Winona Conference Part 3 – The Great Mystery of Christ and the Church – Two Kinds of Christians

You know, and I know, that the city of Jerusalem was always a picture of the church of the living God. Well, look up into the heavens and what do you see? You see the sparkling, glistening jewels, precious stones, and jewels, glistening thousands and tens of thousands of them coming down out of the heavens. It is the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. The habitat is coming back – a place that fits Him, fits you, and fits me. Don’t sit there. Say praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Glory! Here it comes, saints. Can you see it descending? Look at it glisten and sparkle. The habitat of God, the habitat of Christ—wait a minute. It’s changing…It’s changing its form. Those are not jewels. Those are not stones. I don’t know what it is, but it’s alive. Look closer.

It’s a multitude that no man can number. It is the host of the redeemed. Wow! Here we come. That’s you and that’s me. Can you see us? Can you see us? Glistening, living stones. A great, glorious multitude. Keep watching, will you? Will you keep watching?

Do you know what this is? This is the members of the body, and they’re about to be assembled. This is DNA of His DNA. Your body’s been delivered. You got a new one that will walk through the wall. You can also sit down and eat. You’ve got a spirit, a soul, and a body.

And here He stands: Lord of both realms, Lord of all lords, and King of all kings. He stands and waits, and here we come. See the glistening, glorious, whirling, shining light of the multitude of the redeemed. And watch them join in an anthem of praise. And they begin to change, and they touch one another, and they re-form. They have at last assembled. They are the assembled.

What do you see? One of the archangels drops his sword and cries out, ”It’s the bride! It’s the bride!”  And there she stands. She’s got no spot; she’s got no wrinkles. She’s going to be young forever. There she is. She is one glorious, beautiful creature. Brothers, treat your wife nicely, and learn from her, because someday you are going to end up being a girl.

She came out of his side. She came out of his side. There stands the mystery of God. The woman, the girl, hidden in God when He was the All. There she stands, rapturous in her beauty, as beautiful as the face of God. He finally gets what He has been after from before the beginning.

And he cries out, Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. Do you understand that she is His nature? That we have here a companion for Christ? He’s not going to marry a species different from His own. She is the new creation. She has never known sin. She is spotless, white, pure, glorious. He prepared her, and there she stands. Genetic code of His genetic code. DNA of His DNA. She is out of Him. She is an extension of Him. She was once hidden in Him. She came out of Him, and now she stands there in all her glory.

Eve came out of Adam, bone of his bone, and stood there in her beauty. Do you understand? The natures are the same. Do you understand where she came from? The angelic hosts begin to praise and glory in this moment of the marriage. Hey, saints, we’re going to have a marriage right here in front of our very eyes. I’m not talking about a ceremony; I’m talking about a wedding of two people. We are about to see the most glorious sight that shall ever be.

I want you to watch. I want you to watch him as he turns toward her. And now, she like Him, remembers everything. He turns and looks into her face, and she looks into His face, and the glow of the blinding light of the uninhibited incandescent radiance of God bursts forth. And she approaches Him, and in her glorious light, her light disappears within His. She reaches out to Him, and her hand just disappears. And she can see nothing but the light of His glory. And she looks down, and she has no sense of where she is, and where He is. And there is then her only consciousness is the sight of Him in blinding glory. And then her whole being disappears into Him. She is back where she was. And He is no longer the All. He is All that is in her. He has become the All in All.

And they are one. I mean, saints, they are one. Because they are one, she’s no longer a bride now. She is the wife…she’s no longer the wife; they are one. We are ultimately headed right back where we came from, out of God, back. I tell you this is a mystery, that she was hidden in Him, she came out of Him, and she goes back into Him, and the two become one.

Where does that leave you right now? I’ll tell you where it leaves you. It leaves you with everything else in this universe. We have passed every gimmick, every trip, every organization, every trick. You are DNA of His DNA. You belong to both realms. You are one with Him. You are out of Him. You are going back into Him. But He has not left you for future glory. When we meet again, our text will be, for He has given you all the riches in the heavenly places that are in Christ. Not going to give you; has given you. Please understand the spiritual community of the redeemed. This is the colony out of heaven, but it is more than that. This, brothers and sisters, is the foretaste of the New Jerusalem. That is what the church is. The church is the foretaste of that city and the foretaste of that bride and the foretaste of that wedding and the foretaste of that fellowship and the foretaste of that oneness with Him. That’s what the church is for you here, now, experientially today. Praise the Lord. Amen.