10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 And it came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and it will come about when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 “Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”
No sooner had Abraham gotten into Egypt than Pharaoh's sons saw Sara; told their father about her great beauty; and Pharaoh took her into his harem (Genesis 12:15) and made her his wife (Genesis 12:18). This was the beginning of Abraham's Compatibility Test. He was separated from his beautiful wife and delivered into Stress Testing. This was analogous to the Stress Tests of Romans 5:3-5, but not the same because Abraham did not have the Integrity Envelope like the Church Age believer nor the Filling of the Holy Spirit. He didn't know what hit him, but we can look back with Church Age doctrine and understand it. He was taking the Compatibility Test.
The whole thing was a test of Abram's faith. God had promised him that he would have descendants who would occupy the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:7). At this time Abram did not even have a son. The promises of God had not been fulfilled. God had a Plan for his life. How could he die? Rather than believe the promise of God, Abram resorted to the human solution, which is no solution. He first lied to himself: He didn't believe the promise of God, but he did believe that Pharaoh might kill him. So he told a half-truth - that Sara was his sister. Actually she was his half-sister (Genesis 20:12), but Abraham's prevarication was designed to deceive. But Pharaoh took his wife, his Right Woman, and Abram was in great suffering, although Pharaoh lavished riches on him (Genesis 12:16).
Abram was in a totally hopeless and helpless situation because it was the Compatibility Test to get him to use the spiritual solution. Abraham began to use Faith-Rest to handle the problem because there was nothing else he could do. He was in a real jam. This was Female Dominance. Sara was famous, the wife of the King, and Abram was in suffering. When Abram rode out the suffering and passed the endurance test (Compatibility Test) by applying the spiritual solution, God sanctified the marriage relationship and vindicated Abram. God exercised His Justice to remove Pharaoh from interfering in the marriage of Abram and Sara.
LAST COMPATIBILITY TEST
Abraham did not complete Compatibility Testing until he was 99. At the point of maturity he was given his final Compatibility Test. He left home and entered Canaan at age 75, went to Egypt for his first Compatibility Test shortly thereafter, and continued in Compatibility Testing until age 99.
1 Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev, and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
However, Abraham was at the point of maturity. God had promised Abraham a son, and there was no way to have that son if Abimelech had Sara. God had already made it clear that only the Right Woman could be the source of the Escrow Blessing of the child of the promise (Genesis 17:18-19; Galatians 4:23, 28). So Abraham recalled the spiritual solution, and God delivered Sarah. God judged Abimelech.
6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 “Now therefore, restore the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
17 And Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
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The strength of virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope comes from impersonal love - not personal love. There is no virtue in personal love. Anyone can say, "I love you;" but it means no more than the person. A strong person has capacity for love; whereas a weak person lacks capacity. Anyone can say, "I love you," but for it to be meaningful, the subject must have capacity for impersonal love. A person who is madly attracted to an object may have that love vanish overnight because there is nothing to sustain it.
In the Attraction Phase paramours may be attractive objects
of love because the person does not yet have the capacity to love the Right
Man or Right Woman from the strength of impersonal love. The personal
attraction for a paramour (someone other than Right Man or Right Woman)
is not even love. It is lust, lasciviousness, or an emotion (e.g.
pseudo love fanaticism). Compatibility Testing is designed to prove
the capacity of the soul for impersonal love. Only when there is
capacity from the strength of the Integrity Envelope can God pour love;
and only when there is capacity through impersonal love can there be virtue
in the expression of personal love. The personal love is no stronger
than the person. The person without an Integrity Envelope is as unstable
as water.
This
illustration shows the Right Man and Right Woman in the Grace Support System.
Both Right Man and Right Woman are shown on the teeter totter two dimensional
model at this point. Both Right Man and Right Woman must operate
in the Filling of the Holy Spirit, which requires signing on to the Plan
of God Server. This is accomplished through Rebound (1 John 1:9).
Rebound is just the first step. It is like running in Disk Operating
System (DOS) mode. There will be communication with the Father, but
none of the faith-applications will be running to give visibility into
the Right Man - Right Woman relationship.
In
order to deploy the faith-application for the Right Man - Right Woman relationship,
the Integrity Envelope of the Space
Time Coordinate System must be active and the Hope (Z) axis must be
aligned. The first step was accomplished with Rebound, but the next
step requires application of doctrine to experience. The Intimacy
Connection must be made. The Intimacy Connection cannot be made until
the Integrity Envelope is aligned. This begins with the Hope (Z)
axis. The doctrines of authority with respect to the Right Man -
Right Woman relationship must be deployed. This is different for
the man and the woman. The man must be the authority, and the woman
must submit to him by faith application. Once the Z axis is
aligned, the rest of the Integrity Envelope should fall into place unless
some flaw or hangup hinders the process. In such cases, the Checklist
can be used to insure alignment of all the axes (X, Y, Z, and Time).
