The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and [a]have it abundantly. John 10:10.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Jesus came to undo the works of the devil. He described the devil as a thief, a liar, a robber, a murderer, and the destroyer. John 8:44; John 10:10. I also call him a devourer, Malachi 3:11, the great dragon, the serpent of old, the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world. Revelation 12:9. But for you who are in Covenant with Me in Jesus, you are in the world but not of the world. You have a better source of supply.
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17.
In the devil there is unrighteousness which brings sin and death.
“You were the anointed cherub who guards, and I placed you there [Eden]. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned. Ezekiel 28:14-16.
In Jesus there is righteousness which brings goodness (glory) and life. When you are established in righteousness you are far from oppression. And the life that goes with receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness is a life of authority, you reign in life through Christ Jesus. Romans 5:17.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life, He came to bring you life—a certain kind of life, ABUNDANT life. The word translated as “abundant” here is the Greek word, remember the New Testament was written in Greek, “perissos (περισσός),” which is an adjective, derived from perí, “all-around, excess” and “more than” (“abundantly”); beyond what is anticipated, exceeding expectation; “more abundant,” going past the expected limit, and not just once but continuously all around you.
Jesus came to bring you LIFE and yet so many will not come to Him to have that life but stay in the outer darkness. He came that you might have life in abundance. You must understand, without Him you have no life in you. You are headed for eternal death. But He is the resurrection and the LIFE.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. John 11:25-26.
Your quality of life depends on whether you are “in Christ” or out of Christ. And Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Messiah,” it means the anointed one. Christ in you and you in Christ you are in the anointing and the anointing is in you. The anointing lifts the burden and destroys the destroyer’s yoke. The anointing teaches you all things and leads you in wisdom into right paths. You are anointed as Jesus was, with the Holy Spirit. And He anoints you with the oil of joy that My joy may be in you and your joy may be full. And the Holy Spirit in you gives life to your mortal body and raises you to your glorious body just as I did Jesus.
Without Christ, who is My Word, you can do nothing, you will die in your sins, but with Christ you can do all things and will reign in LIFE through Christ Jesus. I light your lamp and illumine the darkness around you.
And now let us return to the Words of Jesus while He was teaching among you as one like you. One day after He had been teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem, He and His disciples went out to sit on the Mount of Olives. Matthew 24:1-3. When they were leaving the Temple, the disciples pointed out its buildings and grandeur to Jesus. He had replied with a word of wisdom about the future. He had told them “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” Matthew 24:2. The disciples still were wondering about this word, so they asked Jesus when the destruction would take place and also when the end of time would come and He would return to set up His Kingdom. Matthew 24:3.
Jesus then discussed the destruction of the Temple and then the later signs of the end times. He told them what the signs would be, and then He told them to watch carefully and be alert for the signs. Matthew 24:42.
Be alert to what He taught, this for you today too. The signs are happening now. Do not be ignorant of them. You see them all around, nation rising against nation, famines and earthquakes in various places. Matthew 24:7. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Matthew 24:8. Actually, Israel will be the main focus of the end times and the tribulation period and you are beginning to realize that now. Zechariah 14:2-9; Ezekiel 38:17-23.
Jesus then illustrated His warning to be prepared as I would bring about the end times at an hour you do not expect by a few parables. Here I will share one with you.
My Son began it this way: “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” Matthew 25:1. This verse has a lot of meaning, so let Me begin to open its meaning for you.
Note first that Christ is represented as the Bridegroom and He likens mankind at the restoration of the Kingdom to ten virgins preparing to go into a wedding. Do you recall that I have espoused you to Me forever? That your Maker has become your husband? Isaiah 54:5. That I call your land “Espoused?” Isaiah 62:4. That I am the Bridegroom, the Lover, in the Song of Songs of Solomon? Heaven is all about a wedding feast. Matthew 22:2. So listen here, Jesus is talking about the time when He will return to establish My everlasting Kingdom on earth, and He likens it to a wedding! I will finally be one with you as I planned from the start.
Next, I want you to notice that the virgins all took their lamps to go out and meet the bridegroom. Do you know what your lamp is before Me? I define what it is in the Book of Proverbs. In that book My Spirit inspired Solomon to write, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the innermost parts of his being.” Proverbs 20:27. So your spirit, the core of your being, the real you, that is made in My image and that will live forever, is the lamp with which you greet Me. I am Spirit and we communicate in spirit. John 4:23-24.
So Jesus continued the parable: “Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.” Matthew 25:2-5.
You see the virgins all needed oil to light their lamps. Without the oil their lamps would be dead and dark. It is the same with you, that is, in the sense that your spirit is your lamp by which I work within you. You need the anointing of the Holy Spirit or I cannot communicate with you within your spirit, but only outwardly, and if My Spirit does not dwell in you, I cannot raise up your mortal bodies from the grave and transform them into glorified, resurrected bodies. The flesh is useless for generating incorruption and immortality, it is the Spirit that gives life. John 6:63. I send forth My Spirit and they are created and I renew the face of the earth. Psalm 104:30. It is through My Spirit dwelling in you that I give eternal life to your mortal bodies.
