The Holy Word for Morning Revival
International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones—Spring 2014
ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHURCH LIFE SEEN IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem
are twelve pearls:
Pearls are produced by oysters in the waters of death;
when an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand,
it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand
and makes it into a precious pearl.
This depicts Christ
as the living One
coming into the death waters,
being wounded by us,
and secreting His life over us
to make us into precious pearls
for the building of God’s eternal expression.
That the twelve gates of the holy city
are twelve pearls
signifies that regeneration
through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ
is the entrance into the city.
Just as the grain of sand remains
in the inward wound of the oyster,
we need to remain in the death of Christ;
His death is
our abode, our dwelling, our residence, our rest,
and our unique place of protection:
As long as we remain and stay
in the death of Christ,
we will never lose our temper;
we can gain the victory
over sin, over our temperament, over the world, and over Satan
in the death of Christ.
If the grain of sand stays away
from the wound of the oyster,
it is not in the position
to enjoy the secretion of the life-sap of that oyster;
this picture shows us
that we are imprisoned
in the death of Christ by His secreting power
and that this secretion is
the move of His resurrection life.
As long as we remain in His wound,
in the death of His cross,
His life reacts,
and this reaction is
a secretion of His resurrection life;
the secretion of His resurrection
is in the life-giving Spirit,
who is the reality of His resurrection.
Because of His great love
with which He loved us,
His wound (His death) caused by us
became our prison;
as we stay in the Lord’s death
and enjoy His life-secreting resurrection,
there is a further entering into
and becoming of
the New Jerusalem.
Pearls signify
the issue of Christ’s secretion in two aspects:
His redeeming and life-releasing death
and His life-dispensing resurrection:
Both kinds of secretion (dispensing)
require the seeking believers’ daily experience
of the death of Christ subjectively
by the power of Christ’s resurrection
that they may be conformed
to the death of Christ
and their daily experience of the resurrection of Christ subjectively
by the bountiful supply
of the Spirit (the reality of resurrection) of Jesus Christ
that they may be conformed
to the image of the firstborn Son of God.
We can experience His death
only by the power of the resurrection of Christ;
by the power of the resurrection of Christ,
we have the ability and the power
to keep our pitiful self on the cross.
Christ’s death can be experienced
only through Christ’s resurrection,
and Christ’s resurrection can be real to us
only by the bountiful supply
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is only through prayer
that we can remain on the cross
by touching Christ in our spirit continually
as the life-giving Spirit,
the Spirit who is the reality of His resurrection.
Song of Songs depicts
that Christ wants His seeker
to remain in the cross,
to remain in His death,
to remain in a crucified condition continually:
To remain in the death of the cross
is a difficult matter,
like entering into the clefts of the rock
and the covert of the precipice
high in the mountains by a rugged road.
In order to empower and encourage His lover
to rise up and come away from her low situation
in her introspection of the self,
Christ empowers her
by showing her the power of His resurrection,
and He encourages her
by the flourishing riches of His resurrection.
It is by the power of Christ’s resurrection,
not by our natural life,
that we, the lovers of Christ,
determine to take the cross by denying our self.
It is also by the power of Christ’s resurrection
that we are enabled to be conformed to His death
by being one with His cross.
The reality of resurrection
is the pneumatic Christ,
who as the consummated Spirit
indwells and is mingled with our regenerated spirit;
it is in such a mingled spirit
that we participate in and experience
the resurrection of Christ,
which enables us to be one with the cross
in order to be delivered from the self
and transformed into a new man in God’s new creation
for the fulfillment of God’s economy
in the building up of the organic Body of Christ.
The street of the holy city,
like the city itself,
is pure gold,
which symbolizes the divine nature:
Since gold signifies the divine nature of God,
the city’s being of pure gold signifies
that the New Jerusalem is altogether of God’s divine nature
and takes God’s divine nature as its element.
That the river of water of life proceeds
“in the middle of its street,”
which is of pure gold,
signifies that the divine life flows
in the divine nature as the unique way
for the daily life of God’s redeemed people:
Where the divine life flows,
there the divine nature is
as the holy way
by which God’s people walk;
and where the holy way of the divine nature is,
there the divine life is flowing.
