Walking into a Closer Union with Christ
REVELATION 19:7-9
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. (Notice that she is already his wife at the time when she is making herself ready – it didn’t say “his bride” hath made herself ready, but “his wife”, because the marriage has already taken place. This day this scripture is being fulfilled in the hearts of people, because the marriage is when the revelation of the word for this hour is birth into your heart by the teaching of the Holy Ghost – you and the word have been united together by faith, and that is the marriage, and that could not take place until this end time hour when the full word was restored back again)
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Notice – a change of garment at the time of the marriage. The first garment that we put on is the robe of his righteousness upon our souls by faith in his word)
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb (Not called to the marriage of the lamb, because the marriage of the Lamb is taking place right now on earth in the hearts of the believers of the message, we are being married now to the word of this hour, because the word is Christ, but after the marriage we go on to the marriage supper in the sky – that is why you cannot be a part of that feast in the sky then unless you have first partaken of the feast of his revealed word now. So the evidence that you will be at that feast is that you are feasting now on the spiritual food for this season). And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
LUKE 15:20
20 And he arose, and came to his father (Notice – from the condition of being in a pig pen, now he is experiencing a resurrection out from that condition, so what caused him to be raise up from that condition? - it was a change of heart – the first robe that he put on was upon his heart – he first had a change of belief in his heart, and that is what Malachi 4’s message has done for us in this hour, it has restored our hearts back to the original faith again). But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Walking into a Closer Union with Christ
When a couple are first married, they usually do not start out instantly walking in close union together, but as they go through life walking along together through the ups and downs, and if they are both living in their God given roles as husband and wife, then after a while their heart begins to beat as one.
And that is also the way with us in our relationship with the word for this day. We have come into the revelation of the hour, and it has truly been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit teaching the word to us, and so we are married to Christ by our agreement with the word, but yet we have to walk with him into a closer union with Christ.
And that is where many of us are failing in our relationship with the Lord, in that we are just not walking in a close enough union with the word yet as our headship, and so God cannot lead us and bless us and guide us in the way that he desires to do for us.
GENESIS 5:22-24
22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Enoch walked with God until he was translated, and this is also our promise for this hour, so our walk with the revealed is like a marriage relationship where the headship of the word begins to take more and more preeminence in our lives.
Our problem is, that even though we are genuine believers and followers of the message, and we have been truly united with Christ the word, yet we still have a tendency (because of our previous training from our old husband, and the fact that we are still living in a fallen flesh body) to try to lead ourselves, because we haven’t fully realised yet that since we have become married to Christ, that we are to relax and let him do the leading for us.
*That is why we have to walk into a closer union with Christ – we have to become more aware of him and his leadership in our lives.
ROMANS 12:2
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
ROMANS 7:2
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
Since we have received the new birth by the seed of this age, we have to now learn the ways of our new husband by faith in the headship of the word, and not by our old husband which was our own human reasoning by a carnal nature.
Our new husband represents our new headship which is Christ the word.
So we find that Paul after he had received the Holy Ghost for his day experienced these same struggles as he walked along with the word for that hour.
ROMANS 7:20-25
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
We know that we are living in the days when the son of man has been revealed.
PROVING.HIS.WORD_ JEFF.IN V-9 N-6 SUNDAY_ 64-0816
235 …He promised these things to happen in the last day, that the same Son of man will be made manifest.
236 Now, remember, that was not Jesus talking to Abraham there, that could discern the thoughts in Sarah's mind behind him. That was not Jesus, He had not yet been born. But it was a man in human flesh, that Abraham called "Elohim, the great Almighty." Showing... And Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom," now watch close, "in the days of Sodom, so will it be at the coming of the Son of man, when the Son of man is being revealed (it was not going to reveal Jesus of Nazareth again in a human form – but the same God that lived and was manifested in the body of Jesus would come back again in this hour and show himself in human flesh again – a son of man (William Branham) revealing to the public the same Almighty God in human flesh again as it was in the days of Sodom)." Not no more as a church, see, not no more; the Bride is called, see. "In that day the Son of man will be revealed." What? To join the Church to the Head, unite, the marriage of the Bride. The Bridegroom call will come right through this, when the Son of man will come down and come in human flesh to unite the two together. The Church has to be the Word, He is the Word, and the two unites together, and, to do that, it'll take the manifestation of the revealing of the Son of man. Not a clergyman. I--I don't know, I... Do you see what I mean?
See, it's Son of man, Jesus Christ, will come down in human flesh among us, and will make His Word so real that it'll unite the Church and Him as one, the Bride, and then she'll go Home to the Wedding Supper. Amen. She's already united, see, we go to the Wedding Supper, not to the marriage. "... fill your flesh... self, of all the flesh of mighty men, 'cause the marriage of the Lamb has come." But, the rapture, is going to the Wedding Supper. When, the Word here unites with the person, and they two become one.
So brother Branham is telling us plainly that we are living right now in the time of the marriage of the Lamb where the word of this hour is to unite with individuals, and then we as individuals are now married to Christ by having the revelation of the word of this hour in our hearts.
