32. Bringing Forth Life
Audio OnlyThis lesson is a Jesus Secret page. We are asking God for the deepest understanding that we need regarding His over-arching metaphor of the reproduction of Life.
Life, of its very essence, brings forth Life. Life must bring forth Life. What is a woman? Let me define a woman. A woman is God’s personal channel through whom He brings forth LIFE! Woman and womb are of the same root.
The metaphor of the reproduction of Life is the largest and the ruling metaphor of the Bible, of nature, of God, and of the Gospel. No one knows the Bible without it.
A Required Metaphor. Any “interpretation” of the Bible or any ideas concerning the gospel of our salvation that do not come out from the metaphor of the reproduction of life are irrevocably false. They are a defiance against the Spirit and the Word.
James and Peter wrote their bit from this metaphor. Paul wrote often out from the pattern of bringing forth life, but John wrote almost entirely out from it. John’s first words require the metaphor. – In the beginning was the Word – In the beginning was the Seed that begets LIFE. To as many as receive Him – You must be conceived from above.
Christ Lives. Then, John’s final words require the metaphor. – And she brought forth a male child. – And the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”
Now, the bringing forth of plant life and the bringing forth of human life are similar as well as different. Their differences in type are simply different ways needed to understand the same reality. Here is THAT REALITY. – Christ lives inside of my heart through faith. Everything in those eight words is known to us by both metaphors of human life and plant life.
God’s Pattern of Life. The primary organizational pattern of God, the most significant metaphor He created, is the process of the reproduction of life. This is a double metaphor, including both human seed, conception - gestation – birthing; and plant seed, seed in the dirt - the plant - many more seeds just like the first. Jesus said, “The seed is the word of God”; that is, the Seed is Jesus, the very planting of God into us. The purpose of that Seed inside of us is to bring forth life. Life is clearly defined in the Bible – the active knowing of God. Therefore we say that the purpose of God is to bring forth His knowledge into the knowledge of all. This double metaphor of the reproduction of life shows us, in incredible detail, exactly how God does such a thing.
Going Forward. My purpose in this lesson is not to rehash the basic meaning of the metaphor of the reproduction of life. And so I will limit that basic explanation to six slides, three for human life and three for plant life. Then, after this basic explanation, I want to insert the three parts of the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, for they are the same pattern.
This is just our start, however, for after that, I hope to discover the foundational meanings of “And she brought forth a manchild” in the context of Revelation 12, and in the context of this place into which God has brought us in seizing hold of John’s vision.
A Clarification. A recent article by Vigilant Citizen exposes a gothic-style fashion show in Germany that combined the Lord Jesus with the basest forms of ugly allusions to sex. A person could go from that page to my teaching on the reproduction of God’s life and wonder if it’s the same thing. In fact that is the purpose of such evil.
We are not concerned with the wickedness of human thinking; we want only to know God. Everything I share regarding this central metaphor of God is inside of the utmost purity. Those who walk in that same purity of the Spirit will know the truth of the things I share.
Conception. We are conceived from above with an incorruptible Seed, the Word of God (1 Peter 1). That Word is the Lord Jesus Christ, having entered into us through faith, that Christ might be formed inside of us (Galatians 4:19).
Our Father is God; our mother is the Church, believers in Jesus gathered together in commitment. That is, our mother is human flesh clothed with Christ. Kind comes into union only with its same kind; that is why God made us like Himself and why Jesus became one of us. The Word by which we are conceived contains all the genetic code of God entwined with the fabric of our human hearts of flesh.
Gestation. Christ lives inside of our hearts through faith. Christ is being formed inside of us. Christ lives as us, and the life we live inside of flesh, we live out from the faith of the Son of God, that is, the utter confidence of Jesus in the Father.
As we give thanks in all, as we ask and believe, and as we speak Christ, every Word God speaks made personal now as us, so we come to know just how much we are just like the Lord Jesus Christ in the sharing of His Heart. Through the travail of the Spirit, through faith in His Word, we become the revelation of Jesus Christ to all.
