The central vision
of God’s economy
is the experience of
Christ as life
for the producing and building up
of the church
as the Body of Christ:
We need to see
a vision
of the central matter
in the Lord’s recovery today,
the vision
in Paul’s completing ministry:
The central vision
of Paul’s completing ministry
is God in us
as our contents,
Christ
as the mystery of God,
and the church
as the mystery of Christ.
The center
of the Lord’s recovery
is Christ and the church:
Christ
as the embodiment of God
—the mystery of God—
and the church
as the expression of Christ
—the mystery of Christ.
The governing vision of the Bible
is the Triune God
working Himself
into His chosen and redeemed people
in order to saturate their entire being
with the Divine Trinity
for the producing and building up of the church
as the Body of Christ,
consummating in the New Jerusalem.
The high peak
of the divine revelation
is that God
became man
so that man
may become God
in life and nature
but not in the Godhead
to produce and build up
the organic Body of Christ
for the fulfillment of God’s economy
to close this age
and bring Christ back
to set up His kingdom:
God’s economy
is His intention
to dispense Himself
in His Divine Trinity
into His chosen and redeemed people
to be their life and nature
so that they
may be
the same as He is
for His corporate expression.
God’s economy
is that God
became man
to make us God
in life, nature, and expression
so that we
may have a God-man living
and become the Body of Christ.
God redeemed us
for the purpose of
making us God in life and nature
so that He
can have the Body of Christ,
which consummates in the New Jerusalem
as God’s enlargement and expression
for eternity.
It is
only by God’s becoming man
to make man God
that the Body of Christ
can be produced and built up;
this is
the high peak of the divine revelation
given to us
by God.
The New Jerusalem
is the consummation
of the central vision
of God’s economy
and of the high peak
of the divine revelation:
The New Jerusalem,
the ultimate consummation of the Bible,
involves God becoming man
and man becoming God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead:
In Christ
God has become man
to make man God
in His life and in His nature
so that the redeeming God
and the redeemed man
can be mingled,
constituted,
together to be one entity
—the New Jerusalem.
Eventually,
the triune, eternal God
becomes the New Jerusalem
incorporated with all of us,
and we also
become the New Jerusalem
through the process
of God’s organic salvation.
The New Jerusalem
is the corporate God-man
—the enlargement, expansion, and expression
of God—
the corporate God:
The New Jerusalem
is a composition of
divinity and humanity
blended and mingled together
as one entity;
all the components
have the same life, nature, and constitution,
and thus are a corporate person.
The New Jerusalem
is the expansion and expression
of the processed and consummated Triune God
with His chosen, redeemed,
regenerated, sanctified,
renewed, transformed,
built-up, conformed,
and glorified people.
The New Jerusalem
is God’s enlargement and expansion,
God’s expression in eternity,
which is
the corporate God.
The New Jerusalem
is the real and consummate Shulammite
—a corporate Shulammite,
including
all of God’s chosen and redeemed people:
The wonderful Shulammite,
the duplication of Solomon,
is the greatest and ultimate figure of the New Jerusalem
as the counterpart of Christ.
As Solomon’s counterpart,
the Shulammite
became the same as Solomon
in life, nature, and image,
as Eve to Adam:
This signifies
that the lover of Christ
becomes the same as He is
in life, nature, and image
to match Him
for their marriage.
The many lovers of Christ
eventually will become duplications of God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead;
this is
the fulfillment of
God becoming man
so that man
may become God,
which is
the high peak
of the divine revelation.
The wife of Christ and Christ
will be joined together
to be the New Jerusalem
for God’s expression;
this is
the consummated Shulammite.
The New Jerusalem
is the universal golden lampstand,
the ultimate consummation
of the lampstands in the Scriptures:
The churches
as golden lampstands
will be consummated
in the New Jerusalem,
the aggregate of all the lampstands.
The New Jerusalem,
a mountain of gold,
is the universal golden lampstand
holding the Lamb
as the lamp
shining out God
as the light.
