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Attraction | Physical | Physical identification |
Compatibility | Soul | Soul compatibility |
Spiritual Rapport | Spirit | Spiritual compatibility (harmony) |
Marriage is a test. Every phase of the Right Man - Right Woman relationship is designed to achieve compatibility with the will of God - not with each other. When the will of God becomes the standard, the relationship is launched into grace. Under grace, God does the work and Right Man - Right Woman (RM-RW) receive the blessings.
All three phases of the Right Man - Right Woman love relationship are compatibility tests - not with each other, but with the will of God. The compatibility tests are God's method of verification testing of the Integrity Envelope prior to pouring love into the cup in the soul and giving spiritual blessing. The three types of tests are designed to verify the integrity of the soul by testing the Integrity Envelope for compatibility with the Plan of God.
Romance will not sustain a marriage. That is why the average marriage goes downhill from the honeymoon. There is nothing to sustain the romantic love. God won't do it; and the couple soon get tired of conjuring it up. The RM-RW relationship is nothing like the romance novel with emotion, human good, lust, intrigue, fornication, and adultery. The RM-RW relationship is right and true and and divine. It is compatible with the grace of God, the integrity of God, the Righteousness and Justice of God.
Romance is a fantasy. It is based on illusions and fed by emotion. Illusions are lies and emotions are irrational (without thought content). In contrast, love in the RM-RW relationship is true. The love of RM and RW is poured from God into the cup in the soul. It is real. It is the expression of virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope. The RM-RW relationship is sustained by divine power - not human ability.
Romance is part of our culture. It is everywhere. Almost everyone believes in true love. Ask anyone, believer, unbeliever, apostate, criminal, boy, girl, old person. The only ones who don't believe it are legalistic, religious types, who have been deceived by Satan. Everyone else believes it. They all believe the grace of God. Why? Because God's grace gift is for everyone. Marriage is not a Christian Institution. It is a Divine Institution. It is for the entire human race.
God's judgment of the Cosmic System splits it into three parts just as the judgment of the city of Babylon (Rev. 16:19). Satan's attack upon marriage will, then, come from three fronts:
As with all Divine Institutions, the rules for marriage are in the Bible. When these rules are followed, marriage will receive divine blessing. The couple will be able to go back to the Garden and receive the greatest love relationship in the human race. However, this is only possible through experiential sanctification. The will of God must be obeyed. The Plan of God must be executed. The spiritual life must be the means of fulfilling the marriage relationship. Otherwise, true love will not be renewed, and the marriage will wither and die.
Marriage in the Church Age is part of full time Christian service. It is the highest form of testing. The Right Man and Right Woman in marriage become witnesses in the Appeal Trial of Satan. Marriage is a proof of the validity of God's grace solution. Right Man and Right Woman will be called upon to testify as witnesses for the prosecution in Satan's Appeal Trial. Satan may also be allowed to cross examine them under Evidence Testing.
There are two exceptions to counseling. Parents have a right to counsel their own children. And there is a special spiritual gift that is given only to some women so older women can teach younger women how to love their husbands and their children (Titus 2:4).
Compatibility testing will not occur until the required doctrine has been metabolized and is available for faith application in the heart (right lobe of the soul). Compatibility Testing is a trial run for marriage. The Man must use faith application to pass the tests related to his role as the leader in marriage. He must obey divine authority; love his wife per Ephesians 5:25-26; and possess the true sensitivity toward her (Ephesians 5:28). The woman must use faith application to recognize the authority of the Right Man in her life; respect him from her own Integrity Envelope; and respond to him.
After the Attraction Phase, the Compatibility Phase will test Right Man and Right Woman separately to determine their fitness for marriage. They will face pressures in the relationship of all kinds. Only when the pressures are handled by the Problem Solving Devices will there be grace promotion. Application of doctrine to experience will produce experiential sanctification. For those who are willing to stick it out through the compatibility tests, the Lord will provide grace promotion up the isosceles triangle back to the Garden. Only by sticking it out through the tests can the Right Man and Right Woman's capacity for love be demonstrated. The Lord will not pour the special divine love for RM - RW into the cup in the soul until the Integrity Envelope is verified by the suffering of Stress Testing.
After the compatibility tests have been passed,
the Lord
will pour divine love into the souls of RM - RW; will stabilize
the relationship;
and unite the souls of RM and RW. Compatibility testing is
a type
of suffering. It is not designed for pleasure.
However, the
Problem Solving Devices can make it possible to ride out the
suffering
and minimize the discomfort. The Compatibility Phase is
not a good
time to get married. It is best to wait until this
suffering is over.