Birthing. It’s easy to talk about our spirits conceived from above and our souls filled with Christ as Spirit and Word because these things have been part of our experience for years. Technically, the moment of the birthing is the resurrection of our bodies; thus we know little that is practical about it.
The resurrection is the seal of our having come forth from the womb of the Church, but the meaning is far larger than bodies swallowed up by life. And though that moment is an actual event, there is a process over time as well. The larger meaning of the birthing is found in these words, “her child was seized into God and into His throne.”
Into the Earth. “Christ lives inside of your heart through faith” means that Jesus has entered into the earth of your human heart to become you, not living for Himself, but for you.
That is the true meaning of the word “die” in this context – “Unless a seed is planted in the ground and dies, it remains alone.” If a seed were dead in the conventional sense, it would not bring forth a plant. But in God’s metaphor, the Seed that is Jesus is not here in our earth for Himself, but for us. And thus Jesus gives all that He is to live as us individually and together as the Church, that we might be out from Him.
Appearing as a Plant. When the Seed springs forth into life, it appears as something very different. Thus Jesus now appears as you and me; He appears as each local gathering together; and He appears as the Church.
A tomato plant appeared in my compost bin and grew very large, yet it produced no flowers and no fruit, only a show of leaves. A plant will devote itself utterly to bringing forth fruit only when it is fertilized and watered correctly and when it is pruned.
Jesus’ work inside of us is to bring us forth just like Himself. This is the reason for speaking Christ and giving thanks.
Bringing Forth Many. God brings many sons to glory, just like the Lord Jesus, just like the initial Seed of God planted inside of them. The unveiling of the sons of God, then, is essentially a part of the harvest, the bringing in of the mature fruit, many moving together as one, the very Body of Jesus.
Consider this brief line from Isaiah. – That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be… The harvest has two purposes. The first purpose is that it might be sown again to again bring forth life in others. The second purpose is that it might be made bread, or oil as in olives, to nourish and enlighten others.
The Generation of Life. Conception-Planting: We are conceived of God by an incorruptible Word, the Lord Jesus. That Seed enters into our humanity through faith to make us just like the Lord Jesus. This Jesus, planted into our earth, our human heart of flesh, as a Seed, lives for us and not for Himself.
Gestation-Plant: Christ is being formed inside of us. We become like the Lord Jesus as we live inside the Church, inside committed relationships with other believers. Thus Jesus now appears as each local church as a plant. Inside His Church, the Lord Jesus devotes Himself to bringing forth many more seeds just like Himself, through the operations of the plant.
Birthing-Harvest: When our humanity is fused utterly with that Spirit Word coming out from God, we are ready to be birthed; that is, the knowledge of God comes through us into the knowledge of all as our love for one another. The Church has brought forth many just like Jesus who now become seed and bread for others.
Connecting to Tabernacles. It is clear, now, that God uses the reproduction of human life primarily to speak of each one of us as individuals, that He is our literal Father, and that we are conceived of Him. Then, God uses the reproduction of plant life to show how we become just like the Lord Jesus Christ. This metaphor applies to us as individuals, but more so, to us as the gathering together that is Christ. The plant is the gathering together.
But God has another similar metaphor, the Feast of Tabernacles, that takes this way of thinking and applies it to the experience of the entire Church in all heaven-earth.
The First Day of Tabernacles. Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles correspond directly to the three parts of reproducing life in us as individuals. The three parts of Tabernacles itself, however, correspond to the three parts of bringing forth an entire World of Life.
A World of Life is defined as “and all shall know Me.”
On the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, in type, God filled Solomon’s temple with His glory. In completion, then, a World of Life begins when God fills His Church with the knowledge of all the fulness of God and rivers flowing out, a Church turned around. This is the woman clothed with the sun.
The In-Between Days. The Church together really is the physical body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon God filling His House, she becomes the visible form of God inside creation, forever. But she must learn to be what she already is. God created humans to learn; this is an essential part of our glory.
