WHAT GOD JOINED TOGETHER – It’s Not Marriage
Hebrews 4:9-11
9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Ephesians 1:10
10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
Romans 8:29
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Revelation 5: 8-9
8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
*All scriptures are in the NKJV unless otherwise stated.
INTRODUCTION
There is that which God put or joined together in His mind from before the foundation of the earth. It is not marriage as we know it, but the coming together of eternal realities which were meant to be fully expressed upon the earth, but hidden in God. They were hidden not because they were meant to be hidden as it were, but because in the mind of God there is an aggregation of various strands of the same plan that must come together to create a whole picture upon the earth. Of marriage and divorce, Jesus said “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” We have used this statement over and over again within the context of marriage in which it was spoken, but somehow have left out the truth that everything God says has both physical attributes and spiritual meaning and interpretations. I believe this is the reason why the Apostle Paul said concerning marriage, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.” (Eph 5:32 NKJV)
As it is, this article is not about marriage or weddings or any form of human union, but about something else in the mind of God which He joined or put together in Himself from before the foundation of the earth, a thing which is directly tied to us being made in His image and likeness. However, for those who think that marriage is an ultimate goal after schooling or those who take their definition from whom they marry, or how large and expensive their wedding ceremony was, physical marriage has no eternal value whatsoever before God. That’s why Jesus said, “In heaven, they neither marry nor are given in marriage.” Period.
In this article, we will be looking at various streams of thought, and see how God helps us combine them into one stream of life. The reality of what God joined together, what is behind the veil, man made in the image and likeness of God and our lives as living scrolls in the hand of God.
BEHIND THE VEIL
Today, which is 19th day of September, 2018, is the Day of Atonement for the Jews. The celebration begins from this evening, which is the usual begining of a day for the Jewish people. So I want to wish the Jewish community a Happy Yom Kippur and also pray for them to find and come into the truth of what Jesus already did for them by His atoning blood. At the same time, I also want to congratulate the Called Out Ones, that is, those who are the expression of the Gentiles which are redeemed by the Blood of Jesus. I congratulate them, for the season of entering behind the veil to partake of the things hidden in God which were kept before the foundation of the world has come. Yom Kippur is the Jewish celebration of the day in which the High Priest enters the Holiest of all to make atonement for himself and the people of Israel. It’s called a high holy day and the most important event for the Jews in that it’s the day that the collective sins of the people for the past year are presented before God and then atoned for by the blood of animals. This is in the context of the Jewish people, but in the context of the Called Out Ones, it’s different. It is no longer celebrated as a day within a year, where a human high priest enters behind the veil, but has become a reality of that which Christ finished for us when He entered behind the veil once for all so that we can have access to God and the things kept behind the veil. (See Heb 10:1-25)
Let me say this, the things or treasures behind the veil are not parcels or gifts of some sort that we receive from God after passing through the process of coming through the veil (it’s really bloody you know) but much more of what we become behind the veil. To make it clearer, what God joined together from before the foundation of the earth, what Christ was killed for from eternity and on the earth, and the reason He sealed us with the Holy Spirit of Promise as Guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, was for us to come boldly behind the veil and then become the image and likeness of Christ, which is the completion of that which began in Eden over which man failed initially. God is returning in the cool of the day, behind the veil, having taken us through the heat of the Sea of Glass Mingled with the Fire for refinement in order to finish what He satarted when He said, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness.” It’s in the completion of this that Christ will finally have His Bride and God will have His family. I believe this is also what is alluded to when Christ spoke about the day of the Son of Man as being like the days of Noah and Lot. What was the pattern of the family of Noah? Noah, his wife, sons and daughters-in-law. To rearrange that, we have: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit (the expression of Motherhood), and God the Son and His Bride who are the overcomers. It is the coming together of the royal family of God even as we are transported into the fullness of the third day expression of the Mountain of the Lord’s House. It is the day that the expression ‘the cool of the day’ created by the lighted shadow of the presence of God will be manifested in full over man. In this day, God will not just come once in a while, but He will dwell eternally with us as a Father to a family.
MADE IN HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS
God is King and His kingdom was from before the heavens and the earth were formed or even planned. God had a kingdom with created spiritual beings, angels, spirits as part of His kingdom from before time began. His kingdom was perfect in all ways and all things worked according to the dictates of the counsel of His mind. However, God the King of this kingdom that was before time began, had a need. In the midst of all the created lights, the beauty and grandeur of heaven, God still had a space within Himself that poses as a need that only He can provide for Himself. God needed a family. But in His heart, this family would not be of angels, spiritual beings around the throne or of any among the living creatures in heaven, but this family would be made of Himself.