***We are not being married to the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, but we are married to the spirit word that indwelt that body that has now been fully revealed to us in this end time age through the opening of the seven seals.
And so because of that word being here now, then that is why we can have access to the tree of life again as Adam and Eve did in the beginning. We have full access to Him the person, and then we come into union with Him by our acceptance and agreement with that word.
As Eve ate from the wrong tree, and that took us out of Eden, we are now eating from the right tree again which is the revealed word of this hour, and so now we can go back to Eden again in the millennium.
**So right now we are to mature in our relationship with the Lord into a closer walk and into a closer union with him as does a new wife conform to the ways and leadership of her new husband.
171-1 PERGAMEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.5
…In these last days the true Bride Church (Christ's seed) will come to the Headstone, and she will be the super church, a super race, as she nears Him. They in the bride will be so much like Him that they will even be in His very image (Bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, word of his word – she is Him in bride form in this hour just as Eve was Adam in woman form in the beginning). This is in order to be united with Him. They will be one. They will be the very manifestation of the Word of the living God.
Last week – “We Shall All be Changed”
For the prodigal son to receive the best robe from the father, first he had to have a change of garment on the inside which was a change of understanding – a revelation. Then, that new revelation in his heart came out as a confession upon his lips, and then that is what brought him to the glorified garment.
So notice - 3 changes of robes, and we also saw the pattern of the shout, voice and trump mystery of 1st Thessalonian 4:16 revealed in mystery form in the parable, because the last trump is the new body which is our new robe just before we go to the feast.
THE.SPOKEN.WORD.IS.THE.ORIGINAL.SEED_ JEFF.IN V-3 N-1 SUNDAY_ 62-0318
20-1 My mission, that I believe that God has called me for... I--I have to say some personal things today, because that's what I told you I'd do (See?), and tell the world. My mission, I believe, to the earth is what? Is to forerun the coming Word (See?) the coming Word which is Christ.
In the beginning, God and man were one together like a husband and wife are to be one together in agreement and purpose. And so after man fell and left Eden he had to learn to lead himself by his own reasoning, but the purpose of redemption was to bring that relationship back that Adam had with God before the fall, because that is what the whole mystery of marriage was trying to show us – the relationship of God and man is to be like a husband and a wife with him as our headship, and that is why the bible begins with marriage in Genesis and end with marriage in Revelation because we fell from that relationship with God, but right now in this hour that we live in, the message of the hour has literally given us access back to oneness with God again, but we have to walk back into that condition.
EPHESIANS 5:30-32
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 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.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
And so marriage between a man and a woman was God showing us the relationship of the oneness that he once had with man in the beginning, and so that is what promised to be restored back to us as individuals again at this end time age – that is our goal in this hour.
**As a believer in this hour, you will never experience true satisfaction outside of oneness with God, because God designed you for that purpose – to live in him and He in you.
CORINTHIANS.BOOK.OF.CORRECTION_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 57-0414
E-49 Now, in the beginning they were one. God, when He made man, He made him a dual person, both male and female. He separated him in flesh and put him here on earth in flesh, and the female part was still in spirit. Look, friends. God was so careful. Oh, how this... Don't let it leave you. God never got a handful of dust and made a Eve. She'd been a different creation; and she's not a creation; she's a byproduct. And God goes over in the heart of Adam, this rib right out from under his heart, and takes a rib and makes the wife; and the very part of Adam's spirit was in the woman, and they two are one. Soul, body, spirit, they are one. They are perfect oneness, a real woman and a real husband, a real wife. They are one together. What is it a type of? Christ. From out of his bosom, not a byproduct, not a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Pentecostal hatch up... No, sir. But out of His own heart, He took the sweetheart that's as pure and loyal as she can be. She's as loyal as a lily.
ONENESS_ JEFF.IN V-10 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0211
171 … God sent the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is God Himself. He's the One that'll make the oneness between God and man.
How was this oneness of spirit between God and man broken? When man doubted the word of God he separated his spirit from God by his disagreement with God.
AMOS 3:3
3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Agreement is a spiritual condition – you agree when your spirit agrees with the other person.
TRYING.TO.DO.GOD.A.SERVICE.WITHOUT.BEING.THE.WILL.OF.GOD_ JEFF.IN V-4 N-8 SUNDAY_ 65-0718M
174 …You've united by the Word. And the Word, was in the beginning, will go back to the beginning, which is God. "And that day you'll know that I am in the Father, the Father in Me; I in you, and you in Me." Hallelujah! We're here. Hallelujah! I'm so glad to see Him personifying Himself right among us, and see what He promised for the Word; not what's somebody's emotion, singing, and jumping, and dancing. But by His Word, amen, He is making Himself known.
162-4 PERGAMEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.5
Now we can see His association with the Word. HE IS THE WORD. That is Who He is. THE WORD IN HIS NAME.