This process of discovery, through which the Church of Jesus Christ now upon this earth learns that Christians loving one another in full reciprocity just like Jesus loves us is God-made-visible, is called, in-part, TRAVAIL. My own learning of God-with-me has been a lifetime of travail. But Jesus said that this process will happen quickly.
The Great Day of the Feast. On the great day of the Feast, the final and eighth day, in type, Jesus spoke rivers of living water flowing out from the bellies of those who believe into Him.
A World of Life comes only out from the Church together; it has no other source.
The transition from one age to the next is marked by the resurrection of our bodies. But this reality of a World of Life, a universe in which God is known by all through Christians loving one another, this flow of LIFE out from the Church, is a larger process, with the resurrection as one significant point inside of it. This is also a part of what the birth of the manchild means.
Through Tabernacles. The three parts of Tabernacles show us how God uses this same pattern to bring forth a World of Life through us, His Church, a world where all know the Father as life and joy. First, God fills His Church with the knowledge of all the fulness of God and of rivers of Spirit flowing out. Then, in the Community of Christ as the days of dwelling in booths, we learn together the full meaning of God with us, of loving one another. This is an essential part of the travail of the Church. Finally, out from this Church proceeds a World of Life.
The History of the World. Now I want to bring in the great change of seeing that came to me as I was writing “The Trumpet and the Ark” even before finishing “Back to My Two Witnesses.” Having re-established the basics of God’s great metaphor, I now want to apply it, as I never have before, to the entire history of the world.
Now, in Revelation 12, John defines the dragon of his vision as “the original serpent, called the devil and Satan.” The word “original” takes us back to the garden of Eden, and thus stands as a large part of the reason why I have obsessed for years over what actually happened there.
Receiving Jesus. The Tree of Life is the knowledge of God entering into us as Jesus Sent, and the River flowing out from that Tree into all creation is the knowledge of God, that is, Life, that is, Christians loving one another. There is no good versus evil in God’s picture; God placed it next to the Tree of Life only to give humans a choice between Jesus or something else. Jesus must be received with joy; He never forces Himself.
The moment Adam ate of the law, of exterior word under his control, so that he might control this woman whom he despised, his spirit and Eve’s spirit DIED.
A False Seeing. “Died” is the correct word, yet we must use the appropriate definition, for “death” has several very different definitions.
Genesis 3 says it this way, “Their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked.” But Paul said it this way in Romans 1, “They became pointless in their thinking [a false story of self], and their non-comprehending heart was darkened. Asserting themselves to be wise, they became foolish.” This means that their spirits became incapable of knowing God, but rather, were opened to “knowing SELF.” And they were ashamed of what God had made, His own image.
The Skin of a Beast. Yet in these first terrifying moments of sudden deadness inside, they could still see the heavens all around them. Thus they were fully aware that what had been the anointing of the Spirit upon their knowing was now become the anointing of the very angels whom they had enslaved.
Thus God’s first mercy was to clothe them with the skin of a beast, that heaven might no longer be visible to humans, that humans would be unaware of the extraordinary master-slave-master relationship all humans now have with devils. Finally, the possibility of LIFE, of a World of Life, of knowing God, of loving one another, vanished from the minds of all humanity.
One Hundred and Twenty Jubilees. For this reason, when we say that Christians on this earth are bringing forth the knowledge of God into the knowledge of all, we are saying something staggeringly revolutionary, something beyond-all, something I have never heard tell of in my life.
Then God said this in Genesis 6. – “My Spirit shall not strive with [judge] man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” I have long believed that God meant “120 years of Jubilee.” We know precisely what year is the 120th year of Jubilee counting from Adam’s darkness – AD 2029.
The Entrance of a World of Life. Here’s the deal. When John said, “I saw a woman clothed with the sun – IN THE FACE OF THE DRAGON,” he was declaring the entrance of a World of Life into the human experience BEFORE the exit of a world of death. The implications of what that means are staggering.
Then consider this line, coming up. – Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up… The Euphrates flows “out from Eden” as the river of death feeding the confusion of Babylon, the power of human darkness – a power that is now CUT OFF.
