We need to be
enlightened by
and fully saturated with
the thought
that in the universe God
is doing only one thing
—building His eternal habitation
—Bethel:
The entire Bible
is a book of building;
the main subject of the Bible
is the building of God.
The central and divine thought of the Scriptures
is that God
is seeking a divine building
as the mingling of Himself with humanity
—a living composition of persons
redeemed by and mingled with Himself.
God’s building
is the desire of His heart
and the goal of His salvation.
We need to have
a divine understanding
of God’s building:
God’s building
is the mingling of God with man:
The principle of God’s building
is that God
builds Himself into us
and builds us into Himself.
The church
is God’s building
composed of Himself
as the divine material
mingled with man
as the human material.
God’s building
is the corporate expression
of the Triune God:
God’s intention
is to have a group of people
built up as a spiritual building
to express Him
and to represent Him
by dealing with His enemy
and recovering the lost earth.
God’s desire
to be expressed
and represented by man on earth
can be fulfilled
only when we
are built up together.
God’s building
is the enlargement, the expansion, of God
to express Himself
in a corporate way:
The genuine building
is the enlargement, the expansion, of the Triune God,
enabling God to express Himself
in a corporate way.
The divine building
is the Triune God as life
being wrought into us
so that we
may become
His one expression,
the enlargement and expansion of God
in His economy.
Bethel, the house of God,
is the church today
and will consummate in the New Jerusalem
as the eternal Bethel,
the eternal dwelling place of God
and His redeemed elect.
Jacob, a man under God’s transforming hand,
represents a life of transformation
for God’s building:
Jacob’s history
must become our biography:
There are three distinct periods
in Jacob’s life:
the period of dealings (chs. 25—32),
the period of transformation (chs. 32—36),
and the period of maturity (chs. 37—50).
Everything that happened to Jacob
was for his transformation:
In order to be transformed,
Jacob had to be pressed into situations
that gave him no choice
except to undergo a change.
From Jacob’s experience
we see that everything
that happens to us
is under God’s sovereignty
for our transformation.
Jacob’s transformation
began from the time
the Lord came
and touched Jacob’s strongest part, his thigh,
in Genesis 32;
from that time onward,
the process of transformation
continued until chapter 37.
The trouble
that Simeon and Levi caused Jacob
touched him in the depths of his being,
and he began to be transformed.
Jacob had been chosen to be
the expression of God and a prince of God,
and he could become
God’s expression and a prince of God
only through transformation:
Israel means
“one who struggles with God”
and “the prince of God.”
God’s purpose
in dealing with Jacob, a supplanter,
was to transform him
into Israel, a prince of God,
bearing His image
to express Him
and exercising His dominion
to represent Him.
Jacob’s name
was changed to Israel;
a supplanter (Jacob)
was changed into a prince of God.
The Christian life
is a life of struggling with God
to be transformed by God
into a prince of God.
God’s purpose
in selecting, predestinating, and calling us
is to transform pitiful sinners into royal sons
so that, after the process of transformation
has been completed,
we may reign as kings.
Because of the fall,
we became distorted clay;
God’s way
is not to reform distorted ones
but to transform them into stones
for the building up of God’s house, Bethel.
To be transformed
is to have
the pneumatic Christ,
Christ in resurrection
as the life-giving Spirit,
dispensed and wrought into our soul
to replace
what we are in the natural life
so that Christ may increase
and our natural life may decrease.
Transformation
is not outward correction or adjustment
but the metabolic function
of the life of God in us,
by the addition of the element
of the divine life of Christ
into our being,
so that we may express
the image of Christ
outwardly.
The process of transformation
is both organic and metabolic;
it is organic
because it is related to life,
and it is metabolic
because it is related to a process
in which old elements
are discharged
and new elements
are added.
The metabolic change
that takes place during transformation
is a change
both in inward constitution and outward form.
Transformation is
for the mass reproduction
of the firstborn Son of God
as the prototype of a God-man
so that we may be shaped into His image
to be exactly the same
as the firstborn Son of God.
Whether we are overcomers or defeated ones
depends upon the transformation of our soul
and upon our attitude
toward the Lord’s transforming work:
God’s transforming work
is actually His exercising of His kingdom;
to obey God
is to cooperate with His transforming work.