The divine life and the divine nature as the holy way
always go together;
thus, God’s river of water of life
is available along this divine way,
and we enjoy the river
by walking in this way of life.
The divine nature
is what God is:
God is Spirit (John 4:24),
God is love (1 John 4:8, 16),
and God is light (1:5);
Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person,
love denotes the nature of God’s essence,
and light denotes the nature of God’s expression:
When we partake of the divine nature,
we enjoy God
as the Spirit, as love, and as light.
If we spend an adequate amount of time with the Lord in the morning,
we will have the sensation
that we are enjoying the Lord as the Spirit,
and we will become a person of love;
furthermore, whatever we say
will be light,
and whatever we do
will be transparent as crystal.
The divine life and the divine nature
are inseparable;
the divine nature
is the substance of the divine life
and is within the divine life.
As the children of God,
we are God-men,
born of God,
possessing the life and nature of God,
and belonging to the species of God.
A partaker of the divine nature is one
who enjoys the divine nature
and participates in the divine nature:
To partake of the divine nature
is to enjoy what God is;
to be a partaker of the divine nature
is to be a partaker of
the riches, the elements, and the constituents of God’s being.
If we would be partakers of the divine nature,
we need to live by the divine life
within which is the divine nature.
We enjoy the divine nature
through God’s precious and exceedingly great promises.
Being a partaker of the divine nature
has a condition
—that we escape the corruption
which is in the world by lust;
we need to live in the cycle
of escaping and partaking
and of partaking and escaping.
If we enjoy God and partake of the riches of His being,
we will be constituted with the divine nature,
becoming the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead
and expressing Him in all
that we are and do.
As we partake of the divine nature,
enjoying all that God is,
the riches of the divine nature
will be fully developed
so that we may have a rich entrance
into the kingdom of God.
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Prophecy note, 13 July 2014
Becoming a partaker
of the divine nature
has a condition.
This condition
is that we escape the corruption
which is in the world by lust.
The corruption of today’s world
is in conflict with
our enjoying God’s nature.
Lust is a barrier
that keeps us
from enjoying the divine nature.
Christ died
to redeem us
from the vain manner of life,
and now we should abstain from fleshly lusts
and no longer live
in the flesh in the lusts of men.
This is to escape the corruption
that is in the world through lust.
we need to live in the cycle
of escaping and partaking
and of partaking and escaping.
If we enjoy God
and partake of the riches of His being,
we will be constituted
with the divine nature,
becoming the same as God
in life and nature
but not in the Godhead
and expressing Him in all
that we are and do.
As we partake of the divine nature,
enjoying all that God is,
the riches of the divine nature
will be fully developed
so that we may have a rich entrance
into the kingdom of God.
Day 6
The divine nature
is what God is.
The Bible tells us emphatically and directly
that God is Spirit (John 4:24),
God is love (1 John 4:8, 16),
and God is light (1 John 1:5).
The divine nature
is a constitution of these three items
—Spirit, love, and light.
To be a partaker of the divine nature
is to be one
partaking of God as Spirit, as love, and as light.
Spirit denotes the nature of God’s person,
and love denotes the nature of God’s essence.
God is a divine Being with a divine essence.
The essence is more intrinsic
than the element of something.
Within the element
is the essence,
and this divine essence
has love as its nature.
Furthermore, the divine light
is the nature of God’s expression.
If we would spend
an adequate amount of time
in the morning with the Lord,
we would be full of light inwardly
and we would not do things nonsensically
or say things foolishly.
Whatever we do and whatever we say
would be full of light.
This is the issue
of our enjoying of the divine nature.
This is because one constituent in the divine nature is light.
If we would all spend time to fellowship with the Lord,
we would have the sensation
that we are enjoying the Lord as the Spirit,
and we would become a person of love.
Love would saturate us.
Furthermore, whatever we would say
would be light,
and whatever we would do
would be transparent as crystal.
This is an evidence or proof
that we are partaking of the divine nature.
