The Direction of the Lord’s Move is to Prepare the Bride for Christ, the Bridegroom

The direction of the Lord’s move today is to build up the Body of Christ, to prepare the bride as the counterpart for Christ the bridegroom, and to bring in the kingdom of God.

This week we are starting a two-week deeper study on the matter of the preparation of the bride as the counterpart of the Bridegroom, and in particular we will focus on the readiness of the bride from the New Testament reality.

The building up of the Body of Christ is a turning point in this age, for when the Body is built up, the bride is prepared, and Christ can return to bring in the kingdom of God. The building up of the Body of Christ is the preparation of the bride of Christ, for when the Body is built up, the bride will be prepared, and this bride will be the warrior who comes back with the Lord to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom.

This is the direction of the Lord’s move today, and this should be the direction for our Christian life and church life, for our life and work and care for all the saints. In order for the Body of Christ to be built up, we must grow in life; our growth in the divine life is the building up of the Body of Christ.

In Rev. 19 we see that the bride has made herself ready; this shows us that there’s a long process at the end of which the bride is ready for the wedding feast.

Usually at a wedding it takes a long time for the bride to be ready; in the divine and mystical realm, it has been 2000 years and the bride of Christ is still being prepared.

We all need to cooperate with the Lord for the preparation of the bride so that we may be not only the wife of Christ as the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth, but also the bride of Christ in the wedding feast of the Lamb in the millennium.

On the one hand the Lord works on us to prepare us, but on the other hand we need to contact Him in a personal and intimate way and allow Him to produce us as His overcomers, the constituents of the bride of Christ.

In Matt. 25 we see the parable of the ten virgins, five of whom were wise and the other foolish; when they went in to the wedding feast, those who didn’t have oil in their lamps were sent out, for they were not ready.

Some believers will be ready while others won’t; may we be those who are wise and get ready today so that, when the Lord returns, we will join Him in the wedding feast!

The Direction of the Lord’s Move is to Prepare the Bride for Christ, the Bridegroom

The second aspect of the direction of the Lord’s move today is to prepare the bride as the counterpart of Christ, the Bridegroom, for the eternal marriage of the redeeming God with His redeemed.

The entire Bible shows us that God desires to gain a counterpart, a wife. When God created man and put him in the garden of Eden, He said, It is not good for man to be alone… – this shows that it is not good for God to be alone, to be single.

So God put Adam to sleep, and out of his side He built – He didn’t create but He built – a woman, a counterpart for Adam, using something of Adam himself. The Triune God in Himself is eternally perfect, but He is not complete until He has a counterpart that matches Him and expresses Him. This is the divine thought in the Bible.

The direction of the entire Bible, as seen both in the beginning and at the end of the Bible, is for God to gain a bride, a counterpart; the Bible ends with the wedding feast of the Lamb and the marriage life of the Spirit and the Bride.

The consummation of all of God’s work throughout the ages is the counterpart of Christ – the bride and the Bridegroom. For God to obtain this, everything recorded in the Bible must take place; God Himself must pass through a long process to become the consummated Spirit, and we as His believers must be redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified to be the bride of Christ.

In the Old Testament God chose a particular people, the people of Israel, to be His counterpart (Isa. 54:5; Hosea 2:19), but they failed God; now in the New Testament age God has chosen the church, His spiritual people, to be made ready and prepared as His bride, His wife (Eph. 5:25-27, 32).

Our human marriage life ends when we die, but the divine-human marriage that God has brought us in will last for eternity, and it will be a very happy marriage! Amen!

The marriage of the Lamb is the issue of the completion of God’s New Testament economy; God’s economy is to obtain for Christ a bride, the church, through His judicial redemption and by His organic salvation in His divine life (see Gen. 2:22; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2; Rom. 5:10).

The marriage dinner of the Lamb will take place when God’s New Testament economy is completed, and this completion will prepare and bring forth the bride. The preparation of the bride has been taking a long time, and today the Lord is working on us, we are cooperating with Him, and the New Testament ministry betrothed us to Christ to prepare us as the bride of Christ.

We need to be in God’s word, open to Him daily, and under the betrothing ministry of the apostles, to be produced as the bride of Christ. Under the ministry of the apostles we are helped to grow in life and perfected to be the bride of Christ.

Everything that God has done in His economy is going in this direction; He became a Man to be the Lamb of God, with the purpose not only to take away the sin of the world (John 3:29) but to be the Bridegroom for His bride.

