The Church as the Bride and the Warrior needs the Beautifying and Slaying Word of God

The church is both the bride and the warrior, and we need the beautifying word of God to be the bride of Christ and the slaying word of God to be His corporate warrior fighting with Him against the enemy. Amen!

As we are approaching the end of this age, we need to be those who are in the word of God with much prayer and petition, even musing, so that we may be infused with the element of God, the enemy would be defeated and slain, and we would be beautified to be the bride of Christ.

As prophesied in Daniel 2, Christ will soon return as a stone cut out without hands, and He will not come alone: He will come together with His bride, composed of His overcomers.

In His first coming, Christ came alone; He came as the individual embodiment of God. He came to express God, manifest God, and live God.

He fulfilled God’s purpose for God. He and He alone could have the fullness of the Godhead dwell in Him bodily and individually.

In His first coming, He solved some of the most important problems with man, especially the matter of sin.

He went to the cross, died for us, accomplished an eternal redemption, and reconciled us to God in His body on the cross.

Then, after three days of taking a tour of death and Hades, the Lord Jesus resurrected, and He became a life-giving Spirit to impart, dispense, and infuse Himself into all those who repent and believe into Him.

He has opened a way for so many to receive God’s life.

The very life of God contained in the tree of life in Genesis now is embodied in Christ and can be received by us when we call on the name of the Lord.

When we call on the name of the Lord, we are regenerated with the divine life, and we become sons of God. But this is not the end.

The Lord doesn’t want us to merely be saved and then wait for Him to take us to heaven.

This may be the view that many Christians have, but this is not what the Bible says.

After receiving Christ, we need to enjoy Him, contact Him, and grow in Him, and be transformed.

As we cooperate with the indwelling Christ by turning to Him, reading and praying over His word, and being in unceasing contact with Him in prayer, we undergo an organic transformation from our likeness into His.

We will eventually be produced as the overcomers, those who not only remain in contact with the Lord throughout the day but who are joined to Him for His purpose and pray the prayer of the age to bring the Lord back.

When He returns the second time, Christ will come with His overcomers, those who are not passively waiting for Christ to return and take them to heaven but who actively contact the Lord, enjoy Him, and are being renewed and transformed into His image, living a life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

Amen, may we be such ones!

The church as the Bride and the Warrior needs the Beautifying and Slaying Word of God

Eph. 5-6 show us that the church is both the bride and the warrior.

In Eph. 5:25-27 we see the church as the bride of Christ, the wife of Christ, and in Eph. 6:10-20 we see the church as the warrior, the corporate warrior putting the whole armour of God for the spiritual warfare.

In Rev. 19 we also see these two aspects of the church. According to this chapter, the church is both the bride who is presented to Christ and the warrior who fights with Him against the enemy of God.

When the Lord Jesus return, He will first meet His bride; He will receive to Himself those who are the overcomers, who are qualified to be the bride of Christ.

Then, this bride will ride with Him on white horses, dressed in fine linen, white and clean (Rev. 19:11, 14).

Christ is both the Bridegroom and the Warrior, and the church as His duplication becomes the bride of Christ to match Him for their marriage and the warrior who follows Him in the battle against the enemy.

Rev. 17:14 says that the enemies will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are called chosen and faithful, they will also overcome.

As the church, we are not only the Body of Christ, the dwelling place of God, the kingdom of God, the family of God, and the one new man.

We are also the bride and the warrior.

On one hand, we are the bride of Christ loving Him, being beautified to be His glorious bride with no spots and wrinkles or any such things, and we are cooperating with the Lord to prepare our wedding garment, the righteousnesses of the saints.

On the other hand, we are the corporate warrior putting on the whole armour of God in the Body, being equipped to fight the battle in the Body, one with the Head, for the enemy to be destroyed.

How can we be prepared to be the bride and the warrior?

How can we be beautified to be the bride and equipped to be the warrior?

It is by means of the word of God. We need the beautifying word of God to wash away and remove any spots, wrinkles, and any such things, so that we may be the bride of Christ.