Fast forward to the story of creation, in the first three chapters of Genesis and we will see something very important which points us directly to that which God joined together in Himself. Scripture says God made all things from nothing, made animals, trees, lights and all we see. But the need of God was not necessarily all the various things created first, but that for which He created those things… His family. So God said to His Word and His Spirit, let Us create man in Our image and in Our likeness. Meaning, let Us put into being that which we had in mind before anything was started. So God made man (male and female) out of the dust of the earth, breathed into the nostril of the lump of dust and man became a living soul. The plan of God had begun. However, I found a “holy discrepancy” in the mix, one which I could not but take a break to understand. God told His Companions, let Us make man in Our image but ended up making man out of dust. But God in His own image is not dust but uncreated light. I find this quite curious and also believe it was a deliberate act of God. Could God have a plan within a plan? Yes, I believe so. It’s a plan that will make a discerning mind know how God thinks. Here is my meditation on this issue. When God made man in His image, but made him with dust (corruption) which is not the image of God, He put man in the garden with two trees, one to make him live and the other to make him die and then said to him “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17 NKJV)
He then went ahead to give him a wife that by design, would surely make Adam eat of the forbidden fruit and die. Did God plan these events just the way they went? Did He have something in His mind when all this was going on? I believe the answer is yes. The statement “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”, doesn’t sound like a warning to me. It sounded like a command that would activate something that was in the mind of God. I reasoned that the plan was to bring man to the reality of what God joined together, which is to make man the same as Himself in the earth. A creation which He, God, will call family. I reason that God’s plan was for man to eat that fruit, and then die before God when He, God came in the cool of the day, so that the mystery of John 12:24 could be activated, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat (man) falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone (unjoined to the plan of God) but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (Paraphrase mine).
In other words, when God made man and allowed the corruption in him so that he could die, God had a plan that a day was coming when He, God would come into the garden in the cool of the day, and man would actually die and then be risen right in the presence of God, in order for that image that was started with dust to be completed in light. Why? Scripture says, as we behold Him face to face, we are changed to that same image that we behold in God from glory to glory. Meaning, what God joined together in Himself was for man to become the same as Him, through death. But man, by the serpentine knowledge that came through eating the forbidden fruit, hid himself behind a tree and the entire program was truncated, awaiting another day when God would come again in the cool of the day for the redemption of the failure of the garden. The day for the correction of that which was a failure in the garden has now come and God will have His way. Adam and Eve failed woefully because they didn’t understand that what God joined together was not themselves or their marriage, but that which is in His heart for man to be His direct image and likeness. Adam and Eve were meant to simply live out the script that God wrote. God is still giving men the things He joined together and most are failing each day because they think what God joined together is their marriage or union.
LIVING SCROLLS
According to scriptures, the interest of God is not just the redemption of man alone back to Himself, but also the release of creation from the futility which He, God subjected it to in hope. Creation has been waiting in hope for the manifetstation of the Sons of God to show forth on the earth, for God put the liberation of creation in the liberty of the sons of God. But the lives of the sons of God can only be effective to free creation, to the degree to which they themselves are changed into the image and likeness of God, which was the plan from the beginning. See these scriptures for clarity. Romans 8:18-25 (NKJV)
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of [a]corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
So as God puts man back into the plan He had from before creation was made, He also is bringing man to that place where man can by the liberty of the Spirit, set creation free. This reality, is the reality of the mystery of the Scroll in the Hand of God. This is important in order to bring to pass what is written in Eph 1:10 ” That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him:”
THE SCROLL
“So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” And I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the arth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll,And to open its seals;For You were slain,And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,10 And have made [d]us kings[e] and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10 NKJV)
Of a truth, the scroll in the hand of the Lamb contains hidden mysteries which have been kept in God from before the begining of time until now. The question i asked myself then is this. If the scroll contains hidden secrets and mysteries in God, who then or what is the scroll itself? The answer is simple. We are the scroll in the hand of the Lamb, written within and without, sealed with the seven seals (Seven Spirits of God) and made ready to be revealed on the earth in this season and age. Let me paint a picture to show what I mean.
God promised to make a covenant with us in which He will put His laws in our minds and write them on our hearts (See Hebrews 8:8-12), a thing which alludes to the scroll written within and without.
Ephesians 1:13-14 speaks of us as the purchased possession of Christ sealed by the Spirit (Seven Seals) until the day of redemption. And speaking of this redemption, see what Rev 5:5-10 (NKJV) says
5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. 8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals;
For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God;And we shall reign on the earth.”