The divine nature
denotes what God is,
that is, the constituents of God’s being.
Because we are children of God born of Him,
we possess God’s life and also His nature for our enjoyment.
Through our new birth, regeneration,
we have been born of God,
and we are God’s children.
Because we have been born of God,
in life and in nature
we are the same as God.
In this sense,
those who are born of God
are divine.
But we definitely do not participate in the Godhead,
and we certainly do not become an object of worship.
We have God’s life and nature,
but we do not become part of the Godhead.
In 2 Peter 1:4 we also see
that becoming a partaker of the divine nature
has a condition.
This condition
is that we escape the corruption
which is in the world by lust.
The corruption of today’s world
is in conflict with our enjoying God’s nature.
Lust is a barrier
that keeps us from enjoying the divine nature.
Christ died to redeem us from the vain manner of life,
and now we should abstain from fleshly lusts
and no longer live in the flesh in the lusts of men.
This is to escape the corruption
that is in the world through lust.
As we partake of the divine nature,
enjoying all that God is,
the riches of the divine nature
will be fully developed,
as described in 2 Peter 1:5-7.
Having escaped
the corruption of lust in the world,
the barrier to the growth of the divine life in us,
we are freed
to become partakers of the divine nature,
enjoying its riches in its development to the fullest extent
by the virtue of God unto His glory.
This is the experience
of God’s New Testament economy.
Day 5
The street of the city is gold,
signifying God’s nature.
The street is a part of the city proper,
and every part of the city proper is gold.
The street being gold means
that God’s nature is
the way in the city
and the way in the church life.
We must do everything
according to God’s nature
since His nature is the way.
For a man to divorce his wife
is not according to God’s nature,
so he should never take this way.
In everything we do in the church life,
we have to check with God’s nature.
Even the way we dress
and what we buy
should be according to God’s nature.
Some Christians
who are concerned about being holy
have regulations,
but in the New Jerusalem
there is only one regulation
—the golden street.
God’s divine nature is the unique regulation,
and this is the way
we have to take
and the street
we have to walk on.
God’s divine nature
is our way and our strength.
We should not be regulated by a written code
but by the one golden street
which is the divine nature of God.
Revelation 21:21 tells us
that “the street of the city was pure gold,
like transparent glass.”
If we take God’s nature as our unique way,
we will be pure, without mixture,
and transparent, without opaqueness.
In the middle of this street
is the river of water of life,
which indicates
that when you take the way according to God’s nature,
the life of God flows within you.
The divine life
flows in the divine nature as the unique way
for the daily life of God’s redeemed people.
If I do not buy a tie according to God’s nature,
there is no flow of life within me.
However, if I buy a tie according to God’s nature,
I sense the flow of life.
If a husband is going to divorce his wife,
this is against God’s nature,
and this will lead to spiritual death.
However, if this husband would live with his wife and love her
according to God’s nature,
the river of life would flow within him.
Whatever we do according to God’s nature,
we immediately have the deep sensation
of the flow of life watering us.
The one tree of life
growing on the two sides of the river
signifies that the tree of life is a vine,
spreading and proceeding along the flow of the water of life
for God’s people to receive and enjoy.
The fruits of the tree of life
will be the food of God’s redeemed for eternity.
They will be continually fresh,
produced every month,
twelve fruits yearly.
This means
that when we walk and move in the divine nature of God,
we not only sense the flow of life within us
but also sense
the supply of life,
the nourishment of life,
the spiritual food.
When you take the divine way, the street of God’s divine nature,
you have the life flowing in you,
and you also have the life supply nourishing you.
Day by day,
as we are living such a life
and walking according to God’s divine nature,
we enjoy the water of life and the tree of life as our supply.
We all need a day-by-day experience
of the divine street of gold
with the river of water of life and the tree of life in its middle,
signifying that the life water and the life supply flow in the divine way.
The street of the holy city
is pure gold.
Gold symbolizes the divine nature.
That the river of water of life proceeds “in the middle of its street”
signifies that the divine life flows in the divine nature
as the unique way for the daily life of God’s redeemed people.
