This thought coincides with the picture of the ten virgins given in Matthew 25:1-12. We will now deal with this matter more fully than was mentioned in a previous chapter.

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.”

The five wise virgins represent the prudent ministries, and their congregations who receive the Word and the Spirit of God within their spirits, and the Christ within their souls.

The five foolish virgins represent those who minister and receive the Word and the Spirit in a partial measure, YET REJECT the final work which completes the cycle of God’s will in their lives.

The difference between the wise and the foolish virgins, at a casual glance would seem small. Both were well dressed which represents the righteousness of the saints. Both were called to the marriage supper; but whereas in the case of a guest to the marriage supper, the dress was all important, in the case of the bride it has to be something within. There has to be OIL in the VESSEL. Please note here that there was oil in the lamps, but the oil which made the difference, qualifying some and disqualifying others, was the oil in the vessel. In this parable, WHAT IS THE LAMP and WHAT IS THE VESSEL? We can see that they both refer to INWARD work, just as the dress refers to outward work.

THE LAMP

The lamp is the spirit of man.

Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the candle (lamp) of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly (soul).”

Matthew 5:15, “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.”

THE VESSEL

The vessel is the soul of man.

Psalms 31:12, “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.”

The psalmist spoke of his soul, since he was not at the time sick in body, and did not complain of bodily ailment.

Acts 9:15, “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.”

Paul here is described by God to be “a chosen vessel.”

This parable is saying that even as the spirit of man is incorporated by the Spirit of God when he is filled with the Holy Ghost, so the soul of man needs to be filled with the Spirit of Christ.

In Matthew 6:10, Jesus speaking to his disciples, instructing them how to pray, says,

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.”

In metaphorical language, earth means soul, and heaven means spirit. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done” in my soul, as it is in my spirit. When the spirit of man is filled with the Holy Spirit of God, man’s spirit becomes a perfect realm, which strives to bring the same perfection to the soul realm. The picture would be shown in the illustration below.

In some scriptures, man’s soul is described as an imperfect heaven. In Revelation 12:7 and 8, we read,

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.”

Satan had been cast out of heaven (the invisible realm of God) from before man was, therefore, he has no more access to THAT heaven, but he still has access to other heavens. Consequently the heaven, or God’s dwelling place within man, has become a battlefield. In Revelation 12:7-8, the heaven that is mentioned is man’s SOUL, God’s dwelling place which is being prepared. The theologians who believe that Job 2 (which gives the story of Satan coming to God when the sons of God came together) speaks of heaven, are in error. The scene in this chapter was a convention with Job and the other sons of God, where Satan was present as he always is when we gather together.

That the reader may be affirmed that this is not a wild theory, but the direct word of the Lord, we will return to Revelation 12:1 for a moment.

“And there appeared a great wonder in HEAVEN; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”

The woman was in heaven in this verse, and in verse 3, the great red dragon was also in heaven. YET in verse 5, she brought forth a son who was to rule the earth, and her child was caught up to “God and to His throne.”

In simple comprehension, this would mean EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS. He was caught up from God’s abiding place on earth, where there is war and victory, to a place above this realm in the Spirit where there is no war, for He has overcome all things. This situation will be dealt with more completely in the next chapter.

Returning to the main point, we see that the five wise virgins had oil in their vessels, which is the Spirit of God in their souls. Proverbs 20:27 says “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” Lamps need oil, and this is the exact situation which struck the five foolish virgins in Matthew 25. They had no oil at MIDNIGHT. Midnight on earth is that period of time described by Matthew 24:21,

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

In the Dark Ages, human suffering was terrible, and for a long while in the dark history of human existence, humanity had borne the brunt of demonic wrath, in torture chambers and dungeons of indescribable inhumanity; man to man. BUT in this verse 21, it would appear that Jesus spoke of something worse yet to come.

Since Jesus spoke, it is the first time in human history that it would be possible for horror to exceed the horror of the Dark Ages, for hell to conceive of other devices to torture the human soul. We have seen Hitler in our time and the torture chambers of Germany when Jews cried for their Messiah, and died with His name on their lips, as it were, without hope.

