In time God the Father commissioned God the Spirit, sent Him on an errand, to carry out the Father’s plan by going to reach and contact the chosen bride and bring her to God the Son to be His counterpart, His wife.
God is a “bachelor”, seeking someone to love, match, and marry. He is Almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-inclusive, and yet He has a need – God needs to “get married”! The first two chapters of the Bible correspond to the last two in that they tell us about a couple: in the beginning we have Adam and Eve and at the end we have the Spirit and the Bride.
We as human beings are created in God’s image and likeness, and we have a need to get married. And in our search for and courting of “the right person” we do a lot of “crazy things”, going out of our way to please her, woo her, make her happy, take care of her, etc. The Triune God, in a similar way, goes many times “out of His way” to court us, meet us, and gain us to be His bride. God cannot marry anyone that is not of His race.
He entered our race through incarnation, coming as the Bridegroom, and He brought humanity into divinity through death and resurrection (John 1:14; Rom. 1:3). The Father is the One who planned it all – He purposed to have a bride for His Son, and He sends the Spirit as to meet us and gain us as His bride.
In Genesis 24 we see that Abraham planned to have a wife for Isaac, and he sent his servant to get her. The servant went and sat at the well, praying to the Lord to send him the right person – and Rebekah came!
Abraham typifies God the Father, the One who purposed and planned to obtained a wife for Christ (God the Son). Then, God the Father has sent God the Spirit (typified by the servant) to “run an errand” for Him by going to meet and court and bring a wife for Christ.
Today the Spirit is working in and around us to sanctify us so that we may see Christ, receive His riches, enjoy Him, and be drawn to Him. Through the ministry of the New Testament, the ministry of the apostles, the believers are being betrothed to Christ to be a pure virgin, His bride.
How wonderful: today the spirit is “on an errand” to reach man, contact man, and bring man to God the Son to be His counterpart, His wife.
God the Father Commissioned God the Spirit to Reach and Contact us and Bring us to Christ as His Bride
In the story in Genesis 24 we see how Abraham purposed that his son Isaac would not marry any of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom he was living, but that he would marry someone from Abraham’s family. So Abraham commissioned his most trusted servant to go to his father’s house and find a wife for Isaac.
This is a picture of the Triune God working together to obtain a wife for Christ. God the Father purposed and planned in eternity past that Christ the Son would have a bride, a wife, from among the ones of His kind. In time, God the Father commissioned God the Spirit – He sent Him on “an errand” – to carry out God the Father’s plan by going to reach and contact the “chosen bride” (His chosen people) and bring her to God the Son to be His counterpart, His wife.
The Spirit is on an errand to carry out the Father’s plan – He wants to gain people to be Christ’s increase, His bride. He comes to us to transform us with the riches of Christ so that we can be beautified as Christ’s bride.
The first step He takes in doing this is the Spirit’s seeking sanctification. The believers were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father (the One who planned and purposed everything) in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (the One who carries out the Father’s plan by sanctifying us) unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (to be His bride, His wife) – see 1 Pet. 1:2.
We can all testify that one day we heard the gospel and, even though we didn’t understand everything and we may have not even agreed with everything, there was a deep response in us – I like this, this is very good!
Due to the fall of man, humanity is lost – just as the woman lost a coin in Luke 15. Therefore, the Spirit comes to us, lit the lamp by speaking the word of God into our inward parts (Psa. 119:105, 130) to illuminate and expose our position and condition so that we may repent.
Then, He “sweeps the house” by searching and cleansing the inward parts of our being so that we might repent and come to Christ as the Bridegroom. As a result of His seeking sanctification, we are “found” by God and we return to Him, appreciating Him and loving Him. The Spirit seeks us, sanctifies us, and brings us to Christ, the Bridegroom.
A Thirsty Holy Spirit Meets a Thirsty Man
We all know that we as human beings are thirsty: we thirst physically for water, we thirst psychologically for knowledge, love, emotions, desires, etc, and we thirst spiritually for something that only God as the Spirit can offer.
But have you ever thought that God is thirsty? In Gen. 24 we see that the servant came to the well and he was thirsty – he prayed to God for the right person to give him and his camels to drink. The Holy Spirit (who is typified by the servant) is thirsty – He comes to us and sanctifies us and asks us to give Him to drink!
We see this also in John 4, where the Lord Jesus took a detour on His trip to Jerusalem so that He would meet the Samaritan woman. He was thirsty at Jacob’s well in Sychar, and He asked the woman to give Him to drink.
We, the human beings created by God in His image and likeness, can quench the thirst deep in God. He comes to us as the Spirit and asks us to give Him a drink. If we respond to Him, if we just open to Him, He will drink and be satisfied.
Because Rebekah opened her mouth and was ready to help the servant in Gen. 24, she was “caught”. Because the Samaritan woman responded to the Lord and was honest with Him concerning not having a husband, the Lord confessed her sins for her and drank and was satisfied.
The Spirit today comes to man, seeks man, sanctifies man, and asks man to give Him a drink; when a man responds to God and opens to Him, that man becomes a chosen one, one who will be gained by the Holy Spirit for Christ.
We can all testify that God went through a lot of trouble and arranged many circumstances and people in our life so that He may get us saved; then, He as the Spirit is still working on us to give us the riches of Christ and work Christ into us so that we may be transformed and beautified as Christ’s bride.
God is “crazy in love”, and He is thirsty to have man as His counterpart. The Spirit is “hunting” for a wife for God the Son through His seeking sanctification (see John 4:6-7, 10; 1 Pet. 1:2; Luke 15:8-10; John 16:8-11), coming to us as a thirsty Savior, a thirsty Holy Spirit, and asking us to give Him to drink.
All we need to do is open to Him, talk to Him, and let Him have a drink. He is praying for us, He is caring for us, and He loves us – we just need to respond. We are thirsty, but we are met by a thirsty Holy Spirit at the well, and we can just open to Him and let Him have a drink!
Lord, thank You for choosing us according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ! Lord, we have never dreamed of being chosen to be the counterpart, the bride, of Christ, but You came to us as the Spirit and You sanctified us! We love You, Lord! We pray for many who are right now being visited and met by the thirsty Holy Spirit – may they RESPOND to the Spirit’s request of giving Him a drink! May many thirsty sinners meet and open to the thirsty Savior so that their thirst may be quenched! Father, we thank You! Spirit, we thank You! Lord Jesus, we love You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (pp. 802-805), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 12 / msg 12, A Practical Living in Oneness with the Lord and a Type of Christ Marrying the Church.
- Further reading: see chapters 9 and 11 in, The Spirit with Our Spirit (by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Spirit, dear Spirit, / Where is the one lost coin? / Yes, You have the nine, / But the one You must find. / Dear Spirit, You’re sweeping / All over the earth. (Song on the Spirit’s seeking)
# Sweeping in my deepest parts, / You lit a lamp and searched my inward heart, / Sanctifying deep within You shined in me, / Exposed me of my sin; / Repenting—now I see / Lord, You’re sprinkling me—with the blood You shed for me. (Song on the Spirit’s sweeping)
# Tell me all about the Woman Who / Lit the lamp and swept / Throughout the whole house, / Seeking everywhere to find one coin! / I’m so glad the Spirit found me! (Song on the Spirit’s sanctification)
# Love’s resistless current sweeping / All the regions deep within; / Thought, and wish, and senses keeping / Now, and every instant, clean: / Full salvation! Full salvation! / From the guilt and power of sin. (Hymns #321)
About aGodMan