When the Integrity Envelope is aligned, the Right Man and Right Woman will be connected to each other through the Plan of God Server. The Lord will manage the relationship and pour Marriage Intimacy Love into the Intimacy Room of Right Man and Right Woman based upon their respective capacities for love. This is the model of the Intimacy Connection between Right Man and Right Woman in the Grace Support System. The Right Man and Right Woman joined with the Intimacy Connection have the greatest love relationship possible between two human beings. They execute a supernatural relationship that is made possible by the Grace of God. God wants to give the couple Marriage Intimacy Love - a love that is out of this world! And He has provided a system in Grace to accomplish it.
Any
breakdown of the Integrity Envelope will affect the stability of the Right
Man - Right Woman relationship as illustrated by the Teeter Totter which
breaks out of the control limits. When the Integrity Envelope cannot
withstand the pressure, it breaks and the soul is sucked into the Cosmic
System. Souls that are not stabilized will oscillate up and down
between Lawlessness and Legalism. When the emotional swings cross
the control limits, which are based upon the strength of the Integrity
Envelope, the Integrity Envelope will break and the person will follow
the trend of the Old Sin Nature toward Lawlessness or Legalism. The
connection with the Plan of God Server will be lost, and the fantastic
divine love poured into the cup in the Intimacy Room and expressed through
virtue-love will be lost. The believer under this condition in the
Cosmic System is subject to the Justice of God. The person is still
under grace but will be subject to discipline and cursing rather than blessing.
Since the Right Man and Right Woman are inseparably united, both will experience
the effects of a broken connection by the other one. It doesn't matter
whose fault it was. When the boat is sinking, both have a problem.
Or, using another analogy, if the spaceship is spinning out of control
and flying off into outer space, both have the problem.
Most of the problems of both single and married people are not due to the Old Sin Nature and sin. Those are only the symptoms. The problem is often with the Right Man - Right Woman relationship that is spinning out of control. One party can wreck the spaceship. Two can produce unimaginable instabilities that are worse than a roller coaster. So God placed man and woman together on the same spaceship for the purpose of great blessings; but if they don't know how to fly it, they may appear to be trying to kill each other. If they don't learn to operate together, they will kill each other (sin unto death).
When
the Integrity Envelope does not cover the loins, the absence of thought
on the cerebral cortex creates a void, or vacuum, and the person is sucked
into the Cosmic System. The soul must sin before the Holy Spirit
will relinquish control, but the soul without an Integrity Envelope will
be weak and easily succumb to sin. When the Intimacy
Room does not contain Right Man or Right Woman, the same thing happens.
The absence of Right Man or Right Woman in the soul's stream of consciousness
will leave the same void, and the person will be sucked into the Cosmic
System.
The soul model that Moses used was the Head-Tail Model, which is part of the illustration. When the head with the Integrity Envelope is not in charge, the person who has been sucked into the Cosmic System will exhibit the characteristics of a tail. The tail has an affinity toward Legalism or Lawlessness. The vacuum in the soul means that the head is empty, not thinking, not in control. Under these conditions, the characteristics of the tail are exhibited. The void in the cerebrum is filled by the emotion from the subconscious, which fills the soul with carnal thinking from the Old Sin Nature. What was previously the head in control with the emotion subordinate will be reversed when the soul sins. The tail will be in control, the emotion will respond to it, and the soul will be enslaved. With the tail in control everything is upside down.
In
the Spaceship Model the Right Man is the pilot and the Right Woman is the
copilot. Each person has the freedom to operate in four dimensions.
Each one has exclusive control of one engine and can point it in any direction
and open or close the throttle according to his or her pleasure.
They can ignore each other and try to fly independently, or they can orient
to the Plan of God, align their gyros, and work together in unison.
In this model the spaceship has replaced the teeter totter. Unlike
the teeter totter, the spaceship can move in four dimensions. The
spaceship illustrates the inseparable bond between Right Man and Right
Woman in marriage or out. They are united by the Plan of God regardless
of whether they are married.