When, however, we think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the towns where the first atom bombs fell), we can see that human experience has entered into a new era of horror. Nobody has ever fully described the horror of an atomic bomb falling upon an open city with women and children, blotting out the midday sun, and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, turning an earthly paradise into unimaginable hell. Skin fell off living people. Eyes melted out of the sockets while they yet lived. One rescuer lifted a woman by her hands out of a pit, and came up with only her skin while the body fell backwards in hopeless pain. Today after almost FIFTY YEARS they still suffer, not from any disease, but from unknown radiation related maladies which the doctors themselves do not even understand.

This was just a baby bomb when compared to the hydrogen monsters quietly resting in the arsenals of this fair land. There is a nerve gas horror that could be suppressed in a hand carrying case, carried into a city, and without smell or color silently kill millions.

Many years ago, I visited the Planetarium in New York City and unwittingly stood beside a Polaris missile. Immediately, I was overshadowed by the angel of death. It frightened me when I understood what was happening; that death would hover over this instrument of destruction, even in a showplace.

I must here mention the FOUR ANGELS in Revelation 7, who stand on the four corners of EARTH (here the carnal man’s soul is called earth).

These four angels of destruction occupy the four areas of man’s soul: the mind, the emotions, the will and the desires.

Out of the mind of man has come forth the greatest horror of all times, and as Jesus said, nothing like that will have happened before, nor will happen after. Matthew 24:21.

Man’s emotions are described as a lion, a wild savage beast, and they will lead him into using these horror weapons. His will and his desires will force him to destroy his fellowman, BUT…

Psalm 91:1, 5 and 6, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow (missiles) that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”

THERE IS PROTECTION IN CHRIST

At midnight, therefore, men must not only have oil in their lamps, which is the Holy Ghost in their spirits, but their very nature must be changed. They must have the Christ in their souls.

CHRIST IN THE SOUL

When we accepted Jesus Christ, we received life. The blood of Jesus Christ is the life of God which we received in our souls, which were dead in trespasses and sins. This life had to help us die to the alien life of sin which had occupied the soul. Then we had the self life, also, which had to die. So we see that when we accepted Christ as our Savior, it was a matter of submitting to death in order to receive life. When that process is completed, then we begin to enter into Christ. Paul speaking to the Corinthian Christians in 1st Corinthians 12:13 declares,

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.”

We are not baptized into the body of Christ until the body of sin and self is given a death blow. If sin is still reigning in our members, then it was not fully dealt with. The grain of corn cannot bring forth a new life until it has given up its own life. We must die to live, and that life does not begin until that death is complete. This is all done by faith. We cannot deal with this subject fully in this book, because there would not be enough space.

The divine order of the entering into Christ is shown in the tabernacle by the three veils. The first veil is called the Gate. The second is called the Door, and the third is called the Veil. The door is Christ, and the entering in is preceded by the washing at the Laver, which is death to self and a complete surrender to Christ. Self cannot be on the throne, and Christ be crowned as King at the same time. One King must depose the other, and even more than being deposed, ONE KING MUST SLAY THE OTHER, so that there is no further possibility of a coup to regain the throne.

THE ENTERING IN OF CHRIST INTO THE SOUL of man is a conscious act of man’s will, which is preceded by the three BAPTISMS of death.

There must be a death before there can be a resurrection. The three baptisms are:

1)  Baptism in water, the baptizer being human

2)  Baptism in the Holy Ghost, the baptizer being Jesus Christ

3)  Baptism into Christ, the baptizer being the Holy Ghost

Christ enters into us, then we begin to enter into Christ. Just as the Holy Ghost enters into us, then we begin to live in the Spirit.

When Christ enters the soul as King, He begins His rule on earth within the individual. HE MUST REIGN TILL ALL ENEMIES ARE PUT UNDER HIS FEET, even death. We see, therefore, that He brings life and immortality to light by the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:10.

The beast nature of man, therefore. is being changed to the nature of the Christ.

From the illustration, we can see that the ten virgins had oil in their lamps, which is the Holy Spirit which occupies our spirits, and not our souls. This stands to reason why, although we receive the Holy Spirit, we still have the power to reject His counsel and have our own way. It also is the reason why we still fall into sin, though having the Holy Spirit of God within us. The process of the Kingdom of God gently seeps into every area of our lives with our own free will consent, just as the leaven that leavens the whole three lumps of the woman’s meal in Matthew 13:33.

This, therefore, is the work of the overshadowing. The work is done in:

1. The individual temples (individual lives)
2. The elect church (called out of the called out)
3. The time of the restitution of all things, the dispensation of the fulness of times, IN OUR TIME.