Just as Eve was taken from Adam's side being fashioned from his substance, so the Bride is taken from the pierced side of Messiah, being fashioned from His Substance.

"It is not good that man be alone," proclaimed the Father referring to Jesus Christ. What do you mean not good! Well, for one thing there can be no dominion apart from fruitfulness, and man cannot be fruitful by himself. More importantly than this, God is both Male and Female. We cannot be in the image of God until we are both male and female. And so man is made in half, part male, part female. Together the two are one. So it is with Christ and His counterpart.

To the last of the golden lampstands, the church about which nothing good is said, Christ exclaims: "I am standing at the door of your heart and am knocking. Lift up your heads you everlasting gates and let me in."

Christ may knock on your door until the house falls down. But He will never open the door. If you don't open the door it will never be opened. You will become a dark star forever wandering in a meaningless void.

When you let Him in His banner over you is love. He serves you His flesh. He gives you of His blood to drink.

Your adamic nature does not find such fare appetizing. Your spiritual nature discovers there is no true life other than the body and blood of Christ. These are the resurrection and the life. It is these, the body and blood of the Lamb, that will raise us from the dead in the last day.

The Church is never named the bride of Christ, only the Bride of the Lamb. The Church is the Body of Christ but the Bride of the Lamb. She marries the Lamb by eating the Passover Lamb and thus makes her permanent exodus from the world.

When were Adam and Eve married? They were married as Eve was being formed from Adam's substance.

When are we married to the Lamb?

We are married to the Lamb as we learn to live by His body and blood. When are we given His body and blood?

We are given His body and blood every time we deny the idolatry and passions of our wicked nature and choose to live by the life of the Spirit of God.

Only the overcomers are given to eat of the tree of life. Only the overcomers are given to eat of the hidden manna.

And notice the next verse:

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

What this means is as follows: As you live the victorious life in Jesus, overcoming the evil given to you each day with the grace given to you that day, you will be establishing God and Christ for eternity on the throne of your heart. You will never be allowed to sit on the throne of your own personality until first God and Christ have been established there without compromise.

To be continued.