glory to GOD FOR TRUTH Amen ! In the letters to the seven churches the Holy Spirit deals first of all with THE EPHESIAN CONDITION. "By the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars…nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love…but this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate" (Rev. 2:1-6). The EPHESIAN CONDITION is one that the Lord partially compliments. Here is a body of believers who toil and persevere for the sake of Christ; they can’t endure wickedness; they have discernment and are not carried away by false ministries; they endure many things for the gospel’s sake; and most of all the Lord could say of them, "You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." Ephesus was the church closest to Patmos. The city was located in a very desirable location, and the name means "desired" or "desirable." This has a spiritual meaning to the Lord’s elect. We must learn that in the Lord’s eyes we are desirable! Those called to sonship are losing their former religious sense of unworthiness, their sin-consciousness, spirit of condemnation, inferiority complexes, and are being delivered from all depressions, for we are truly a new creation in Christ! Ah, yes, my brother, my sister, the Father of glory chose you — picked you out for Himself as His special own, predestined for a purpose — before the foundation of the world, and before the times of the ages. "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto placement as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:3-5). And of His Zion company, those who ascend into the heavenly heights of authority and dominion with Christ upon His throne, the Lord says, "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it" (Ps. 132:13-14). It is a beautiful truth that the Lord thinks of each one of His elect as desirable. He desires us! To understand this you must read the Song of Solomon and wait before the Lord until He reveals the deep spiritual meaning of that book in your heart. As a bridegroom desires his bride, so the Lord desires us! He does not look upon our outer man of flesh with its imperfections and corruptions, but upon the inner new creation man of the spirit. In our spirit we are truly holy and without blame! On the personal and individual level, when we come to the place in our experience of becoming a bridegroom, possessing within ourselves the spiritually masculine characteristics of the sons of God, then we desire our bride. Our bride is within ourselves — our soul. That is how the soul is saved! Within me my spirit desires my soul as its bride and woos her to become one life in the union of love. When spirit and soul are united in marriage within ourselves, they then clean up their house (the body) so that sin is forever put away and the house can be glorified with incorruption and immortality. All this the Lord desires for His elect and is fulfilling it within us by His Spirit! To each of the churches, before ever He praises or corrects them, before ever He requires anything of them, He gives a revelation of Himself. Notice the revelation of Himself He gives to the church at Ephesus. "These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks" (Rev. 2:1). In the book of Revelation everything is presented as a "message" sent in writing to the churches, but that is only the symbol. The reality is that CHRIST REVEALS HIMSELF in that capacity to that people, whoever, whenever, or wherever they are in the history of the church. The revelation He gives to each OF HIMSELF is what it is going to take for that church, or the people in that state or condition of their spiritual lives, to overcome. Each church represents people in a particular spiritual dimension of their growth and development in Christ, and it takes that unique aspect of the revelation of Jesus Christ unto them and within them for that people in their particular condition, state, and circumstance to come to the fullness of Himself. The people in THE EPHESIAN CONDITION need to know by the Spirit that Christ holds the administration of their lives in His all-powerful hand, and that the Lord of glory truly walks in the midst of them!
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 16:22:42 +0000
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