If we let
the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit
transform us day by day,
we will be overcomers.
Transformation issues in building up;
the building up
of the jasper wall of the New Jerusalem
goes along with transformation:
The Spirit’s transforming work
is with His bountiful supply
of the divine element
for the building up of
Bethel, God’s dwelling place.
Consummately,
the transforming work of the Spirit
issues in the New Jerusalem,
which bears the image of God
for His expression:
God appears like a jasper stone,
and the New Jerusalem, having the glory of God,
shines like a jasper stone.
The first layer of the wall’s foundation,
as well as the entire wall of the New Jerusalem,
is built with jasper,
indicating that the main material
in the building of the city
is jasper.
Since jasper signifies God
expressed in His communicable glory,
the main function of the New Jerusalem
is to express God
in bearing His glory.
The book of Genesis
is a miniature
of the complete revelation
of the entire Bible:
At the end of Genesis
we see
a man
called Israel,
a transformed person
who is clear, transparent, and full of life;
this transformed person
is a seed, a miniature,
of the New Jerusalem.
At the end of Revelation
we see
the New Jerusalem, a transparent city
filled with the life of God,
having the glory of God,
and whose light is
like “a most precious stone,
like a jasper stone,
as clear as crystal”.
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7 replies on “Transformation for God’s Building”
Prophecy note, 19 October 2014
Consummately,
the transforming work of the Spirit
issues in the New Jerusalem,
which bears the image of God
for His expression.
Since jasper signifies God
expressed in His communicable glory,
the main function
of the holy city
is to express God
in bearing His glory.
The transforming work
of the Spirit
produces the precious stones
for God’s building.
The Triune God today
is within us,
working to transform our soul.
To obey God
is to go along with
His work of transformation.
When this work on our soul
is completed,
we shall be fully matured.
Then the Lord Jesus
will return
to redeem, transfigure, our body,
and we shall be in glory.
Jacob could bless his sons
in a way
that was full of
divine revelation
because he
was fully matured
in the divine life.
He was born a Jacob,
but he was transformed
into Israel.
He was born
a supplanter, a heel-holder,
but he was transformed
into a prince of God.
Abraham did not bless,
because he did not have
the maturity in life.
Isaac, having some maturity
but lacking the richness
of the maturity of life,
blessed in a blind way.
Jacob, who was mature in life,
blessed in a full and clear way.
Whatever he spoke
was the divine word,
and whatever he blessed
was a prophecy
concerning God’s economy
with all His children.
The book of Genesis
is a miniature
of the complete revelation
of the entire Bible.
At the end of Genesis
we see a man
called Israel,
a transformed person
who is
transparent, clear, and full of life.
The transformed Israel
is a seed, a miniature,
of the New Jerusalem.
At the end of Revelation
we see
the New Jerusalem, a transparent city
filled with the life of God,
having the glory of God,
and whose light is
like “a most precious stone,
like a jasper stone,
as clear as crystal”.
God shines
in Christ
through the city,
for the whole city
will be transparent,
everyone in it
being transformed.
There is
no more clay, nothing opaque;
every bit of clay
has been transformed
into crystal-clear, precious stones.
God shines
in Christ
through the city,
and all the nations
will walk
in this light.
Then the whole universe
will be headed up
in the light
shown through
this transparent city.
The life is
only in the city,
and this life
is God Himself
imparted to
all of His children.
The shining
of the New Jerusalem
is the glory
of the manifestation
of the sons of God.
Day 6
The work of the divine building
is carried out
through renewing and transformation.
Renewing issues in transformation,
and transformation issues in building up.
The building up
of the jasper wall of the New Jerusalem
goes along with its transformation.
We need to be renewed and transformed,
and then we can do the work of building.
Consummately,
the transforming work of the Spirit
issues in the New Jerusalem,
which bears the image of God
for His expression.
God appears
like a jasper stone in Revelation 4:3,
and the New Jerusalem,
having the glory of God,
shines like a jasper stone.
Also, the first layer
of the wall’s foundation,
as well as the entire wall
of the New Jerusalem,
is built with jasper.
This indicates
that the main material
in the building of the holy city
is jasper.
Since jasper signifies God
expressed in His communicable glory,
the main function of the holy city
is to express God
in bearing His glory.