The New Jerusalem,
the aggregate of all the lampstands,
the totality of today’s lampstands,
is a consummate, universal golden lampstand
to shine forth God’s glory
in the new heaven and new earth
for eternity.
The golden lampstand
signifies the Triune God
embodied and expressed,
and the more
we experience
the aspects of the Triune God
depicted in the lampstand,
the more
we will be
in reality
the golden lampstand
as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God
and thus become the New Jerusalem
as the universal golden lampstand.
In His ministry
in the stage of intensification,
Christ
as the sevenfold intensified Spirit
produces the overcomers,
who return to
the orthodoxy of the church,
overcome the degradation of the church,
build up the Body of Christ,
and consummate the New Jerusalem:
Because of the degradation of the church,
Christ
as the life-giving Spirit
has been intensified sevenfold
to become the seven Spirits
—the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit—
to produce the overcomers.
In overcoming the degradation of the churches,
the overcomers
return to the orthodoxy of the church
and overcome
satanic Judaism,
demonic Catholicism,
and dead and Christless Protestantism.
The overcomers
overcome anything
that is against Christ
or that replaces Christ.
The overcomers
are for the building up
of the Body of Christ
to consummate
the New Jerusalem:
Without the overcomers
the Body of Christ
cannot be built up,
and unless the Body of Christ
is built up,
Christ cannot come back
for His bride.
The building up
of the Body of Christ
is by the overcomers
produced by Christ
as the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit.
The building up
of the Body of Christ
by the overcomers
in this age
is for the initial consummation
of the New Jerusalem
in the kingdom age
and eventually for the full consummation
of the New Jerusalem
in the new heaven and new earth.
“I will write
upon him [the overcomer]
the name of
My God
and the name of
the city of My God, the New Jerusalem,
which descends
out of heaven
from My God,
and My new name”
(3:12b):
That the name of God,
the name of the New Jerusalem,
and the name of the Lord
are written on the overcomer
indicates that what God is,
the nature of the New Jerusalem,
and the person of the Lord
have all been wrought
into the overcomer.
The mentioning
of the New Jerusalem
as a prize to the overcomer
indicates that this promise
will be fulfilled
in the millennial kingdom;
the New Jerusalem
in the millennium
will be a prize
only to the overcomers.
Hits: 10
7 replies on “The New Jerusalem—the Consummation of the Central Vision of God’s Economy and of the High Peak of the Divine Revelation through the Overcomers, Who Return to the Orthodoxy of the Church”
Prophecy note, 22 January 2017
The central vision
of God’s economy
is the experience of
Christ as life
for the producing and building up
of the church
as the Body of Christ:
We need to see
a vision
of the central matter
in the Lord’s recovery today,
the vision
in Paul’s completing ministry:
The central vision
of Paul’s completing ministry
is God in us
as our contents,
Christ
as the mystery of God,
and the church
as the mystery of Christ.
The center
of the Lord’s recovery
is Christ and the church:
Christ
as the embodiment of God
—the mystery of God—
and the church
as the expression of Christ
—the mystery of Christ.
The governing vision of the Bible
is the Triune God
working Himself
into His chosen and redeemed people
in order to saturate their entire being
with the Divine Trinity
for the producing and building up of the church
as the Body of Christ,
consummating in the New Jerusalem.
The high peak
of the divine revelation
is that God
became man
so that man
may become God
in life and nature
but not in the Godhead
to produce and build up
the organic Body of Christ
for the fulfillment of God’s economy
to close this age
and bring Christ back
to set up His kingdom:
God’s economy
is His intention
to dispense Himself
in His Divine Trinity
into His chosen and redeemed people
to be their life and nature
so that they
may be
the same as He is
for His corporate expression.
God’s economy
is that God
became man
to make us God
in life, nature, and expression
so that we
may have a God-man living
and become the Body of Christ.
God redeemed us
for the purpose of
making us God in life and nature
so that He
can have the Body of Christ,
which consummates in the New Jerusalem
as God’s enlargement and expression
for eternity.
It is
only by God’s becoming man
to make man God
that the Body of Christ
can be produced and built up;
this is
the high peak of the divine revelation
given to us
by God.