Through His judicial redemption He opened the way for us to be organically saved, sanctified, and transformed so that we may be prepared as the bride of Christ. He is daily washing cleansing us and reconstituting us with Himself by the washing of the water in the word, to beautify us and prepare us as His bride.

Lord Jesus, we love You as our Husband-to-be! Keep us under the betrothing New Testament ministry to be helped to grow in life and be perfected as the bride of Christ. Lord, may our direction in our Christian life and church life be the preparation of the bride for Christ as the Bridegroom! May we cooperate with You to allow You to perfect us, sanctify us, renew us, wash us, beautify us, and prepare us as the bride of Christ. Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to be prepared as Your bride!

The Lord’s Recovery is for the Preparation of the Bride, who is Composed of All His Overcomers

Eventually, as Rev. 21-22 shows us all the believers in Christ will be fully perfected to be part of the wife of Christ, the New Jerusalem, in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.

All those who have been called by God and have His life will become overcomers, sooner or later, to be the wife of Christ. However, what the Lord wants is the overcomers, those who are perfected and prepared to be the bride of Christ – the New Jerusalem in its initial and fresh stage, in the coming millennium kingdom.

The Lord’s recovery is for the preparation of the bride, who is composed of all His overcomers (Rev. 19:7-9; Rom. 8:37). The overcomers are the New Jerusalem in miniature to be the bride of Christ for the wedding feast of one thousand years, which in the Lord’s eyes is one day (2 Pet. 3:8), the wedding day.

Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be consummated and completed in full, as the tabernacle of God and the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-3, 9-10). In the kingdom of one thousand years, the New Jerusalem will be composed only of the overcomers. Besides the overcomers there will be a great number of immature saints, but after the thousand-year kingdom, all the believers will be matured. The Lord has a way to cause all the believers to be matured. If we do not get matured in this age, we will be matured in the next age. The process of being matured in the next age, however, will be very severe. Eventually, all of the believers will join the overcomers to make the New Jerusalem larger than it was in the thousand-year kingdom. That will consummate and complete the New Jerusalem in full, as the tabernacle of God and the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. (The Overcomers, pp. 104-105, by Witness Lee)

We should not be satisfied to merely be part of the wife of Christ for eternity, but we should have an aspiration to be prepared as the bride of Christ for our wedding day with the Lord, our Bridegroom.

Yes, eventually all believes will be the overcomers to consummate and complete the New Jerusalem in full as the wife of Christ, but we aspire to be the overcomers in this age to be qualified to join the wedding feast of the Lamb in the next age.

Every believer in Christ will be ready and prepared, but some will be prepared and ready sooner; some will be ready for the Lord as He comes secretly as the Bridegroom to rapture His bride, but the majority of believers will not be ready until much later.

The Lord’s recovery is to produce the overcomers, those who would be ready sooner. In the Lord’s recovery we have such an aspiration, and we learn to cooperate with the Lord in the church life to be prepared as the bride of Christ, those who bring Him back and who enter with Him in the wedding feast of the Lamb.

We want to learn to give the Lord our cooperation to be matured in this age so that we may be produced as overcomers in our lifetime to be the bride of Christ. We are on earth preparing to become the bride to meet the Lord, and He is on the throne in the third heaven prepared to come as the Bridegroom to meet us.

Lord Jesus, we want to be ready in time to be Your bride and enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb. We aspire to be not only the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth but the bride of Christ to enjoy the wedding feast of the Lamb! We love You, Lord, and we give You our cooperation to be prepared and matured as Your bride. Make us Your overcomers in this age. Save us from failing to cooperate with You. Produce us as Your overcomers in our lifetime so that we may enjoy You in the next age as Your bride!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Mark R. for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 213 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Direction of the Lord’s Move (2016 Thanksgiving Conference), msg. 3 (week 3), To Prepare the Bride as the Counterpart of the Bridegroom (1) – The Readiness of the Bride.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The Father is the mighty God, / His purpose is but one— / To find a Bride for Christ the Lord / And give her to His Son. / The Son is Jesus Christ the Lord, / His heart desire’s but one— / To have a loving counterpart, / A Bride He’s wooed and won. (Hymns #1228)
  # The 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. (Hymns #1310)
  # Oh, the wedding day is coming, / Is coming very soon, / When the Bride shall be prepared / And shall marry her Bridegroom. / Oh, what love and consecration / Should all our hearts attune / For that wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. (Hymns #1316)