Where the divine life flows,
there the divine nature is as the holy way
by which God’s people walk;
and where the holy way of the divine nature is,
there the divine life is flowing.
The divine life and the divine nature as the holy way
always go together.
Thus, God’s river of water of life
is available along this divine way,
and we enjoy the river
by walking in this way of life.
Day 4
Christ wants His seeker
to remain in the cross,
that is, to stay in “the clefts of the rock”
and in “the covert of the precipice” (S.S. 2:14a).
Christ wants us to remain in the cross continually.
The brothers need to be crossed out
in their relationship with their wives.
We may say
that some of the things
which come to us in our environment to trouble us
are Satan’s work,
but they are also God’s assignment.
God’s assignment
is to put us to death.
In the midst of our troubling environment,
we must learn to turn our mind to our spirit
to receive the strengthening of the Spirit
as the power of resurrection.
For Christ’s seeker to stay in the cross
is a hard matter,
like getting into the clefts of the rock
and the covert of the precipice by a rugged road.
It could be only by the power of Christ’s resurrection
shown in the leaping of the gazelle upon the mountains
and the skipping of the young hart upon the hills,
not by her natural life.
This is to “deny” herself
as the Lord charges in Matthew 16:24.
This is also to be conformed to the death of Christ
by the power of His resurrection.
It is only in this way
that she can be delivered from her self
which frustrates her from experiencing Christ in resurrection.
In order to empower and encourage His lover
to rise up and get away from her down situation
in her introspection of the self,
Christ empowers her
by showing her the power of His resurrection
by the gazelle’s leaping upon the mountains
and the young hart’s skipping upon the hills.
It is by this power of Christ’s resurrection
that we, the lovers of Christ,
determine to take the cross
by denying our self.
Have we ever had such a determination?
Often we forget
what we determined to do before God.
We need to be reminded.
It is also by this power of Christ’s resurrection
that we, the lovers of Christ,
are enabled to be conformed to His death,
to be one with His cross
as staying in the clefts of the rock,
in the covert of the precipice.
Christ encourages His seeker
by the flourishing riches of His resurrection.
The dormant days (winter) are past,
and the trials (rain) are over and gone.
The life in all appearances is blossoming.
The time of praising—singing—has come.
The fruit tree has ripened in its fruits,
and the vines are in blossom,
giving forth their fragrance.
This is a portrait
of the riches of Christ’s resurrection.
In order to experience the life-giving Spirit
as the reality of resurrection in our spirit,
we have to discern our spirit from our soul.
In our soul
we are the old man, the soulish man, the natural man.
In our spirit
we are the new man, the spiritual man,
that lives and walks in our spirit
as God’s Holiest of all,
indwelt by and mingled with
the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ.
It is in such a mingled spirit
that we participate in and experience
the resurrection of Christ,
the reality of which
is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit,
the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
We need to experience the Triune God
and then perfect others with the Triune God
by helping them to deny themselves
so that they can be with the Lord in a new way
to be renewed and transformed
to become absolutely a new man in God’s new creation.
It is only by being conformed to the death of Christ
by the power of His resurrection
that we can be delivered from our self
to be transformed into a new man in God’s new creation
for God to fulfill His economy
so that we can be the organic Body of Christ.
Day 3
Pearls signify
the issue of Christ’s secretion in two aspects:
His redeeming and life-releasing death
and His life-dispensing resurrection.
Without God’s revelation
we can never realize
that the death of Christ secretes, dispenses,
to produce the gates of the city.
The twelve gates
are the issue of Christ’s secretion
also in His life-dispensing resurrection.
He resurrected
to be the life-giving Spirit
to dispense the divine life
into the believers.
This is a kind of secretion
issuing in a big pearl
to be the gates of the city.
Both kinds of secretion (dispensing)
require the seeking believers’ daily experience
of the death of Christ subjectively
by the power of Christ’s resurrection
that they may be conformed
to the death of Christ.
We have to put
not just Christ’s death itself
but the secretion of His death
into our daily experience subjectively.
We may know
that we have been crucified with Christ,
but we need to experience this.
