From the Life-Study of Revelation - The Connection Between Revelation & Ephesians

    Sometimes it's hard for me to wrap my head around some of the things I read.  Since March I've been reading through the Life-Study of Revelation, a whopping 782 pages, and right now I'm on page 563.  Sometimes I have to  read a paragraph twice because it's either amazing or puzzling.  A few weeks ago when I was reading chapter 45, I had a wow moment.    Even the title makes you go wow; I never saw that before--The Correspondence Between the Vision in Revelation 12 and the Book of Ephesians.  

   Right away on the first page of this chapter Witness Lee shares that the woman in Revelation 12 is the church in the book of Ephesians.  In Revelation 12 we see that within this woman is a man-child.  

And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she brought forth a son, a man-child,…   Revelation 12:1, 5A

And then he points out that three times in Ephesians Paul encourages the believers to be strengthened and it is through these verses we can learn the way to become this man-child:

   
   That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.   Ephesians 3:16

   That Christ would make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are   Ephesians 3:17-18

   Finally, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength.  Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil.  Ephesians 6:10-11

Here's the part on page 520 that brought it all together for me:

Thus, in Ephesians 3:16 and 18 and 6:10 and 11, we see that the way to become the stronger part within the woman is to be strengthened in our inner man, to be empowered to experience the riches of Christ, and to be strong through putting on the all-inclusive Christ as our armor.  Hence, in the book of Ephesians we find the aspects of both the woman and the man-child….Ephesians reveals that a warfare is raging between the stronger part within the woman the enemy and furthermore, that this fighting is carried on by praying.  The way the man-child fights against the enemy is by prayer [Ephesians 6:17-18].  Eventually, the entire book of Ephesians brings us to one climactic point--watching and praying (Lee, Witness.  Life-Study of Revelation.  Anaheim:  Living Stream Ministry, 1976, Print).

Later on in this chapter he shares that when we take like Ephesians 6:17-18 the word of God by prayer, this word does two things within us.  It nourishes us spiritually, but besides that it kills all the negative things in our hearts that frustrates God's growing in us and building us up with other believers.  Another wow moment was seeing that when we allow the word to touch our opinions and other negative things, this helps prepare us to fight the spiritual battle against the enemy.

You can listen to excerpts from the Life-Study of Revelation and some excellent commentary on Life-Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. 

Other Posts on the Book of  Revelation:
What is the Focus of the Book of Revelation?
What Does the Book of Revelation Show Us About Loving the Lord?
What Does Revelation 4:11 Tell Us About the Purpose of God's Creation?
What are the Golden Bowls of Incense in Revelation 5:8?
What is the Controlling Vision of he Bible Seen in the Book of Revelation?
From the Life-Study of Revelation - What are the Two Sides of Rapture Seen in Revelation 14:1
How Does Transformation Produce the New Jerusalem Mentioned in Revelation 3:12?
Taking a Look at Revelation 12:11 - How Do you Overcome Satan's Accusation?