The Man-Child Company
(Week 37/08)
Olubi Johnson
2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 (ESV): (6) And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. (7) For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
Here the Holy Spirit reveals to us through the Apostle Paul that there is something restraining the mystery of lawlessness.
The mystery of lawlessness is the spiritual force being released by the spirit of the anti-christ.
It is instructive to note the anti-christ spirit has been at work ever since the days of early church.
1 John 2:18 (LITV): Little children, it is a last hour, and as you heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, from which you know that it is a last hour.
The purpose of the anti-Christ spirit is to come in the name of Christ against the purpose of Christ. The purpose of Christ is for Christ to come in our flesh: manifesting the perfection and fullness of Christ. The anti-Christ spirit releases spiritual forces in the air against our souls: minds, wills and emotions and our bodies to prevent this from happening.
1 John 4:3 (LITV): And every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God; and this is the antichrist which you heard is coming, and now is already in the world.
Ephesians 2:2-3 (ESV): in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– (3) among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
The church that grows into and manifests the perfection and fullness of Christ overcomes (1 John 4:4) this anti-Christ spirit and so is the one restraining the spirit of the anti-Christ and not allowing the manifestation of the person of the anti-Christ. It is vital to note that in this 3rd day there will be the person of the anti-Christ who the book of revelation calls the beast. He will arise after the pre-tribulation ‘rapture’ or order of the resurrection of the perfect church, as a great political leader, with tremendous spiritual satanic power to rule the world and try to destroy Israel.
2Thessalonians 2:9 (ESV): (9) The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
Revelation 13:1-5 (ESV): And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. (2) And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. (3) One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. (4) And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” (5) And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.
The perfect church that is overcoming and so restraining the anti-Christ spirit is called the ‘man-child’ company and is who Paul refers to here in 2 Th. 2:6-7 as ‘he’ who will be taken out of the way by the pre-tribulation rapture or order of resurrection, so allowing the manifestation of the person of the anti-Christ during the great tribulation.
This ‘man-child’ company is typified in Revelation 12 as the male-child given birth to by a woman in travail. In the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3.10) this has application both to the Lord Jesus as being born physically through natural Israel (the woman); and to the ‘man-child’ company the 3rd day perfect church being birthed from the rest of the church (the new Jerusalem mother Galatians 4:26) through travailing prayer (Galatians 4:19, Isaiah 66:8).
Revelation 12:1-5 (ESV): And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. (2) She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. (3) And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. (4) His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. (5) She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne,
It is called the ‘man-child’ company because it is made up of a mature leadership of spiritual fathers and young men who are walking in perfection and a followership who are spiritual children in total submission to this perfect and mature spiritual leadership, operating under their covering.
Isaiah 8:18 (LITV): Behold, I (man) and the children (child) whom Jehovah has given to me are for signs and wonders in Israel from Jehovah of Hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.
It is this ‘man-child’ company that is being formed by God presently: any Christian who chooses to grow into perfection and starts operating the perfection principles becoming a wise spiritual virgin will be a part of this great ‘man-child’ company that will overcome the anti-Christ spirit in this 3rd day and be accounted worthy to partake of the pre-tribulation order ‘rapture’ or resurrection.