The New Jerusalem
is the consummation
of the central vision
of God’s economy
and of the high peak
of the divine revelation:
The New Jerusalem,
the ultimate consummation of the Bible,
involves God becoming man
and man becoming God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead:
In Christ
God has become man
to make man God
in His life and in His nature
so that the redeeming God
and the redeemed man
can be mingled,
constituted,
together to be one entity
—the New Jerusalem.
Eventually,
the triune, eternal God
becomes the New Jerusalem
incorporated with all of us,
and we also
become the New Jerusalem
through the process
of God’s organic salvation.
The New Jerusalem
is the corporate God-man
—the enlargement, expansion, and expression
of God—
the corporate God:
The New Jerusalem
is a composition of
divinity and humanity
blended and mingled together
as one entity;
all the components
have the same life, nature, and constitution,
and thus are a corporate person.
The New Jerusalem
is the expansion and expression
of the processed and consummated Triune God
with His chosen, redeemed,
regenerated, sanctified,
renewed, transformed,
built-up, conformed,
and glorified people.
The New Jerusalem
is God’s enlargement and expansion,
God’s expression in eternity,
which is
the corporate God.
The New Jerusalem
is the real and consummate Shulammite
—a corporate Shulammite,
including
all of God’s chosen and redeemed people:
The wonderful Shulammite,
the duplication of Solomon,
is the greatest and ultimate figure of the New Jerusalem
as the counterpart of Christ.
As Solomon’s counterpart,
the Shulammite
became the same as Solomon
in life, nature, and image,
as Eve to Adam:
This signifies
that the lover of Christ
becomes the same as He is
in life, nature, and image
to match Him
for their marriage.
The many lovers of Christ
eventually will become duplications of God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead;
this is
the fulfillment of
God becoming man
so that man
may become God,
which is
the high peak
of the divine revelation.
The wife of Christ and Christ
will be joined together
to be the New Jerusalem
for God’s expression;
this is
the consummated Shulammite.
The New Jerusalem
is the universal golden lampstand,
the ultimate consummation
of the lampstands in the Scriptures:
The churches
as golden lampstands
will be consummated
in the New Jerusalem,
the aggregate of all the lampstands.
The New Jerusalem,
a mountain of gold,
is the universal golden lampstand
holding the Lamb
as the lamp
shining out God
as the light.
The New Jerusalem,
the aggregate of all the lampstands,
the totality of today’s lampstands,
is a consummate, universal golden lampstand
to shine forth God’s glory
in the new heaven and new earth
for eternity.
The golden lampstand
signifies the Triune God
embodied and expressed,
and the more
we experience
the aspects of the Triune God
depicted in the lampstand,
the more
we will be
in reality
the golden lampstand
as the embodiment and expression of the Triune God
and thus become the New Jerusalem
as the universal golden lampstand.
In His ministry
in the stage of intensification,
Christ
as the sevenfold intensified Spirit
produces the overcomers,
who return to
the orthodoxy of the church,
overcome the degradation of the church,
build up the Body of Christ,
and consummate the New Jerusalem:
Because of the degradation of the church,
Christ
as the life-giving Spirit
has been intensified sevenfold
to become the seven Spirits
—the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit—
to produce the overcomers.
In overcoming the degradation of the churches,
the overcomers
return to the orthodoxy of the church
and overcome
satanic Judaism,
demonic Catholicism,
and dead and Christless Protestantism.
The overcomers
overcome anything
that is against Christ
or that replaces Christ.
The overcomers
are for the building up
of the Body of Christ
to consummate
the New Jerusalem:
Without the overcomers
the Body of Christ
cannot be built up,
and unless the Body of Christ
is built up,
Christ cannot come back
for His bride.
The building up
of the Body of Christ
is by the overcomers
produced by Christ
as the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit.
The building up
of the Body of Christ
by the overcomers
in this age
is for the initial consummation
of the New Jerusalem
in the kingdom age
and eventually for the full consummation
of the New Jerusalem
in the new heaven and new earth.