Ephesians 5:26-27 speaks of Christ and His bride which by the Water of His Word, He made pure, sanctified, without blemish and to be presented to Himself, which alludes to God presenting the scroll to the Lamb in Rev 5. Putting all these together, we see a simple thought in the mind of God, which is, make us the Bride of His Son, build a family for Himself and make us living scrolls by which the plans in His heart will be made manifested on the earth and by which men will know the true God. It is safe to say that, all systems of the world created from the days of Babel will be destroyed by the unsealing of the things written in this living scroll. But unlike the prophet Ezekiel who was given a scroll to eat and then declare words of prophecies to the nation of Israel (See Ezekiel 3:2-4) and unlike the Apostle John who was given a small book to eat and then commanded to make prophetic declarations to nations and people (See Revelation 10:9-11), we as scrolls in the hand of the Lamb will not need to make prophetic declarations, we will live out the realities of what is writen in us on earth as living scrolls. Why? What was written in the scroll in the hand of the Lamb was not read even though the seals were broken by the Lamb Himself. The mysteries written in and out of that scroll will not be declared as words of prophecies as it were, but will be patterns of the walk of faith with God, lived out as the mystery of godliness in which God will literarily manifest Himself fully in and upon man on earth. This is what God joined together than no man can put asunder.
Written in and out of that scroll, which we are, are things which creation has been waiting for. The things eyes have not seen, things which ears have not heard, and things which have not entered into the hearts of men, what God kept in store for His sons that love Him. It’s the power of the age to come, the power of an endless life. It is immortality. I want to believe it is what Solomon was speaking about when he said “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Eccl 3:11 (NKJV). God kept eternity in the heart of man even though man doesnt know what He, God, does from the begining to the end. But I dare say, in contrast to Solomon, these things are what we know and will much more know by the Spirit because we are the scroll upon which they are written.
In conclusion, the minute the mystery of Adam dying before God in order to complete him as God’s image in the garden failed, another mystery, which is the mystery of Jesus being the first born among the dead was activated.
What God joined or put together from before the foundation of the earth is the mystery of godliness in which God comes, dwells and manifests Himself in men on earth. This is what He came to do in the cool of the day in the garden with Adam and Eve, but they hid behind a tree. This is what He wanted to do with Israel at the foot of mount Sinai, but they ran away. This is also what He wanted to show the children of Israel through the shining face of Moses, but Moses covered his face with a veil. This is what Jesus came to the earth to do, but he was rejected and killed by the Jews. This is the same thing God has now determined to do once more in this age. For there remaineth a rest for God’s people. God’s rest in a man’s life is the manifestation of the mystery of godliness in which “Let Us make man in Our image and likeness” will now be fulfilled. This is what God joined together and which no man or devil can put asunder. This is why Jesus was killed from before the foundations of the earth, for God knew before time that man will record lots of failures before the final day of reconciliation comes.
This is why the angels asked “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?”
God intends to walk on the earth like man, dance on the earth, sing on the earth, eat on the earth, play with His family of sons and daughters on the earth, tell us stories of how He created everything from nothing just like a grand father will gather his grand children around him, telling them stories under the moon-lit night. God wants to dwell with us as His living tabernacles. (See Revelation 21) This is what God joined together. Marriage, singlehood, or any other thing that God mandates a man to do on earth is just a platform of bringing to manifetstation that which God joined together. And by providence, it is expected of every steward of the realities of God to be faithful to that which God puts in their hands.
The time has come for that which has been locked up in God to now manifest on earth. The mystery of God walking in and with man on earth has come. But sadly, it is not for everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’, even though all men have the opportunity to be part of this grand event that God planned. It is meant for those who find nourishment in the wilderness of God, those that eat and drink at the table of Wisdom and those who have learnt to boldly enter behind the veil by faith. It is the seventh day of the God and He must rest. However, God can only rest upon and within those who have given their lives as liviing tabernacles unto God. These are those who have given their lives as living sacrifices, and God , having received them as such, provided for Himself their lives as living tarbanacles upon which He God will rest and within which He will dwell.
So dear Overcomers, to you I write these words. Let not the things you see as circumstances, pains, trials, tribulations and tempatations take your eyes away from that which God joined together. Stay focused, stay strong and do not forget the assembly of like minds even as you see the Day of the rest of God approaching.
And to You, Lord Jesus, our King, be all glory and honor and power and wisdom and all worship for all eternity. For You are worthy to receive us as living scrolls from the hand of the Father, having redeemed us by Your Blood and now You will open our lives for the manifestation of Yourself on the earth, to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.
God bless and keep you.