The transforming work of the Spirit
produces the precious stones
for God’s building.
Jacob could bless his sons in a way
that was full of divine revelation
because he was fully matured
in the divine life.
He was born a Jacob,
but he was transformed
into Israel.
He was born
a supplanter, a heel-holder,
but he was transformed
into a prince of God.
Abraham did not bless,
because he did not have
the maturity in life.
Isaac, having some maturity
but lacking the richness
of the maturity of life,
blessed in a blind way.
Jacob, who was mature in life,
blessed in a full and clear way.
Whatever he spoke
was the divine word,
and whatever he blessed
was a prophecy
concerning God’s economy
with all His children.
If we have the light
from the Scriptures as a whole,
we shall see
that the book of Genesis
is a miniature of the complete revelation
of the entire Bible.
At the end of Genesis
we see
a man
called Israel,
a transformed person
who is
transparent, clear, and full of life.
The transformed Israel
is a seed, a miniature,
of the New Jerusalem.
At the beginning of Genesis
we have man
created in God’s image.
At the end of Genesis
we have
a transformed person,
a man
not only outwardly in the image of God,
but a man
in whom God has wrought Himself,
making him His expression.
The New Jerusalem
is the very center
of the new heaven and new earth.
Christ sits at the top of the city as the Head
to supply His life to His members,
through whom He shines out
to bring all the nations into order.
All things
will be under the headship of Christ.
God shines in Christ through the city,
for the whole city
will be transparent,
everyone in it
being transformed.
There is
no more clay, nothing opaque;
every bit of clay
has been transformed
into crystal-clear, precious stones.
God shines in Christ through the city,
and all the nations
will walk in this light.
Then the whole universe
will be headed up in the light
shown through this transparent city.
Within the city
there is the life,
but outside the city
there is only the shining.
All the nations
are under the shining,
but they do not have
the life.
The life
is only in the city,
and this life
is God Himself
imparted to all of His children.
By this life
they are full of light,
and this light
will shine through them
to bring all creation
out of darkness, confusion,
and the bondage of corruption in vanity
into the order
of the manifestation of the sons of God.
The shining of the New Jerusalem
is the glory
of the manifestation of the sons of God.
Day 5
The process of transformation
is both organic and metabolic.
It is organic
because it is related to life,
and it is metabolic
because it is related to a process
in which old elements
are discharged
and new elements
are added.
To change someone’s complexion by makeup
is neither organic nor metabolic.
But a change in complexion
that comes through
eating nourishing food
is both organic and metabolic.
Such a change
may be considered
a physical transformation.
If we would be transformed,
we must constantly look to the Lord,
pray,
read the Word,
and call on the name of the Lord.
In this way
we eat, drink, and breathe
the rich supply of Christ
into us.
This supply
will produce a metabolic change
in which the old, negative elements
are discharged and replaced by
new, positive elements.
This metabolic change
is transformation.
This metabolic transformation
is not something
that can be carried out hurriedly.
We are being transformed metabolically
with the life element of God’s firstborn Son
and thereby will have His divine image.
Being transformed
indicates that we
are in the process of transformation,
which is
a process in life, an organic process.
Today in this process of metabolic transformation
we are being transformed
from one degree of glory
to another, higher degree of glory
until we are transfigured in our body
and raptured into glory.
That will be
the consummation of our transformation.
This is
for the mass reproduction
of the firstborn Son of God
as the prototype of a God-man,
that we may be shaped
in the divine image
to be just like
the firstborn Son of God, Christ
as the God-man.
When we
are shaped in the divine image,
we become the New Jerusalem.
Hence, the New Jerusalem
is the mass reproduction
of the firstborn Son of God.
This is
the highest purpose of God
in His economy.
On the one hand,
He passed through the processes
to become the firstborn Son of God
with a view to become the prototype.
On the other hand,
He has brought us
into the process of transformation
that we may become
the mass reproduction of Him
as the prototype
to consummately become
the New Jerusalem.
We have been regenerated in our spirit,
and we are being transformed in our soul.
Whether we overcome or are defeated
depends upon the transformation of the soul.
If we let
the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit
transform us
day after day,
we shall be overcomers.
Even now
we are overcomers,
because we are going along with
the Triune God’s transforming work.
