Symbolism in the Bible

The Bible is written in highly symbolic & parabolic language. This is the language God likes to communicate in, & when you dive into His way of speaking & have ears to hear what He is actually saying, you will enter the joy of knowing how deeply God knows YOU! The symbolism God has used to speak to me daily from within, & through scripture, & even dreams & visions, has touched my heart deeply & has started the journey of a revelation of Jesus like I previously had never known. It will transform your life when you realize He has been speaking, you just didn’t understand the message :).

Part of understanding His symbolic language is to cross reference the entire bible to see how He used the symbol & you can start to see patterns emerge. Also, many times there is more understanding that is expressed to you that can only by given by the Spirit about that thing – & I have experienced many times it is this way with personal messages & dreams, etc. Because He may use something that specifically means something to you in those cases, & this is where it is important to ALWAYS ask for the interpretation from Him. You will get continually better at hearing what He meant!

Something I go by after so many happy surprises of hearing what Jesus really meant, is to not assume anything & ask about everything! Sometimes we are unaware the things we have just accepted, even seemingly minor, that are actually lies that drive even larger lies! Assumptions & relying on old understanding has been our undoing too long! It’s time to perceive the truth. Because I determine to always be ready for more understanding to unfold, I will update my symbols page accordingly, & don’t claim to have the full understanding of each symbol. If you see more, I would like to hear it! Drop an email @ culturedbygod.com.

Hebrew & Greek definitions of some words will also be found on this page, as well as Name meanings, as these are things God also uses to bring understanding. (‘H’ for Hebrew & “G” for Greek).

To search symbols: crtl+f for Windows, cmd+f for Mac, or Find in Page for mobile browsers

Air

Holy Spirit; Realm of the Spirit; where the higher thoughts & ways of God are because it is where He dwells (as always, this place is within us)

aka – ‘heavenly places’; the ‘heavens’, ‘heaven’

definition of greek Apollyon – ‘destroyer’; of the Hebrew Abaddon – ‘to destroy’

symbolically Jesus Christ as angel (‘messenger’) of the bottomless pit, who destroys lies with the message from His mouth, the Truth, the message of the cross.

words

 from Luke 13; represents us in the consciousness of the carnal mind, bent over in infirmity (‘weakness’) of the flesh, in ‘feebleness of mind & body)

Spirit – Soul of a man; Birds flying in the heaven are souls that have ascended in the Spirit to a height of seeing/understanding in God; A man as an ‘angel’ messenger to others God uses to devour the flesh in the hearer (Jer 15:3); Holy Spirit; The Lord Himself (like a bird flying about to defend Jerusalem, deliver it, pass over it & preserve it-Isa 31:5)

Flesh – A soul that can get caught in snares, nets, words, doctrines of man; Adversary (‘satan’), a false messenger & message that can steal the word sown by deceiving, because the word never hit the soil (heart)

also body of death; death itself; the mortal body (the body destined for death)

the depths of the carnal mind, the distorted mind brought by the wrong image (sin)

Mouth – which powers arrows (words)

individually, a man (in which God dwells), clouds of His glory

collectively, all mankind, as the Body of Christ (the glorious cloud of witnesses)

 

shows rulership, reigning; kingship; speaks of what is crowned in your mind & governs your thoughts (encircles your head)

the reigning of lies in our minds that leads to death; represents the carnal mind ruling; the crown Jesus took for us, also reveals the suffering upon Him in the garden – sin trying to reign through death (carnal mind). 

King of Righteousness died as sin – sin = ‘the father of lies’ that produced in us an image of mortal man & its reign was through death (carnal mind – a mind void of understanding of the wisdom of God from the beginning)

the Truth, and consequently, Jesus Christ Himself; therefore also same as : the Light, Sun, Brightness, Gospel

‘Cloud by Day’ = when we live in the truth, we live in the Truth of ‘God in us’ – us being part of the cloud, His body

 the finish of an old age with mixed lies & truth; the time when revelation happens – ending the time of confusion about a truth of Jesus Christ

your perception; your understanding; what you ‘see’ with can be ‘double’ as in double-minded, single as seeing only Christ, can be ‘good eye’ or ‘bad eye’ meaning it matters whether your eye is getting light or darkness, knowledge of God, or of carnal mind/man.