In John 1:1 where it says "In the beginning was the Word," the root from which we get our translation for 'Word' is 'Logos' which means 'the thought or concept.' It has the double meaning of 'thought' and 'speech.' Now a 'thought expressed' is a 'word', 'or words.' Isn't that wonderful and beautiful? John says the concept of God was expressed in Jesus.
…When the bride will get back to being a Word bride, she will produce the very works that Jesus produced. The Word is God. The Spirit is God. They are all ONE. One cannot work apart from the other. If one truly has the Spirit of God, he will have the Word of God.
… The Word always comes to the truly Spirit-filled. That is the evidence of being filled with the Holy Ghost. That is what Jesus said would be the evidence. He said, "And I will pray the Father and He will send you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive." Now we know what Truth is.
"Thy Word is Truth."
John 17:17b.
Again in John 8:43,
"Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My Word."
Did you notice that Jesus said that the world could not receive the Holy Ghost? Well, in this verse I just read, neither could they receive the Word. Why? Because the Spirit and the Word are one, and if you have the Holy Spirit as the prophets, the Word would come to you. You would receive it.
170-1 PERGAMEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.5
I wonder if we are sufficiently impressed with the Word in our midst.
**The reason we have the word in our midst in this hour, is for the purpose of restabilising oneness with God and man again, because you cannot be one with God without being one in agreement with the word of God.
ONENESS_ JEFF.IN V-10 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0211
32 Now, Eve was united until she broke one Word, or, doubted one Word being true. That separated her. Every Word, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word." So we can be in God, united, because Adam and Eve, before the fall, afore the disbelieving of the Word, was an example of what we could be in Him. To be united with Him is Life; to be separated from Him is death. Now, if we follow His commandments...
33 We know we make mistakes, but you mustn't look at that. It's not your mistakes, because you're always going to have them. But, you see, it's following His rules, following what He said do. Stumble and falling doesn't have one thing to do with It. A real true servant, if he'll stumble, he'll get up again. If he wobbles, God pulls him right back in the path, as long as he's in the path of duty. But if he's off of the path of duty, God's not obligated to him. But as long as he's in the path of duty, God's obligated to him, knowing that he's just a man or a woman. He's obligated to that person as long as they're in the path of duty.
Oneness with God is not for the denomination, or for a group of people; it is for each one of us as individuals to come into this experience and relationship personally.
ONENESS_ JEFF.IN V-10 N-2 SUNDAY_ 62-0211
144 …That's the way it is today to an individual: not to a denomination, not to an organization, not to a group of people; but to an individual. Notice, to re-establish oneness between God and man...
WHAT.SHALL.I.DO.WITH.JESUS.CALLED.CHRIST_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-6 SUNDAY_ 63-1124M
131 … And in the last day, as we're told, "as it was in the days of Sodom," the Bride will be united by the Word of God made manifest in the flesh, the Holy Spirit sealing them into God, and sealing unbelief out, on the outside.
So the new birth by the revelation of the word for this hour brings us into union with God, but then we must continue to walk with that word and go on into a closer union.
_______________________
Last week we looked at the story of the Prodigal son from the angle of the shout, voice, and trump.
The shout was when his mind and senses came back to him (which represents the message of this hour that has turned our hearts back to the original doctrine of the word as they understood it in the first church age), because when his senses came back, and he came to himself, that is what changed his heart, and that was the first robe that he put on that caused him to walk into a closer union with his father in order to receive the best robe.
So after his change of heart in the pig pen, we find that he had to walk along the road quite a distance before he finally came into a close union with his father.
Walking into a Closer Union with Christ
LUKE 15:14-24 (pick up a little further from last week on the prodigal son)
14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. (Notice – he was in a different country to that of his father, just as the Laodicean age is a different age to the Bride age)
16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
20 And he arose, (Notice again - from the condition of being in a pig pen, now he is experiencing a resurrection from out of that condition because his heart has been changed, and that was the first robe that he put on that eventually led him to the best robe – he had to first have a change of belief in his heart, and that is what Malachi 4’s message has done for us in this hour, it has changed our hearts by restoring our faith back to the original faith again – we have also come to ourselves in this hour) and came to his father (we come into union with the father after we have been raised by the voice of the message of the hour). But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. (**The same message that had been quickened into his heart was now the same message that was coming out of him in the form of a voice – because he and the message of the hour had become one and now he was speaking from his lips the same revelation that he had received in his heart)
22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: (Shoes are for walking – because now he is going to walk in close union again with his father.
23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
***From the pig pen to his father’s house – with every step he was walking into a closer union with his father until he was walking again in close union.
After his resurrection from the pig pen, he first had to leave that country and entered back into his father’s country, it was quite a journey for him – and so when we were resurrected from dead denominational tombs, we also had to leave the Laodicean church age and enter into the bride age, and it has also been quite a journey for us.
But we see that just before the feast, the prodigal son is now fully united with his father and walking with him again in close union.
That is why in this hour we are to also walk into a closer union with Christ as he continues to unfold himself through the revelation of the word until we are safe and back in full union with him in this hour, and then we can walk with him into the feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Walking into a Closer Union with Christ
From the pig pen to the feast – we are to walk into these things