As long as we
are going along with His transforming work,
we are overcomers.
When we
do not go along with His work in us,
we are defeated.
Whether we are overcomers or defeated ones
depends on our attitude
toward God’s transforming work.
The Triune God today
is within us,
working to transform our soul.
He is renewing
our mind, our will, and our emotion.
There is
no problem with our spirit;
it has been regenerated.
The problem
is in our soul.
God is concentrating His transforming work
on our soul.
What is our attitude?
To obey God
is to go along with His work of transformation.
We are all here
under His transforming work.
When this work on our soul
is completed,
we shall be fully matured.
Then the Lord Jesus
will return to redeem, transfigure, our body,
and we shall be in glory.
The matter of the kingdom
is very much related to
our daily life.
God’s transforming work
is actually His exercising of His kingdom.
Day 4
For the fulfilling of God’s purpose,
Jacob’s name
was changed to Israel;
a heel-holder, a supplanter (Jacob),
was changed into a prince of God (Israel).
If Jacob had remained a supplanter,
he could never have been used by God
in the fulfillment of the divine purpose.
Jacob had to be changed
into a prince of God.
For the building of the church,
Peter’s name, Simon,
was changed to Cephas,
which means a stone.
Peter’s natural being
was muddy,
and he had to be transformed
into a stone, even a precious stone,
for God’s building
to fulfill the divine purpose.
What is the purpose
of God’s calling?
It is
to transform His called ones
into kings.
We can see this purpose in Jacob,
but not in Abraham or Isaac.
If you were to ask Isaac
about his purpose in life,
he might have said,
“My purpose in life
is to enjoy.”
Isaac did not know anything else.
In like manner,
most Christians today
do not know
what the purpose of their life is.
They may say,
“We have been saved
to live a happy life,
to have peace and joy today,
and to go to heaven
in the future.”
But the New Testament clearly reveals
that the purpose
of God’s selection, predestination, and calling
is sonship (Eph. 1:4-5).
We have been predestinated
unto sonship.
We are not
common sons;
we are
royal sons, sons of the royal family
who are destined to be kings.
Romans 8:29 says,
“Whom He foreknew,
He also predestinated
to be conformed
to the image of His Son.”
This is
God’s purpose.
It is
for the building up
of the house of God at Bethel
(this house of God
is the intrinsic and basic line
of the Gospel of John
concerning the church, the Body of Christ)
that His redeemed people
are transformed by the Spirit
into stones organically.
First Peter 2:4 and 5 say
that Christ is
a precious stone, a living stone,
and we come to Him
that we may also become
living stones
for the building up
of God’s house.
Because of the fall,
we became
distorted clay.
God’s way
is not to reform distorted ones
but to transform the clay
into stones.
The Lamb
is for redemption.
The Spirit
is for transformation
so that we can be stones
for the building up
of God’s house, Bethel.
The New Testament overcomers
are not only produced in the church age
but are also perfected in the church age.
The perfecting of the New Testament overcomers
is a matter of transformation
through the subjective experience and enjoyment
of Christ.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says,
“We all with unveiled face,
beholding and reflecting like a mirror
the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed
into the same image
from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord Spirit.”
To be transformed
is to have Christ added
into our being
to replace what we are
so that Christ may increase
and our natural life may decrease.
As the process of transformation
takes place within us,
the old element of our natural being
is carried away,
and the glory, the resurrected Christ
as the life-giving Spirit,
is added into us
to replace the natural element.
It is through such a process
that the New Testament overcomers
are perfected in this age.
Transformation is not
an outward correction or adjustment
but the metabolic function
of the life of God in us,
by the addition of the element
of the divine life of Christ
into our entire being,
that we may express
the image of Christ outwardly.
To express the image of Christ
is to express the New Jerusalem.
Day 3
Abraham represents a life
justified by God
and living in fellowship with God,
and Isaac represents the life
which enjoys God’s grace.
In Jacob
we see
the third aspect of the spiritual life
—transformation.
Jacob, a man under God’s transforming hand,
represents the life of transformation.
Laban’s squeezing of Jacob
was sovereign of God.
Jacob needed Laban’s squeezing hand,
and God used it
for Jacob’s transformation.