“I will write
upon him [the overcomer]
the name of
My God
and the name of
the city of My God, the New Jerusalem,
which descends
out of heaven
from My God,
and My new name”
(3:12b):
That the name of God,
the name of the New Jerusalem,
and the name of the Lord
are written on the overcomer
indicates that what God is,
the nature of the New Jerusalem,
and the person of the Lord
have all been wrought
into the overcomer.
The mentioning
of the New Jerusalem
as a prize to the overcomer
indicates that this promise
will be fulfilled
in the millennial kingdom;
the New Jerusalem
in the millennium
will be a prize
only to the overcomers.
Day 6
Eph. 4:16
…All the Body,
being joined together
and being knit together
…causes the growth of the Body
unto the building up
of itself
in love.
Rev. 3:12
He who overcomes,
him I will make a pillar
in the temple of My God,
…and I will write
upon him
the name of
My God
and the name of
the city of My God, the New Jerusalem,
…and My new name.
Without the overcomers
the Body of Christ
cannot be built up,
and unless the Body of Christ
is built up,
Christ cannot come back
for His bride.
…The building up
of the Body of Christ
for the consumation
of the New Jerusalem
is by the overcomers
produced by God
in the intensified work
of His organic salvation.
In Revelation 3:12
first,
the Lord says
that He will write
on the overcomer
the name of God.
A name
is a designation.
Your name
designates who you are.
For the overcomer
to bear the name of God
means that God
has been wrought into him.
Only when God
has been wrought into us
are we worthy
to bear His name.
This does not mean
that we become God;
it means
that God
has been wrought into us
and that we
are one with Him.
Therefore,
the Lord
gives us
a designation—God.
“God”
is upon the overcomer,
indicating that he
has been saturated
with God.
When you see him,
you see God.
Second,
the Lord
promises to write
upon the overcomer
the name of
the city of God, the New Jerusalem.
For the overcomer
to bear the name of the New Jerusalem
means that he
is a part of the New Jerusalem.
This indicates
that the coming New Jerusalem
has been wrought
into his being.
Thus,
the overcomer
also bears
the designation of the New Jerusalem.
The Lord’s writing
always corresponds to the facts.
It would be ridiculous
to write the word lion
upon a monkey,
or to write the word lamb
upon a cat.
When the Lord
writes the names of
God and the New Jerusalem
upon us,
it reveals that we
are one with God
and are a part of the New Jerusalem.
Finally,
the Lord
promises to write
upon the overcomer
His new name.
This new name
will be according to our experiences.
I cannot tell you
what the Lord’s new name
will be
because it is
according to
our personal experiences of Him.
In other words,
what we
experience of the Lord
will become us.
We experience God,
and God becomes us.
We experience the New Jerusalem,
and that also becomes us.
We experience the Lord
in an intimate, personal way,
and that becomes us.
Therefore,
the Lord
will rightly designate us,
writing upon us
the name of God,
the name of the New Jerusalem,
and His new name.
This will indicate
that we have become a person
who is one with God,
who is a part of the New Jerusalem,
and who has experienced the Lord Himself
as the One
who makes Himself us.
The name of God,
the name of New Jerusalem,
and the Lord’s new name
written upon the overcomer
indicate that the overcomer
is possessed
by God,
by the New Jerusalem,
and by the Lord;
that God Himself,
His city, the New Jerusalem,
and the Lord Himself
all
belong to him;
and that he
is one
with God,
with the New Jerusalem,
and with the Lord.
The name of God
means God Himself,
the name of the New Jerusalem
means the city itself,
and the name of the Lord
means the Lord Himself.
To write
the name of God,
the name of the New Jerusalem,
and the name of the Lord
upon the overcomer
indicate that what God is,
the nature of the New Jerusalem,
and the person of the Lord
have all been wrought
into the overcomer.
The mentioning of the New Jerusalem
as a prize
to the overcomer
indicates that this promise
will be fulfilled
in the millennial kingdom.
The New Jerusalem
in the millennial kingdom
will be a prize
only to the overcoming saints,
whereas the New Jerusalem
in the new heaven and new earth
will be the common portion
of all the redeemed
for eternity.
