In the New Jerusalem everything is one. The throne is one. The flow is one. The river is one. The street is one. The tree of life is one (Rev. 22:1-2). In the New Jerusalem there is only one street, so no one can get lost. There are twelve gates to the holy city, with three gates facing each direction (21:12-13). But regardless of what gate you enter through, you are on the same street. With the same one street there is the same one flow with one tree of life. All these "ones" come out of the very one God on the one throne. In the New Jerusalem there is only one God with one throne, out of which there is one flow of the river of life. In this one flow of the river of life, there grows the one tree of life. There is also one street for people to walk on. This is a picture of what today’s church life should be. We should be eating, drinking, and walking in oneness. We drink of the same one river, we eat of the same one tree of life, and we walk on the same one street. We are all walking in one direction toward God.
In the New Jerusalem there will be no debates about speaking in tongues, baptism, the gifts, eternal security, absolute grace, head covering, or foot-washing. All these things cannot even be seen in the New Jerusalem. The apostle John did not see these things. He saw the one river of water of life with the one tree of life flowing out of the one throne of the one Lamb-God.
You have to be clear where Babylon is and where Jerusalem is. Whenever you stay in your mind, you remain in Babylon. When you turn from your mind to your spirit, you turn to Jerusalem. Just be so simple. Today in the church life what we need is not the understanding of many things. What we need is the oneness in the enjoyment of all the riches of Christ. In the New Jerusalem there is nothing but the flow of the living water with the tree of life for everyone to enjoy the riches of Christ. The river is good for drinking, and the tree of life is good for eating. This will be our eternal enjoyment.
Today in the church life we do not care for anything else. We do not care for the understanding of doctrinal teachings. We care only for the enjoyment of Christ. Our Christ today is the river of life. Our Christ today is the tree of life. Today He is flowing within me and within you. He is flowing in our spirit. Whenever we turn to our spirit, we are not only crystally clear but we are also enjoying the riches of Christ. Day by day we are drinking. Day by day we are eating. By this enjoyment of Christ, we have the proper church life.
I must pass on a warning to you not to remain in your mind. When you exercise your mind, you go back to Babylon. You are not in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two of Revelation. Instead, you are in chapters seventeen and eighteen; you are in Babylon. The call from the Lord in Revelation 18:4 is to come out of Babylon—"Come out of her, My people." This means to come out of your mind. When you get out of your mind, you are out of Babylon. When you get into your spirit, you are in the New Jerusalem enjoying the riches of Christ.
After the destruction of Babylon in Revelation 18, there are joyful praising and shouting of "Hallelujah" and "Amen" in Revelation 19 (vv. 1-6). The joyful praising and shouting are not in the mind but in the spirit. Where is today’s Babylon? In your mind. Where is today’s Jerusalem? In your spirit. Where is the church life? In your spirit. Where is God’s habitation? In your spirit. Where is His name? In your spirit. Today we are enjoying Christ in our spirit. In our spirit we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. In our spirit there is no dissenting, division, and confusion. What we have in our spirit is the divine oneness.
(The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)