our wedding garment as the bride is our battle uniform as the warrior

Have you ever heard of such a thing? How can you take your newly wed wife to war right after you get married to her and have a great wedding?

Well, at least in two distinct portions in the Bible we see that when Christ will return He will marry His overcomers as His bride and, right after that, they will descend to fight Antichrist and his armies and defeat them at Armageddon. Wow!

How we need to have such a clear view of these two histories – the physical, human history (composed mainly of the four kinds in Joel 1:4, and the four sections of the great human image in Daniel 2) and the mysterious divine history (represented mainly by the great crushing stone – Christ with His overcomers).

Christ with His overcomers will return after their wedding and they will come as a stone cut without a human hand to crush the great human image, the totality of the human government, and fill the whole earth with the kingdom of God (see Daniel 2:31-45).

This is all triggered by the wedding feast which issues in the battle at Armageddon where the Antichrist is defeated!

Our wedding garment is our battle uniform

In Ephesians 5 and 6 we see that Christ is taking care of the church as a husband takes care of his wife, and He purifies, cleanses, and perfects her through the washing of the water in the Word, so that she would be blameless, spotless, without any wrinkles or any such thing, but pure and holy – as the bride of Christ!

On the other hand, in the same context, we see that the church is a corporate warrior with a sword (the word of God), a helmet (salvation), with shoes (gospel of peace), and shield (faith).

The bride of Christ is also the warrior, fighting together with Christ against His enemy to defeat Him – both in the church age and in the beginning of the next age!

In Revelation 19 we also see that the church is both the bride of Christ and the warrior fighting with Him against God’s enemy.

When the Lord Jesus will return, He will first marry His bride – He will marry His matured, ripened, fully transformed overcomers as His corporate Bride. Then, after receiving His bride, Christ and the overcomers will go to battle against the enemy!

In Rev. 19:7-8 we see that the bride of Christ is clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, and then in verse 14 we see that the armies following the Lord into battle are also dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Here we see that the bride (the overcomers) are dressed in white linen, which is the bridal gown, the garment of the bride.

Our wedding gown, our wedding garment, is our battle uniform! The bride doesn’t have to change her wedding garment – she simply goes to war dressed as a bride, and the wedding garment is her battle uniform!

This wedding garment is the righteousnesses of the saints, Christ as the righteousness wrought into us in many details to become our subjective righteousnesses. This is our wedding garment and our battle uniform!

Being empowered in the Lord

We fight against God’s enemy not only at the end of this age when the Lord returns but also today, in the church age.

Actually, the overcomers are those who are strong and have defeated the enemy because of the blood of the Lamb, because of their word of their testimony, and because they didn’t love their soul life even unto death (Rev. 12:11).

In ourselves and by our own strength, power, ability, and natural capability we CANNOT do this. This is why we need to be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength (Eph. 6:10), not fighting by our own strength but by being empowered with the greatness of the fourfold power of God in Eph. 1:19.

For us to fight against God’s enemy and deal with him today we need to be empowered with the greatness of the power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the heavens!

We fight in the Lord and not in ourselves, because in ourselves we are defeated but Christ has already overcome the evil one!

Applying the armor of God by the spirit

How do we apply the whole armor of God in Eph. 6?

First of all, the full armor of God is for the Body of Christ and not for an individual to put on and fight the enemy. This means that we fight against the enemy of God corporately, together, in spirit.

We need to take the word of God by pray-reading through the exercise of our spirit, and in this way we take the whole armor of God!

As we pray in spirit over the Word, our praying and reading become living – we touch the life-giving Spirit – and we are empowered by Christ, covered by Him as our armor, and have the realization that we are in the Body of Christ!

By daily praying over the word of God with our spirit exercised, we are daily clothed with the armor and defeat the enemy of God both within us and ourside of us. This will qualify us and prepare us to be the overcomers who will eventually fight the ultimate battle in the universe at Armageddon – and we are on the winning side (see Dan. 7:25; 6:10; Eph. 6:12).

The enemy will be defeated and God’s kingdom will fill the earth!

When the number of the overcomers is completed, when there’s a sufficient number of ripened ones in the vital groups within the churches all over the world, the Lord Jesus will return to marry His overcomers as His bride.

Right after His wedding, the Lord Jesus will descend with His newly married bride to destroy Antichrist!

All the nations will be in a full rebellion directly against God and His people – this is the culmination of the human history. Antichrist will lead the nations with their armies to fight directly against God, and Christ will come with His overcomers and will slay Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, by the breath of His mouth (Rev. 19:13-15; 2 Thes. 2:2-8).

Out of Christ’s mouth proceeds a sharp sword, and He as the Word of God will just speak and the enemy will be defeated! The nations will be smitten and the Antichrist defeated, and Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire!

And then, after the human government is crushed, God will clear the entire universe, renewing it to make it a new heaven and a new earth. In this realm Christ with His overcomers as the corporate smiting stone will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth, making the whole earth God’s kingdom (see Dan. 2:35, 44, 7:22, 27; Rev. 11:15).

Hallelujah, this is our destiny, to bring in the kingdom of God on the earth and to fill the whole earth with the kingdom of God!

Do Not Lose Heart: Be on the Alert!

I was encouraged specifically by a word brother Ed Marks was sharing in this message concerning this, and this is that we need to be on the alert for the wearing out tactics of Satan.

We should not lose heart, but be renewed day by day, and be on alert that the enemy wants to wear out our love for the Lord, our consecration to Him, and our absoluteness for the Lord.

Little by little, with the locusts outwardly and the flesh / the self / the natural man inwardly, Satan wants to wear out our consecration and our absoluteness. It’s not all of a sudden, but in a few years we just realize that we are not as absolute for the Lord and as consecrated as we used to be. We may not be so exercised in our spirit as time goes by.

But we need to be strengthened into our spirit every day and substantiate God by pray-reading the Word daily! Don’t allow Satan to wear out your spirit, your soul, or your body!

Our spirit was made to contact and receive God! Our soul was made to enjoy and express Christ! Our body was made to glorify and magnify Christ!

Saints, let’s stand against Satan’s wearing out tactics by enjoying the Lord daily and being vitalized with the saints in the church life!

Lord, keep us enjoying You! Strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into our inner man. Lord, empower us with the power that raised You from the dead and seated You at the right hand of God. Keep us exercising our spirit and pray-reading the Word until the enemy is defeated! Lord, we want to stand against the wearing out tactics of the enemy. Renew us day by day. Work Yourself into us in so many details of our life as our subjective righteousnesses to be our wedding garment and our battle uniform!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from Life-study of Ephesians (msg. 95), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 5 (entitled, The Universal History according to God’s Economy—the Divine History within the Human History).
• Similar sharing: Only Lovers can be Mighty (via, simplykatherine.com);
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Soldier, stand by grace empowered, / Mindful of th’ascended Lord. / Jesus surely conquered Satan; / Bravely wield the Spirit’s sword.
  # Our hands empow’r, / Our hearts enflame! / We’ll overcome in Jesus’ name,
  # Christ comes quickly for His Bride, / Wedding feast He will provide, / Garments bright and pure supplied — / Dress in time!