On the bright side, with all this suffering, there must be a good reason for it all; and there is. The Lord has designed something better for the Church Age believer than in any other time in history. The Church Age believer is afforded the unique opportunity to return to the Garden. With the Filling of the Holy Spirit in the encapsulated environment of the divine dynasphere it is possible in the Intensified Stage of the Angelic Conflict to have what the perfect man and the perfect woman had before sin entered the world. The Christian Marriage can take back what was lost at the Fall. Christian Marriage brings blessings never experienced in human history in the midst of the worst adversity. Marriage is a test. Church Age believers in marriage are in full time Christian service. When Christians pass the test of marriage, they will emerge as the super heroes of history. Although their testimony will not be seen in this life, they will pass a spiritual heritage of blessing to their children and receive eternal rewards.
First, the woman is a responder. She was built to respond to her Right Man. If she is not responding to the Right Man, she is reacting to him. Her soul matches the Right Man's and responds or reacts to him.
The "glory of the Right Man" means that the Right Woman has spiritual light that reflects her Right Man. Light corresponds to life, or spiritual production. A person with capacity for life is a human entity with a calling who produces something. The production is called light. The light originates with God, is delivered by the Holy Spirit, and stimulates the human soul to produce. If the man sins and enters the Cosmic System, his light will become the production of darkness, and his Right Woman will reflect the darkness. If the Right Woman rejects the authority of the Right Man and enters the Cosmic System, she will reflect darkness. If, on the other hand, the Right Man enters darkness and the Right Woman handles it with the Problem Solving Devices from her priesthood, then she may neutralize the darkness and salvage the relationship through experiential sanctification.
The woman has another characteristic: She is made for love. The man represents life and the woman represents love. She is a right lobe thinker. The right lobe is the heart, the seat of love. Her thinking is, therefore, more relaxed and conceptual than the man. She may, therefore, avoid confusion that may stymie the man; but she tends to substitute hardness of the heart and arrogance. So as the Right Man - Right Woman relationship deteriorates, the arrogant woman appears stronger and the worried man appears weaker. The woman gains power and the man loses power. This is the opposite of God's will, which is for the man to have authority and for the woman to submit to him. Thus, the woman in sin is characterized by an authority problem.
Looking at life through the eyes of love makes a big difference; and the woman often excels her male counterpart in many ways. She tends to outthink men (though not always her right man), handle stress better, and live longer. And, of course, her beauty exceeds that of any creature that God made. When the fallen angels recognized this (Genesis 6), it caused the biggest calamity that the world has ever experienced, the Flood. The woman was personally built by the Lord Jesus Christ to symbolize the love and beauty of His creation.
The man is the "image and glory of God" (1 Corinthians 11:7). The "image" of God means that he has immaterial essence, a soul and spirit. Adam was created trichotomous, body, soul, and human spirit. He lost his human spirit when he sinned. At the moment of salvation, man receives a human spirit. His spiritual essence makes the man like God, who is a spirit. Because he is spiritual, man can communicate with God. The man is also the "glory of God," which means that he receives his light from God. The man who submits to the authority of God, reflects the light of God just as the Right Woman reflects the light of her Right Man. So the man cannot dish out to the woman what has not been given to him from God.
The commands in the New Covenant to the Church raise the standards for the man higher than any other time in history. He is commanded to love his wife as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25-26). He must cherish her as he would care for his own body (Ephesians 5:28). When men fall into sin, they exhibit the characteristics of animals. They become wild and uncivilized. When this happens, women are among those who suffer the most.
In the Compatibility Test, God tests the man and the woman separately. They don't have to see each other, and they don't have to talk to each other during this test. God administers the tests to both the man and the woman. God handles the Justice, and God promotes. In the Compatibility Test, God is demonstrating His grace. He made the woman for the man. He introduced them in the Attraction Phase. Then, in the Compatibility Test, He tests them to qualify them for greater blessing in time and eternity.
During the Compatibility Test, the man and the woman do not work out their problems with each other. It is not a problem of communication, or showing the other that you care, or entertaining, or dating, or visiting. The Compatibility Test is between the individual and God. It is a spiritual test that demands a spiritual solution. The human solution is no solution; the divine solution is the only solution. The Compatibility Test can only be passed by understanding the test and applying the divine solution. The divine solution will always be one of the Problem Solving Devices.
