THE WOMAN AND THE MANCHILD

THE WOMAN AND THE MANCHILD... 

THE WOMAN... who is the Church...  AND THE MANCHILD.... who is the manifest sons of God... 

Rev 12:1-3...  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne... 

            For many years now, those who are moving in this present truth anointing of the Spirit of God have been hearing proclaimed what is called the “manchild message.”  When John saw a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head, she travailed in birth to bring forth a manchild who, as soon as he was born, was caught up unto God, and to His throne.  We understand by the Spirit that the sun is a type of the glory of Christ, for He is the “Sun of Righteousness,” and on the mount of Transfiguration His countenance shone brighter than the noon-day sun.  The fact that this woman is clothed with the sun speaks of the garment of the bride, who has made herself ready.  The moon is a type of the old order reflective light of outward religious observances of rituals, ceremonies, programs, creeds, ordinances, sacraments, etc., none of which have any light of their own, but all reflect light just as the cold, barren, lifeless moon reflects a portion of the light of the sun.  It signifies indirect and partial revelation.  This woman, therefore, represents the true church, not having the limited, reflected light of the old order church systems of man, but she has been given the living knowledge of the Son of God and is clothed upon with the radiant glory of the reality of the living Christ!

            That crown of twelve stars upon her head signifies that she has come under the divine government of the mind of Christ, for twelve is the number of the divine government, and the stars speak of the power, glory, and dominion of the wonderful illumination of the mind of Christ.  The moon being under her feet signifies that this woman has been lifted up to a higher place in God, in both revelation and experience, than the old order church systems of man, the moon.  This tells us that she is hearing directly from the Lord, rather than responding to others, who have heard about the Lord.

            “…clothed with the sun…”  Norene Nichols has shared some interesting and edifying insights into this important theme.  “The garbing of the woman of Revelation twelve is unusual in that she is clothed with the sun.   On the surface, one might refer to this as being clothed in light or understanding which it is, but there is much more meaning lying under the surface of these words than most of us realize.  With the help of the Lord, we may ponder this matter a little further and see some of what is involved.  In Greek there are two words used for ‘clothed,’ one is enduo and the other is periballo.  In this particular case, the word periballo is used and realizing that every word is important in respect to where and how it is used by the Spirit of God in the scriptures, we know that periballo is distinctly illuminative.  Enduo means to ‘go into clothing’ which infers that the clothing is of a certain size and specification into which a person must fit.  In other words, a person up to a particular size could fit into a certain garment, but over that size, it would be impossible to get into it.  On the other hand, periballo means to ‘cast around about’ which would infer some sort of a garment that can be put on and cast around a person and made to fit the person rather than the person fit the garment.

            “For instance, Luke 24:49 speaks about being ENDUED (enduo — clothed) with power from on high’ referring to the infilling of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Here the word used means to be clothed with power in the sense of going into clothing or having the garment of a particular size into which the person must fit.  We have seen much in times past of people who claimed so much because of the enduing of power when in reality they fitted as best they could into that garment.  Thus we have seen many trying to do great wonders and signs in a garment they are in but which is too big for them, into which they have not grown up, and which drags in the dust realm (carnality), bringing reproach and criticism from many looking on.

            “On the other hand, the word periballo used of the sun-clad woman infers that this full-grown woman has a covering of the sun that is cast about her in such a manner that the garment fits her rather than her trying to fit into the garment.   This woman is a mature woman — matured in God, matured in love, matured in understanding — and God grants her the clothing that fits her maturity.  Her clothing is comprised of one thing — the sun.  The sun is the light and warmth of our solar system and rises upon the just and the unjust alike.   It is no respecter of persons.  The planets revolve around it and are benefited thereby.  Thus this woman is clothed with the light (understanding, revelation) and warmth (effect, blessing) of Him who is ‘the Sun of Righteousness.’  She does not withhold her light and warmth from anyone either just or unjust, but beams alike upon all.   In other words, her light of understanding is dispersed abroad, not by words, but by BEING, EVEN AS THE SUN SPEAKS NOT BUT WHAT IT IS BY VIRTUE OF ITS NATURE.  She claims nothing for herself — no position, no gifts, no power, no ministry — but simply IS what she IS by the grace of God.  The sun does not have to say, ‘I am the sun!’  It is that by reason of its being, and this woman is what she is by reason of her being who she is, and as a result, her light and warmth are spread abroad without stint”   — end quote.

            “…and the moon under her feet…”  Through the summer months, Lorain and I enjoy sitting on the front porch of our house in the late evenings listening to the night sounds and watching the stars, moon, satellites, and airplanes in the heavens above.  We especially like to be out there at the full moon and see it rise up over the Hueco mountains in all its brilliance.  What do we know when we see the beautiful moon shining so brightly?  We know the sun is in the heavens; we can’t see it, but we know it’s there because the moon is shining, reflecting the light of the sun!  Now, this woman that John beholds in spirit, this wonder in the heavens, has the moon under her feet.  Do you know why?  She doesn’t need external proof anymore that the Sun of Righteousness is shining — for she is clothed with the sun!  Bro Eby writes...  

