The Lord’s Recovery is for the Producing of the Overcomers, the Bride of Christ

The issue of the completion of God’s New Testament economy is the marriage of the Lamb, and the Lord’s recovery is for the preparation of the bride of Christ, who is composed of all His overcomers.

This week in our morning revival, the last week on the general topic of, A Timely Word concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery, we come to the matter of, The Preparation of the Bride.

There is a sense in the Spirit and in the fellowship of the Body that the Lord wants to speak a word particularly applicable to this time, to the present situation in which we all have been in for the last two or three months.

There is a very close connection between the world situation and the Lord’s move to carry out His interest on earth, so we need to consider these two together.

Our God is sovereign; He’s the Lord of heaven and earth, and nothing that happens on earth is a surprise to Him; rather, He knows what He is trying to attain and accomplish and deal with, so we need to learn to be one with Him!

Instead of being alerted in our natural man and “bombarding the Lord” with what we would call prayers – which actually express our natural feeling or desperation of opinions, we should seek His mind, His will, and His heart’s desire, learning from Him what He wants to do in this age today.

When God wants to move, when He wants to take a certain action, He will make it known through a living word; may we be those to whom God reveals when He wants to do something, as in Amos 3:7.

Today we live in the age of grace, which is also the age of mystery, and the next age is the age of the kingdom; that age will be the age of righteousness.

For this age to change and the next age to come in, the church must be built up and the bride must be prepared.

In this age God works in a mysterious way to build up the church; in the previous age, the age of the law and before that in the age of the patriarchs (the age before the law), God moved and worked in a manifested way, but today it is all mysterious.

We need to see the connection between the mysteries in the age of grace and the present world situation in relation to the Lord’s recovery at the present time.

We must pay attention to the environment, we must seek the Lord’s light concerning what is the significance of this world situation, this pandemic, and the things related to it.

On one hand we must care for the practical side of it – how we live day by day, how do we continue to have the church life and the conferences, and many other things.

And yes, we do look to the Lord that He would bring this present pandemic to an end.

But we need to consider even more; God’s history is lived out within the visible human history, and in this age of mystery what is of the greatest concern to the Lord is the fulfillment of His economy in the various aspects of the age of the mystery.

The Lord is doing something today to fulfill the desire of His heart to accomplish His will, to carry out His economy and His purpose, and what He is doing is invisible, mysterious, inward, organic, and intrinsic in a living way.

And if we don’t seek the Lord beyond what is physical and visible, we may be losing so many opportunities which He has been giving to us day by day in the midst of this world situation to experience Him, to allow Him to gain ground in us, to open the way for Him to work Himself into us and grow in us, to fulfill His longing not only to have the church as His Body, but to have the church as His bride, His counterpart.

The Marriage of the Lamb is the Issue of the Completion of God’s New Testament Economy

The issue of the completion of God’s New Testament economy is nothing else but the marriage of the Lamb (Gen. 2:2; Rom. 5:10; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9-11).

God’s New Testament economy is to obtain for Christ a bride, the church, through His judicial redemption and by His organic salvation in His divine life.

This is what God intends to do in this age, and He will obtain this for eternity.

There is a marriage coming, as seen and proclaimed in Rev. 19:7-9, Rejoice! The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready!

This is what is on the Lord’s heart; this marriage is the issue and result of the completion of God’s New Testament economy.

God’s plan and arrangement to dispense Himself into us as our life and life supply and everything is to produce and build up the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem, the wife of the Lamb.

Hallelujah, the marriage of the Lamb is the issue of the completion of God’s New Testament economy!

The carrying out of God’s economy has two main aspects; we often refer to God’s economy as His complete salvation with the aspects of judicial redemption and organic salvation.

On one hand Christ died for us and shed His blood for us so that we not only may be redeemed and brought back into the enjoyment of God, but so that we may be the bride of Christ.

Christ died for the bride; He bore our sins in His body, the Righteous for the unrighteous, and He died for us – He died to gain the bride. He had a “joy set before Him” in Heb. 12 must be the bride of Christ, His counterpart.

He paid an immeasurable price for her in His judicial redemption, and now through His organic salvation He is daily saving in life all the believers in Christ so that they may be the components of the bride of Christ.

Based on His judicial redemption, God is organically saving us in His life (Rom. 5:10); having been redeemed and saved, much more we will be saved in His life.

Being saved in the Lord’s life is day by day, and it is part of the preparation of the bride of Christ.

God’s economy in the New Testament is to obtain for Christ a bride, the church, through His redemption and divine life.

So throughout the centuries the Holy Spirit has been working continually to attain the goal of the bride of Christ, for the marriage of the Lamb to come!

The bride of Christ will be composed of all the overcoming believers; when these are ready, the bride will come into being, and the kingdom of God will come!

The wedding of the overcomers as the bride with Christ as the Bridegroom will bring in the reign of the Lord, the kingdom, and all the guests invited to the wedding will be both the corporate bride and the co-kings of the Groom.

Christ as the Bridegroom is also the Ruler, and He needs many co-kings to reign together with Him.

On our side, although we may be saved, we must become an overcomer in order to receive the kingdom as our reward and enter the wedding feast! For the overcomers, restringing with Christ in His kingdom will be the wedding feast.

