Summer
1993
Bread For
The Hungry
Vanita Sels
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" Matthew
11:15. Here, Jesus sets before us a challenge, as He does
to the seven Churches in Revelation, in preparation for His
second coming.
In Revelation, He stresses that it is the overcomer of each
Church that will enter into His plan and purpose; in Matthew
11:11 He states that it is not the "placement" but
the "life with Him" that has value. "Verily
I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath
not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding
he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than
he."
The New Testament Bride of Christ has a definite advantage
for the fulfillment of the divine life that is to be lived.
Although the Holy Spirit had been given to John the Baptist
in the womb of Elizabeth to aid and fulfill his "placement"
in God, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given out of the
heart of the resurrected Christ. John had the Spirit-power
to obey the law, but he could not manifest the love, for the
Lord Jesus Christ had not yet taken the Holy Spirit through
the fullness of sacrificial love with which God's agape love
could be made available to man.
The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who rules over all things
from the heavenlies, is no longer only Spirit. He is a new
life - a Spirit Life with a Body that contains all of the
obedient, perfected, earthly life of Jesus within, including
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in His bosom. Through the
mystery of God in this transformation, this same Holy Spirit
can enter into our bosom and bring the abiding life of the
Son of God and the Father, that we may reflect God's likeness
in fullness.
Can we see why John was able to fulfill the law, but unable
to fulfill his work in the Love of Christ, which of necessity
and purpose was left for our Great Messiah to fulfill? Can
we not see that even the "least in the Bride of Christ"
can be as this maiden in the Song of Songs; that by her proper
choices and responses can become that "perfect one"
to Him? Today this is possible by the strength of His great
and totally perfected sacrificial love, which is now available
to the "least" by the indwelling Christ (John 14:17-20).