Read part 1 here.
Eve, the first woman on the earth, was called “the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20).
This design carries a grand, encompassing, full-of-capacity scope and nature. As sisters, we are meant to be those who can “host” a domain and bear life not just in a physical way but a spiritual one. Actually, before the Lord, we all are “sisters.” But since the beginning of our human story, the fall of Adam and Eve, we have deviated, and we taste the bitterness of that curse daily. We strive to control our lives, family, and practical demands for ourselves. We make the scale of our living very narrow and small. And yet, all the while that we are seeking and maintaining a physical abode, we miss our true abode in our mingling with our Husband. Without mingling, there is no “two shall be one.” There is no satisfaction yielding forth a fruit of life.
To host life requires an abode. Later in Genesis, Isaac finds oneness and satisfaction through his marriage to Rebekah: “And Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah, his mother. And he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her” (Gen. 24:67). Sarah’s tent is in type an abode of life as a mother. It is where oneness happens to host and nurture life and where the husband can find satisfaction. In Exodus, we see the abode again, this time in the form of the tabernacle. The Lord made a way to dwell with His people as His wife. In that priestly service, His people were able to enter and, through a process, to be mingled with the Lord as an abode for mutual satisfaction. Throughout the entire Bible, the Lord is seeking an abode to host and produce life.
Today, our life has that same destination. Instead of acquiring something for ourselves or living as small, selfish, and narrow sisters, we should be mothers to host this grand, powerful domain as an abode to nourish and nurture life. That is our original design. We know that the Bible culminates in a beautiful, powerful, pure, and life-producing “sister”: the church! As the church, we, too, have a specific function and structure like Eve. The church is a domain where we can corporately dwell with Him and satisfy Him as His body, His bride, and expression. The church is a fertile domain where life multiplies. Our churching together today is all about nurturing an ecology for His life to multiply and grow.
(Above is part 2 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from gatherings on 4/24/2024 and 4/28/2024, not reviewed by the speaker. Read part 3 here.)