            May God open the eyes of every reader of these lines to clearly see and understand the great mystery that we now unfold.  Israel of old with her outward law, outward sacrifices, outward temple, outward priesthood, outward feasts, outward rituals, and ceremonies — all these external ministrations were merely a sign that Yahweh was in the heavens!  All these things merely reflected the light of God, the Spirit, but they were not the light and not one of them had any light within itself.  The moon shines so we know that the sun is there.  The great truth that the Holy Spirit would make known to us is that external religious ordinances of every kind are typified by the moon — they are not the true light of Christ, they merely reflect light.  As the writings of the New Testament progress, we see a theme unfold before our wondering eyes which eventually bursts forth in all the splendor of a blooming flower of truth.  The writer to the Hebrews exudes the fragrance of this blossoming truth when he writes, “Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect…which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings (Greek: baptismos — baptisms), and carnal ordinances, IMPOSED ON THEM UNTIL THE TIME OF REFORMATION (CHANGE)” (Heb. 9:9-10).  These externals were needed when men could neither see nor know God and needed to be assured that God was there.   But now, praise His name, He has sent the Spirit of His Son and we are putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are being clothed with the light of the glory of God that radiates from the face of Jesus Christ!  Therefore, we no longer have any need for the moon for we are clothed with the sun!  Isn’t it wonderful!

            In nearly every religious system today we have a lot of reflected light of outward rituals, ceremonies, sacraments, and ordinances.  Water baptism, for example, is merely an outward symbol of reflected light,  for it is an external exercise which stands for and represents and portrays that true spiritual baptism into the death of Christ whereby our sins are carried away into the sea of forgetfulness and our new creation life arises in the power of His resurrection.  The Lord’s Supper or communion is but an outward symbol or reflected light of that deep spiritual experience whereby we truly eat the flesh (word) of Christ and drink His blood (spirit) in truth and reality.  The whole Christian world, including some who profess to be sons of God, continues to walk on in the semi-darkness of the reflected light of the moon.  But this woman, this heavenly woman, this sun-clad woman, this woman pregnant with the Christ has put the moon under her feet!  SHE IS LIVING IN THE REALM ABOVE ALL TYPES AND SHADOWS AND SYMBOLS, ABOVE ALL REFLECTED LIGHT, CLOTHED WITH THE SPLENDOR OF THE NOONDAY SUN, THE MAJESTY, AND THE GLORY OF THE LIVING CHRIST.  She has risen above the outward shadows! 

            This woman doesn’t need to appear in church on Easter morning to proclaim the resurrection of our Lord, for she has risen with Him and is now seated together with Him in the heavenly places in Christ.  She has no need to sip wine or eat a wafer in order to recognize the death of the Lord and her union with Him, for she bears within herself the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus, and she is dead, and her new life is hidden with Christ in God.  She doesn’t need to be baptized in water in any particular name, by any certain formula, for any special work of God, for by one Spirit she has already been baptized into one body, baptized into the Christ, she has “put on” Christ, and is now bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.   Oh, yes!  This woman, this virgin bride of Christ, dwells in a heavenly place in the dazzling glory of spiritual understanding, reality, and power.  Only the woman thus clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, is able to birth the manchild, the manifest sons of God!  The sons of God are not birthed out of carnal, earth-bound religious systems of men who are ruled in the nighttime darkness of their walk as carnal Christians by the reflected light of the moon.  Coming out of Babylon was not our birth into sonship!  It is the woman who has come out of Babylon.  It is only in the high place of pure spiritual experience that the life of sonship is conceived and brought to birth.  The Lord is now bringing His elect into the hot, throbbing, pulsating, radiating, penetrating LIGHT OF LIFE!

            Even at the most elemental level of our spiritual walk, every saint of God who yearns for peace, victory, and growth in the spirit must begin to put the moon of external rules, regulations, laws, commandments, and man-imposed standards of righteousness under his feet.  I believe the dream of every child of God is to walk fully in the will of the Father.  The ability to do so lies right within HIS NATURE WITHIN US!   All nature teaches us this simple but sublime truth — the root determines the fruit.  The mystery is just this: Adam can never be holy; Christ can never sin.  So once the consciousness of the new man arises within you, you are on your way to victory!  God is not judging you — we have all been judged already at Calvary.  Once the law of the spirit of life has been quickened within you your natural man will still be the natural man and he will fail at times, but God is not looking at that!  Our heavenly Father, more than anyone in the universe, understands perfectly that Adam cannot be anything but what he is — a sinner!  He also knows that only Christ in you has the power to be holy, for Christ is holy.  And even God isn’t trying to lay the law on old Adam (your natural man) and make him reform.  That’s not the plan!  The plan is for Christ in you to daily increase while the Adamic man, the flesh, daily decreases.   As we learn to live out of our true identity, the new man, Christ in us, there is no more consciousness of sin.  That means we stop worrying about sin and getting all bent out of shape every time Adam acts up!  Instead, we concentrate on our new life and feed, water, nurture, and cultivate the Christ within!  