For this, we daily come to the Lord’s word to read and pray, pray and read, muse on the word, and allow the word of God to wash us and cleanse us and beautify us (Eph. 5:25-27).

This is to prepare us to be the bride of Christ.

However, when we come to the word of God, one of the functions of the word is also to kill the enemy within us.

Many times we are troubled by doubts, hatred, jealousy, pride, or selfishness.

There are many things that the enemy has in us, things through which he attacks us, bothers us, and hinders our going on with the Lord.

The way for us to deal with the enemy and his agencies in us is by praying over the word of God.

As we pray-read the word of God, we are nourished on the positive side and, on the negative side, the living word becomes the sword of the Spirit to slay the enemy.

The only beauty in this universe is Christ Himself; we want Christ to be added to us and infused into us day by day.

This is by means of our reading and praying over the word of God.

To be the warrior in the divine history, God’s move in man’s history, we need the slaying word of God.

We need to daily spend time with the Lord in His word, opening to Him, loving Him, and allowing Him to speak to us.

As we read and pray over His word, as we pray-read the word, and as we muse upon the word of God, the element of God is added to us to make us the bride of Christ, and the sword of the Spirit slays the enemy within us.

After some time of pray-reading the word, we may discover that the adversary, who was attacking us and bothering us, has been slain and disappeared.

Eph. 5 speaks of the word of God nourishing us and washing us to produce us as the pure and beautiful bride of Christ.

Ephesians 6 speaks of the slaying word of God who kills the adversary and is our defensive weapon for the spiritual warfare, producing us as the corporate warrior.

As the church, we are both the bride and the warrior, and we’re produced as such a one by our pray-reading the word of God.

Lord Jesus, we come to Your word by means of all prayer and petition; we want to pray-read the word of God day by day! Amen, Lord, Your word is our food, our nourishment, and our supply. Feed us in Your word. Add more of Your element into our being as we read and pray Your word. May we be washed and cleansed in Your word so that we may be beautified to be Your bride. Have a way, Lord, to operate in our being by means of Your word. May Your enemy be slain and cast away by Your living word. We take in Your word by means of all prayer and all petition so that the adversary would be slain and put to shame! Amen, Lord, gain us as the church to be the bride and the warrior! Beautify us to be Your perfect and beautiful bride, and slay Your enemy in us to make us the corporate warrior fighting one with You for Your interest!

Christ will Marry His Bride and will Return with the Overcomers to Destroy the Enemy

Today we are in the process of being produced as the bride and the warrior, and we cooperate with this process by pray-reading the word of God.

One day, on the day of His wedding, Christ will marry His bride, which is composed of the overcomers (Dan. 7:25; 6:10; Eph. 6:12).

The overcomers, the components of the bride of Christ, have been fighting the battle against God’s enemy for years, and they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and by not loving their soul-life even unto death (Rev. 12:11).

Before Christ descends to deal with Antichrist and the totality of the human government, He will have a wedding.

Hallelujah, Christ will have a wedding with His overcomers, the bride of Christ, to be one entity (Rev. 19:7-9).

There will be great joy in heaven, and all will rejoice and exult, giving God the glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready.

We want to be part of the bride of Christ, those who are daily making ourselves ready by buying the oil, that is, paying the price to gain more of the Spirit in our vessel.

We need to buy more gold, more of the oil; we need to gain more of God in Christ as the Spirit in our vessel – not only in our spirit but also in our soul.

If we are prepared to be the bride of Christ, when He returns we will marry Him and have a wedding feast with Him.

Christ as the Spirit, the processed and consummated Triune God, will marry the church as the bride, the processed and transformed tripartite man.

This is seen in Rev. 22:17, where the Spirit and the bride are one in saying, Come!

At the beginning of Revelation, the Spirit speaks to the churches. At the end of Revelation, the Spirit and the bride say, Come; they have been fully made one.

The Spirit and the bride are organically united, mingled, and incorporated with one another to become one entity, and they speak as one person.

