Our desire and yearning is that we would be the bride of Christ, the overcoming ones in this age; one aspect of the bride is that she is a warrior, for the church is both the bride and the corporate warrior to defeat God’s enemy.
When we think of a bride, we think of utmost beauty; what the bridegroom loves in the bride is her beauty on their wedding day.
So it is important for us as believers, in our preparation to be the bride of Christ, to be beautified.
How can we be beautified to be the bride of Christ for our wedding day? The only beautiful thing in this universe is Christ Himself; beauty is in Christ, Christ is the real beauty, and when He is wrought into us and lives out of us to be expressed through us, we are becoming the beautiful bride of Christ.
The more we love the Lord, the more we open to Him, the more we enjoy Him in the word and thus experience the washing of the water in the word, the more all our blemishes, spots, wrinkles, and any such things are being removed, and the more the divine element is added to our being.
Christ today is working behind the scenes not only to arrange all things for the fulfillment of His economy, but also to beautify His bride so that He may return.
When there is a group of believers who are produced as the Lord’s overcoming ones, the ones who have a corporate God-man living to manifest Christ and express Him, the Lord cannot resist but come and take His bride.
On His side, there are many things that He can do and will do in the world situation to prepare it for His return, according to the prophecies.
On our side, however, we need to be prepared daily by being in the Lord’s word, taking in the word by means of all prayer and petition, and allowing the rhema word, the instant word of God, the Lord’s spoken word to us, to wash us, remove any element that is negative from us, and constitute us with the Lord’s beautiful element.
Our only beauty is the shining out of Christ from within us; when the Lord looks at the church, He wants to see the expression of Himself, and this is what He appreciates in His bride.
So on our side we see the King in His beauty, and then we become as beautiful as He is, so the King will desire our beauty. How wonderful! How romantic!
How sweet it is that we are becoming the beautiful bride of Christ to enjoy our wedding day together at the wedding feast, a day in which we match Him in every possible way for the satisfaction of the desire of His heart!
The Church is both the Bride Presented to Christ and the Warrior fighting with Him against God’s Enemy
What the Lord desires to gain and what He will marry is His beautiful, spotless, glorious bride, the church composed of all the overcoming saints.
However, according to Rev. 19, the church is both the bride who is presented to Christ (Eph. 5:25-27) and the warrior who fights with Him against the enemy of God.
On one hand the church is the bride of Christ to match Him and satisfy Him for their wedding day; on the other hand, the church is the corporate warrior fighting together with Christ to defeat God’s enemy.
The armies in Rev. 19:14 are the called and chosen believers in Rev. 17:14; these are also the guests called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb.
So at the wedding feast there is the bride and the Bridegroom, and there are the wedding guests; then there’s the armies who follow the Lamb on white horses, dressed in fine line, white and clean.
We should not be confused regarding this but realize that the guests called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb are the bride, for the invited guests make up the bride; after the wedding, all the guests will become the army, the corporate warrior fighting with Christ against God’s enemy.
In Eph. 5 we see the church as the bride of Christ being presented to Christ spotless, glorious, without spots or wrinkles or any such things; in Eph. 6 we see the church as the warrior fighting the spiritual warfare.
On one hand the church is the bride of Christ, the wife of Christ, and on the other hand, the church is the corporate warrior fighting with Christ against God’s enemy.
When Christ returns, He will receive His bride and enjoy the wedding feast with her; after receiving the bride, Christ and the overcomers will enter into battle against the enemy.
Christ and His armies are just Christ and the bride; after the wedding feast, Christ and His newly married bride will go to war against the enemies of God! Hallelujah!
So we need to realize that, as the church, we are both the bride and the warrior.
On one hand we need to love the Lord, prepare ourselves for our meeting with Him, and be beautified by enjoying Him in His word; on the other hand, we need to be prepared, trained, equipped, and qualified to be the army to fight the enemy of God together with Christ.
The warrior in Eph. 6 is not an individual person but a corporate entity, the Body of Christ, even the corporate body of overcomers.
We cannot put the whole armor of God by ourselves individually; the armor of God in Eph. 6 is not for any individual alone to wear, but for the whole Body of Christ.
Contrary to the concept held by many Christians that an individual believer is able to wear the entire armor, none of us can do it; the armor in Eph. 6 is not for Christians as individuals but for the church corporately as the Body of Christ, it is for us to put it on together as a corporate army. Amen!
May we realize that, as the church, we are both the bride of Christ to be presented to Him for His satisfaction and enjoyment on His wedding day, and the corporate warrior fighting together with Him to defeat the enemy of God!