Day 5
Rev. 1:20
The mystery of the seven stars
which you saw
upon My right hand
and the seven golden lampstands:
The seven stars
are the messengers
of the seven churches,
and the seven lampstands
are the seven churches.
Rev. 21:23
And the city
has no need
of the sun
or of the moon
that they
should shine in it,
for the glory of God
illumined it,
and its lamp
is the Lamb.
The churches
as golden lampstands
will be consummated
in the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem, the holy city,
is the aggregate
of all the lampstands.
If we consider the facts
that the New Jerusalem
is a golden city,
that it
has one street
which reaches all twelve gates,
that the wall of the city
is one hundred forty-four cubits high,
and that the city itself
is twelve thousand stadia high,
we shall realize
that the city proper
must be a mountain.
On top of this mountain
is a throne,
from which the street
spirals down
to the bottom
to reach the twelve gates.
…On the throne
is Christ
as the Lamb
with God in Him.
This Lamb
is the lamp
with God in Him
as the light.
This golden mountain
is a stand,
and upon this stand
is a lamp.
Therefore,
this golden mountain
—the New Jerusalem—
is a golden lampstand.
As a golden lampstand,
it has Christ
as the lamp
with God in Him
as the light
shining out for eternity.
Thus,
the New Jerusalem,
the aggregate of all the lampstands,
the totality of today’s lampstands,
is a consummate, universal golden lampstand
to shine forth God’s glory
in the new heaven and new earth
for eternity.
As we consider
the substance, the shape, and the expression
of the golden lampstand
as implying the significance of the Triune God,
we gain
a practical understanding
of the Trinity.
The Trinity
is for the dispensing
of the processed Triune God
into humanity
for the fulfillment of God’s purpose
to have a corporate expression of Himself
for eternity.
God, the Divine Being,
is first embodied
in Christ
and then expressed
through the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
Now
we not only have
the Triune God;
in the lampstand
we have
the Triune God
substantially and solidly embodied and expressed.
The gold
has been formed
into the solid stand
for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
…This stand,
which is
a type of Christ,
is expressed
through the seven lamps
signifying the seven Spirits of God.
The golden lampstand,
then, signifies
the Triune God
embodied and expressed.
Its essence
is the Father,
its form
is the Son,
and its expression
is the Spirit.
Because we have
in the lampstand
the element of gold
signifying God the Father,
the stand
signifying God the Son,
and the seven lamps
signifying God the Spirit,
we have the ground
to say
that the lampstand itself
is the embodiment and expression
of the Triune God.
In the third stage
of His ministry,
the stage of His intensification,
Christ is accomplishing
three great things.
First,
He is intensifying
His organic salvation;
second,
He is producing
His overcomers;
and third,
He is consummating
the New Jerusalem.
For His ministry
in the stage of His inclusion,
Christ became
the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ,
to carry out
His organic salvation
for the producing of the church
and the building up of His Body
to consummate
the New Jerusalem.
However,
on the way of His ministry
in the stage of His inclusion,
before He
had attained His purpose,
the church
became degraded;
such degradation
frustrates the accomplishment
of God’s eternal economy.
Hence,
Christ
as the one life-giving Spirit
was intensified sevenfold
to become
the seven Spirits of God.
Day 4
S.S. 6:13
Return, return,
O Shulammite;
return, return,
that we
may gaze at you.
Why should you
gaze at the Shulammite,
as upon the dance of two camps?
Rev. 21:2
And I saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down
out of heaven
from God,
prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband.
The divine romance
is portrayed poetically
in Song of Songs.
In Song of Songs
the seeker
passes through a process
to become the Shulammite,
the duplication of Solomon
and a figure of the New Jerusalem.
The lover’s name, Shulammite,
which is
the feminine form of Solomon,
is first used
in Song of Songs 6:13,
indicating that at this point
she has become
Solomon’s duplication and counterpart,
the same as Solomon
in life, nature, and image,
as Eve to Adam.