The Triune God went through a process to become the consummated Spirit as the Bridegroom, and man has gone through a process to become the bride of the Lamb, fully matching the Bridegroom.

God in Christ went through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and He became a sevenfold intensified Spirit, the Spirit, to be the Bridegroom.

This Spirit comes into us and, based on His judicial redemption and through His organic salvation, produces us to be the church as the bride and the warrior, one with Christ.

We go through the process of regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification, and we become the bride of Christ to match Him in full.

After Christ’s wedding, He will come with His newly married bride to destroy Antichrist who, with his army, will rebel against God and will fight against Him directly (Rev. 19:11, 14).

The Lord Jesus as the Word of God will slay Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, by the breath of His mouth, and He will bring Antichrist to nothing by the manifestation of His coming (vv. 11-15; 2 Thes. 2:2-8).

Out of Christ’s mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it He might smite the nations (Rev. 19:15; 1:16; 2:12, 16).

After He crushes the human government, God will have cleared up the entire universe.

Then, the corporate Christ – Christ with His overcomers – will increase and become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God’s kingdom (Dan. 2:35, 44; 7:22, 27; Rev. 11:15). Hallelujah!

When Christ returns with His overcomers as a corporate smiting stone, the entire human image, the totality of the human government, will be crushed all at once, and they will become like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind will carry it away so that no trace of them was found! Hallelujah!

First, we as the overcomers will be the bride of Christ enjoying our wedding feast with Him, and then we will return with Him as a corporate warrior to fight with Him against the enemy and clear up the whole universe and bring in the kingdom of God! Hallelujah!

May we cooperate with the Lord today to be the bride and the warrior of Christ by being in His word with much prayer and prayerful musing!

And may we receive the Lord’s mercy to be produced as His overcomers who will feast with Him at the wedding feast and will return with Him to destroy the enemy!

Lord Jesus, we aspire to be Your overcomers, part of the bride of Christ. Keep us in Your word, reading and praying over Your word so that we may be beautified to be Your bride and equipped to be Your warrior. Amen, Lord, we want to be part of Your bride so that we may be raptured at Your return, enter the wedding feast, and return with You to destroy the enemy! Hallelujah, Christ will return and His overcomers will return with Him to destroy Antichrist and his armies, and the whole universe will be cleared up! Praise the Lord, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever! Amen, Lord, may Your kingdom come! We want to live a life that hastens Your return. Grant us the mercy to be Your overcomers, the bride and the warrior, who will end this age and bring in the kingdom of God on earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 95 and 97 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 1, entitled, God’s Move in Man’s History for the Carrying Out of His Eternal Economy.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The church as a corporate warrior in Ephesians, article by, Ron Kangas in Affirmation and Critique.
  – In the new creation Christ preparing a bride for Himself, a portion from, Life-Study of Daniel, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
  – The church as God’s warrior, a portion from, Life-Study of Ephesians, Chapter 97, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Church’s one foundation / Is Jesus Christ her Lord; / She is His new creation / By water and the Word: / From heav’n He came and sought her / To be His holy Bride; / With His own blood He bought her, / And for her life He died. (Hymns #833 stanza 1)
  – By the Lamb’s redeeming blood th’ accuser we have overcome; / By our word of testimony, all declaring, “It is done!” / Unto death, our souls not loving—all the glory to the Son! / The victory is won!…Lo, the kingdom of the world is now the kingdom of the Lord! / O what joy to all the saints does His eternal reign afford! / Let us swell the mighty chorus of His praise in one accord— / The victory is won! (Hymns #1101 stanzas 3 and 1)
  – he Lord is longing for His Bride, / All glorious within. / His heart will then be satisfied / When she is fit for Him. / ’Tis by the Word the church is made / Holy and pure as He; / All spots and wrinkles it removes / That she His Bride may be. / We must redeem these golden days, / Eating the Word in prayer, / Amening every line and phrase, / And thus for Him prepare. (Hymns #1310 stanza 1-3)