An angel appeared to the Apostle John and said to him, "Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev.21:9). The angel then carried John away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed him that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God. This indicates that Jerusalem is symbolic of the Bride of Christ. His Bride is all who belong to Him now and all who will belong to Him in the future.

The Bible says the angel that talked to John had "a golden reed (ruler) to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof" (Rev.21:15). I believe if God opened the curtain for a moment and let us have a look into the other dimension that we would see a mighty angel standing nearby with a Golden Ruler in his hand.

The spiritual measurements of His Bride are sacred and are recorded by the angels! God wants to present the glorious Bride of Christ to all of Heaven and earth, and her measurements are so critical that there is no margin for error. She is not to be sized up like a woman of the world.

You know what happens when a woman puts a wrong measure into a cake that she is baking or when a man measures incorrectly on a house that he is building. Some mistakes in measurements can be corrected rather easily; others are very costly. Making a mistake while baking a cake or building a house is not a matter of life and death; but just think, for a moment, what damage we do to someone when we give a wrong measurement while discussing their spiritual life!

When someone asks you to evaluate the spirituality of another, BEWARE, LEST YOU GIVE A WRONG MEASUREMENT!!! It would be wise just to bite your tongue and not answer a question like that unless you have taken your measurements with the Golden Ruler. This wonderful measuring device is always within reach; you cannot lose or misplace it because an angel is holding it for you. The decision to use it is yours, not the angel's; his work is to guard it and read you its measurements.

Angels are good at measuring holy places; we are not. They are good at it because they are different than we are--they do not have that old human nature to contend with.

The temple of God is a holy place; it is the inner heart where Christ lives. The Bible calls it the "inner man" (Eph.3:16), the "new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph.4:24), and the "hidden man of the heart" (1Pet.3:4). It is the innermost being of every believer. This holy place has been purchased and cleansed by the blood of Christ. We should not bring our human measuring stick into God's Holy Temple, for that device is unbefitting to the wife of the Lamb!

Our manmade yardstick is useless pertaining to spiritual matters because it can only measure outward appearances. It registers worldly riches rather than the kind that can be stored in Heaven. The Bible teaches that the outer appearance can be very deceitful (Mark 11:13), and that man's evaluating system is completely out of focus. Jesus said, ". . . for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). Therefore, we must learn to use a different value system than the one the world functions with. We must learn to operate in a way that is completely foreign to the world. (Unfortunately, the world system has infiltrated the Church.)

Getting a workman to disregard a tool that he is accustomed to using is not a simple task. It takes a great work of God to convince us how useless our human measuring device is in His service, and to persuade us that He can handle His work without our expertise.

God is well able to provide for the support of the building work in His inner kingdom; we do not need to operate like a money hungry merchant. The Good Shepherd is well able to care for His sheep; we do not need to copy a social system that attempts to solve the world's problems without God. And the Holy Spirit is well able to place the love of God into a person's heart, which will give strength and power to live a life that is pleasing to the Heavenly Father; we do not need to act like a policeman, using the law to control what goes on in the inner temple.

It is an awesome privilege to be chosen to help in a work that is at the very heart of God--the magnificent work of serving and caring for the Bride of Christ, which is also building up the "House of God." Serving and caring for the Bride is not trying to change or beautify her old adamic nature; that has been nailed to the cross with Christ (Rom.6:6). But it is building her up in the new creation that she became the moment she was united with Him in her new spiritual birth. It is helping her to always be aware of who she is in Christ so that she will live in her true identity. It is reminding her to keep her hand in the hand of the Bridegroom so that she will have real security. It is encouraging her to listen to the voice of God and place her faith in His word. And it is encouraging her to stay in her resting place as she patiently waits for that Great Day of the return of Christ!

The Bride has been wounded, and those who are called to serve her will soon discover that it is not always easy to minister to a hurting woman. She has been beaten and molested, not only by the devil and the world, but also, by some of her own brothers and sisters in the Lord. Is it any wonder that she is sometimes slow to respond to love, even to the love of God?