Now, NASA has clearly demonstrated that this model can be flown with confidence. However, they never make a move without first aligning the X, Y, and Z axes of the Inertial Measurement Units (IMU's); and they never go anywhere without calculating a flight path and trajectory (Time axis). They always follow a flight plan to the destination, which is analogous to the destiny on the Time axis. Up until the Church Age, the only couple who ever learned to fly the Spaceship Model was Adam and 'Ishah in the Garden. With the New Covenant to the Church and the encapsulated environment of the Filling of the Holy Spirit, it became possible to return to the Garden. The paradox of "back to the future" became possible.
Regarding the Right Man - Right Woman relationship, even after Compatibility Testing provides a home for Marriage Intimacy Love, the human soul will be unstable. True stability will come only when spiritual understanding is attained. Marriage is a wonderful relationship between two people; but as long as the relationship is just soulish, there will be confusion. Spiritual understanding is required to grasp the truth. Since there is only one right answer in the spiritual realm, the soul that perceives the spiritual answer will harmonize with God via the spirit. When Right Man and Right Woman both arrive at the same spiritual truth, they will harmonize with God and with each other.
In Spiritual Rapport the Right Man and Right Woman will home in on the same spiritual truth. They will pursue tactical and strategic objectives to the same destiny; and they will execute the spiritual life together in perfect harmony as one. When both are seeking the same objective, led by the same Lord, and filled with the same Spirit, they will operate as a corporate unit in harmony. And the grace blessing that God is able to pour out on two intimate partners in concert with His perfect Plan is unimaginable. He is willing to bless to the maximum extent that the human soul can handle from His boundless realms of spiritual assets and His majesty in Heavenly realms of glory.
When two people can become one corporate unit by means of spirituality, the virtue-love and rapport will write new chapters in the spiritual annals of history to the praise, honor, and glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The man will be able to demonstrate a love for his wife as Christ loved the Church, and the wife will obey and respect her husband as to the Lord. The husband's leadership in the marriage by means of the alignment with the predetermined Plan of God will yield maximum spiritual production to the praise and glory of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The corporate testimony of the Right Man and Right Woman in marriage will fulfill the purpose of the magnificent grace of God who ordained marriage for the blessing of the human race.
In Spiritual Rapport Right Man and Right Woman execute the will of God; whereas in the Attraction and Compatibility Phases, they were being taught and tested. Spiritual Rapport is the operational phase of marriage as opposed to preparation. Spiritual Rapport is a demonstration of Spiritual Dynamics in marriage. Spiritual Rapport is a time of fulfilling the will of God and reaching one's destiny (spiritual calling).
At the point of salvation, every believer becomes a "new spiritual species" (Galatians 6:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17), Greek kainhV ktivsi" (kaine ktisis) and receives a new spiritual life. The new spiritual life has a purpose, which is referred to in the epistles as "a calling."
For the believer-priest in the Church Age, marriage is not a temporal relationship but a spiritual one. Marriage will only be a source of problems to the soul until the blessings of Spiritual Rapport can be achieved. Spiritual Rapport is a place of absolute confidence, stability, and blessing. In Spiritual Rapport Right Man and Right Woman live in harmony instead of causing each other stress and grief. The Attraction and the Compatibility Phases are times of suffering and testing. Marriage during these phases will bring suffering but not blessing. Those who are already married have no choice but to ride out the storm; but those who are not married should concentrate on executing the Plan of God until they get to Spiritual Rapport before getting married.
The second group of three characteristics in the verse is "sound in faith, in love, in endurance." These are the X, Y, Z axes of the Integrity Envelope in the Space-Time Coordinate System. The word "endurance" is the Greek uJpomonhv (hupomone), from Romans 5:3-4. Endurance refers to the Z axis. From this it is obvious that old men are expected to operate from the virtue of the Integrity Envelope and to be properly aligned in the X, Y, Z axes. Thus, the second group of three characteristics is a repetition to explain the first three: Faith, Love, Hope (endurance), i.e. X, Y, Z axes of the Integrity Envelope.
The next phrase, "teaching what is good," really goes with the next verse. This is one word in the Greek kalodidavskalo" (kalodidaskalos), which means teaching virtue (or principles of divine good). It refers to a special spiritual gift found in women only whereby some older women encourage or help younger women learn how to love their husbands and their children (verse 4). This spiritual gift is only for women helping women. It does not carry with it the authority to teach men, which is expressly prohibited by 1 Timothy 2:12.
So men and women in spiritual adulthood should have an fully operational Integrity Envelope. The Integrity Envelope will enable them to have virtue and to withstand any counterattack in this world. Adult believers have stabilized spiritually by means of the Integrity Envelope.