            I’m a great believer in setting men free — free from rules and commandments, free from condemnation, free from the consciousness of sin — for the strength of sin is the law.  You are going to be who you are!  It’s as simple as that.  Someone says, “If you don’t teach people the law, if you don’t instruct them in what to do and what not to do, if you don’t lay down the guidelines and set the standards, how will they know how to live and do righteousness?”  The answer is just this — by nature!  Every man lives by his nature, and every man who does righteousness does so by the nature of Christ in him or he will not do righteousness!  “The law made nothing perfect.”  Nothing!  Can we grasp that?  “For what the law could not do, in that, it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

            If I have to instruct you on how to live you are not benefiting from me because I have not the power to cause you to obey what I tell you.  But if I set you free you are free to do one thing — you are free to be who you are!   If you are living in the consciousness of Christ you are going to act like Him and be like Him!  The reason Christ has redeemed us is not to save us from hell and take us to heaven, as the churches foolishly teach; rather, it is to quicken us within our spirit so that we can discover our life, our real self, our true identity as sons of our heavenly Father!  Oh, yes!  Our spiritual life within is the secret place of the most High.   It is Christ within us, our only hope of glory!  Once we learn that laws, rules, regulations, commandments, standards, sacraments, and so-called church disciplines are absolutely and utterly impotent to do one thing for us, we will put that cold, sterile, reflective light of the moon under our feet and begin to put on the Lord Jesus Christ — CLOTHED WITH THE SUN!  Isn’t it wonderful!

            “…and upon her head a crown of twelve stars…”  She is crowned, but not with kingly authority, for she is not seated upon the throne.  Her child is caught up unto God and to His throne.  The woman has not reached the highest pinnacle in the Spirit, for her child, as soon as it is born, is caught up into a realm above her.  Her crown is the Stephanos crown of the overcomer, yet it is unique, for instead of being formed of laurel branches as were the Stephanos placed upon the head of the victors at the Greek games, it is composed of stars.  It is neither a true Stephanos nor is it the golden crown of a king!  It is a crown of twelve stars.  Here it is the number that is most significant.  Twelve is the number in the numerology of God that denotes all, absolutely all, or the end.  And the end of God’s plan is sonship!  You see, we have sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week, four weeks in a month, and twelve months in a year.  But when you come to twelve you come to the end of time as we know it, for in the twelve months the earth’s circuit around the sun is complete.  In twelve you come to the highest denomination of time as we know it; you can start over with two years, three years, a thousand years, or a trillion years, but you’ve come to the end. 

            Twelve is also in scripture the number of divine government.  The ruling order of God is revealed in the fact that there were twelve patriarchs from Seth to Noah before the flood; also twelve after the flood from Shem to Jacob.  There were the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve princes of those tribes.  And in the New Testament, we find the twelve apostles of the Lamb, the twelve foundations in the New Jerusalem, the twelve gates, the twelve pearls, and the twelve angels (messengers).  All the measurements of the city involve the number twelve.  There are twelve stones on the high priest’s breastplate.  Twelve persons are recorded as being specially anointed for government, five as priests, and seven as kings.  All this speaks of Divine Government!    

            The sun-clad woman is crowned with the divine government, yet, again, it is not a government on the level of the throne.  The divine government she is under is the order of God in a particular realm.  Each realm in God has its own order!  There was an order of God for the patriarchs, another order of God for Israel under Moses, a different order of God for Israel under Joshua, a further order of God for Israel under the judges, and another order of God for Israel under the kings.  Each was God’s order, His divine order, but the rule of God over His people took different forms.  Today there is a divine order of God for the church and only a few saints in the whole world have submitted themselves to God’s divine order.  “And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-13).

            Nearly all churches operate and function under man-made, man-controlled systems, that bear little resemblance to the order of God!  The Babylon religious system is not the “order” of the Spirit nor is it in any way “divine”!  Its origin is from the carnal concepts and inventions of man!  The true divine church order, however, beautiful and wonderful as it is, still is NOT THE DIVINE ORDER FOR THE SONS OF GOD!  The woman is crowned with a crown of twelve stars, the divine order of church government; but the manchild is caught up to the highest realm in God to sit as Christ upon His throne!   That is the difference.  The woman has an authority, but it is not the authority of the throne!  

Blessings All....