Jacob’s history
must also become our biography.
We must believe
that everything in our daily life
is under God’s sovereign hand.
Everything that happened to Jacob
was for his transformation and maturity.
In order to be transformed,
Jacob had to be pressed into situations
that gave him no choice
except to undergo a change.
Like Jacob,
after we have been changed,
God will sovereignly use
persons, things, and events
to empty us of everything
that has filled us
and to take away every preoccupation
so that we may have
an increased capacity
to be filled with God.
There are
three distinct periods in Jacob’s life:
the period of dealings,
the period of transformation,
and the period of maturity.
If you compare
three chapters, Genesis 27, 37, and 47,
you will see
the dealings, the transformation, and the maturity.
In chapter 47
Jacob’s maturity
reaches its peak
and it is fully manifested.
From Jacob’s experience
we see
that everything that happens to us
is under God’s sovereignty
for our transformation and maturity.
Nothing is accidental.
God’s eternal purpose
can only be accomplished
through our transformation and maturity.
From chapter 25 to chapter 32
we see
no change in Jacob’s life.
According to the record of chapter 25,
Jacob began supplanting
even before he was born.
Jacob’s transformation
began from the time
God touched him.
This took place in chapter 32.
Although in chapters 25 to 32
there is
no transformation, no change in life,
these chapters
are full of dealings.
Remember,
Jacob spent twenty years
under the hand of Laban.
During those years
he suffered one dealing after another.
After those twenty years of dealings,
one night, at Peniel,
the Lord came
and touched
Jacob’s strongest part, his thigh,
and Jacob became lame.
That marked
the beginning of Jacob’s transformation,
and the process of transformation
continued from chapter 32 to chapter 37.
In these chapters
we see a picture
of how Jacob was being transformed.
What happened to Jacob in chapter 34
made a profound impression on him.
When he was old
and was bestowing his blessing on his twelve sons,
he was unable to forget
what Simeon and Levi had done.
The record in the Bible
is our biography,
and the record in our daily living
is our autobiography.
Jacob had been chosen
to be the expression of God.
How could such a supplanter
become God’s expression?
Not by outward correction,
but only through the process of transformation.
How can transformation be accomplished?
Only by our being placed,
by God’s sovereign arrangement,
into a certain environment
and under the hand of certain people.
He is sovereign
in His arrangement of our environment.
The name Israel
means “one who struggles with God.”
Many Christians know
that Israel means “the prince of God,”
but, as the best lexicons and translations
make clear,
this meaning is secondary.
The primary meaning of the name Israel
is a “wrestler with God.”
After the Lord blessed him,
Jacob fully realized
that the wrestler was God,
and he named that place Peniel,
which means “the face of God.”
Day 2
The Scriptures
open with God’s creation
and finish with His building.
God’s creation
is for His building,
and God’s building
is the ultimate consummation
that fulfills His purpose in creation.
The main element
utilized for God’s building
is the divine life.
We were born into God’s creation,
but we are reborn for God’s building,
which is the church,
the ultimate consummation of which
is the New Jerusalem.
This building
is of life, by life, and with life.
Life and building
are the two key words
in the entire Bible.
Life is
God in Christ
as the living content,
and building is
the corporate expression
of the Triune God.
It is God’s desire
that we realize and fulfill
the vision of His building
on this earth.
God’s intention
is to have a group of people
built up as a spiritual building
to express God
and to represent God
by dealing with His enemy
and recovering this lost earth.
Building is actually
the enlargement of God.
Building is
the enlargement of God
to express God
in a corporate way.
We have seen
that life is God Himself
wrought into our being.
If the Triune God
has truly been wrought into us,
the issue will be
an enlargement and an expansion of God.
God did not create a couple;
He only created a man.
The wife came out of the husband,
becoming the enlargement of her husband.
That was building.
Eve, as the wife of Adam,
was God’s building,
and that building
was the enlargement of Adam.
Adam was
a figure and type of
God becoming a man,
and Eve was
a figure and type of
God’s building.
Since this building
was a part of Adam,
it was undoubtedly
his enlargement and expansion.
In Genesis 1
God was alone.
At the end of the book of Revelation,
God is
in the center of the holy city, New Jerusalem,
which is His enlargement.