Planted as a Seed. We are using God’s great metaphor of bringing forth life to demonstrate the entrance into the human experience, in Completion, of a universe that knows only LIFE. The Tree of Life [Seed] – the River of Life [Gestation] – a World of Life [Birthing]. – He who believes into Me, out from his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
This World of Life must be planted as a Seed among humans on this earth. There, it must appear as something else; it must develop in secret inside the womb. And then an entire NEW World is born in a day!
Born in a Day. “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the Lord. “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God (Isaiah 66:7-9).
This is the biggest birthing of all. It is pictured by an entire nation climbing up out of the Jordan River into their promised land all in one day. It is the Church bringing forth a New Age, right in the midst of all opposition.
Another Bible Term. There is another Bible term for this whole process, when that which has been developing in secret, looking like something entirely different, suddenly springs forth fully developed for all creation to see. That other Bible term is the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.
And John’s vision serves one purpose only; it shows us how this all works in just a few short years. And the key to all of it is Jesus’ ability made complete inside of our human inability through our confidence that He is. Here’s the thing. Revelation 12:5 means EVERYTHING found inside this layout of God’s most critical metaphor.
Into a World of Life. Finally, God’s great pattern of bringing forth life applies to the entire history of mankind. Adam chose a world of death, but God has a people, including you and me, who have chosen a World of Life inside the same critical place. Our gathering together is more than as the Church, it is also the Kingdom now come. We gather in secret that we might know together the ways of the Lord, that we might learn how to love one another in the same way that Jesus loves us. We refuse to know good versus evil, for the Tree of Life, once blocked from humans, has entered into our midst that we might partake of Jesus together daily.
As we refuse all claims of the dragon and the beast, as we place ourselves under God’s covering for us, so we live out from the heavens opened to us in all abundance. We live in the New Creation, inside the New Jerusalem now formed upon the earth. As this New World of Life develops among our fellowship together, so the chasm grows against the old. Then, in the moment of LIFE, as our bodies are swallowed up by life, a New World steps forth upon the earth born in a day.
The Meaning of Revelation 12. The initial understanding of what I am sharing in this lesson came into me in the summer of 1977, out from a word preached, but mixed entirely with my own Bible. Yet as I am writing it now, the meaning of this most wondrous metaphor of promise, the bringing forth of LIFE, sings all together as I have never known it before.
The ways of the Lord are perfect and altogether beautiful.
I was 34 years old when my wife brought forth our first born son. In some ways, it was the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed in my life. This is the meaning of Revelation 12.
Reading for Next Time. The title of the next lesson is “We See a Woman on Fire.” For that lesson, read Revelation 12 a couple of times, but then look carefully at verses 1-5. In fact, it would be good for you to write out each little bit, each phrase, in a list, thus placing before your eyes each detail separately. Starting with this lesson, we now have a total of 7 lessons and 7 Jesus Secret pages on Revelation 12. There is so much in this chapter, things we have never actually believed.
Then a great sign was perceived in heaven, a woman enclothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a garland of victory, a crown of twelve stars. Having a child in her womb…
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we have come out from Your great desire, to be planted here upon the earth as Your sons. Father, You have placed us here inside of You with great purpose and for Your sake, that we might believe You as the travail of Your Church.
“Father, knowing You is Life forevermore, that You dwell among Your people. Father, we are in great agony of soul until You are known by all who belong to Jesus. Father, Your Word is fulfilled in all who believe into You, right here on this earth, right now in this age, for Jesus is faithful and true.
“God, Your Church, she does not know who she is, she does not see You filling her full, she does not expect Rivers of Spirit flowing out. Clothe Your Church, oh God, with the Lord Jesus Christ, that Your people would put Jesus upon every moment and particulate of their life.
“Call Your Church into Yourself, Father, that she would embrace NO sufficiency in self, just like the Lord Jesus. ‘I can do nothing of myself’ is the wide-open DOOR through which You come into our world to be known as Christians loving one another forever.
“Father, the time is now; the hour is desperate. We see Your Church clothed with Jesus, for You have answered us.”