The
roof is constructed from the isosceles triangle that represents the relationship
of Right Man - Right Woman and the Lord. According to the type, the
Right Man leaves his father and mother, prepares a home for his wife, and
then they are married (Genesis 2:24). The home is not prepared until
it has a roof, however. The roof represents Spiritual Rapport.
The covering of the roof represents the believer's Heavenly citizenship
(politeuma privileges), which will be covered in the next section.
Both the Right Man and the Right Woman must come together to build the
home. The Edification Complex of the Soul can only be completed when
the Right Man and Right Woman come together.
The blessings are "spiritual," which means they are God's solution. "Spiritual blessing" does not mean all that is received is a good feeling. "Spiritual blessing" is the highest type. Everything in life begins in the spiritual realm; and when there is spiritual blessing, every thing else is blessed also. When there is spiritual blessing, the soulish, the physical, the environment, history - everything is blessed. Businesses prosper or fail; nations rise or fall; people are happy or sad because of the blessing or cursing of God - not because of anything they have earned or deserved.
Spiritual Rapport is spiritual blessing upon the marriage relationship. The Right Man and Right Woman were specified in the Plan of God. The Lord Jesus Christ brings the woman to the man, Attraction Phase; tests the relationship, Compatibility Testing Phase; and then gives them the "spiritual blessing" from the predetermined Plan of God, Spiritual Rapport Phase. Every phase of the marriage relationship is accomplished by the grace of God. He planned it, and He does it. The man and the woman simply go along for the ride. They are the recipients of "spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."
When there is suffering in the marriage relationship, e.g. during Compatibility Testing, the angels minister to the man and the woman. Everyone has a guardian angel. In times of suffering additional angels minister to the believer. Demons attempt to prevent the believer from receiving his "spiritual blessing." Believers who stick it out and execute the Plan of God, however, will receive the greatest spiritual blessing in history. No believer under the Mosaic Law and no believer in the Millennium has what is available for the ordinary believer-priest in the Church Age. Ordinary believers in the Church Age have grace blessings that far exceed those of the believer under the Mosaic Law.
Marriage is a new battlefield during the Church Age because the encapsulated environment of the Filling of the Holy Spirit make it possible to go back to the Garden. The husband and wife who fulfill the Plan of God in the Church Age become witnesses for the Prosecution (the Lord) in Satan's Appeal Trial. They demonstrate the efficacy of God's grace plan in providing the grace solution to the needs of mankind.
Some of the blessings in the believer's portfolio are so powerful that they require the capacity of a mature believer with an Integrity Envelope. These are called Escrow Blessings because they remain on deposit with the Lord Jesus Christ (the Escrow Officer) until Spiritual Maturity when the believer has the capacity for them. During the Spiritual Rapport Phase of Marriage, Escrow Blessings are given to the Right Man and Right Woman when one of them has mature capacity for them. If the other one is not in Spiritual Maturity, that one will receive blessing by association. Either the man or the woman can use their priesthood to execute the Plan of God and crack the maturity barrier through experiential sanctification. Only the mature believer will have the capacity to receive Escrow Blessing in the Spiritual Rapport Phase. Believers who have not reached Spiritual Maturity will receive the blessing or discipline compatible with their stage of spiritual growth. Those in reversionism will receive the cursing associated with their level of reversionism.
Blessing in the spiritual life does not come until maturity. That is why getting married before reaching maturity will surely bring discipline into the marriage. The advance of the spiritual life takes precedence over everything else, including marriage. Marriage will not be blessed when the husband and wife are not in maturity. It will serve as an additional problem and a distraction from advancing in the spiritual life. When the believer reaches maturity, then the Escrow Blessings of Spiritual Rapport will be delivered and the marriage will be blessed.
When a believer reaches maturity, he receives a spiritual heritage for his family. His Right Man or Right Woman will be blessed throughout their life and the other members of the family will be blessed throughout their life. Solomon and Isaac are examples of this. For as long as they lived, God blessed them because their fathers reached maturity. Solomon holds the record for trying to squander the spiritual inheritance, but in spite of all his carnality, God still blessed him throughout his life. The blessing did not mean that he had mature status, but rather that he was blessed with blessings of maturity. His children, however, went down to the next level and were treated as the second generation in the Four Generation Curse.
Israel in rejection of the grace of God symbolized the divorced wife of Jehovah (the LORD) (Jeremiah 3:8) while the Church symbolizes the virgin Bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). The love relationship of the Church with the LORD symbolizes the ultimate Right Man - Right Woman relationship. The Church Age believer is symbolically engaged to Christ and awaits the consummation of the marriage (Revelation 19:7) at the completion of the Church Age when the Church receives resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) and enters into union with Christ (Revelation 21:2) as the Bride (Revelation 21:9).