In the beginning
we find God Himself
without any expansion or enlargement.
However, throughout the ages and generations
God has been working Himself
into His chosen people.
Eventually we all
shall become
His building,
a building which is
the enlargement of God Himself.
Hence, this building
will become God’s expansion,
and this expansion
will express God
in a corporate way.
This is
God’s building.
Building is not
simply that I depend upon you,
that you depend upon me,
and that the brothers and sisters
depend upon one another.
That is not
an adequate understanding of building.
The proper building
is the enlargement of God,
the expansion of the Triune God,
enabling God to express Himself
in a corporate way.
This is exactly
the revelation of the Gospel of John.
The Gospel of John
reveals that the Triune God
is dispensing Himself
into His believers
and that all His believers,
as a result of
the transfusion and infusion of the Triune God into them,
become His enlargement.
This enlargement of the Triune God
is the expansion, the building, and the expression of God.
This is
the revelation of the Gospel of John.
Thus, when we speak of the building of God,
we mean
that the Triune God as life
is being wrought into us continually
and that under His transfusion and infusion
we are becoming His one expression.
This expression
is His enlargement and expansion.
God told Jacob
to go up to Bethel.
Ultimately, the New Jerusalem
will be the eternal Bethel.
Jacob never built anything,
but his descendants firstly built
the tabernacle and then the temple.
The book of Revelation
says that the New Jerusalem
is God’s tabernacle
and that there God Himself and the Lamb
are the temple.
This is Bethel.
God’s eternal purpose
is to have this dwelling place,
and He is working on it today.
Even during Jacob’s lifetime
God was working on Jacob
for His dwelling place, for Bethel.
Day 1
We must be
enlightened by
and fully saturated with
the thought
that in this universe God
is doing only one thing
—building His eternal habitation.
He is not interested in
anything else.
Creation and salvation
are both for this purpose.
Whatever blessings
He has bestowed upon us
are also for this purpose.
Today, hardly any Christians
care for God’s building.
Because of this,
we have the boldness to say
that we in the Lord’s recovery
are the unique Christians
caring for God’s building.
The Bible
is a book of building.
First, God charged Noah
to build the ark.
Then we see in the Old Testament
that Abraham
was looking for a city
and that his descendants, the children of Israel,
built a tabernacle.
Later, they
entered into the good land
and built a temple.
In the New Testament
the Lord said
that He would build His church.
Peter rebuked the Jews
by saying
that they, the builders,
had rejected Christ
as the cornerstone of God’s building.
Also, Paul told us
that we are the house of God
and that we are God’s building.
Then Peter told us in his first Epistle
that Christ is the living stone
for God’s building
and we are like Him as the living stones
to be built up into a spiritual house.
We can see
that God’s building
is a line throughout the entire Bible,
and the consummation of this building
is the New Jerusalem.
We must realize and remember well
that the divine thought in the entire Scriptures
is not
that God
is seeking a physical habitation.
The central and divine thought of the Scriptures
is that God
is seeking a divine building
as the mingling of Himself with humanity.
He is seeking a living composition of living persons
redeemed by and mingled with Himself.
The principle
of the Lord being a building
is that God mingles Himself with humanity,
and this is the principle
of God’s building in general.
Therefore, the church also
is the divine mingling of God Himself with humanity.
The church is not
something of the old creation.
It is God’s building
composed of God Himself as the divine material
mingled with man as the human material.
We may speak much
concerning the building of the church,
but we must realize
that the building
is the mingling of God with man.
The more
we are mingled with God,
the more
we are built up together.
It is impossible
for us to be built up together without God.
Even if we could be built in this way,
that would not be the building of God;
it would merely be a building of people.
The church as the building of God
is not a combination or composition of humans.
Rather, it is
a mingling of God with humanity.
In order for God to enter into man,
incarnation is required.
In order for man to enter into God,
the process of death and resurrection
is required.
This is the principle
of God’s building.
The Bible shows
that God has one work in the universe.
After creation
He accomplished redemption;
after redemption
He is still carrying out one work,
and this work
is building.
God does not have another building work,
and He does not have another building.
God’s only building work
is to build Himself into the believers
and to build the believers into Himself;
this is His building.
In other words,
the building work of God
is to build God and man and man and God
fully into one.