Wednesday

Related Verses
Eph. 5:26
26 That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word,

Eph. 6:17
17 And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God,

Rev. 2:7
7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

Rev. 19:7
7 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.

Rev. 21:11
11 Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.

John 6:63
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Matt. 4:4
4 But He answered and said, It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.”

Matt. 13:14-15
14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, “In hearing you shall hear and by no means understand, and seeing you shall see and by no means perceive.
15 For the heart of this people has become fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed, lest they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and they turn around, and I will heal them.”

Isa. 6:9-10
9 And He said to me, Go and say to this people, Hear indeed, but do not perceive; And see indeed, but do not understand.
10 Make the heart of this people numb; Dull their ears, And seal their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, And their heart perceive and return, and they are healed.

Related Reading
Revelation 19 will be completely fulfilled. Furthermore, we believe that the process of fulfillment is taking place today. Since Jerusalem has been restored to the nation of Israel, the coming back of the Lord Jesus should not be far off. The bride, however, cannot be prepared quickly. This preparation is a gradual work that takes place over a period of time. Certainly the Lord must be doing a work on earth to prepare His bride…He is coming to present to Himself the bride who has already been prepared. This preparation, I believe, involves the work of building corporately. Those who make up the bride must not only be mature in life; they must also be built together as the one bride. 

The work in the recovery is the Lord’s genuine work to prepare His bride…The primary work of the Lord in His recovery is not to preach the gospel throughout the earth; it is to prepare His bride. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 780-781) 

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According to Ephesians 5:26, Christ gave Himself up for the church so that “He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word.” After the Lord Jesus gave Himself for us in the flesh, He was resurrected and in resurrection became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the life-giving Spirit, He is the speaking Spirit. Whatever He speaks is the word that washes us. The Greek word rendered “word” in Ephesians 5:26 is not logos, the constant word, but rhema, which denotes the instant word, the word the Lord presently speaks to us. As the life-giving Spirit, the Lord is not silent; He is constantly speaking. If you take Him as your person, you will discover how much He desires to speak within you…How can we know that Christ as our person is present with us? We know it by His speaking. If we do not have His speaking within us, we do not have His presence. But if we turn to Him to mean business to take Christ as our life and our person, His speaking will begin again. His speaking is the living word, the living word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is our wonderful Christ Himself. How practical, subjective, intimate, and real He is as the speaking Spirit! 

This Spirit is the water that washes us…Every time He speaks within us, we should experience cleansing. 

This cleansing is a metabolic cleansing that removes what is old and replaces it with what is new…It is by the inward, metabolic cleansing that we have transformation. By the metabolic cleansing that comes from the speaking of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, we are truly changed, transformed. 

God’s way in His economy is not to change us outwardly. His way is for Christ to give Himself up for us and then to come into us as the life-giving Spirit. In a very practical sense, the Lord’s presence is one with His speaking. Whenever He speaks, we realize His presence within us. This speaking of the life-giving Spirit within is the water that cleanses our inner being. This cleansing water deposits a new element into us to replace the old element in our nature and disposition. This metabolic cleansing causes a genuine change in life. This change is what we mean by transformation…What the church needs is the inward metabolic cleansing that comes from allowing Christ as the life-giving Spirit to be our life and our person. 

The life-giving Spirit is the speaking Spirit. Christ’s speaking is the Spirit; it is the very presence of the life-giving Spirit. If we honor the speaking of the Spirit within us, the Spirit’s speaking will become the water that cleanses, purifies, sanctifies, and supplies us with the element of Christ. This element replaces and discharges our old element and brings about genuine transformation. In this way we are purified and sanctified; in this way we also experience the practicality of the church life. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 453-455) 

Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 55—56