As believers in Christ, we are like the ten virgins in Matt. 25, bearing the Lord’s testimony in this dark age and going out of the world to meet the Lord; for this, we need the indwelling Spirit and also the infilling of the Holy Spirit so that we have oil not only in our lamp but also in our vessel.
We are waiting for our Bridegroom to return, and in the aspect of life, we are virgins preparing ourselves for His imminent coming! Amen!
For us to be those who love the Lord’s appearing, His coming back, we must treasure His appearing today, that is, treasure and seek His manifestation every day.
Paul said in 2 Tim. 4:8 that the Lord will reward him with the crown of righteousness, for he loves the Lord and His appearing; the same reward will be given to all those who love the Lord’s appearing.
This crown is also the crown of life (James 1:12) and the crown of holiness (see Exo. 28:26-28, 29:30, the turban and the gold plate inscribed with, Holiness to Jehovah, which the high priest had to put on); it is also the crown of glory (1 Pet. 5:4).
In Gen. 3:24 we see that, after man sinned and was punished by God by being cast out of the garden of Eden, the way to the tree of life was guarded by a cherub (signifying God’s glory) who had a flaming sword (flame – God’s holiness, sword – God’s righteousness).
The way to the tree of life was guarded by God’s righteousness (signified by the sword), His holiness (signified by the flam), and His glory (signified by the cherubim); unless the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, are met, we cannot partake of the tree of life.
But praise the Lord, through His death on the cross Christ met all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and He is saving and transforming us in His life to such an extent that the very divine attributes which prevented us from enjoying Him, these now become our crown!
Through His organic salvation, He fills our being to such an extent that He becomes our crown of righteousness, holiness, and glory!
All we have to do is love Him, open to Him, and love His appearing. As He appears to us, He makes us a minister and a witness of the things in which He appears to us.
May we love His appearing, and may we cooperate with Him to grow in life unto maturity so that we may be prepared and made ready for His return.
This is a lifelong process; it doesn’t happen overnight, it is not something instant. We need to be filled with Him to the uttermost, paying the price to gain the infilling Spirit in our soul, so that we may have the extra portion of oil in our vessel for His return.
We are like Chaste Virgins Bearing the Lord’s Testimony in the Dark Age and going out of the World to Meet Him
In Matt. 25:1-13 the Lord spoke a parable for watchfulness; this parable is concerning ten virgins who went forth to meet the bridegroom, and as they were waiting, they became drowsy and slept.
Then a call was sounded out that the Bridegroom is coming, so the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps, ready to meet the Bridegroom; five of them had extra oil in their vessels with their lamps, but five did not – five were prudent and five were foolish.
The foolish ones asked the prudent ones to give them some oil to have light in their lamps (for their lamps were dying), but the prudent ones told them to go buy oil for themselves, for they can’t give them their oil.
When the bridegroom came, the prudent ones entered with him the wedding feast, and when the foolish ones came later with their lamps with the extra oil that they purchased, they were not allowed to enter the wedding feast.
Virgins signify the believers viewed from the aspect of life; we believers in Christ are like chaste virgins who bear the Lord’s testimony (signified by the lamp) in the dark age, and we’re going out of the world to meet the Lord (2 Cor. 11:2; Luke 11:13).
For this, however, we need not only the indwelling but also the filling of the Holy Spirit. We all have our spirit regenerated by the Lord; our spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, and the Spirit in our spirit shines forth.
Lamps signify the spirit of the believers, which contains the Spirit of God as the oil (Prov. 20:27; Isa. 61:1; Heb. 1:9; Rom. 8:16).
We believers in Christ shine forth the light of the Spirit of God from within our spirit. In order for the divine light to shine into man’s inward parts, God’s Spirit as the oil must soak (that is, mingle with), man’s spirit as the wick and “burn” together with man’s spirit (Rom. 12:11).
In this way, we believers become the light of the world and shine like a lamp in the darkness of this age (Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 2:15-16), bearing the testimony of the Lord for the glorification of God.
The fact that the virgins went forth to meet the bridegroom indicates that we believers don’t settle or linger in any place, for the earth is not our dwelling place; instead, we are going out of the world to meet the coming Christ as our Bridegroom.
We are the Lord’s seeking ones, those who are waiting for His coming; as such ones, we are going out with Him to meet Him by leaning on Him as our beloved, trusting in Him helplessly and constantly enjoying Him as our strength to go out of the world and leave it behind (see Song of Songs 8:5).
Through the Lord’s word, we are betrothed to the Lord as our unique Husband (2 Cor. 11:2-3), and we now lean on Him, trust in Him, await Him, and take Him as our everything as we eagerly expect His coming.
May we be saved from having our thoughts corrupted from the simplicity and purity toward Christ; may we be filled with love for the Lord and cooperate with Him to gain the extra portion of the Spirit in our soul! Amen!
Our thoughts need to be saved, for our thoughts can be hardened (2 Cor. 3:14-15), blinded (2 Cor. 4:4), rebellious (2 Cor. 10:4-5), and corrupted (2 Cor. 11:3). May we be saved from such thoughts and may we lean on the Lord, go forth unto Him, and wait for His imminent return!
