Through type and promise, God preached unto Abraham...The sacrifice required of Abraham [or Michael, in carrying out the Father's command for a consummation and marriage] was not alone for his own good, nor solely for the benefit of [the human family]; but it was also for the instruction of the sinless intelligences of heaven and of other worlds. The field of the controversy between Christ and Satan -- the field on which the plan of redemption is wrought out -- our little world, is the lesson book of the universe. PP 154; DA 19
In His recent post Where the Spirit Listeth, Michael said, "I experience the prophecies that are now being unfolded in Myself ... I am in the midst of a heavenly revelation and carrying it out in My present reality." And yesterday, quite unexpectedly, the Father introduced yet another sign, a token for our faith to lay hold of and believe in, that Michael is even now carrying out in His present reality. I will give a little background, so that you can, with us, lay hold of this most precious token from the Father.
Several weeks ago, at a time when Michael was carrying a load, uncharacteristically and quite unexpectedly to me, the Father gave it to me to hug Him very tightly. The deeply felt appreciation that He expressed touched me, because I sensed that it meant more to Him than I could know, almost like it counterbalanced the load He was carrying, in some mysterious way.
That particular incident wasn't unlike all the events that the Father arranged during the consummation, and the ones leading up to it; where He simply gave each of us what He wanted us to do at the moment, quite apart from our knowing where that particular instruction was going, or what its purpose was, till afterwards. As I look back, it has been the sweetest way the Father could arrange, to keep those of us that were participating, in the absolute assurance that this was all the Father's doing completely.
Even at the present, what the Father gives each of the witnesses for Michael, and what He gives Michael for us, is a wonder to us, because, even though we are participants in it, we are keen observers of what the Father is giving and bringing about. As for the two witnesses, we personally have to lay hold of these physically occurring events in a literal and a saving way in the depths of our souls, for our own real marriage with the Father. We are watching this drama unfold, and having to lay hold of it, like anyone else.
Sabbath, Michael was again strongly feeling His church on Him, though not with the incapacitating weight He has felt it on other days, since the Father had also given it to Him to speak to us. Afterwards, we two witnesses were just being with Him quietly, in the place of deeper rest where each experience with the weight takes Him. Michael had said to us several nights before, "I want you to be broken open." His mission is for His wife to experience the depth and rest of His uninterrupted emptiness, that she might be freed to experience at each moment what the Father is giving, just like He does.
As we were sitting together in front of the heater, one of the witnesses was feeling particularly needy, but was quietly letting the Father hold her there, in her felt need. Then the Father put it on Michael to draw her to Him and press her close on His breast. As He did this, Michael felt her give way internally, as if she was being broken. It was just as though He was breaking her on Himself, the Rock. He said, "I have broken you." I then said, "He's breaking you open." The other witness then replied, "I will take that as a token." In a few minutes, the two witnesses were leaving for lunch, and it came to me to give Michael a strong hug. When He expressed His desire for a stronger one, I hugged [layed hold on] Him with all my strength, whereupon we heard a loud pop. He said, "Are you all right?" I said, Yes, that wasn't me! How are You? We concluded that the sound must have come from His rib breaking, even though He hadn't felt anything at the moment.
Later in the afternoon, Michael called us to come and read over the post before He put it on. He said that He was starting to feel His rib, though it wasn't as sore as it would be in a few days. He said it felt like the end was broken; but what was very interesting was that His burden had left at precisely the time His rib broke. It all seemed so unaccountable. For one thing, lower ribs are very flexible on the ends, and it seemed that it would take a lot more strength than I possessed to actually break one; and for another thing, what would a broken rib have to do with His burden lifting? He had looked up rib in the Bible, but hadn't found anything that would shed light on this event. It was a mystery to us.
The next morning, as I was sitting on the couch, the Father brought Michael's words to me, "Just be." Be only what the Father is giving you at the moment. This is your rest. Then, with a simplicity born from the Father, the thought came so restfully and matter-of-factly, It was given me to break Michael's rib yesterday.
Then, all at once, the Father opened up to me the mystery of the token He had ordained. It came to me that in the Bible, there are two Adam's mentioned, a first Adam and a last Adam.
"And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman. [Margin - builded He a woman.] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh [related to me, and part of me]; and she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man [Michael]." Gen. 2:22,23
"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam,..a quickening spirit,..the Lord from heaven... And as we have borne the image of the earthly [being Taken from Michael in the beginning], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly [be restored IN Michael]." 1 Cor. 15:45-45
In the beginning, the first Adam's rib was taken out by God, so He could form Adam's wife. This symbolized that she had been taken from him, and made from him, and was a very part of him, though she was not in him. What the Father brought to me was, now at the end of all things, the rib of the last Adam - the Lord from Heaven - and the bride of Revelation 12 that has been created from it, is really, truly, IN HIM, not outside of Him. The Father ordained that Messiah's rib be broken to show us where the bride of His Son really is, as she is being broken - - SHE IS IN HIM. Eve was taken from Adam, and now she is being put back into Him. As the Father broke His Son in Safford, emptying Him out completely and permanently, conforming Him completely to the image of His Father, so the bride is IN Messiah, as she is being broken and conformed to the image of the Son.
