The tree of life is for our nourishment, and the river of water of life is for our beverage. The supply Christ affords is for our nourishment and the water the Spirit brings to us is for our supply to satisfy us and quench our thirst. But to nourish and to satisfy are not the final goal. Christ nourishes us and the Spirit quenches our thirst for our growth in the divine life, and the growth of the divine life is for the building up of the city as the organic constitution of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect.
Christ’s nourishment and the Spirit’s beverage are for us to grow, and the growth by these two supplies is for the building up of the New Jerusalem. Even today the New Jerusalem is still under construction. If we look at today’s outward situation, we can see the lack of the building up of the Body of Christ which consummates the New Jerusalem. This is why the Lord has charged me to release the high peaks of His divine revelation. First, we need to release the truth that God became a man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. Then we need to release the truth concerning the New Jerusalem. My burden is to release these two great truths.
Since the Lord has released these high peaks of His truths, we have to learn the new language to speak them. Paul and the co-workers around him were different because of what they ministered. Today in the recovery all the co-workers must be different. They must learn to speak these high truths concerning God’s economy—that God became a man that man may become God, with the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation. This is a great miracle and a deep mystery.
The New Jerusalem is constructed with the Triune God as the main factors. It is furnished with the Triune God as the throne, as the temple (the palace), and as the lamp. Also, New Jerusalem is a city supplied by the Triune God—the Father as the source and the base, the Spirit as the flow, the river, and the Son as the main supply to nourish the entire city. Through this nourishment and divine beverage we members of the new city grow in the divine life and are built together.
From now on we must consider that our work is a building work by the growth of the saints in the divine life. The divine life is the Divine Trinity, who is the structure, the furnishings, and the supply of the holy city. As we grow in the divine life and minister the Triune God to others for their growth in the divine life, we are building up the Body of Christ, which will consummate the New Jerusalem. We need to experience and speak these things. The more we speak, the more we will have to speak. The more we speak, the more we will be nourished and satisfied. From now on the co-workers and the elders must know how to speak these things.
I do expect that after the study, a study with a seeking heart and with an enlightened spirit, of these five messages, a crystallization-study of the final part of the Holy Scriptures, we all have seen clearly and evidently that the New Jerusalem is an organic constitution of the processed and consummated Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect. It has a threefold stress with the Divine Trinity in the three main aspects of this organic constitution:
1.The first main aspect in its structure with its base signified by the gold as the Father’s nature, its gates signified by the pearls as the issue of the Son’s redeeming death and life-dispensing resurrection, and its wall signified by the precious stones as the consummation of the Spirit’s transforming work.
2.The second main aspect in its furnishings with the reigning center of the Father signified by the throne, the abiding place of the Son signified by the temple, and the enlightening and shining light of the Spirit signified by the oil in the lamp.
3.The third main aspect in its supply being the flow of the Divine Trinity; its base and source for the flow is the Father signified by the street, its flow is the Spirit signified by the river of the water of life, and the element of its flow is the Son signfied by the tree of life.
The entire constitution of the New Jerusalem is the processed and consummated Triune God built with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect in His Divine Trinity in a threefold way. It is impossible for such a constitution to be anything physical; it has to be the Divine Trinity in His threefold blending with His redeemed elect. May we receive the eternal mercy and the sufficient grace of the unlimited Christ that we could live a life as a foretaste of such an organic constitution in this age for its full taste in eternity.
(The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)