Remember Samuel anointed David and My Spirit came upon him. 1 Samuel 16:12-14. Priests and kings were anointed. I first gave Moses the ingredients for the anointing oil that was used to consecrate the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, including the Ark of the Covenant, the lampstand, and the various altars so that they were holy. Exodus 30:22-29. I also instructed Moses to anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they could serve Me as priests. Exodus 30:30. My Son has made you kings and priests unto Me, a royal nation, a royal priesthood, a people set apart. Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9. After His death and resurrection, once He returned to Me, I sent back My Holy Spirit through Him to earth to dwell in My children, to join them with Me in continual fellowship and grace. Joel 2:28-29; Isaiah 32:15; Ezekiel 39:29; Acts 2:4, 32-33; 38-39; Romans 5:5.
The wise virgins represent those who have received Jesus as their Lord, the five foolish ones have not and therefore lack the anointing that is symbolized here by the vase of oil.
I want you to understand what is happening here. This is the wedding, the covenant relationship. All are invited to the heavenly banquet. But the first invitation went out to My people Israel when My Son dwelt among you as man. But when they refused to come it went out to whoever would come to the feast. This was not yet the midnight hour, however, when the bridegroom will return.
My Holy Spirit could not live in the spirit of man after Adam rejected Me and caused death to his spirit. Genesis 2:17; Genesis 6:3. After that My Spirit was only able to come upon those who were My chosen servants but He was not able to live in the spirit of anyone. Once My Son brought your spirits to life again by freeing you from your sins, the Holy Spirit was and is able to again live in the spirit of every born again believer in Christ.
The five wise virgins symbolize those who have received Jesus, the Christ, as their Lord: Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Anointed One. I anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power and He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil. Remember when He began His public ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth, He opened the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and found the passage, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, He has anointed Me?” Luke 4:18. And when you receive My Son as your Lord, you are cleansed of all sin and your spirit comes alive again, is born again from above by My Word, and when you are baptized in Christ you are clothed in the Anointed One. Galatians 3:27. And now your living spirit, your lamp, is able to be lit to burn brightly for all eternity with the anointing of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had Me send you. John 14: 16; Acts 2:33.
The wise virgins’ anointing is shown as an extra flask of oil because it does not come from them but from Me. The five foolish virgins, whose lamps are dark with no oil when the Bridegroom arrives, symbolize those have not received Jesus as Lord and, therefore, the Holy Spirit does not dwell within them, and their spirits are dead. They do not have the flask of oil with them that will burn their lamps at a midnight hour.
Jesus continued the parable: “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’” Matthew 25:6.
“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’” Matthew 25:7-9.
You see, you cannot depend on someone else’s anointing to get you into the Kingdom, into the wedding, Matthew 22:11, to join you with Me. It has to be your own. No one else can do it for you. At judgment you will face Me alone. You will either have the anointing that lights your spirit and makes it alive before Me or you will not have it and your spirit will be dead, just as dark as the foolish virgins’ lamps which had gone out.
And so the parable continues: “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.” Matthew 25:10.
My Son warned the Pharisees and priests that unless they came to believe in Him they would die in their sins. John 8:24. This is still true today.
My Son continued the parable: “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’” Matthew 25:11-12.
The one who loves Me is known by Me. 1 Corinthians 8:3. The only way to Me is through My Son. His death must first cleanse you from all sin and then you can come boldly to My throne. Otherwise the veil is still covering the way in to the Holy of Holies, the tabernacle of My presence, in your case.
You may wonder where the bride is in this parable. The bride that Jesus is returning for is the Church. Ephesians 5:27-32; Revelation 19:7-9; Revelation 21:2. Once you join with Me by receiving My Son, you are part of the Body of Christ which is the Church. That is why in the Book of Revelation, which correlates exactly with the end time prophecies of Ezekiel and Isaiah, the Spirit and the Bride say “Come.” Revelation 22:17. They are both, during this age of grace, on earth. Acts 2:4; Acts 2:33; 1 Corinthians 12:27.
My Son finished the parable with these words: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:13.
The time is closer now than it was when My Son first told this parable. Please take heed of it. Repent and believe in the gospel.
This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you. Isaiah 49:8. I tell you, now is the time of My favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2. It is still the year of favor from the Lord. Isaiah 61:2; Luke 4:19.
Do not miss the wedding feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb, on My holy mountain that My prophet Isaiah saw so long ago when he wrote:
On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” Isaiah 25:6-9.
Yes, when My Son returns the second time at the end of time and His feet land in Jerusalem, Zechariah 14:4, your lamps must already be lit or you will be shut out of the wedding feast.
My servant and beloved disciple John also had a vision of the future and, like Isaiah did at times, saw into Heaven itself and wrote about the wedding feast:
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ And he added, “These are the true words of God.” Revelation 19:6-9.
What a wonderful day that will be.
My prophets have testified of the Messiah and the coming of His reign from the start. You read them, do not be blind and deaf. Recognize the signs of the times. Search the Scriptures, they all testify about My Son. John 5:39. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10.
I love you. Keep your lamps burning, I am coming soon.
For You light my lamp; the LORD my God illumines my darkness. For by You I can run upon a troop; and by my God I can leap over a wall. Psalm 18:28-29.