Through the Compatibility Test the Right Man and Right Woman use faith application for experiential sanctification. They both use their priesthood to execute the Plan of God. Experiential sanctification qualifies them for promotion. When they pass each test, God promotes them up the sides of the isosceles triangle back to the Garden. They are separated in terms of their testing, but inseparable in the RM - RW relationship. When one is overcome during the testing, the other suffers. Through the suffering they learn of their power to hurt each other. They learn that their thoughts and actions affect their partner as well themselves.
The Compatibility Test will culminate in the man demonstrating his love for his Right Woman "as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself as a substitute for her" (Ephesians 5:25) and the woman demonstrating respect for her Right Man (Ephesians 5:33).
When the man handles the Compatibility Test with faith-application, he receives experiential sanctification. The man's sanctification also sanctifies the relationship with his Right Woman. So the woman receives sanctification when her Right Man executes the Plan of God. The Lord Jesus Christ went to the Cross to provide sanctification for the Church, which is called His Bride. He provided purification for her sins on the Cross so that she might be sanctified "by the washing of water (Baptism of the Holy Spirit) by the communicated Word (gospel)." At Salvation the Holy Spirit sets the believer apart from the world and enters him into union with Christ in Heaven. This is called current Positional Truth, which includes Eternal Life and Positional Sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:2, 30). Positional Sanctification occurs in an instant at Salvation and lasts forever.
Positional Sanctification is the greatest example
of Sanctification.
In Positional Sanctification, the believer Bride of Christ is
set apart
and sanctified forever. Now, the Right Woman symbolizes
the Church
Age Believer in union with Christ with Positional
Sanctification.
This is the "great mystery" (Ephesians 5:32). The Right
Man - Right
Woman relationship symbolizes Christ and the Church. The
Right Man
is a type of Christ, and his Right Woman symbolizes the
Church. Marriage
sets Right Man and Right Woman apart in a holy (sanctified)
relationship.
The problem which prevents sanctification in Marriage is
sin, and
sin was handled at the Cross. Thus, the explanation of how
a man
should love his wife (Ephesians 5:25) goes back to the Cross and
Sanctification
at Salvation (Ephesians 5:26).
The Love of Christ (verse 25) and Sanctification
(verse
26) are linked together as shown in the illustration. Both
satisfy
the Integrity (Holiness) of God. Anything outside the
Integrity of
God must face the Justice of God as illustrated by the color
purple.
Sin, which is incompatible with the Love of God, leads to
death.
Therefore, sin must be judged by an efficacious sacrifice to
redeem the
sinner. The substitutionary spiritual death of Jesus
Christ on the
Cross provided redemption. God must separate from sin, as
illustrated
by the color orange. Eternal Life can be provided when
sins are blotted
out. The person with Eternal Life can share the Happiness
of God.
God can impute His Righteousness to the one whose sins are
forgiven.
God's solution covered the sin problem as illustrated by the
color Indigo.
God's Justice is satisfied by the solution, and the believer is
pronounced
Justified. Satisfaction of all of these aspects of the
Integrity
of God results in Sanctification, which is compatible with the
Love of
God.
Now, Salvation provides Positional Sanctification, which is analogous to holy (sanctified) matrimony. The tacit conclusion is that experiential sanctification in Marriage should follow the example of Positional Sanctification. The Right Man and Right Woman should live in light of their Salvation and execute the Spiritual Life. Only by executing the Plan of God can the man be sanctified and deliver his Right Woman. When the man lays down his life for the woman, she is sanctified. When the man and the woman are sanctified, God can promote them one step closer to the Garden up the isosceles triangle.
The woman who does not abide under the authority of her Right Man will be the victim of the Cosmic System. She must learn to endure the tests of her roots in Stress Testing just as the man. The ultimate test for the woman is also the Eclipse Test. However, the woman's eclipse is analogous to the eclipse of the moon; whereas, the man's is like the eclipse of the sun. The woman can have her lights turned out by her Right Man. When he has no light, she will have none, since she is his reflected glory.
The woman in darkness is a dead soul just like the reacting woman (1 Timothy 5:6).
What makes women promiscuous? Answer: Reacting to the Right Man. To emphasize further, the woman's problem is not sin; it is a problem with her Right Man. The symptom is promiscuity, but the problem is reacting to Right Man. When the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, He forgave her the sin. The Mosaic Law treated adultery as a crime punishable by death. The Lord changed the crime to a sin and paid for the sin on the cross.
The woman in compatibility testing may suffer and fail in many ways. Hosea's wife was a prostitute and an adulteress because she reflected the darkness of Client Nation Israel. In compatibility testing, the woman will want to react. She will be tempted to pursue a Frantic Search for Happiness and go into the Cosmic System. During these times, she must exercise her priesthood. In the Church Age, the woman is also a priest. She has equal opportunity to grow spiritually and reach maturity. This is the only place of equality between male and female. When the woman Rebounds and applies faith to her problems, she will be experientially sanctified. The woman with virtue from the Integrity Envelope can turn the downward trend in the RM-RW relationship around just as the man.