…The New Jerusalem
will be a corporate Shulammite,
including all of
God’s chosen and redeemed people.
In the New Jerusalem
the redeeming God
(signified by Solomon)
and all His redeemed
(signified by the Shulammite)
become one.
The New Jerusalem
is a mingling of divinity and humanity
to express
the processed and consummated Triune God
in human virtues.
Christ and His wife
will be joined together
to be the New Jerusalem
for God’s expression.
The lover of Solomon,
having passed through
various stages of transformation,
has become
Solomon’s duplication.
Ultimately,
we will be conformed
to be the wonderful Shulammite,
who, as the duplication of Solomon,
is the greatest and ultimate figure
of the New Jerusalem
as the counterpart of Christ.
Just as King Solomon
became a country man
to court a country girl
in order to make her
his queen, his duplication,
God in Christ
became a man
to court man
in order to make man God
in life, nature, expression, and function
but not in the Godhead,
to be Christ’s bride.
The Bible reveals
that God became a man
to court us
and that now He
wants us
to court Him
by our becoming divine
for His expression
through our personal, affectionate,
private, and spiritual
relationship with Him.
The Shulammite
is a figure of us
as the reproduction of Christ,
who is
the embodiment of God.
Thus,
the many lovers of Christ
eventually will become
duplications of God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead.
This is
the fulfillment of
God becoming a man
that man
might become God,
which is
the high peak
of the divine revelation.
The Shulammite
was a country girl.
Now, as a counterpart of Solomon,
she has become
the same as Solomon
in life, nature, expression, and function
for the carrying out
of God’s economy.
We become
the same as God and Christ
in life, nature, expression, and function,
but not in the Godhead.
The New Jerusalem
is the ultimate consummation
of the lampstands in the Scriptures.
The lampstand in the tabernacle
signifies Christ Himself.
The lampstand in the temple
signifies the enlarged Christ.
The lampstand in Zechariah 4:2
signifies the people of Israel.
Finally,
the lampstands in Revelation 1
signify the churches.
Christ in His incarnation
was a lampstand,
and He was enlarged
in His resurrection.
The children of Israel
as God’s people
were also a lampstand,
and the churches
as God’s chosen people
are the lampstands.
The one aggregate
of all the lampstands
will be the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem in figure
is a gold mountain
like a stand.
Christ is
the lamp on the stand
and God
is the light within Him.
In the first chapter of Revelation
there are
the seven lampstands,
the churches,
and in the last two chapters
there is
the one unique lampstand
—the New Jerusalem,
which is
the consummation
of all the lampstands.
Day 3
Rev. 21:10-11
And he
carried me away
in spirit
onto a great and high mountain
and showed me
the holy city, Jerusalem,
coming down
out of heaven
from God,
having the glory of God.
Her light
was like a most precious stone,
like a jasper stone,
as clear as crystal.
The divine revelation
is progressive,
going higher and higher,
deeper and deeper,
richer and richer,
not only from the book of Job
to the Psalms
but also from the Psalms
to all the following books
in the Old Testament
and to those
in the New Testament,
until it reaches
the high peak of the New Jerusalem
in the new heaven and new earth
as the consummation and ending
of the divine revelation
according to God’s eternal economy.
The main content
of the New Testament
is that the Triune God
has an eternal economy
according to His good pleasure
to dispense Himself
in His life and nature
into His chosen and redeemed people,
thereby making them
His duplication
so that they
may express Him;
this corporate expression
will consummate
in the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem,
the ultimate consummation of the Bible,
involves God becoming man
and man becoming God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead.
In Christ,
God has become man
to make man God
in His life and in His nature
so that the redeeming God
and the redeemed man
can be mingled,
constituted,
together to be
one entity
—the New Jerusalem.
Eventually,
the triune, eternal God
becomes the New Jerusalem
incorporated with all of us,
and we also
become the New Jerusalem
through the process
of God’s organic salvation.
Regardless of
how many ages
there are
and how much work
God does,
He has
only one goal.
In the beginning of the Bible
there is
one single God,
and at the end
there is
a great, corporate God
—the New Jerusalem.
