable to subsist or to perform anything, without the direct aid of His Father. He wouldn't have a life any more of His Own, only whatever life His Father shared with Him moment by moment. To be "Faithful as a Son" would stand Him in utter need of His Father at all times — continually dependent upon receiving His Father's communication of His will, and then equally dependent as He waited upon Him for the momentary provision to carry out that will. In becoming "Faithful as a Son," He would have nothing in Himself, or of Himself, on which to rely. The Son of God intelligently, willingly, and with His eyes wide open, chose to be "Faithful as a Son." The Scriptures say simply, "He emptied Himself." Phil. 2:7 RSV."
When the Son appeared on the earth He plainly confessed the stark reality of His Sonship: "I am ABLE TO DO NOTHING from Myself, independently, of My own accord — but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders...I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose, but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me. John 5:30 Amplified. The Son of God was not "spiritually speaking" "unable to exist or sustain Himself," He was REALLY, FACTUALLY, LITERALLY, PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY and SPIRITUALLY unable to do anything from Himself or of Himself. "Faithful as a Son," He was totally at His Father's mercy, totally "at a loss" to do, say, think, desire, or judge anything unless it was personally supplied to Him by His Father. "Faithful as a Son," He meekly consented to be passed through any circumstance which His Father was pleased to pass Him through, having no plan or agenda for Himself. If His Father didn't give Him instructions, He couldn't go do something else while He waited for His Father to speak. The Son COULDN'T do ANYTHING, PERIOD, unless it was given Him of His Father. He really truly had no life of His Own. This is what it meant to be Faithful. "Faithful as a Son" meant, Faithful as a helpless dependent on His Father. "Faithful as a Son" really meant "Faithful unto death" — death to His Own life forever, in order to live solely by His Father's life alone.
As the Son of God stood on the brink of permanently leaving His world to be Faithful, so the bride of God stands on that same brink looking into the vast and gaping void of absolute, helpless dependence and permanent, vulnerable inability — the prerequisite to being One with the Son. The decision of the Son to leave His world to come into my world, and my decision to leave my world and go into His, are identical. We both lay down our own life forever to only live by the life of the Father. The Son actually and literally became "unable," and I become actually and literally "unable." Unable means to forever "lose the capacity," become "impotent to perform" anything from myself, independently, of my own accord, ever again. To be One with the Son means to be permanently disabled —"unable by nature;" that means "impossible to do anything from myself, independently, of my own accord. Impossible means "that which cannot be; the state of being not possible to exist, the state of being not possible to be done." To be One with "Faithful as a Son," would mean deliberately, and willingly, giving up my own natural independence, my own self-sustaining life — forever and irrevocably — in order to enter into a gaping void of utter and eternal vulnerable dependence on the momentary revelation of Father's will to me. I would be permanently impotent and disabled, and in a state of it being not possible for me to make a decision on my own, think a thought, decide that I want to go for a walk, or eat, or sleep. I would be lost with Faithful in Father's life alone.
These naked questions arose from deep within me as I lay upon my bed, seeing and feeling the reality of the deliberate decision to be One with Faithful.
- Am I willing to do anything from myself, independently, of my own accord?
- Am I willing to opt for being independent, or will I wait for instructions from Father?
- Am I willing to lie here abandoned to the movings of Father alone?
- Am I willing to die rather than take back up my own independent life?
- Am I willing to be able to do nothing from myself, independently, of my own accord?
- Am I willing to lie here and wait quietly and trustingly, until Father's instructions come to me?
- Am I willing to not get up until I am clear about my instructions, moved by Father Himself?
- Am I willing to never do anything of myself, independently, of my own accord, ever again?
- Am I ready to not think one more thought from myself, or take another step, unless it is Father thinking in me and taking the step in me?
- Am I ready to permanently lay down my own self-sustaining life, and pay the price of complete Anaiah-lation — the only kind of "ah-lation" (elation) I will ever know now?
- Am I ready to only be a mirror reflection of Faithful, as He is only a mirror reflection of Father?
- Am I ready to BE Faithful — "Faithful unto death" as He was?
- I Am ready.
Death is "that state of a being, animal or vegetable, but more particularly of an animal,in which there is a total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions, when the organs have not only ceased to act, but have lost the susceptibility of renewed action." Webster 1828.
Jesus followed the Lamb to His cross of sacrifice — a physical death where there was a "total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions, and it was impossible for those functions to be renewed." Faithful followed the Lamb to His bed of consummation — a real, literal, spiritual death to Himself where there was a "total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions" of the natural life, and where His natural life had not only ceased, but it had "lost the susceptibility of renewed action." Faithful's consummation wasn't His physical activity on a green bed. His consummation was about being brought to this kind of death, this utter impossibility of doing anything from Himself, independently, of His Own accord, but quietly receiving from His Father's hands, and laying down to, His Father's will for Him, patiently passing through whatever His Father was pleased to pass Him through at the moment.
Faithful's consummation was about bearing the weight put upon Him, going forward in His Father's instructions anyway — under the weight — as far in His instructions as He could physically go in His Person. It was about being brought face to face with utter impossibility, laying down quietly to it, and arising under the special empowering of His Father, to complete His required instructions. Faithful's consummation was about how the Son deals with unexpected impossibilities, and human feelings and appearances, with undeviating faithfulness to His Father's instructions. Faithful's consummation was about His unearthly and humanly incomprehensible sacrifice of Himself to do whatever was required in His pledge to marry the Woman in the wilderness to the Father.
This is the marriage of the Lamb. This is how married the Lamb is to His Father. This is how married the bride is to the Lamb.
And the angel said to me, Write this down: Blessed, happy, to be envied, are those who are summoned, invited, called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And...after that I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse appeared. The One Who was riding it is called Faithful, Trustworthy, Loyal [to His Father's instructions no matter what the excruciation or personal cost to Himself], Incorruptible [not corrupted, or adulterated, in any way with His Own life], and Steady, and True...and the troops of heaven...followed Him on white horses. Rev. 19:9-14 Amplified.
When Faithful came up to the first event of the consummation, He was bearing in His Person, in a very acute way, the excruciating intensity of His conflict with the powers of darkness with whom He was facing off, to prevail over in behalf of the Woman in the wilderness. In bearing the entire land in His Person, Faithful was feeling every soul therein. The two previous husbands of the Two Witnesses were a very integral and felt part of the Woman, and He was feeling their loss and bearing full responsibility for it. Faithful was consummating their union with Him as well, and as He bore their souls in His Person, He could feel the fierce onslaught of satanic powers against them. He Himself was taking the brunt of those oppressing powers who were coming strongly against them because of their consent to Father's will in yielding up their former wives to be His Witnesses of the consummation.
In this state of spiritual tension, the Woman in the wilderness was in keen distress within herself, and Faithful felt it all in her — with her. As He felt the strong and earnest desires coming from within her soul for consummation with Himself, He also felt the severe distress and heavy assailing from the powers of darkness which were upon her. Despite the strong conflict, the Son faithfully went forward the night that Father gave His promised sign that the consummation was to commence, following every instruction from Him as each instruction came, but finding at last that for the first time in His life He was unable to consummate. The spiritual tension He was bearing in behalf of the Woman had taken its toll, and it was too much for His Person. It was just before midnight, when Faithful knew that He had gone as far as He could go in the path of His instructions with the first Witness Father had sent to Him, and He quietly laid down upon His green bed — His resting place in His Father's faithfulness and His ability to bring to pass what He had decreed.
Chapter 12, page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
