Scripture Reading: Rev. 12:1-17; 14:1-5, 14-16; 15:2-4; 19:7-9, 14-19; 20:4-6; 21:3, 9-11, 18-22
Ⅲ
The testimony of Jesus is the bright woman, representing the whole Body of God's redeemed, with her man-child, representing the overcomers as the stronger part of God's people—Rev. 12:1-17:
A
The people of God who produce the overcomers (the man-child) are full of light, showing that God's overcoming people are light-bearers, shining through all generations—vv. 1-5; S. S. 6:10; John 8:12; Matt. 5:14; Prov. 4:18:
１
Christ's faithful followers are shining and living stars, those who follow Christ as the shining and living star—Matt. 2:2-12; Micah 5:2; Dan. 12:3:
ａ
The living stars follow the heavenly, living, up-to-date, and instant vision of Christ as the centrality and universality of God's economy—Acts 26:16-19.
ｂ
The living stars are those who bless God's people; the more we praise the Lord for God's people and speak well of them in faith, the more we put ourselves under God's blessing—Num. 24:9; Gen. 12:2-3; 22:17.
ｃ
The living stars take heed to the prophetic word of the Scriptures, “as to a lamp shining in a dark place,” so that Christ as the morning star rises in their hearts— 2 Pet. 1:19; John 6:63; Rev. 2:28.
ｄ
The living stars enjoy and are filled with the sevenfold intensified Spirit to make them intensely living and shining for God's building—3:1; 4:5; 5:6.
ｅ
The living stars are the messengers of the churches, those who enjoy and expe- rience the pneumatic Christ as the Messenger of God and as the fresh message from God so that they can dispense the fresh and present Christ into the people of God for the testimony of Jesus—1:20; 2:1; Mal. 3:1-3.
ｆ
The living stars have “great resolutions in heart” and “great searchings of heart”; they are lovers of God who are like “the stars… / From their courses” to fight together with God against His enemy so that they may be “like the sun / When it rises in its might”—Judg. 5:15-16, 20, 31; Dan. 11:32; Matt. 13:43.
２
The moon signifies the church, the wife of Christ; the church shines in the dark night of this age by reflecting the light of Christ as the sun—Phil. 2:15-16.
３
Christ is the Sun of righteousness arising with healing in His wings, healing and recon- stituting us with Himself so that we may shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of our Father—Mal. 4:2; Matt. 13:43:
ａ
Christ as the shining light is in the sanctuary—in our spirit and in the church; when we exercise our spirit and live in the church, God's way becomes clear to us, and we receive divine revelation and the explanation to all our problems—Psa. 77:13; 73:17.
ｂ
The path of the overcoming believers is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until the full day—Prov. 4:18; John 1:5.
B
The man-child signifies the overcomers who put on Christ as the weapons of light to fight against His enemy and usher in God's kingdom—Rev. 12:5-10; Rom. 13:11-14:
１
The way to become the man-child is for us to be strengthened into the inner man, to be empowered to experience the riches of Christ, and to be strong through putting on the armor of God by pray-reading the killing word—Eph. 3:16, 18; 6:10-11, 17-18; Rev. 1:16; 19:13-15.
２
“They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death”—12:11.
３
David typifies the warring Christ in the midst of sufferings, and Abigail typifies the church that is one with the warring Christ to fight for God's kingdom in the midst of sufferings—Matt. 12:3; 1 Sam. 25:42:
ａ
Abigail's previous husband, Nabal (meaning “fool”), signifies our old man and shows how evil our old man is in forsaking Christ; Nabal despised, rejected, and opposed David at the time of his destitution—vv. 10-11, 25; Rom. 7:1-6; cf. Prov. 1:7; 13:20.
ｂ
When our corrupted nature, which forsakes, rejects, and despises Christ, is struck down, we become Christ's counterpart who follows Him in the midst of sufferings, fighting for the kingdom of God—1 Sam. 25:36-42; Rev. 1:9.
Ⅳ
The testimony of Jesus is the firstfruits, signifying the overcomers raptured before the great tribulation, and the harvest, signifying the majority of the believers raptured at the end of the great tribulation—14:1-5, 14-16:
A
At His first coming to the earth, the Lord sowed Himself into His believers; all the believers since that time, who have received Him as the seed of life, have become God's farm, His crop, on the earth—Matt. 13:3-8, 24; 1 Cor. 3:9:
１
The overcomers as the first ripe ones in God's field will be reaped (raptured) before the great tribulation as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb—Rev. 14:1-5.