The lamp of the body – the understanding you have can either give light or darkness to your body (life or death)

to be seen and known to the full extent, and to know equally back; The relationship God wants with us; the real love relationship

 

the ‘world’ of man physically or metaphorically ; us as God’s field

 

A living soul, a person swimming in the depths of the flesh realm; Truths & lies (as sorting fish); first man ‘Adam’ 

Jesus Christ, the Spirit within, supply of living water, springing up to everlasting life; also an understanding springing up

A messenger who pulls men out of the flesh realm, out of the snares & nets of worldly wisdom, & helps them ascend onto dry land then the spirit realm by a message of truth; also a man with a message that pulls up ‘good & bad’ fish from within a person (parable of the dragnet in Matt 13) & sorts the truths from the lies & throws the bad/lies away; a messenger that is pulling the true identity of a person up to the surface 

*Jesus said He is the maker of these messengers/fishers of men when we follow Him

Heart, yours or God’s. Where Jesus plants seeds of Truth and cultivates 

the time of revelation – of when ‘wheat’ are finally separated from ‘tares’ and the truth becomes clear to us

 

 

Mankind, the place where God dwells (WITHIN man); the spirit realm; the heights of God’s thoughts & understanding; new heaven is the renewed understanding of God, part of the new creature in Christ

also seen in scripture – ‘high places’ symbolize this self exaltation of the wisdom of man in the ‘old creation’; the kingdom of heaven is the rulership of heaven, who is ruling there – in part world, in part God until the old elements of the world melt away & the kingdom is only of God

Jesus in authority & power to bring salvation & resurrection , life

Truth; Jesus Christ the Truth of the whole world;

Revelation (as in Light that reveals); 

Manifestation (as in ‘all that makes manifest is light’): the ability to see in the understanding

(found in Proverbs) ‘the lazy’; the one who does not keep their heart guarded from lies; one devoid of understanding/the wisdom of God; leads to poverty (no wisdom of God/His ‘riches’); his ways are like a hedge of thorns (see Thorns)

see Revelation 3:17 – the ones who believe they are rich, in need of nothing -this is speaking of wisdom > they do not know that they are wretched, poor, blind, naked

‘bitter’; a woman born under the law; represents the church whose bitterness is made sweet at the cross; the church which carries Christ & must let Him be fully formed within to manifest (birth) as a son of God; ‘a spring shut up, a fountain sealed’

Holy Spirit

lack of riches of God, which is His wisdom.

Buy from Me gold without price – riches of the Truth

the Truth found only in God & Jesus Christ; false riches/treasures can be found with the ‘rich man’ who can’t enter the kindgdom in his own wisdom

(In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom & knowledge)

Truth; words of God; Jesus Christ, the image of God & implanted word in you; symbolizes reproduction & multiplication of the truth in you

adversary, opposer to true identity, liar, sin

Serpent in garden = serpent lifted up in wilderness = that old tongue, knowledge of good & evil, that speaks of God as evil & good & leads to death destroyed in the body of Jesus on the cross

Aaron’s rod = God’s ‘serpent’ = Life that swallows up death = immortality

the father of lies; the father that tells us a different origin than God; the producer of an image that is of ‘mortal man’ rather than the image of God; user of the law to bring death

the ‘disobedient’ mindset – not accepting the image of God

also appears in scripture as : the flesh, ‘the wicked’, ‘the father of lies’, ‘the devil’, ‘the serpent’, ‘the dragon’, ‘the beast’, a false prophet

leads to poverty (lack of wisdom of God, lack of riches) 

The depths of the flesh; same as the Abyss, the bottomless pit

a wicked, false  prophet; false message; lies; that experience or thing or even person that delivers a message that deceives; the flesh (that profits nothing)-see 2 Sam 23:6 which states ‘the wicked’ or ‘the worthless, every one of them, are like scattered thorns. Also the lazy man’s garden overgrown with thorns (Prov 24:31)…overgrown with lies.

source of wisdom – tongue of  serpent (wisdom of man) is good & evil, new tongue is God’s wisdom 

 

the voice of God; the alarm of war – at the hearing of a truth from God, the war begins within, between the truth & the lie. this is also the wrestling – Jacob wrestling with God. Our own understanding wrestling within, with the truth we heard. 

One who keeps their ‘eye’ single – and remains faithful to listen & follow only Jesus (the Lamb) wherever it is He goes

Fleshly thoughts of man (deep waters); Words/thoughts of God; messages; Holy Spirit, living word within that springs up like a fountain to renew our mind to Spirit understanding; waters of the sea = thoughts from the depths of the flesh

those who keep their lamps (eyes of understanding) lit by keeping what the Spirit says. They enter in to joy of the manifestation of what they believe for because they stay in hope till the ‘end’. They would be considered ‘doers’ of the word

this physical world; the natural; the system of thought man gets trapped in – worldly – meaning fleshly, of the carnal mind

names:

Emma

whole; universal; also short for Emmanuel (God with us)

can represent the presence of God as universal in all man

military-power; army-ruler

symbolically can represent ‘spiritual wickedness in high places’ 

healer; ‘He will heal’; ‘yah saves’

‘fair one’; ‘white wave’; blessed; spirit

 

God adds; Jesus increases

little king

adversary; accuser

*another case of the hebrew & greek words NOT actually being translated into their meanings, but made into ‘names’ instead (much like ‘Adam’)

aka: ‘spirit’ of antichrist, in the sense that it is of nature of everything that opposes Christ – not in the sense of a spirit ‘being’; anything in opposition to the truth of Jesus Christ, and to mankind as His holy dwelling place