The last item that is recorded in the section concerning the New Jerusalem is the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). The throne, of course, is for God’s administration. God is the One who had a purpose and who made a plan in eternity past and who created all things for the fulfillment of His plan. The Lamb is the One who redeemed us, the One who has accomplished a full redemption to fulfill God’s plan. Thus, the throne of God and of the Lamb denotes that this throne is to carry out God’s plan through Christ’s redemption. Both God’s plan and Christ’s redemption are being carried out through this throne. The throne is the very source from which the river of water of life flows, and it flows with the tree of life growing in it (v. 2). The throne for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose is to flow out God Himself so that by this flow of life His purpose could be accomplished.
When we get into the full record concerning the New Jerusalem, we will spontaneously understand that this is fully related to our personal experiences of the Triune God. Do not think that the New Jerusalem is merely something objective in the future for a certain group of people. We have to realize that what is recorded in Revelation 21 and 22 should be experienced by us today in a very personal way. Experientially speaking, every proper and normal Christian is “a little New Jerusalem.” Whatever is ascribed to the New Jerusalem corporately should be experienced by us individually and personally. With and in each one of us are the three gates of the Divine Trinity. Furthermore, in each one of us there must be the throne of God and of the Lamb. We must enthrone Him in our heart and in our spirit. In other words, in the very center of our being there should be the throne of God and of the Lamb. At the end of the record of the New Jerusalem the unique item is the throne.
In our Christian experience the unique item should be the throne of the One who purposed and of the One who redeemed. Such a throne must be set up in our entire being, and this should be the center of our Christian life. This means that we would accept the God who purposed and the Christ who redeemed us as our Head, Lord, and authority. We should be willing to subject ourselves to such a headship. We adore Him as the Lord, and we take Him as our authority. We enthrone Him in our being and in our Christian life.
In our Christian life the center is the throne of God and of the Lamb. We are not here living for ourselves. We are living and existing for the accomplishment of God’s purpose, to carry out what Christ has accomplished. Therefore, we experience the One on the throne in His headship and lordship, and we submit ourselves to such an authority. In our daily life, in our family life, in our marriage life, in our business life, and in our church life the center must be God’s throne. Everything should be subjected to His headship.
All of us have experienced that whenever we would subject ourselves to this headship, we immediately sense something full of God’s riches flowing within us. This is the flow of the Triune God as life, the life supply, and everything to our being. Within us we sense such a flow, and this flow is from the throne of God and of the Lamb as the water of life.
In Revelation 22:1 we see the flow of the Divine Trinity—God, the Lamb, and the water of life (the Spirit). According to John 7:38-39, the water of life refers to the Spirit. God was the One who purposed, He became the Lamb who redeemed (1:14, 29), and finally He became the life-giving, flowing Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). God flows in the water of life, the Lamb flows in the water of life, and the Spirit flows as the water of life. Thus, this is the triune flow, the flow of the Divine Trinity as the very life supply.
This should not be taken as a theological teaching. According to our daily experiences, we Christians should experience the flow of the Divine Trinity every day. Every morning after rising up we need to say, “Lord, thank You for a new day for me to take You as my Lord. I subject myself under Your headship for the whole day. Lord, set up Your throne in my life. Set up Your throne in the center of my being. Lord, bring my whole day with my daily life under Your throne.” If you would offer such a prayer to the Triune God every morning, from that moment you would have the living water flowing within you. This living water flowing is the flow of the Triune God. It is not a small thing that the Triune God flows in you today. He flows in you as the One who purposed, as the One who redeemed, and as the One who is the life-giving Spirit. This One is the very consummation of the Triune God reaching us as the living water.
Such a subjective revelation has been missed by many of today’s Christians. I hope we all would realize in our experience that whenever we subject ourselves to the Triune God, taking Him as our Head, we enjoy a flow within us. Thank the Lord that in the Lord’s recovery, day after day, month after month, year after year, and time after time, what is stressed is the unique flow. We have given many messages that tell us that the Triune God is flowing. There are also many hymns in our hymnal concerning this subject. The first two stanzas of Hymns, #12 say,
O God, Thou art the source of life,
Divine, and rich, and free!
As living water flowing out
Unto eternity!
In love Thou in the Son didst flow
Among the human race;
Thou dost as Spirit also flow
Within us through Thy grace.
Many times in the Lord’s table meeting, we all sense the flow of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Our Father is the very God who had a purpose and who purposed to accomplish His eternal plan. The Son as the very Lamb is also flowing to dispense what He has accomplished on the cross. Whatever was accomplished on the cross was objective, and this has to become subjective to us by the flow of the Lamb. Even the Lamb is flowing in this divine flow because this flow proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. This means that the water of life flows out of God and out of the Lamb. We not only have such a vision and revelation, but we have this experience day by day and even moment by moment. I can testify that without such a divine flow I cannot live, I cannot minister, and I have nothing to minister. But praise the Lord, this divine flow is always availing in our life and in our being.
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