In our baptism
we declared
that we were finished.
It is no more I,
but Christ
who lives in me.
In our subjective experience,
we should be on the cross.
We may know this teaching,
but in our daily experience
we are short.
In our daily life,
we do not practice
being crucified with Christ.
Dear saints,
the second application of the New Jerusalem
is for us to experience subjectively
the death of Christ
in our daily life.
We cannot do this
in and by ourselves.
None of us
can practice such a thing.
Everybody likes to argue.
Argument comes from our natural life,
from “I” not Christ.
But we should have this “I”
all the time crucified on the cross.
We have to put this application
of the subjective death of Christ
into our daily experience.
We can experience His death
only by the power of the resurrection of Christ.
The chorus of Hymns, #631 says,
“If no death, no life.”
This life comes to us
not by our natural life
but by the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Yes, we have been crucified,
but how can we keep ourselves
on the cross all the time?
No human being
can do it
except those
who know the power of the resurrection of Christ;
they have the capacity, the ability,
to practice this.
By the power of the resurrection of Christ,
we have the ability and the power
to keep our pitiful self on the cross.
How can a sister be a good wife?
A good wife is
a crucified wife,
a wife on the cross.
Christ’s death
can be experienced by us
only through Christ’s resurrection,
and Christ’s resurrection
can be real to us
only by the bountiful supply
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ has become the life-giving Spirit,
and He is within us.
When we turn to our spirit,
we meet Christ as the life-giving Spirit,
who is the very reality of Christ’s resurrection.
It is by this Spirit
that we experience Christ’s resurrection.
To experience Christ’s resurrection
is to contact the life-giving Spirit.
In order to apply this
we have to remain in our spirit all the time
to meet Christ as the Spirit,
who is the reality of His resurrection.
Then we have the power
to remain on the cross.
The application of the gates of the city
is first to remain on the cross
by the power of Christ’s resurrection.
Second, we have to apply Christ
as the life-giving Spirit
living in our spirit.
We have to touch Him all the time.
This is why the Bible tells us to pray unceasingly.
It is only through prayer
that we can touch Christ in our spirit
as the life-giving Spirit,
the Spirit who is the reality of His resurrection.
Day 2
The oyster’s wound
is an inward wound
caused by a little rock.
This rock can remain
in this wound
or, we may say, in this death.
In like manner,
we can remain
in Christ’s death.
Where are you staying today?
You should say,
“Praise the Lord!
I am staying in Christ’s death.
The Lord’s death
is my abode, my dwelling.”
You are a “little rock”
that wounded Christ.
After being wounded,
He keeps you in His wound.
Now you need to stay
in His wound, in His death.
His death is my best residence.
The reason why we lose our temper
is because we move out
of the death of Christ.
Because you “left home”
and did not remain in His death,
you lost your temper.
As long as you remain and stay
in the death of Christ,
you will never lose your temper.
Where can you get the victory
over sin, over your temperament, over the world, and over Satan?
Nowhere but in the death of Christ.
After the little rock wounds the oyster,
it stays in the wound,
and the oyster will not let it go.
It grasps the rock
in the very wound it made,
so the wound becomes
its residence, its home, its dwelling place.
In like manner,
the very death
which Christ accomplished on the cross
becomes our dwelling place.
If we stay away from the wound,
we cannot enjoy the secretion of the resurrection life.
If the rock stays away
from the wound of the oyster,
it is not in the position
to enjoy the secretion
of the life-sap of that oyster.
The secretion symbolizes
the move of the resurrection life.
Because an oyster is living and organic,
it immediately reacts to being wounded by a rock
by secreting its life-sap around the rock
to keep it and even imprison it
in its wound.
This picture or allegory shows us
that we are imprisoned
in the death of Christ
by His secreting power
and that this secretion is
the move of His resurrection life.
As long as I am staying in His wound,
His life reacts,
and this reaction is
a secretion of His resurrection life.
The death of Christ
is not merely objective
but very subjective.
We have to be conformed to His death.
His death has to be our daily dwelling place,
and His resurrection should be our daily experience.