Just as the Bible
begins with God,
so it ends with God.
In the beginning
He is
a simple God,
a God who is triune;
at the end
a city appears,
and that is
the corporate God.
The New Jerusalem
is God’s enlargement and expansion,
God’s expression
in eternity,
which is
the corporate God.
Those who participate
in the New Jerusalem
are all God’s children,
God’s kind,
God’s species.
…God’s children
are innumerable.
Consider how many
are in the New Jerusalem!
They all
are gods;
they all
belong to God’s species.
Hence,
the New Jerusalem
is the corporate God.
The New Jerusalem
is the God-men
who have been
transformed, glorified, and mingled
with the processed and consummated Triune God.
The New Jerusalem
is a composition
of divinity and humanity
mingled, blended,
and built up together
as one entity.
All the components
have the same life, nature, and constitution
and thus are
a corporate person.
God and man,
man and God,
are built up together
by being blended and mingled together.
This is
a matter of
God becoming man
and man becoming God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead.
The New Jerusalem
is also the eternal expansion and expression
of the processed and consummated Triune God
in the regenerated, transformed, and glorified humanity.
It is
the spreading of the Triune God
through His glorified saints
as His increase
for His eternal purpose.
This spreading
is illustrated by
the vine with its branches
in John 15.
The branching out of the vine
is the spreading of the vine.
This is
an illustration of
the New Jerusalem
as the expansion, the spreading,
of the Triune God
through His glorified saints.
Day 2
Rom. 8:14
For as many as are led
by the Spirit of God,
these are
sons of God.
Rom. 8:16
The Spirit Himself
witnesses with our spirit
that we
are children of God.
The governing vision of the Bible
is the Triune God
working Himself
into His chosen and redeemed people
in order to saturate their entire being
with the Divine Trinity
for the producing and building up
of the Body of Christ
consummating in the New Jerusalem.
We need to realize
that Satan hates
the high peak of the divine revelation
concerning the ultimate goal
of God’s economy.
He hates this one main point
—that God became a man
so that man may become God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead
to produce the organic Body of Christ
for the fulfillment of God’s economy
to close this age
and to bring Christ back
to set up His kingdom.
This is
why we need prayer
for fighting the spiritual warfare
for the release of these messages.
Today
where is
the Body of Christ
on this earth?
Today
who understands and ministers and practices
the Body of Christ?
This is
altogether something new.
God purposely in His incarnation
became a man
that man may become God
in life and nature
but not in the Godhead
for the producing
of the organic Body of Christ
to fulfill God’s economy
to close this age
and to bring Christ back
with His kingdom.
Ephesians 1:4 says
that God has chosen us in Christ
to be holy.
To be holy
means to be God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead.
In the entire universe,
only God is holy.
God can make us holy
only by dispensing His holy nature
—that is, His holy element—
into our being.
When God regenerated us,
He dispensed Himself into us
as the holy element.
Verse 5 says
that God predestinated us
unto sonship.
This means
that God has predestinated us
to be His sons
by dispensing.
God’s economy
is to make
all the redeemed ones,
all the believers in Christ,
God-men.
…Christ, the unique God-man,
is the model, the prototype,
used by God
to have a “mass production”
of millions of God-men.
Regeneration
brings God into us,
making us God-men.
As God-men
we should have
a God-man’s living,
continually rejecting our natural man
and living by the very God
who is life in us.
As God-men
we should deny our natural life
and apply the divine life
in our daily life.
God redeemed man
for the purpose of
making the redeemed man
God
in life and in nature
so that God
can have
a consummation of His economy
in the Body of Christ
as the enlargement of Christ.
This Body of Christ
will consummate in
the New Jerusalem
as God’s full expression and enlargement
for eternity.
The Lord showed me
that in order to have
the Body of Christ,
the dispensing of Christ
is indispensable.
…If Christ
does not dispense Himself into us,
how can we become
His Body?
From that point
I went higher
and saw the economy of God.
Hence,
beginning from 1984
I released many messages
on the economy of God.