Prayer was never intended to be a Problem Solving Device. Problems are solved by the grace of God because the solutions already exist as part of the Plan of God. Such is the case with the Right Man - Right Woman relationship. The relationship was God's idea, a grace gift. When the pressures of testing in the RM - RW relationship arise, prayer will not solve the problems. Furthermore, since there are problems in the RM - RW relationship, the believer's private prayers in the priesthood are also hindered. When anything is wrong with the RM - RW relationship, prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7).
The Corinthian Church was full of problems with the Right Man - Right Woman relationship. Paul covered the divine solutions to their problems in 1 Corinthians. Chapter thirteen is about virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope, which is what the Compatibility Test is all about. In this chapter Paul discusses many of the Compatibility Tests and relates them to the four-dimensional Integrity Envelope.
VIRTUE-LOVE
Even if he were an angelic herald but did not have virtue-love, then, he concludes, "I have become a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal." The word for "gong" is the Greek calkov" (chalkos), which means a piece of brass such as a pot or kettle used by peddlers to call attention to their wares. As the peddlers made their rounds selling vegetables, they would beat on a pot or pan to attract attention. This was before doorbells. This was noisy and quite a contrast from the soprano of the angelic herald. It is the contrast between beautiful music (which comes from the right lobe of the soul) and the noise of a brass object for percussion, a gong with noisy echo. But Paul doesn't stop here. No percussion is ever hit just once; so he throws a combination punch and hits them again. "Or a clashing cymbal": The term for cymbal is the Greek kuvmbalon (kumbalon), which was a cymbal, a metal basin struck against another to produce a clashing, ringing sound used by professional mourners to get attention. Everyone knew professional mourners were full of hypocrisy. Now the Greeks of Corinth who prided themselves in their oratory understood this. Paul had just taken them up to the fifth floor balcony and pushed them off. This is Round One.
Note that Round One was addressed to the orators, the dynamic speakers with titillating tongues, the professional mourners full of hypocrisy, the prissy braggarts full of emotional claptrap. There are other words to describe these types in the Bible. They are the politicians from Political Babylon who are symbolized by frogs (Revelation 16:13). The politicians are forever posturing and croaking like frogs.
Thus ends Round Two. Round Two was aimed at Ecumenical Babylon, the counterattack of the Faith axis (X axis) in the Space-Time Coordinate System. Anything that knocks out the Integrity Envelope destroys virtue-love. Virtue-love only comes from the Integrity Envelope.
Love is "not jealous," Greek zhlovw (zeloo), which means jealousy or envy. Jealousy is a sin which has many variations. In this context, it is failure to endure Stress Testing of the roots, or foundation, of the Integrity Envelope. Jealousy is the beginning of a Frantic Search for Happiness that seeks an alternative rather than endure suffering. Jealousy is a problem with the Time axis that seeks to slow it down (holding back in selfishness or vindictiveness) or speed it up (ambition). However, jealousy may begin as impatience under Stress Testing and manifest itself as unwillingness to abide under authority during the test. Jealousy is the arch enemy of love. Jealousy is the sin that knocks out love. It is the cruel enemy of every lover. Those who have never had a problem with jealousy will encounter it in the Right Man - Right Woman relationship, especially in Compatibility Testing.
"Love does not brag," Greek perpereuvomai (perpereuomai), which means to brag or to boast. Bragging or boasting is a sin of the tongue from pride. "Love...is not arrogant," Greek fusiovw (phusioo), which means to be arrogant. Arrogance is another word for the mental attitude sin of pride. Arrogance occurs when a person believes a lie and projects himself over the top of his Integrity Envelope. Bragging and arrogance are counterattacks of the top of the Hope axis (Z axis).
Thus, all of verse 4 is related to the Hope axis, bottom and top. The beginning of the explanation of virtue-love here deals with authority. It is imperative that the Hope (Z) axis be aligned with authority. Virtue-love only exists under authority. Submission to authority begins with Rebound. When a person is not submitted to God's authority (Z axis alignment), there will be no virtue-love. Verse 4 is the first step in passing the Compatibility Test. The Z axis must be aligned under authority. For the man this means submission to the authority of God by Rebound and obedience to the mandates of Bible Doctrine. For the woman it means submission to the authority of God by Rebound and submission to the authority of her Right Man as to the Lord. Virtue-love, the coalescence of souls, begins with recognition of authority. Compatibility Testing begins with the Hope axis.