We should be one with Him all the time
in His death and resurrection.
Our oneness with Him
is in the Spirit.
Hence, the secretion of His resurrection
is in the Spirit
—the reality of His resurrection.
The oyster is an allegory
of the wonderful Christ.
He is the unique One
that can live in the death waters.
As One who is living and organic,
He was wounded by us,
and He reacted by resurrecting
to secrete His life-sap
around the wounding ones.
What a mercy!
We wounded Him,
and He will not let us go.
Because of His great love
with which He loved us,
His wound caused by us
became our prison.
His desire is to imprison us
in His death
that we might enjoy
His life-secreting resurrection.
Christ makes us pearls
by being wounded by us,
by keeping us in His wound,
and by secreting Himself around us
in His death
through resurrection in the Spirit,
who is His reality.
The pearls are the gates,
and this point of the allegory
means that the more we are made pearls,
the more we are in the New Jerusalem.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus,
we were regenerated,
and this was the initiation
of our entering into the New Jerusalem.
At that time, though,
we were barely in the New Jerusalem
in our experience.
As we stay in the Lord’s death
and enjoy His life-secreting resurrection,
there is a further entering
into the New Jerusalem.
Our experience of the Lord’s death and resurrection
becomes our entry into the New Jerusalem.
Day 1
In Revelation 21
gold signifies the divine nature
and precious stones signify
what is produced by the transforming work of the Spirit.
The significance of the pearl
is found in the way it is produced.
Pearls are produced by oysters in the waters of death.
When the oyster is wounded by a particle of sand,
it secretes its life-juice around the sand
and makes it a precious pearl.
This depicts Christ
as the living One
coming into the death waters,
being wounded by us,
and secreting His life-juice over us
to make us precious pearls
for the building of God’s eternal expression.
We must admire God’s wisdom.
Nearly everything in His creation
is an illustration of an aspect of His economy.
Christ, the living One,
entered into our death situation
and lived in it.
Through living in the waters of death,
He was wounded by us.
After wounding Him,
we remained near His wound.
This means
that we repented, believed in Him, and received Him.
As we stay near His wounds,
He secretes the life-juice of His resurrection life,
and this life-juice envelops us
and eventually transforms us into pearls.
By staying at Christ’s wound,
we receive His life
and are regenerated.
By remaining there after our regeneration,
we are also transformed and become pearls.
That the twelve gates of the holy city are twelve pearls
signifies that regeneration
through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ
is the entrance into the city.
This entrance meets the requirement of the law
as represented by Israel
and as observed by the guarding angels.
Hence, the pearl is the entrance into the city.
The only way to enter into the New Jerusalem
is through the pearl gates,
through the gates
constituted with the overcoming death
and the life-imparting resurrection of Christ.
Praise the Lord,
we have all entered the New Jerusalem in this way!
We confessed, we repented, we appreciated His death,
and we enjoyed staying at His wounds.
Immediately, we received the life-secretion
that regenerated us
and that is now transforming us.
Through our experience
of the death and resurrection of Christ,
we have passed through the pearl gates
and are now within the city. Hallelujah!
The fact that each one of the gates
is, respectively, of one pearl
indicates that the entrance into the city
is unique and once for all;
that is, it is only through the once-for-all regeneration
by Christ’s overcoming death and life-imparting resurrection.
The names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel
are inscribed on the twelve gates of the city.
Israel here represents the law of the Old Testament,
indicating that the law is represented at the gates of New Jerusalem.
The law watches and observes
to insure that all the communications,
the comings in and the goings out,
of the holy city
meet its requirements.
Thus, all the communications of this city
are according to the law of God.
Because our entrance into the New Jerusalem
through the pearl gates
had to be according to the law,
we all had to repent, confess our sins, and say
“O Lord Jesus, You not only died for my sins;
You also died for me.
Lord, I confess
that I am sinful,
that I have committed a great many sins,
and that I am worthy of nothing but death.
Lord, how I thank You
for dying for me.”
This kind of repentance and confession
fulfills the requirement of the law
and makes our entrance into the city lawful.