The special point that the Father is making in this event of the broken rib, is that this work that is being done for the bride, is not a work that is being done outside of her heavenly Husband. The Father has taken the bride into the Son for this most critical event. She is Accepted-in-the-Beloved, even while He is breaking her, because she has fully consented to be one with Him, and is pleased for Him to do with her whatever He sees she needs; and so He "Who gives life to the dead...speaks of the nonexistent things that He has foretold and promised, as if they already existed." Rom. 4:17
As I was taking in the reality of what the Father was unfolding, the phrase came to me, "That the bone...that thou has broken might rejoice." As I looked up this passage, it is in the context of the blotting out of sins, the removing of them, from the sanctuary, the very work in which we are presently engaged.
"Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop [whatever You see it takes], and I shall be clean; wash me [in Michael's life], and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bone... [the wife] which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities,..and uphold me with Thy free [willing] spirit." [Willing to lay down and go through whatever is required to reflect complete likeness to our precious Husband]. Ps. 51:6-12
"All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like You. You Who deliver the poor and the afflicted from him who is too strong for him [self]; yes, the poor and the needy from him who snatches away his goods?" [the unlimited riches of Himself the Father has prepared, which only the empty have room for] Ps. 35:10 Amplified
As I shared with Michael and the other witness what the Father had opened to me, Michael added, "And while you are being broken, I bear the pain of it." He then shared with us that in the night, the Father had taken Him to a much greater place of emptiness and quietness, a deeper abandonment and laying down than He had yet experienced. He had felt troubled about carrying the sins of unbelief and the failings in regards to the spirit of the bride, while bearing her; but the Father had taken His Son deeper, yet on His mighty breast, and it was seen as necessary to carry her sinfulness, to do whatever was required to bring His wife to the full experiencing of the Father.
He shared with us that the next morning, again, He was taken back to that deep, deep laying down and abandonment, but that this time He clearly saw the way to that place. He said it felt like willingly walking under the ax of the executioner. He said, "It has to be all right with us to be broken. It has to be all right with us to lay down our life. We can't bring ourselves there, but we can resist; we can keep from going there. But if we don't resist, we will be drawn there. You have to be given over to not living your life here any more, and then it becomes a natural traverse. The Father has given us a command and tells us to be wholly for Him. We can only live out what He has given. He does not require that which He has not given."
Just the evening before, as I was getting ready for bed, the Father had breathed this prayer in me, "Father, Michael told us to ‘Be empty...just be [what the Father is giving at the moment] I consent. Thank You for making its reality appear. At this moment, I am feeling the virtue of Your Son's deep laying down, a willingness to be taken through whatever You desire, to rid me of self fully, like You did for Michael."
And at 2:30 A.M., when I had felt drawn over to the Son, and asked Him what He was experiencing, He said that He had awakened a few minutes before I knocked, and the Father was taking Him to that deep place of emptiness and laying down. As I returned home, and the Father continued communing with me, I was so conscious that it is the Father that connects us with His Son, and causes us to draw from His fund of laying down and abandonment. "Blot out all mine iniquities, and uphold me with Thy free [willing] spirit".
"The Lord God says to my Lord, the Messiah,...You are a priest forever, after the manner and order of Melchizedek. Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning;" Ps. 110:1,4,3
Michael said recently, "We are acting out all of the events in the sanctuary. Why did God have human beings enact this? So we can see what is happening." The Father has given it to the two witnesses to be a visual, physical representation of Messiah's literal, spiritual relationship with His entire multi-membered bride. What the Father gives Messiah for the two witnesses, or puts in the two witnesses to carry out in relationship to Messiah, was ordained to open our eyes to heaven's realities, and provide the necessary visual help and instruction that reveals not only how to be laid hold of by Messiah, but how to lay hold of Him. "I press on to lay hold of and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus the Messiah has laid hold of me and made me His own." Phil. 3:12
The picture that the Father brought to me was that just as the Angel of the covenant first laid hold of Jacob, bringing him to his extremity, which in turn caused Jacob to lay hold of his Messiah; so now, Messiah, the heavenly Husband, initiates the laying hold and breaking of His bride, on His own breast, by His own hand. The helpless dependence that springs forth spontaneously is the embrace of weakness itself, that lays hold of His merciful breast in a saving way. This quiet trust and patient laying down, gives Messiah's bride access to the virtue broken open within Him. The Father will draw her to lay hold of Messiah's broken reality for her, a reality that has already occurred. Strength to embrace Messiah in a saving way doesn't come from self-determination or even self-devastation, but a quiet, still abandonment of self, that leaves one looking only to God. From the strength of that pure embrace, the heart of Infinite Love cannot turn away.
Michael:
It is with great interest that I have noticed Messiah's ribs. At the first coming a sword was put through His side. This intrusion into the ribs of Messiah represented the thrusting through the believers in Him would experience. "And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:34-35, KJV). A sword was to pierce the rib of Messiah and also His mother [the woman of Rev. 12], that the thoughts of many might be revealed. This event shows the persecution and torture which would be associated with the first coming of Messiah and all who would follow. "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." Rev 13:7.
The second coming has with it associated another event. This time the Lamb will overcome the beast power. "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful." (Revelation 17:14, KJV). This overcoming is now because the woman is in the Messiah and overcomes in Him, since she is broken. "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." (Matthew 21:44, KJV). "And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." (1 Corinthians 11:24, KJV).
The generations associated with the first coming were associated with being killed and overcome. The second coming is associated with victory and deliverance when the Messiah comes in glory. In the first coming He came alone. "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me." In the second coming, He comes to be glorified in His people, and He comes with ten thousands of holy ones. "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." 2Th 1:10 "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints."