Chapter 9

Male and Female

You learn more about people in plural marriage than you do in any other social setting and are constantly being surprised. Adding new wives to a family literally changes everything, though it is true that some make a bigger difference than others. I don't mean that in either a positive or a negative way. What I mean is that there is such a diversity of human character and personality, such a broad spectrum, if you like, and it just happens that some women are more unlike you than others. And Hanna was completely unlike all of us. Getting to know her proved to be much more complex than we thought and I, for one, wondered how Stan would cope with her. It is the extraordinary ability of men who are called by God into plural marriage to relate to women of almost every type that has perhaps been one of my strongest testimonies of the principle.

All my former notions, influenced by secular astrology and popular psychology about 'compatibility' went completely out the window in Stan's household. In fact, the more different a woman was from him, the more enthusiastic he seemed to be. It was our differences that he seemed to prize the most. Even he himself admitted that character traits that had once repelled him now had the opposite effect on him for he was not trying to find a 'perfect match' for himself as he once had, for that, he said, was an egocentric-view of Christian patriarchy. Rather, he saw one of the purposes of plural marriage to expand not only his collective spiritual horizons to the fullest possible extent but the collective horizon of the family as well.

He told me that when he had been a young man he had essentially looked for women who were like himself - not carbon-copies, exactly, but something close. He believed that Christ represented the perfect personality, and because He was perfect, everybody could relate to it, and He to them. Since we had in turn been called to perfection by the Saviour, he now believed that we were called to break past the individual personality boundary and into a kind of cosmic or universal one where all personalities could mix freely and happily. This was, he also insisted, only possible through Christ, because it is our carnal natures that not only attract one another but repell also.

Marriage by providence was, I discovered, absolutely essential in the Królewiec family because of the way in which we all changed. Anna had started as a very shy and retiring sort of personality, easily hurt, and often locked away in herself. But in the short space of a couple of years she seemed to move to the very opposite spectrum and became a bubbly, self-confident person. He had accepted her as she was and delighted in the way the Lord had changed her. I noticed how my own habits and mannerisms changed, for we all started adopting the collective family 'way of being' by being around each other so much.

If personalities were repulsed by one another, Stan insisted, it was because the carnal nature was pushing out the spiritual. Only by crucifying the flesh and its distorted view of things could we ever be one (Galatians 5:24). I noticed how in the beginning I would gravitate to certain sister-wives with whom I felt 'comfortable' until, I noticed, I would start getting into a rut with them and we would start falling into the clique mentality. Stan broke these up as quickly as they formed, often with considerable protest from us. When he first taught the principle of twin sister-wives, we were thrilled because we felt that we were being assigned the nearest non-reproductive equivalent to a marriage partner, making us women 'polygamists' in a way similar to Stan. It was pure joy to experience that unity with sister-wives in a way similar to the unity Stan felt with each of us. Indeed, I discovered that this was in many ways the female equivalent of polygyny. It's hard to explain, really, but it's most certainly there, but you only see it as you grow closer to Christ. And the closer you draw to the Lord, the more you see how unnatural polyandry is - of one woman having many men - because men and women are constructed very differently - they have a different biological architecture. The so-called equality of the sexes that the secular world has forced women to believe has created an unnatural sense of being which leads to tensions, anxieties and inner conflicts the moment you start trying to draw closer to Christ.

Stan once told us in one of his many tape-recorded lessons to the family:

"Satan and his angels, though originally of two different sexes, have progessively lost this distinction over the ages. There are no male and female demons in the truest sense of the word because they have lost what vestiges of true sexuality they once had. This is most especially true of female spirits. Because in the angel rebellion they lost their intended spouses, the female demons began to lose their femininity. That's one reason the male angels came down to earth and mated with earth-women, because their own female counterparts had effectively become neutered. This led in turn to all kinds of unnatural desires in them once they had renounced their vows of celibacy. Demons love perverse sex because they no longer know what holy sex is anymore. Their activities deliberately try to confuse gender-rôles. Since the 1960's there has been a sexual revolution with its drive towards unisexuality, the women becoming more masculine and the men more feminine. It has completely disrupted the natural God-ordained intercourse between the genders. Men don't know who they are any more and women think they are men. Now, that may seem a rather extreme view to some of you but I believe, at its root, that is what it eventually means. When you turn away from the true spirit of plural marriage you launch the human race on a course that leads to the reversal of sex-rôles, which leads to a massive increase in homosexuality and lesbianism, which in turn leads to an opposite reaction because you can't build a purely homosexual-lesbian society. It's self-destructive. The reaction to this is a hyper-male macchismo and an increasingly neutered femininity. It's exactly the same course as the fallen angels - that's where mankind is headed. And you'll see more and more gender confusion with an increase in transsexual operations and the like.

"Because God knew Satan would lead the rebellious human race in this direction He ensured that there was a roughly even balance of men to women because He knew that few would be attracted to the true principle of plural marriage. Even today we are seeing the 'natural', spiritual ratio of men to women in the churches - believing women hugely outnumbering believing men by as many as seven (or more) to one in some countries like Latvia, just as Isaiah prophesied. When the wheat is separated from the tares, you're going to see a huge surplus of Christian women.

"But that's only the physical reality. Spiritually, both men and women are naturally polygamous, but in different ways. Men are naturally attracted to several women whereas women are naturally attracted to several women and one man. It's the way we are built. And we are taught this principle in no more poignant a way than in the symbolic relationship between the Messianic Community and Christ.

"Once you start obeying the Bible 100 per cent, plural marriage comes naturally for the women because they enter a spiritual dimension that allows them to fulfil their true potential and not the distorted counterfeit one of the feminists. Feminism and male machismo are the natural outcomes of the flesh and are completely unspiritual. The heavenly society consists, I firmly believe, of a giant community of plural patriarchal families. The kind of spiritual relationship that the women have with each other in a plural family is very much like the relationship that the men have together. They have deep, deep bonds of love, just as David had with Jonathan. This spiritual relationship is very important because it balances out the unique sexual polygamous relationship of the sexes. I discovered through living plural marriage a key principle that distinguishes men from women, a principle hidden up in the Bible though one which is extraordinarily simple. And it's locked away in the Sabbath principle.

"Men are by nature much more 'active' then women. Woman's created rôle is clearly defined in the Bible as an essentially domestic one. Feminists have, of course, revolted against this and discovered that they are largely able to do what men can do, which is perfectly true - men and women are more than capable to performing each other's God-ordained rôles, and can do them rather well. But when all's said and done, the switching of rôles isn't spiritually natural, and erodes one's identity and sexuality. The result is that the two genders cease to be very attractive to one another, the relationships become more superficial, more flesh-based, and of much shorter duration. The long-term result is the disintegration of society as a whole, as we are experiencing now.

"Isaiah 4:1 teaches us that the natural female to male ratio is seven to one. That does not mean that seven women are 'equivalent' to one man - it means that the 'natural marriage unit' consists of seven women to one man, and nothing more, just as the natural 'Church' consists of billions of the redeemed to one Christ. There is, to be sure, a great mystery in this but it is not impossible to start unravelling it.

"Let me give you some clues. One day out of seven is designated a rest day - a Sabbath day. One thousand years out of seven thousand years is likewise designated a 'rest millennium'. Yet we all know that on the Sabbath day we do some kinds of work - we do not sit down and do absolutely nothing, it's just that it's a different kind of work. Likewise, we shall not all sit under trees for a thousand years when Christ returns but we shall be working, only our work will be different from the work we did in the messianic age.

"There are principles within principles which reflect back on one another. Plural marriage is a natural expression of that divine principle and is so important that the Lord uses it to designate the relationship He has on an allegorical level with His people. Men and women alike become His symbolic 'wife' showing that men take on a female rôle by being in submission to their Master just as wives are to be in submission to their husbands. That submission is not, moreoever, a tyranny but quite natural, spontaneous and lovely. The principle of male submission is repeated over and over again - the earthly church is in submission to twelve apostles and each local congregation is in submission to a Pastorate. This is natural, right, wholesome, and good. There are therefore different levels of male-female relationship, some sexual, some spiritual.

"There is nothing more joyful than to be submitted to a righteous head. I am in subjection to the apostolic leaders of our Order and I count it a pleasure because I know these are godly men who do not abuse their leadership position. And even the presiding Apostle of our Order has an earthly head, to whom he is accountable, as Moses was to Reuel the Priest of Midian (Exodus 2:18; 3:1; Numbers 36:10), so that all may be submitted and blessed.

"Please understand, therefore, that the doctrine of carnal 'equality' is in actual fact nothing more than spiritual oppression. It has arisen partly because of Satan's machinations to destroy sexuality, which he does not possess anymore and about which he is in a rage, and partly because of the bad example of the oppression of unspiritual and oppressive patriarchy. Satan will always use a good cause and recruit it to His own purposes by showing an ungodly solution. The motivation behind much feminism is good, in reacting to repression, but much is equally evil, and the conclusion is even more destructive to the female gender than to the male."

For these reasons when anyone comes to Kadesh-Naphtali they are completely re-educated in gender rôles. Once you're on the right track, then you can naturally flower. At first I believed that monogamy was the only way a woman could come to full spiritual maturity but I see now that this is not the case. There are many polygamists who believe that plural marriage exists merely to compensate women unable to find a mate because of the shortage of good husbands. They believe that plural marriage exists as a temporary remedy for social evil or because God just 'happens' to call some into it but not others. But now I believe that plural marriage is holy marriage - complete marriage for men and women alike. It is the form of marriage which God blesses those who want to follow Him completely. That is why we call it 'Firstborn Marriage' because it is the first and most important form of marriage - the marriage of completion and perfection.

Before Stan will marry any woman he ensures that a prospective wife understands that this is why she is entering the estate. It is not enough to simply believe that the principle is godly and an 'alternative' for those who are tough enough to live it, or because it's the next best thing because of a shortage of good, spiritual men. They have to truly believe that they are living the holiest and the most blessed marriage lifestyle there is, and that to attain this state of happiness one must be willing to crucify the carnal nature completely.

"Just look at a typical family," he had continued, "and you'll hopefully see what I'm driving at. The parents occupy the male, presidential rôle in a family, and the children the female, submissive one. Now which kind of family life do you think in general is the richest: a one child family or one with several children, assuming that the parents have the time and resources to take care of them properly?"

We had all agreed that having many children was the most desirable.

"Look at what has happened in communist China with the one-only child per family policy. That nation has an entire generation of precocious brats. Large families breed the desirable virtues of a sense of responsibility, of sharing, and so on. Of course, no two families are alike, and some large families are a disaster, but we're talking about families centred in Christ. Into what nation are we, as believers adopted? Israel. What was peculiar about the Israel-concept? It was a large plural family - four wives and thirteen children. As New Covenant Israelites we are, by definition, polygamists. As adopted sons and daughters of father Abraham we are, by adoption, polygamists. The Bible spells plural marriage from cover to cover, both in heaven and on earth."

Sarah-Jane had asked him why Israel - Jacob - had only four wives when the millennial ideal was seven.

"A good question", he had answered, "and the answer will, I think, interest you. What is the number four symbolic of? It is an earthly number - the four winds, the four points of the compass, the four elements. Jacob's family was an earthly family. Four may therefore be said to be the minimum number of wives in a 'full' family - 'full' on the physical level. It is the number of the Deacons and Deaconesses, the number of the Aaronic Priesthood that was to come, and of the Mosaic Covenant. By contrast, the millennial number is seven, and you all know what seven represents. Seven wives will be the average size of polygamist families amongst believers in the millennial world. Twelve is the number of the Apostolate and of the post-millennial world. Those who are rulers in the millennial world and beyond will have twelve wives on average, or more, just as the New Covenant Moses, our Lord Yah'shua, will preside over twelve New Covenant Israelite tribes, each tribe being ruled by one of the original twelve New Testament apostles. These twelve apostles are Christian apostolic 'wives' on this level."

Stan would discourse to us for hours on similar themes and hold us spell-bound. What was more remarkable was that none of this was theory but actually in action all around us all the time. It was exciting to see that what we were doing - our plural marriage - was a kind of drama of the whole plan of salvation and the heavenly mode of life. It all made such perfect sense.

On one occasion Isabel had asked Stan one of her penetrating questions: "Stan, if we are to pray to our heavenly Father in the plural, as in 'Our Father...' and 'Give us this day our daily bread', should we refer to you in a similar way?"

Stan had been very pleased by her perception: "Your have on hit a gem there, belovèd, he had said to her. "The Gospel is so much about community - a plural, polygamous community in which we are all allegorically married to Christ. He is not so much 'my' personal Saviour (though He is that too) but 'our' collective Saviour. And it is interesting that He instructed us to pray in the plural, as a community or family of allegorical wives. Yes, you are right - absolutely right. I do not, in any case, belong exclusively to any of you, any more than Christ belongs exclusively to me. So instead of calling me 'my husband', 'my dear', 'my darling', 'my love', or 'my lord', you should all, once you have fully understood the spirit of plural marriage, be calling me 'our husband', 'our darling', 'our love', 'our lord', 'our master'. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that no women has finally got out of the monogamy-only mindframe who cannot say 'our' as spontaneously and joyfully as a monogamously married woman might say 'my'. It would be a wonderfully sign of the subjection of the ego to the higher Light of Christ and reflect the spirit of just what eternal plural marriage is all about."

Though we had tried 'our' it had not come easily to us and most of us dropped the idea because it didn't feel right, forgetting that will and not feelings must determine our conduct in gospel affairs. But Stan would not press the matter, preferring it to be spontaneous. We knew his teaching about clothing the soul with good habits until they became natural was correct, that this was a teaching of Paul about righteousness in general, and that it was something we should try. It was like calling him 'my lord' or 'master', or 'our lord' or 'master', as righteous Sarah had addressed her husband Abraham, and as we were encouraged as Christian wives in the New Testament to do the same (1 Peter 3:6). Even Stan admitted that he found the usage embarrassing. Anna had perceptibly seen his error, though:

"When we're told by Yahweh to call you 'lord' or 'master' it's not because you're perfect and holy like Yahweh but because of your position as head of the marriage and of the family. You are our ruler. So you shouldn't feel bad about it. It's the same as you've taught us about Pastors, isn't it, darling? Heads of families are supposed to obey, respect and support a Pastor not because he's perfect but because of his calling. You're called to be our lord and master, so we shouldn't feel any worse about calling you 'lord' or 'master' as a family head calls his pastor, 'Pastor'? And if you're embarassed about being called 'lord' or 'master' then why aren't you embarassed about being called to be a family head?"

Stan had been stunned by his young wife's incisive words, but it was his own fault for training us all so well. He didn't know what to say.

"You have spoken the truth, Anna," replied Stan humbly. "I suppose my greatest fear is to be proud, because the word 'lord' or 'master' carries with it much heavy and responsible meaning. But it's perfectly biblical. We are, I suppose, afraid to forget our lowly station because Christ Himself is also called 'Lord', though with a big 'L'. I am afraid to be thought of in Messianic terms, since I am a sinner. And yet the judges of Israel were called 'gods' or 'elohim' with a small 'g' or 'e', the same title given to Almighty God the Father, Yahweh-Elohim."

Andreea had been enthralled by our conversation. "What I learned as a Christian in Romania is like left-overs compared to what we're being taught by the Lord here. It's incredible. Sometimes I think we try to be so humble that we daren't see what Yahweh has actually called us to. If we're His sons and daughters, then surely we have the same last name too. Of course Stan is our lord and master just as he is our elohim - he rules by decree from the Lord and Elohim, not because He has earned it, but by grace. So I don't think we need fear being blasphemous so long as we remember it's not our merit - or Stan's merit - that allows him to bear these important titles. It's the title of every Patriarch - they're Björn's, Lars' and Bengt's titles and offices too. They should be seen as stewardships. Just like the stewards given the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). We, as Stan's wives, have been given to him as a kind of stewardship too. We aren't to be buried in the ground for his own personal satisfaction but we are to be multiplied in his love. And remember what Yah'shua did when He gave the faithful steward as many coins as he had received again? It's the same in marriage - a faithful polygamist will be given more wives, just as David was. The one who is given only one wife and does nothing about increasing his family by taking more wives, will lose that wife too. And guess what - that monogamous wife will be given to the faithful polygamist!!"

Stan was deeply impressed by Andreea's insight, as were we. How wonderful it is seeing the Spirit at work amongst us when we are living in the truth.

We wives were all gathered together in Stan's new office in Kadesh-Naphtali for some gospel instruction. There were four large sofas arranged on three sides of a square in one corner of the room for wife-only meetings such as this. Stan had his own chair on the fourth side where he could see everyone, and we, him. I was sitting next to Andreea and Sarah-Jane holding hands with both. The others were doing the same on their sofas, as was our custom, to demonstrate unity in intent, if nothing else.

"What's it like being married to Andreea, my lord?" I felt emboldened after all this deep teaching I had been getting earlier that day. "It was one thing to talk theory," I thought to myself, "but what about the actual reality?" So I asked Stan directly, forgetting for a moment all the others were there too as I had been so deep in thought.

"You already know," replied Stan.

"What do you mean, my lord?" I asked puzzled.

Stan raised his eyebrows. "You're interacting with Andreea all the time, like now. And when you interact with me, you're interacting with her and with all your other sister wives."

"Yes, I know that, darling," I replied, thinking he wasn't understanding me. "But how can I know, for instance, what it's like for you and Andreea kissing?" I pulled myself up short, shocked I had even asked such a question, and yet it had come quite spontaneously and innocently.

When I saw Andreea nodding and glancing back at Stan, as my question had made her wonder what it was like when Stan and I kissed each other too, I realised I had started an unintentional chain reaction and could see she was expecting Stan to answer her too. I blushed, as I had meant what I had said as a rhetorical question, or at least one that would be answered by a vision or something esoteric like that. And yet I truly wanted to know if what Stan had taught me was true...that we would somehow all know each other completely. I hadn't expected Stan's forthright reply.

"Well go and find out," he said, firmly, moving his eyes from mine to Andreea's and chuckling, as though I had asked a silly question. Everyone except me and Andreea was giggling now, making me even more embarrassed. Only Andreea didn't look embarrassed at all. "Go and find out??" I repeated in my mind, incredulously. And yet this was the kind of response I should have expected from Stan - ask him a straight question and he'll give you a straight answer because he'll very rarely treat a question as rhetorical. You could always assume that he treated the inner and outer life the same, because he viewed us as whole and complete human beings the way we were created to be, not compartmentalised into spirit, mind, emotions, matter, or whatever. Then I remembered that this is what had happened when, in my impatience back in Raj, I had wanted him to kiss me passionately before be were married, and instead of acceding to my wish (because anything but short chaste kissing wasn't allowed until full marriage), he had instructed Sarah-Jane to show me there and then how it would be. That had turned out to be such a beautiful experience and had made me hunger for Stan even more. But it had also forced me to learn forbearance. However, what I had asked for this time was something completely different, almost invasive and impertinent. Yet I could tell from Stan's determined look he wasn't going to let me wriggle out of this.

I glanced at Andreea to gauge her reaction, embarrassed now, because this wasn't the same question I had asked at Raj. I began to wonder if I was even entitled to know of such matters. But Andreea was not at all perturbed for some reason, and given I knew how close she was to the Lord, we all agreed she was the most spiritual person in the family, even Stan thought so - and yet there she was smiling as if she knew something I didn't - as pretty as you please, as if I had missed something obvious. She wasn't going to let me off the hook either! So being the determined Holtz that I was, I took the bull by the horns, faced Adreea practically biting my lower lip, and asked is she would mind kissing me the way she and Stan kissed; and she, like Sarah-Jane before her, smiled sweetly and nodded. She leaned over, took me in her arms, and hugged and kissed me just as I had seen her kissing with Stan earlier as we were assembling in his new office.

I had expected something like the reaction I had had in Raj. But no, this was completely different! "Oh!" I said, taken aback somewhat, because this bore no resemblance to what happened before. Before I had been aroused to want Stan even more, but this time the kiss was a doorway right into the heart of the mystery of Stan and Andreea. I had, what I supposed, was a vision - really, a gigantic flash, a sudden realisation of something bigger than Stan and me or even Stan and Andreea. I was inside the very mystery of Stan and all his wives, only Andreea was guiding me, for I sensed she already understood what I was understanding for the first time. I could still feel us holding hands physically, only in the vision she was leading me like a teacher into something incredibly deep spiritually. Words fail miserably to convey the deeper sense of the revelation I was receiving. In essence what I saw was a dance between us eight wives and Stan, but as each person moved, a stream of light trailed behind them like a comet's tail and remained, weaving in and out like embroidery. And as they did so a single woman made of light took shape, shining brightly. And as I gazed into her face, I could see all of our faces at the same time! It was true!! I saw it. We were ourselves still but we were more than symbolically one - we were actually One Wife, a kind of Plural Eve, just like the Bride of Christ described in the Book of Revelation. It was amazing! Astoundingly beautiful! I was a part of something greater than myself. And then, as quickly as I saw this Królewiec Eve forming, Stan, who was dancing with her, himself merged with her and all of us were one spiritual Adam...whilst remaining separate persons. Wow! Wow! WOW!

I don't know how long we kissed but it seemed like a couple of seconds. Afterwards Sarah-Jane told me that it was more like two minutes! Yet I wasn't aware of the kissing at all except the moment when it started and the moment it ended which must have been about two seconds. Stan was aglow with delight, knowing I now understood. Oh, I wanted to do this again so that I could see with my inner eye the utimate reality of who we were created to be, and I wanted to do it with everyone again and again and again. But for now I was overwhelmed with just Andreea. I looked at Sarah-Jane, and she at me, and we silently promised we would do the same. This is what I had always wanted out of plural marriage, and this was my reward for plucking up the courage to do what natural instinct would have prevented me from doing, a protective impulse placed by our Heavenly Father in us to keep those women apart who would not sacrifice to live the plural way. Andreea was in tears like myself, for though she had not seen a vision, she had felt the intense beauty of it. We were looking into each other's eyes, then back at the other wives, and then finally at Stan where we remained transfixed. My sister-wives all seemed to know in some way though I wouldn't learn how much until we finally got to talking more about it privately. And what one lacked, the other was eagerly willing to supply. For some this had taken years, for others they were only partly there. But it was all OK. We were where we were and Stan respected that. So not only had the Spirit moved me to ask the question, but Stan to tell me to go and do what I had wondered about. But the result was entirely unexpected.

"Thank you, Andreea," I said with all my heart, still overwhelmed with joy, "...and thank you, Father, thank you Yah'shua, for giving Andreea to me as a sister-wife and companion and for all the others too!" as I spontaneously prayed out aloud in front of everyone. Andreea smiled, I smiled, Stan smiled, everyone smiled, and then all started praying with gratitude for what God was going amongst us. And I mean, we were really grateful, so much so that I went up to all the others, starting with Sarah-Jane, and kissed them as I had kissed Andreea, though very briefly, half expecting more visions - but I knew I had received all I possibly could receive then! One or two felt awkward, which was OK, as these were early days for them still, but had felt the power of the Spirit and didn't want to be left behind, and so obliged me. It would be a few years hence before anything like this happened again.

The after-effects of that experience continued which we called the 'Andreea-Hélène Echad Moment'. Other things had started happening to me. It was as though a great barrier had come tumbling down, like the walls of Jericho, as I transitioned from one spiritual garden of great beauty - the one I had hitherto been walking in - and had suddenly been whisked into an even more beautiful garden, larger and more resplendent, greater and more glorious. I now saw that there was so much more to plural marriage than I had ever dreamed. New lights had turned on inside of me simply by daring to ask a question I had been too embarrassed to ask before and then daring to do what normally would never be done. The former mystery of plural marriage, fulfilled, as it were, in the new one that was forming like an embryo to replace it - the mystery of the New Jerusalem, the Holy City of our God.

A whole host of other questions flooded my mind with this greater perception of reality but I knew I would need more time to answer them. I could, in any case, start asking Sarah-Jane who was my teacher-wife precisely because she had no inhibitions and had already tasted what I had as a firstborn sister in Christ (Hebrews 12:23). And I knew she wanted to teach me more! Stan didn't say any more in that meeting, he didn't need to. He was content to have simply allowed the Holy Spirit do all the work and watch with delight. My connection to Stan was suddenly orders of magnitude greater than it had been before and that meant so much to me! So was my connection to the others though they had to grow in other ways since each was an individual on her own journey. And to think I had come close to throwing this all away in Missouri after I returned home from Raj, for I know many do! With Tom now in my life too, and all the other babies who had been born, my joy could not have been fuller. I was an utterly fulfilled mother and plural wife too.