The Lord Jesus Christ personally administers marriage. He designs the Right Woman for the Right Man, brings her to him, and administers the Attraction, Compatibility, and Spiritual Rapport Phases of the relationship. He provides Escrow Blessings for the believer at maturity which affect the marriage relationship. He handles all infractions of marriage and the Right Man - Right Woman relationship from the Supreme Court of Heaven (Hebrews 13:4). He demonstrates the blessing of his grace through marriage to the entire human race. The Divine Institution of Marriage is for believers and unbelievers alike.
Marriage is part of the spiritual life and must be executed by utilization of the divine operating assets of the Plan of God. Sanctification of the marriage comes through application of Bible Doctrine to experience, i.e. faith-application. Every born again believer in the Church Age is a priest - man or woman. So either one may exercise the function of the priesthood to deliver the marriage through experiential sanctification. Prayer is not the issue, but, rather, execution of the Plan of God. When Right Man or Right Woman decide to obey the mandates of Bible Doctrine, it is possible to return to the Garden of Eden in the marriage.
The Edification Complex of the Soul (made from the Integrity Envelope) in the Church Age believer contains an Intimacy Room with special capacity for Marriage Intimacy Love. The Integrity Envelope clothes the marriage with the strength of Capacity for Life and Love. When the Integrity Envelope is capable of withstanding Stress Testing of the Compatibility Phase, Marriage Intimacy Love will be poured into the cup in the Integrity Envelope of the heart (right lobe of the soul). Marriage Intimacy Love comes from the Lord (Plan of God Server). Both the Right Man and the Right Woman must be Filled with the Holy Spirit and aligned with the will of God to receive this blessing. This means that the Integrity Envelopes must be aligned in all axes (X, Y, Z, and Time). When the integrity of the Integrity Envelope has been verified, the Lord will promote the marriage to Spiritual Rapport where there will be perfect harmony from the spiritual solution. With the addition of Spiritual Rapport, the Edification Complex of the Soul will be complete. The completed Edification Complex of the Soul means that the Lord can deliver Escrow Blessings to mature believer as well as bless the marriage of Right Man and Right Woman.
Marriage Grace is God's special grace provision for marriage. Marriage Grace is based upon Divine Integrity, Who and what God is. Marriage is God's grace plan for the human race. It was God's idea, and it can only be received in Grace. No one earns or deserves anything. God planned the whole thing for mankind and will bring it about according to His schedule. Marriage has been scheduled into the life of every member of the human race. However, God will not coerce man's volition. Everyone is free to choose God's grace solution for marriage or reject it. Those who receive the divine solution will not be disappointed (Romans 5:5).
The focus of Marriage Grace is the grace of God. Marriage is a divine test, which can only be passed with the divine solution. The divine solution is the only solution; the human solution is no solution. Understanding marriage and its impact on the spiritual life is only possible by understanding Marriage Grace. The problems of the Attraction Phase are numerous and much of the Bible is written about them. The problems of the Compatibility Phase have many variations and severe consequences. The Bible is full of instruction regarding this. And the woods are full of those who think they have good advice for marriage. A lifetime could be spent just studying the problems of marriage. However, the divine solution is beyond all this. The solution is Spiritual Rapport.
The grace solution for Marriage is Spiritual Rapport. Spiritual Rapport is the final stage of completion of the Edification Complex of the Soul. With the completion Edification Complex of the Soul in Spiritual Rapport, the Lord will be able to bless the marriage. There is no substitute for the grace of God. Only He can bless. Only with the completed Edification Complex of the Soul in Spiritual Rapport will their be great blessing in marriage. When He provides spiritual blessing in the marriage, it will be harmonious and a source of great happiness and pleasure. The Marriage Intimacy Love that He provides is beyond the imagination. He will bless the Right Man and Right Woman who have an Edification Complex of the Soul to the maximum extent that the human soul can handle. In Spiritual Rapport, the grace of God solves all the problems of marriage. Until then, marriage will only be a source of suffering. The study of Marriage Grace is the divine perspective of the grace solution that minimizes the problems of suffering.
Marriage Grace demonstrates God's grace provision for mankind. It reveals His essence. He wanted mankind to know love (part of His essence) in the most intimate and fulfilling way. Marriage Grace is the expression of His will for mankind. Marriage Grace is one of the focal points of God's grace solution for mankind. It is profound. It is intimate. It is powerful. It is fulfilling. It is exhilarating. It is human. And it is full of Divine Integrity!