Then
in the spring of this year [1994]
(actually I saw it last year)
I continued to go higher.
I saw
that it is
only by God’s becoming man
to make man God
that the Body of Christ
can be produced.
This point is
the high peak of the vision
given to us
by God.
God is God,
and He Himself
has begotten us
as His children.
Whatever anything
is born of,
that is
what it is.
We cannot say
that when sheep
beget sheep,
the old sheep are sheep
but the little sheep are not sheep.
Since God has begotten us,
we are the children of God.
Furthermore,
1 John 3 says
that God will work on us
to such an extent
that we
will be like Him completely (v. 2).
From the day
God created man,
this has been
the purpose of God.
Day 1
Acts 26:19
Therefore, King Agrippa,
I was not disobedient
to the heavenly vision.
Eph. 3:10
In order that
now to the rulers and the authorities
in the heavenlies
the multifarious wisdom of God
might be made known
through the church.
After beginning to minister in 1922,
Brother Watchman Nee
gradually saw
the central vision of God’s economy.
Brother Nee
felt the need
to publish some books
concerning the outward practices
of the church life,
such as The Normal Christian Church Life
and Church Affairs,
because of the ignorance among Christians
concerning these practices.
…Regrettably,
many Christians
have paid more attention
to these outward practices
than to the primary burden
of his ministry
—the experience of Christ
as life
for the producing of the church
as His Body, His expression.
The Lord
has not yet come back,
because He
has not gained
a group of believers
who live in their spirit,
deny their natural life,
live by the law of
the Spirit of life,
are transformed into His image,
and are built up in His Body.
In order for the Lord
to gain
such a group of believers
in His recovery,
we need to see
the central vision
of Paul’s completing ministry.
The goal of our work
is not merely to have meetings
where the saints speak
and even shout loudly.
Having a proper meeting
is mainly a matter of bringing
to the meeting
the riches of Christ
that we have enjoyed
in our daily life.
Many saints
may be active
in a meeting,
but if they
fail to enjoy
the riches of Christ
in their daily walk
and do not bring
to the meeting
a rich portion of Christ,
their activity is vain,
and that meeting is empty.
We
need to help the saints
to labor on Christ
as the reality of the good land
by endeavoring
to contact, experience, and deal with Him
day after day
so that they
may reap
the produce of His riches,
bring it to the church meeting,
and share it
with one another
by releasing their spirit.
This is
to have a proper meeting
under the controlling vision
of God’s economy.
Paul’s ministry
was to complete the divine revelation
of God’s New Testament economy,
that is,
the Triune God in Christ
as the life-giving Spirit
producing the members of Christ
for the constituting and the building up
of the Body of Christ,
that the Triune God
may have a full expression
—the fullness of God—
in the universe.
The central vision
of the apostle Paul’s completing ministry
is God in us
as our contents,
Christ
as the mystery of God,
and the church
as the mystery of Christ.
We must lay aside
our natural concepts,
whether religious, ethical,
devotional, spiritual,
holy, or pious.
Even the concept
of having a good meeting
or a strong service
must not be our goal.
The meetings and the service
must come from the source;
the church life
is the issue.
The Lord’s recovery
is the central vision.
The Lord’s recovery today
is the recovery
of the central vision
of Paul’s completing ministry.
The primary goal
of the Lord today
is not the recovery
of doctrinal truths.
In His recovery
the Lord
is seeking
to recover the all-inclusive Christ
as the life-giving Spirit
who imparts Himself
into the believers
and makes them
His living Body.
In other words,
the center
of the Lord’s recovery today
is Christ and the church.
To repeat,
the center of the Lord’s recovery
is Christ and the church:
Christ
as the embodiment of God
and the church
as the expression of Christ.
This is
what God is seeking today,
and it is crucial
that we all see it.
We need
to see
the central vision
of Paul’s completing ministry
and bring others
into this vision.
The central lane
of Paul’s completing ministry
is Christ
as the mystery of God
and the church
as the mystery of Christ.
We should remain
in the central lane
of Paul’s completing ministry.