Lord Jesus, we love You! Thank You for coming into us as the Spirit to enlighten our spirit and make us the light of the world. Mingle Yourself more with us, dear Lord, so that we may be brightly shining ones in this dark age today! Amen, Lord, You in us make us the light of the world, those bearing the testimony of the Lord for the glorification of God. Our home is not in this world; we do not want to settle here or linger here, but we are going out of the world to meet Christ as our Bridegroom! Come, Lord Jesus! We are waiting for Your imminent return. We lean on You as our Beloved. We trust in You helplessly. We take You and enjoy You as our strength to leave the world behind and come to You, awaiting Your return!
Being Prudent Virgins Awaiting the Lord’s Return by Gaining the Infilling Spirit in our Soul Daily
The foolish virgins, when they took their lamps, didn’t take oil with them; however, the prudent virgins took oil in their vessels with their lamps (see Matt. 25:3-4).
Our vessel is our soul; our lamp is our spirit, which is regenerated and indwelt by the Spirit of God, and our vessel is our soul (Rom. 9:21, 23-24).
For us to have oil in our lamp is for us to have the Spirit of God dwelling in our spirit; through regeneration, the Spirit of God came into our spirit and mingled Himself with our spirit, and now we have the Spirit in and with our spirit, causing us to shine forth in this dark age.
For us to take oil in our vessel is for us to have the Spirit of God filling and saturating our soul, our vessel, so that we may be enabled to live the virgin life for the Lord’s testimony (Matt. 25:4, 9-10).
We thank and praise the Lord that we have the Spirit in our regenerated spirit, but we also need to cooperate with the Lord to gain the extra portion of the Spirit in our soul; we need to gain the infilling Spirit in our soul daily.
Do we have this extra portion of the Spirit in our soul? Are we daily paying the price to buy the oil, gaining an extra portion of the Spirit in our soul, so that we may be filled with the Spirit?
The prudent virgins took oil in their vessels with their lamps; this means that we need to daily be the prudent ones who have an extra portion of the oil by being filled with the Spirit in our soul for our transformation (2 Cor. 3:18).
We need to daily pay the price to buy and gain the infilling Spirit in our soul so that we may be transformed.
We do have our lamp shining today, and we need to exercise our spirit to keep it shining; however, we also need the extra portion of oil, the extra portion of the infilling Spirit in our soul day by day.
This extra portion of the infilling Spirit is not a gift that we can receive; it is not something we get freely – we need to pay a price to obtain it!
We cannot accumulate the extra portion of oil in our soul overnight; this takes time, for the Spirit needs to fill us day by day, little by little, in situation after situation, and in aspect after aspect of our daily living.
We need to be watchful, therefore, not only by waiting on Him to return but by preparing ourselves every day by buying the oil.
Our spiritual transformation is a daily matter; it is a lifelong matter that takes place day by day.
May there be an accumulation of the Spirit in our being day by day, a deposit of the infilling Spirit in our soul day by day, little by little.
One of the best ways for us to gain the oil, that is, to receive more of the infilling Spirit, is by musing on God’s word in order to have intimate fellowship with Him in a spirit and atmosphere of prayer (see Psa. 119:15, 23, 25, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148; John 6:63; Eph. 6:17-18).
In Psa. 119 we see the psalmist’s love for the word of God; he mused on the word by worshipping the Lord, conversing with Him with the word, and speaking the word aloud.
We need to taste and enjoy the word of God through careful and prayerful considering.
We need to take the word of God, pray it to the Lord, speak it to ourselves, and praise the Lord with His word; in this way, we muse on His word and we gain an extra portion of the infilling Spirit in our soul.
For us to muse on the word of God is for us to enjoy His word as His breath (2 Tim. 3:16) and thus to be infused with God, to breathe God in, and to receive spiritual nourishment. In this way, we gain a deposit of the infilling Spirit in our soul day by day, little by little, and we become prudent virgins who are watchful for the Lord’s return.
Dear Lord Jesus, we love You so much! We want to be the prudent virgins who go out to meet You and who have an extra portion of the infilling Spirit in our vessel for us to be shining brightly at Your return! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit today to be filled with the Spirit in our spirit, and we open to You to enjoy You in Your word to be saturated with the infilling Spirit in our soul. May every day be a day of gaining more of the infilling Spirit in our soul for our transformation. We come to Your word, dear Lord, to muse on Your word and have intimate fellowship with You in a spirit and atmosphere of prayer. We love You Lord Jesus, and we love Your word! We give ourselves to You to enjoy You, be filled with You, and gain an extra portion of the infilling Spirit in our soul for our transformation, so that we may be the prudent virgins watchful for Your return!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” chs. 7, 9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 2, Watching and being Ready in Order to be Prepared by the Lord for His Second Coming.
- Recommended reading: the parable of the ten virgins (via, The Word of Righteousness, Affirmation and Critique), and, Dispensational Discipline (via Shepherding Words).
- Hymns on this topic:
– The kingdom of God is at hand: / Ten virgins with lamps lit arise / To go forth to meet the Bridegroom, / But only five virgins are wise. / The wise have abundance of oil, / The foolish are empty instead; / The wise used their time to buy oil, / The others their chance forfeited. (Hymns #1303)
– Virgins Christ comes quickly for, / Those with oil an extra store, / Not the fools who oil ignore— / Buy in time! / For the oil a price we pay, / Deal with self without delay, / Fill your vessels every day— / Buy in time! (Hymns #1304)
– We as virgins may enjoy Him, / Virgins simple, single, chaste. / Going forth to meet the Bridegroom, / Out from all the world we haste. (Hymns #1160)
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