When the Lord's servants get overwhelmed thinking that the work is too great, the workers too weak, and the time too short, they should remember that our Lord has also commissioned countless mighty angels for this royal assignment (Heb.1:14). They are well suited for this work because they are accustomed to working in the holy presence of God. They cannot be seen with the natural eye for they are in another dimension, but you can be sure they are standing by with their Golden Rulers, ready to assist all the Lord's servants who love and care for His lovely Bride.

The world couldn't care less, but all Heaven is earnestly waiting for the Bride. And oh, how much the Bridegroom is longing for her to be with Him forever in glory!

There is no work on earth to compare with the high calling of working in the inner temple in caring for the Bride of Christ! Yet so few workers will accept the call into this royal service. The Lord does not resort to slave labor to assist His holy Bride; He wants only willing workers.

The reason we are so unwilling is because we do not want to allow God to prepare us for this special service. We have already been trained in a human way, and we expect God to let us care for His glorious Bride by dragging all our manmade devices into His holy temple, including our money making schemes; our traditions that make void the word of God; our self image; our do-it-yourself blueprints; our customs; our religious calisthenics; and a whole lot more, which includes our human yardsticks that measure only outward appearances.

The Levites were specially chosen by God and intrusted to care for the holy things in the inner temple (Num.3:7,8). They were not fully trained, ready-made servants; they needed much preparation for this service, just as we do. The Bible gives us a look at what it took for the Lord to prepare them. It says, "Like a refiner of silver he will sit and closely watch as the dross is burned away. He will purify the Levites, the ministers of God, refining them like gold or silver, so that they will do their work for God with pure hearts" (Mal.3:3).

Should we, who are chosen to serve God in the building work that takes place in the innermost being of His Bride, dare to think that we should be able to bypass refinement? The Bible also says, "Take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer" (Prov.25:4).

We all have excesses that have no use in the holy temple, which are not easily discarded. We cannot simply take all this extra weight and lay it down or set it aside--it has to be burned away by the refining fire of God! And that burning is a continuing process. Just when we think we are pretty well refined, up comes something else that needs to be torched out of our life. Every time we begin to feel the heat, we have a choice to run away from it or say, "Lord, let it burn!"

Workers who cannot stand the refining will pick up their human yardsticks and go back to their religious works on the outside where they can draw up their own blueprints and build in a way that is more acceptable to men. But the ones who are willing to submit themselves and their motivations to God's purifying fire will become finer vessels for the Master's service.

They will enjoy working in the company of angels, and they will learn to use the Golden Ruler that gives the measurements of the Bride of Christ from the viewpoint of God. They will behold the Bride (including themselves) clothed with the garments of salvation that Jesus purchased for her on the cross. They will minister by reminding her to rest in the finished work of Christ so she will not become performance-oriented to the gratification of man. They will see her covered with the robe of righteousness woven at Calvary and not try to replace it with the fig leaves of human works; and they will not disregard that glorious robe and stare at her flesh, lest they get another blast from the refining fire.

Workers who welcome the working of God in their inner lives will have times of loneliness when they are avoided by the members of the family of God who are running away from their own refinement.

These special workers--who use the Golden Ruler--must learn to put on the whole armor of God (Eph.6:11-17), because they are under constant attack from the powers of darkness. Satan hates any work that helps the Bride move closer to the Bridegroom. They must learn to work while staying in the river of God's grace. Not just standing near the shoreline in the ankle-deep water, but in the deep in-over-the- head waters; for it is usually the head (human logic) that is terrified to go under the grace of God.

Even though we may have had a lot of refinement, we will still make many mistakes, but God is not a hard taskmaster; He is easy to work for (Mat.11:30). He is very patient and kind to His workers; He does not respond like a worldly boss might when we do something wrong. He always takes the time to help us straighten things out, and then teaches us a better way.

And the better way--the way that is pleasing to Him--is for us to put aside our human, manmade yardstick and use the Golden Ruler that He has given to us that is always within reach, secure in the hand of an angel.

That glorious Golden Ruler measures the way God does; it functions only through the finished work of Christ on the cross. When we apply the Golden Ruler to the wife of the Lamb, she will be treated with the love and respect she is worthy of as the Bride of Christ!