Verse 5 describes the virtue-love of the Love axis (Y axis) of the Space Time Coordinate System. Virtue-love must overcome all of the counterattacks of verse 5, or the Integrity Envelope will break and love will be lost. So, verse 5 is about another set of tests that can be expected in Compatibility Testing. When there is provocation or irritability in the life or any kind of frustration, then love is missing. Love for God is missing, but love for Right Man or Right Woman is missing also. Without this love, life is miserable.
Verse 6 sets up a contrast between two alternatives. A person can appreciate unrighteousness, which refers to everything outside the Plan of God, or a person can appreciate Bible Doctrine. There are many distractions from the Plan of God, but the hallmark of the person that is in it is the love for Bible Doctrine. When a person loves the Lord, he loves Bible Doctrine.
"Believes all things" means believing all things of Bible Doctrine. The word "believes" is the Greek pisteuvw (pisteuo), which means to believe or to have faith in. The noun form of the word is faith. Thus, "believes all things" means that the Integrity Envelope only functions on the basis of faith. This refers to the Faith (X) axis of the Space Time Coordinate System.
The next phrase, "hopes all things," has the verb in the Greek ejlpivzw (elpizo), which means to have confident expectation. It is not like the English word for hope. A better translation would be: "Has confident expectation in all things." This means to bear up under all of the Stress Tests of the Hope (Z) axis. This is the way God tests the Integrity Envelope in the Compatibility Phase.
"Endures all things" contains the verb in the Greek uJpomevnw (hupomeno), which means to endure under pressure and refers to abiding under the authority of the Lord during testing. This is the verb form of noun used in Romans 5:3-4 for endurance, i.e. the Greek uJpomonhv (hupomone). Enduring all things refers to withstanding all the Stress Tests not only on the Hope axis but also the entire Integrity Envelope. When all things are endured with the Integrity Envelope, the Compatibility Test is passed.
The phrase, "but now," refers to the Time axis. Paul is very conscious of where he is in history. It was this knowledge that brought the explanation of the cancellation of the temporary spiritual gifts. "There remains in place" is the Greek mevnw (meno), which is one of the words in the compound words, hupomeno (to endure under pressure) and hupomone(endurance). This refers to the Integrity Envelope aligned under divine authority inside the divine dynasphere. It is the same as the analogy of the vine and the branches (John 15:5) used by the Lord Jesus Christ. However, Paul very clearly portrays the Integrity Envelope as a three-dimensional cube in time (fourth dimension). The Integrity Envelope remains in place with the Z axis perfectly aligned with divine authority and all the other axes aligned.
What remains? "Faith, hope, virtue-love!" These are three rim shots, three accented blasts. There are only three words here in the Greek, which is unusual since nouns usually have a definite article. However, nouns without the definite article call attention to the quality of the noun. For instance, this is not just the word for faith. It is the concept of faith on the X axis in the Integrity Envelope, which produces virtue. And hope is the whole concept of confident expectation that endures suffering and is the foundation, roots, of the Integrity Envelope. And virtue-love is the divine love from God that is poured into the cup in the Integrity Envelope. It is the front of the Integrity Envelope on the Love (Y) axis of the Space Time Coordinate System.
Virtue-love only comes from the Integrity Envelope when it is intact. The believer who has an Integrity Envelope will abide in faith, hope (confident expectation), and virtue-love under the authority of God. He will move along the Time axis in concert with the Plan of God to fulfill his destiny. The purpose of the Christian life is to grow to maturity by erecting the Integrity Envelope. This is the grace solution. The believer in Spiritual Maturity will express personal and impersonal love, virtue-love, from the Integrity Envelope. This virtue-love will remain in place through every trial and exigency of life.
The last phrase, "but the greater of these is virtue-love," is the main point of the chapter. When anything goes wrong with the Integrity Envelope, then the love, including Marriage Intimacy Love, of Right Man or Right Woman is lost. Marriage Intimacy Love is a wonderfully fulfilling virtue-love for Right Man or Right Woman in the soul of the mature believer. When this love is missing in the soul, then there is a problem with the Integrity Envelope. Even when Right Man and Right Woman are not together, Marriage Intimacy Love should exist due to the Intimacy Connection with the Plan of God Server. Intimacy is not achieved by talking or touching another person, it is achieved by the Intimacy Connection. Unless the Intimacy Connection is operational, the soul has no capacity for love, and the Marriage Intimacy Love of Right Man and Right Woman will be missing.