EXCERPTS FROM THE MINISTRY

LIFE-STUDY OF REVELATION

MESSAGE SIXTY-EIGHT

EXPERIENCING THE SEVEN LAMPS,
THE SEVEN EYES,
AND THE SEVEN SPIRITS

GOD’S BUILDING, THE NEW JERUSALEM

In eternity past, the unique Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, existed by Himself. Genesis 1:26 reveals that God came in to create man in His image. Although man was created in the image of God, at the time of creation, man did not have the life of God in him. As we read through the entire Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, we see that after many dispensations, generations, and centuries have passed, God will still be there in eternity future. However, He will no longer be by Himself. Although He will still be the Triune God, pictured in 22:1 as God, the Lamb, and the flowing river (the symbol of the Spirit), at that time He will be the center of the New Jerusalem. In eternity past, God was by Himself, but in eternity future, the Triune God will be the center of the New Jerusalem and will saturate the whole city. The portrait of the New Jerusalem in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two is a sign signifying that God will be mingled with His redeemed people as His enlargement. Eventually, this people will be a building. This building, constituted with divinity and humanity, will be a mutual habitation of both God and man. This is the transparent revelation of the Holy Bible.

This revelation includes three main items: the unique God, the created man, and the builded New Jerusalem. These three items cover the whole Bible. When God comes into man, regenerates him, and transforms him, He mingles Himself with man. By mingling Himself with man, God becomes enlarged. The issue of this mingling is the building, the New Jerusalem. Thus, the New Jerusalem as God’s building is the mingling of God with the created, redeemed, and regenerated man. We all need to have a vision of this marvelous building.

BROUGHT INTO GOD’S UNCHANGING BUILDING

Recently, a brother testified that since the time he was saved, he has undergone many changes. For a while he would be happy, and then there would be a change. At one point he thought he had come into the victorious life, but then things changed once again. But consider how many changes there have been and will be from the time of Adam until the time of the New Jerusalem. The reason you have experienced so many changes is that you have not yet been brought into God’s unchanging building. Until we all have been brought into God’s building, we all shall continue to change. Only after we have come into His building will there be no further change. Revelation 3:12 says, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore.” This indicates that only after we have been built into the temple of God shall we cease to change. In the meantime, the more we change, the closer we are to the building. Our eternal destiny is to be in God’s building. However, among most Christians today there is no building. Instead, there is continual wandering and shifting.

THIRTEEN ITEMS

In the book of Genesis there are eight important men: Adam, Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Eventually, these eight men issued in God’s building. In the Old Testament this building was typified by the tabernacle and the temple. In the New Testament we have the reality of the building. Jesus is the tabernacle (John 1:14, Gk.), the church is the temple (1 Cor. 3:16), and the New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation. Altogether there are thirteen items: the eight men in Genesis, the tabernacle and the temple in type, Jesus and the church in reality, and the New Jerusalem.