I.　Among the many crucial matters in the second section of the book of Revelation, the first is the vision of the universal bright woman with her man-child warring against the great red dragon—Rev. 12:1-17:

A.　The vision in Revelation 12 covers all the generations from Genesis 3:15 until the end of this age—Rev. 11:15; 12:10.

B.　Revelation 12 gives us a view of what is taking place in the universe; here we see that God's enemy is fighting against Him—v. 17.

C.　This vision of the true situation in the universe must become a governing vision to us—Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19:

1.　If we see this vision, our concept regarding the Christian life will be radically changed—2 Cor. 5:9-10.

2.　Seeing this controlling vision will help us to be in the genuine oneness and to bring forth the man-child to defeat God's enemy and bring in God's kingdom—John 17:11, 21-24; Rev. 12:5, 10; 11:15.

II.　"A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child"—12:1-2a:

A.　This bright woman is a collective, universal woman signifying the totality of God's people—v. 1.

B.　God's intention is, through the universal woman, to bring forth the man-child— the stronger part of God's people—whom He will use to defeat His enemy and bring in His kingdom—vv. 10-11.

C.　Throughout all generations God's people have been suffering the travail of delivery to bring forth the man-child to fight for God's kingdom—Isa. 26:17-18; Jer. 6:24; 13:21; 30:6; Micah 4:9-10; 5:3; Gal. 4:19.

D.　For the bringing forth of the man-child, there is the need for at least a portion of God's people to come back to the proper standing of the woman and become part of the woman in an actual and practical way—2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:24.

E.　The woman in Revelation 12 is submissive to her Husband and has been impregnated by her Husband in order to bring forth something for her Husband— vv. 2, 5:

1.　The church's duty is not mainly to do something for Christ but to receive something of Christ so that she may be made pregnant of Christ and may bring forth the man-child for Christ—Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; Phil. 1:21.

2.　We need to be constantly open to the Lord as our Husband to permit the element of Christ, the divine constituent of Christ, to work in us continually to saturate and permeate our whole being—Matt. 5:3; Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:16-17a.

III.　"Another sign was seen in heaven; and behold, there was a great red dragon…The dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth, so that when she brings forth he might devour her child"—Rev. 12:3a, 4b:

A.　The dragon signifies God's enemy, called the Devil and Satan; the serpent is the subtle one, and the dragon is the cruel one—v. 9; Gen. 3:1; 2 Cor. 11:3.

B.　We need to see the vision that in the universe a war is raging between God's people as the woman and the serpent as the dragon—Gen. 3:15; Rev. 12:17:

1.　The enmity between the serpent and the woman's seed mentioned in Genesis 3:15 is manifested in Revelation 12, where this enmity is fulfilled to the uttermost.

2.　The dragon hates the universal bright woman, and he fights against her with the intention of devouring her child—vv. 4, 13-17.

IV.　"She brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod"—v. 5a:

A.　God needs the man-child to defeat His enemy and to bring in His kingdom so that His eternal purpose might be accomplished—v. 10; Eph. 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9.

B.　Because the church has not attained to God's purpose, God will choose a group of overcomers who will attain to His purpose and fulfill His demands; this is the principle of the man-child—Rev. 12:11; 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21.

C.　The stronger ones among God's people are a collective unit fighting the battle for God and bringing God's kingdom down to earth—Eph. 6:10-11; Rev. 12:10.

D.　The woman's seed in Revelation 12 is not only the individual Christ but is a corporate entity, the corporate Christ, including Christ as the Head and all His overcoming believers as the Body—Col. 1:18:

1.　The man-child is not individual but corporate; the man-child is neither the Lord Jesus individually nor the overcomers separate from Him but the Lord Jesus with the overcomers—Psa. 2:9; Rev. 2:27; 12:5.

2.　The Lord Jesus is the Head, the center, the reality, the life, and the nature of the man-child, and the overcomers are the Body of the man-child.

E.　The entire being of the man-child is saturated and permeated with the element of Christ; the way to become the man-child is to be strengthened into our inner man so that Christ may build Himself into our hearts, to be nourished with the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to put on Christ as the whole armor of God—Eph. 3:16-18, 8; 6:10-11; Gal. 4:19.

V.　"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever"—Rev. 11:15:

A.　The man-child is related to God's most important dispensational move—His move to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom—12:10; Matt. 6:9-10.

B.　God wants to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom, and for this He must have the man-child as His dispensational instrument—13:43a.

C.　The rapture of the man-child to heaven, the casting of Satan to earth, and the declaration in heaven signify that the man-child will bring the kingdom to earth; this is God's greatest dispensational move—Rev. 12:5, 9-10; 11:15.