11) THE ONE STREET
The eleventh point is that with this flow and supply of life there is a street. There is only one street, only one way. In the street of the New Jerusalem there is a river flowing, and in that river there grows a tree whose branches reach to both sides of the river. The spiritual way is always with the flow and the supply of life. Let us check our own experience: if we do not have the flow of life and the supply of life, there is no way; we do not know how to go on. When a meeting of the church is full of the life supply in the flow of life with the light and authority of God, we will be so clear concerning the way. After such a meeting and even during that meeting, we will say, “Now I am clear; I know what I must do with this or with that; I know how to go on.” It is clear because there is the way, the street. If, however, the meeting of the church is full of confusion and darkness, poverty and dryness, it is a meeting which has no throne, no light, and no flow of life. In such a meeting we will be in darkness, and afterward we will not know how to go on. There is no way.
The above picture reveals three things in one: the street or the way, the flow of life, and the tree of life. When we have the flow of life, we also have the tree of life and the way of life. The way of life is with the tree of life, and the tree of life grows in the flow of life. In the flow there is the life supply and the way to go on.
12) ONE FLOW, ONE TREE, ONE STREET
Our twelfth point is that there is only one flow of life, one tree of life, and one street of life. If your way is different from my way, something is wrong! Either you are wrong or I am wrong, or possibly both of us are wrong. If nothing is wrong, then we must be in the same way, for there is only one way. Cities today have so many streets and so many ways; thus it is easy to be lost. But there is no such problem in the New Jerusalem: that city has only one street and one way.
The picture of the New Jerusalem also reveals that the street must be laid out in a spiral pattern. The city itself is shaped like a mountain with the throne of God at the peak. From the foundation of the city, the street passes all twelve gates through which the people enter. Then it winds spirally upward around the city until it reaches the throne. From the throne, the river of life flows downward in the midst of the street until it reaches all twelve gates of the city. Regardless through which gate you enter, if you go on in the one street you will eventually hit the throne. The street ascends upward, but the flow of life is downward. The life of God flows to us to bring us upward. Whenever we have the flow within us, it will always bring us the way; and when we follow the way, the street will bring us to the throne of God. The enjoyment of the flow of life imparts the way of life, and the way of life brings us to God. If we just follow the way of life, we will be brought into the presence of God. In the church life today there is only one flow of life, one tree of life, and one way of life. The way of life is always upward. The more we follow this way, the more we will go onward and upward to the throne.
13) THE GOLDEN STREET
Our thirteenth point is that this one street is all of gold (Rev. 21:21). This signifies that the way of life is in the nature of God. The spiritual way must always be the way of life with God’s nature. Whenever you feel that you must do something in a certain way, that way must contain the nature of God. If you would do anything in a way which is contrary to God’s nature, then that is not the right way. The right way is the way of the golden street, the way of the nature of God. When you are in the flow of life, you have the way, and this way always has the nature of God.
These vital points as seen in the New Jerusalem have helped me greatly to realize all the aspects of the church life, for this city is the ultimate consummation of God’s building.
(The Vision of God's Building, Chapter 17, by Witness Lee)