２
The majority of the believers will ripen with the help of the sufferings in the great tri- bulation and will be reaped at the end of the great tribulation—v. 15.
B
The rapture is not mainly for our enjoyment but for God's enjoyment; we need to make our- selves ready to be raptured, not for our happiness but for the fulfillment of God's purpose— 12:5, 7-11; 14:1, 4b; 19:7.
C
The meaning of rapture is to be taken into the Lord's presence; in order to be taken into the Lord's presence, we must be in His presence today—2 Cor. 2:10; 1 John 1:3.
D
The rapture of the overcomers is for defeating the enemy and satisfying God; the Lord needs the man-child to fight against His enemy, but He needs the firstfruits even more for His satisfaction—Rev. 14:1, 4b; cf. S. S. 8:6, 13-14.
E
The firstfruits are the earliest ones among God's crop to reach maturity—Col. 2:19; Heb. 5:14—6:1; Eph. 4:13; Phil. 3:15; cf. Luke 21:36.
F
The firstfruits are raptured to the house of God in Zion as the fresh enjoyment to God for His satisfaction—Exo. 23:19a; Lev. 23:10.
G
Our being raptured depends on our being mature in the divine life by our walking with God, taking Him as our center and everything, and doing everything according to His reve- lation and leading—Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5-6.
Ⅴ
The testimony of Jesus is the victorious ones standing on the glassy sea, signifying the late overcomers who will pass through the great tribulation and overcome Antichrist and the worshipping of Antichrist—Rev. 15:2-4:
A
The late overcomers sing the song of Moses (indicating God's triumphant judgment over the enemy of His people) and the song of the Lamb (indicating Christ's redemption experienced by God's people in the presence of their enemy)—v. 3a; Exo. 15:1-18.
B
The late overcomers praise God for His works and His ways, that is, for His acts and His principles; God's ways are righteous in His principles and true in His promises, while His works are great in manifestation and wonderful in nature—Rev. 15:3b-4; Psa. 103:7; cf. 107:10-20.
Ⅵ
The testimony of Jesus is the bride of Christ—the overcomers who are the co-kings of Christ during the millennium—Rev. 19:7-9; 20:4-6:
A
The Lord's recovery is for the preparation of the bride of Christ—19:7-9; 21:2.
B
Ultimately, we will be conformed to Christ to be the wonderful Shulammite, who, as the duplication of Solomon, is the greatest and ultimate figure of the New Jerusalem as the counterpart, the bride, of Christ—S. S. 6:13; Rev. 21:2, 9-10; 22:17a.
C
The Shulammite is likened to the dance of two camps, or two armies (Heb. mahanaim), in the sight of God; after Jacob saw the angels of God, the two armies of God, he named the place where he was Mahanaim and divided his wives, children, and possessions into “two armies”—S. S. 6:13; Gen. 32:2:
１
The spiritual significance of the two armies is the strong testimony that we more than conquer, we “super-overcome,” through Him who loved us according to the principle of the Body of Christ—Rom. 8:37; 12:5; Deut. 32:30; Eccl. 4:9-12.
２
God does not want those who are strong in themselves; He wants only the feeble ones, the weaker ones, the women and children; those who are counted worthy to be overcomers will be the weaker ones who depend on the Lord—1 Cor. 1:26-28; 2 Cor. 12:9-10; 13:3-5; S. S. 8:6.
３
God needs a people who are one with Him, a people who are submissive to Him, sig- nified by the plaited hair (1:11), and obedient to Him with a flexible will, signified by the neck with strings of jewels (v. 10).
４
When we consider how to arrive at the highest peak of the divine revelation, we should not trust in ourselves but depend on the Lord as love, power, and mercy to make us vessels of mercy, honor, and glory—Rom. 9:16, 21-23.
Ⅶ
The testimony of Jesus is the bridal army, who fights together with Christ, the embod- iment of God, to defeat Antichrist, the embodiment of Satan, with his armies—Rev. 19:14-19; 17:14:
A
In Ephesians 5 and 6 we see the church as the bride and the warrior; in Revelation 19 we also have these two aspects of the church—Eph. 5:25-27; 6:10-20:
１
Before Christ descends to earth to deal with Antichrist and the totality of human government, He will have a wedding, uniting His overcomers (who have been fighting the battle against God's enemy for years) to Himself as one entity—Rev. 19:7-9; cf. Dan. 7:25; 6:10; Eph. 6:12.