Hallelujah, the church is both the bride of Christ to be presented to Him and the warrior to fight with Him against God’s enemy! Lord Jesus, we love You as our dear Bridegroom! We give ourselves to You today to just love You, enjoy You, spend time with You, eat and drink of You, and enjoy the washing of the water in the Word to be prepared and beautified as Your glorious bride with no spots or wrinkles! Amen, Lord, we open to You and we allow You to qualify us, equip us, and train us to be Your corporate warrior to fight with You against the enemy of God. We stand in the Body one with the Head and with all the saints, and together we put on the armor of God to stand and defeat God’s enemy!
Our Wedding Garment as the Bride is our Fighting Garment as the Corporate Warrior to Defeat God’s Enemy
The overcomers – the armies which are in heaven and the ones who follow Him on white horses – are dressed in fine linen, white and clean; this is the clothing of the bride.
The wedding garment is of fine linen, bright and clean (v. 8), and this is also the armor that the army wears for the fighting.
The overcoming saints have two garments – one for salvation (Christ as our objective righteousness covering us before God and making us acceptable to Him) and the other for reward (the subjective righteousness, Christ wrought into us and living in us to be our righteousnesses).
The fine linen is the second garment, and this garment qualifies the overcomers to both attend the marriage dinner of the Lamb (Rev. 19:8-9) and to fight against His enemy.
Does this mean that the bride first has the wedding garment and then she changes to have the fighting uniform for the battle?
No, she doesn’t change her garments; rather, the wedding garment of the bride becomes the fighting garment of the corporate warrior to go to the battle. Wow!
Nowhere in history was there a time where the bride and the groom got married, and right after their wedding they went to war dressed in their wedding garments, but there will come such a time when Christ and His bride will have their wedding feast and, right afterwards, He will descend with His armies – His overcoming bride – to defeat the enemy! Wow!
The bride’s wedding garment becomes the fighting uniform that she wears as God’s army to defeat the enemy of God together with Christ as the General.
Christ is our garment; He is both our objective righteousness and our subjective righteousnesses.
We may not understand how this will all work out, but what the Bible tells us is that our wedding garment will be also our fighting uniform, the armor, to fight against the enemies of God and defeat them.
It will not be a “hard armor” but a soft armor, because Christ as the General has won the victory, and we fight not for victory but from victory, enjoying the victory of our Victorious Christ and following Him into battle!
So we need to both love the Lord and be prepared as His bride, and we also need to put on the whole armor of God.
From all the items of the armor, only the sword of the Spirit is the offensive weapon; all the other items are defensive.
We take the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition (Eph. 6:17-18).
The way we defeat the enemy and fight against him is by pray-reading the word of God in many different ways so that the word of God would become the sword of the Spirit to kill and destroy the enemy of God.
This we do not only on that day when the Lord returns, or on a day of “spiritual warfare” but every day!
The enemy’s elements are in us, our very being; we don’t merely fight an enemy that is out there in the air, not related to us, but an enemy that is within us, for Satan still has so many elements in our being.
As the corporate warrior we need to daily exercise our spirit to pray over the word of God to kill the adversary within us and be equipped to defeat the enemy outside of us.
When something negative is troubling us or blocking us from enjoying the Lord, we need to come to the word of God and pray over it; when we take the word of God by means of prayer in spirit, the negative element of the enemy is killed in our being.
This is our way to daily cooperate with the Lord to both wash us in the word to make us His glorious and beautiful bride, and to equip and train us to be His corporate warrior, His army.
Hallelujah, our wedding garment as the bride of Christ is also our fighting uniform in the battle as the corporate warrior fighting with Christ to defeat the enemy! Amen, Lord, we take You as our garment and uniform; You are both our objective righteousness covering us before God and giving us entrance to God to enjoy God, and You are our subjective righteousness lived out of us to be our wedding garment! We come to You in Your word, Lord, to pray over the word and be washed by the water in the word and defeat the adversary within us! Amen, Lord Jesus, we take the sword of the Spirit – which Spirit is the Word of God – by pray-reading the word to defeat the adversary within us and the enemy without!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 4340-4342, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (2020 Memorial Day Conference), week 6, The Preparation of the Bride.
- Hymns on this topic:
– We satisfy Christ, as His Bride, in His image; / As new man and warrior, dominion we win! / Safeguarded in battle in Christ as our armor, / We fight for God’s interests, His kingdom bring in! / We’re garbed in fine linen, our bridal apparel, / Made spotless and bright through God’s love and His light; / An army that follows the Lord into battle, / We’re clothed in this linen, with Christ armed in might! (Song on, The church is the Bride, the new man, and the warrior)
– O may I love Thy precious Word, / May I explore the mine, / May I its glorious riches take, / May light upon me shine. / O may I find my armor there, / Thy Word my trusty sword; / I’ll learn to fight with every foe / The battle of the Lord. (Hymns #804)
– For the Body is God’s armor, / Not for anyone alone; / When you wrestle in the Body, / All its benefits you own. (Hymns #885)
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