My heart so often wants to just sing in praise when I am touched by Yahweh in moments such as this - it is so wonderful to be a part of this living, dynamic revelation that is a New Covenant plural family. It's always so much bigger and more glorious than I had ever thought. Will it always be like this? I thought to myself. I looked at Stan who was still smiling, only now he was nodding as if he had heard my question out loud. He really did know what I had experienced - not only that, but he had always known! How, I wondered in amazement, could he have carried this vision in his heart and never been able to speak about it openly for so long, because it couldn't be communicated in any other way than by a divine revelation such as I had experienced. That's why Paul was forbidden to speak of what he had seen in the third heaven! (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) That's what the writer of Hebrews meant too when he said that he was forbidden to expound further on the mystery of the two golden cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant! (Hebrews 9:5) These things could never be seen in the flesh, only in the Spirit. All it needed was the right door - the right "intersection point", as Stan would call it, where heaven and earth meet. No ritual could ever produce it, only obedience, perfect love and complete surrender to Christ and husband. Just being a polygamist wouldn't open this heavenly portal - rather, as Stan warned, entering plural marriage for the wrong reasons would destroy those trying. There was no quick-and-easy route to this. It required total consecration and sacrifice.

What especially amazed me is how all of this had happened so naturally and spontaneously - I loved the way Stan liked to teach us us, unplanned lessons in the reality of the moment, letting the Spirit lead, with no fuss or anxiety and no compromising. This was a heavenly classroom, after all, and not a worldly one. There were no sterile 'courses' when it came to the deeper mysteries because there couldn't be. This wasn't like the Bible Course I had done when I moved into Raj. A whole new train of thoughts had now welled up inside me, like a train picking up momentum as it steamed out of a railway station to its next destination. I had a thousand questions, Stan knew it and told me I would have to be patient because you cannot - and must not - rush the things of the Spirit. A great deal of prepartion is necessary before we are ready...and trustworthy...to be partakers of the highest heavenly realities. One word always stood out, a word that Stan would repeat again and again: PURITY.

There were eight of us wives now and more were to come - not for numbers' sake but because of the persons involved. What happened this day absolutely depended on Andreea - it could never have happened without her. And though my cup seemed full and "running over" (Psalm 23:5), I had no idea how much bigger the cup would yet grow and how much more "running over" there was to be done! Two more women - Emma and Étoile - were yet to have a huge impact on my life, like Sarah-Jane and Andreea already had, but now is not the time to tell their story. First there were challenges to be met.

Every time a new wife comes into the family, I now see it as my personal gain, and not just Stan's, because I can observe, and ask and find out the truth for myself at my own pace. So what if Andreea somehow 'knew' ahead of me? (She didn't, but it seemed that way - she was just more trusting than I). I knew plenty of things she didn't still. It was like that for all of us. Now I understand that a new wife is our gain, not just Stan's, if it is the Lord who has done the choosing and not the flesh, for she is a 'talent' of great worth given to Stan as a reward for his faithfulness which he shares with all, just as he does his earthly treasure. And just as Stan becomes more spiritually wealthy, so do we, his wives, become a greater treasure and possession that he shares freely, with our consent, with one another, and we with each other according to a heavenly pattern. Our own spiritual wealth increases as more foreordained ones are embraced by our lord and master, and as more embrace each other as I had Andreea just now, and Sarah-Jane before her. My heart grows and grows and I wonder how I will ever be able to contain all this love? Is this what eternity is like? Forever expanding and growing? It seemed too wonderful to be true, and still does - and each moment like this leads me to spontaneously praise my Maker more and more. Hallelu-Yah!

As ever, Yahweh's timing had been perfect. We were newly moved into Kadesh-Naphtali, new children were suddenly and unexpectedly arriving into our watchcare, and this experience prepared us for Satan's attempt to destroy what Yahweh was now starting to create. For wherever there is truth, there is always a satanic counterfeit. And that is what next tried to intrude into our lives.