２
After His wedding, He will come with His newly-married bride to destroy Antichrist, who with his army will fight against God directly—Rev. 19:11, 14:
ａ
The Lord Jesus, the Word of God, will slay Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, by the breath of His mouth—vv. 13-15; 2 Thes. 2:2-8.
ｂ
Out of Christ's mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He might smite the na- tions—Rev. 19:15; cf. 1:16; 2:12, 16.
B
In Ephesians 5 the word is for nourishment that leads to the beautifying of the bride for God's expression, and in Ephesians 6 the word is for killing that enables the church as the corporate warrior to engage in spiritual warfare for God's dominion, thus fulfilling God's original intention—5:26-27; 6:17-18; Gen. 1:26:
１
By Christ as the life-giving Spirit sanctifying us, cleansing us by the washing of the water in the word, we are beautified with Him to be His holy, beautiful, God-expressing bride, a bride without blemish or imperfection—Eph. 5:26.
２
By Christ furnishing us with Himself as the sword of the Spirit through our pray- reading of His word, we can practically take our stand in the reality of the Body to apply the whole armor of the Triune God and the killing power of the Spirit-word to deal with the elements of the enemy within us—6:10-11, 17-18.
Ⅷ
Ultimately, the testimony of Jesus is the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consum- mation of the tabernacle and temple—the eternal divine-human incorporation, the eternal building, of God and man—Rev. 21:9, 3, 22:
A
We can live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the divine-human incorporation by taking the Lord as our abode for us to be His abode—John 15:4-5:
１
When we love the Lord Jesus, He manifests Himself to us, and the Father comes with Him to make an abode with us for our enjoyment; this abode is a mutual abode, in which the Triune God abides in us and we abide in Him—14:23:
ａ
To recover our first love for the Lord is to make Him everything in our life, giving Him the preeminence, the first place, in all things; nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord—Rev. 2:4; Eph. 6:24.
ｂ
The more we love the Lord as our unique Husband, the more we shall have His presence; and the more we are in His presence, the more we shall enjoy all that He is to us; the Lord's recovery is a recovery of loving the Lord Jesus—Isa. 54:5; S. S. 1:1-4; 1 Cor. 2:9-10.
ｃ
If we leave our first love toward the Lord, we will miss the enjoyment of Christ and lose the testimony of Jesus; loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being the tes- timony of the Lord go together—Rev. 2:4, 7.
２
We abide in Christ that He may abide in us by our dealing with the constant word in the Scriptures that is outside of us and the present word as the Spirit within us; when we abide in the Lord and let His words abide in us, we are one with Him in actuality— John 5:39-40; 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6; Rev. 2:7b; John 8:31; 15:7.
B
The overcoming believers as the constituents of God's building, the New Jerusalem, are signified by jasper and other precious stones—Rev. 21:9-11, 18-21; 1 Cor. 3:12a:
１
Jasper signifies the appearance of God shining with the glory of God as the light of the New Jerusalem for the expression of God—Rev. 4:3; 21:11, 18-19.
２
The other precious stones signify the riches of the beauty of Christ in different aspects for the foundation of God's eternal dwelling—vv. 19-21.
３
By the burning Spirit, the judging Spirit, and the flowing Spirit—the Lord Spirit—we are being transformed by the experiences of the riches of Christ as the God of resur- rection gained through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross—Isa. 4:4; 11:2; John 4:14b; 2 Cor. 1:8-9.
４
Through the process of transformation, we boast in our weaknesses and boast in Christ Jesus, that the power of Christ as grace might tabernacle over us—v. 12; 11:30-33; 12:7-9; Rom. 5:3; 1 Cor. 1:29-31; Phil. 3:3.
５
By our growth in the divine life in Christ as the living stone, we are being transformed into precious stones; through the process of transformation, the Triune God is being wrought into and structured together with us to the praise of the glory of His grace with which He graced us in the Beloved for us to become the New Jerusalem as the ultimate testimony of Jesus and the good news to the entire universe—1 Pet. 2:4; Rev. 21:18-21; Eph. 1:3-6; cf. Luke 4:18-19.