Hallelujah, the marriage of the Lamb is coming! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to be prepared as the bride of Christ! Save us much more in Your life and prepare us to be the bride of Christ, the overcomers in this age! We want not only to enjoy You and experience Your organic salvation but even more be produced as Your overcomers, part of Your overcoming bride! We desire to be at the wedding feast of the Lamb as the bride of Christ! Amen, Lord, gain us and gain so many believers as Your overcoming bride who participates at the wedding feast and reigns with Christ for one thousand years!

Being Produced as Overcomers in the Lord’s Recovery for the Preparation of the Bride of Christ

In Rev. 21:9-11 we see how an angel told John, Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

Then John was carried away in spirit onto a high mountain, and what he saw there is the bride – the New Jerusalem, the holy city!

The angel told him to come see the bride, the wife, and when he was in the right position and looked, he saw the holy city, Jerusalem.

The bride of Christ, the wife of the Lamb, is a corporate person, the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth.

That eternal bride, that eternal wife, will include all the believers from all the ages, those who are redeemed, regenerated, transformed, matured, perfected, and built up.

But the bride in Rev. 19 doesn’t include all the believers; she is composed of the overcomers.

The Lord’s recovery today is for the producing of the overcomers; we are here not merely for being recovered to the original intention of God, to the pure truth in the word of God, or to the genuine practice of the church, but we’re here to be produced as the overcomers.

We all need to realize that the main reason and purpose we’re in the church life in the Lord’s recovery is to be produced as the bride of Christ, the overcomers who bring the Lord back and enter the wedding feast, the marriage of the Lamb.

Since this is what the Lord’s recovery is for, then surely we who regard ourselves rightly as being in the Lord’s recovery, we need to be prepared to be the bride of Christ.

We should not remain the same; we should not stay in the same place and situation as before but month after month and year after year there should be a difference, even a significant difference.

There is mainly one significant difference in those believers who will eventually be manifested as the overcomers; they redeem the time.

The overcomers are enlightened concerning the aspects of preparation, and day by day – no matter what their situation is, in spite of their weaknesses and failures, they use the powerful and overcoming blood of the Lamb.

The overcomers are not people who don’t fail; rather, they wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and day by day they have a new start with this in view.

All the overcomers will be the New Jerusalem as the bride of Christ for one thousand years, which is one day in the eyes of the Lord; the overcomers will be the bride of Christ for one thousand years in its initial and fresh stage (Rev. 19:7).

There is a shallow and inaccurate teaching among many ministers and Bible teachers that it doesn’t matter what is your degree of growth in life, it doesn’t matter how you live today, you will be part of the bride.

This is false; the bride for whom the Bridegroom is coming is composed of the overcomers.

When we realize this, we will pray to the Lord to make us His overcomers, for He in us is the Overcomer who desires to produce us as His overcomers, part of His overcoming bride, to join Him at the wedding feast, the marriage dinner of the Lamb! Amen!

So our prayer today is that the Lord would make us His overcomers to be part of His bride; we don’t want to miss the wedding day but be part of the fresh, new, and high enjoyment of the Lord at the wedding feast, at the marriage dinner of the Lamb!

Eventually, all the believers will join the overcomers to consummate and complete the New Jerusalem in full as the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:2, 9-11).

At the end of the kingdom age, all the believers in Christ will be matured and perfected, and all will be part of the wife of Christ for eternity.

We need to realize that the Lord’s recovery is not another “Christian movement” or an ordinary “Christian work”; rather, the work in the recovery is the Lord’s genuine work to produce and prepare His bride.

We are not more special or more seeking than others, but we have been shown mercy by the Lord to come into the church life, and many of those who seek the Lord faithfully will turn to the way of His recovery.

When we came into the church life we had the sense deep within that the Lord had put His seal on the way we are taking.

The more we live the church life in the Lord’s recovery and are under the speaking of the Lord in an up-to-date way, the more we realize that the Lord’s primary work in His recovery is not merely to spread the truths or preach the gospel or recover the church life but to prepare the bride of Christ.

God doesn’t intend to “revive Christianity” as a whole; rather, He is calling out a remnant of those who love Him and are faithful to Him.

The Lord is sending out the call to overcome the degradation of Christianity so that a number of those who seek Him may be prepared to be the bride of Christ!

May we go on with the Lord and allow Him to produce us as His overcomers, the bride of Christ, those who go on with Him, move one with Him, and who will eventually enter into the wedding feast, enjoying the marriage dinner of the Lamb!

Lord Jesus, we thank and praise You for bringing us into the church life in Your recovery so that we may be perfected and prepared as the bride of Christ! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You, the unique Overcomer, so that You in us may overcome and may produce us as Your overcoming ones, part of the bride of Christ! Oh, what a privilege for us to be alive in this age and answer the Lord’s call to overcome the degradation and be prepared as the bride of Christ! Amen, Lord, we want to be faithful to You, love You, and allow You to produce us as Your overcomers, Your bride!

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, Life-study of Ephesians (pp. 800-803) 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:
  – Let us rejoice and exult, / And let us give glory to Him, / For the marriage of the Lamb has come, / And His wife has made herself, / Made herself ready. (Scripture song)
  – Now rejoice and be exceeding glad! What glory is displayed! / For the marriage of the Lamb, the wife all ready now is made! / In fine linen, bright and pure, ’twas granted her to be arrayed— / The victory is won! (Hymns #1101)
  – We give ourselves to Thee, O Lord Jesus, / Never to turn aside; / Where’er the Lamb goes, there we would follow, / Follow whate’er betide. / We give ourselves to enter the kingdom, / That marriage feast, with Him; / Come persecution, suffering, and trials, / Still we will enter in. (Hymns #1246)