The supply of the holy city is the processed and consummated Triune God (Rev. 22:1-2). Our God is not a “raw” God. Some teach a God who is raw, “uncooked,” that is, not processed and not consummated. But the very God we preach and teach is the One who, according to the divine revelation, has been processed and consummated. It is the processed and consummated God who can be our supply.
The Triune God passed through incarnation, human living, and an all-inclusive and all-problems-solving death. Then He entered into an all-surpassing resurrection for the dispensing of life and an all-transcending ascension to execute through His heavenly ministry what He accomplished in His earthly ministry. Even God the Father has been processed. In whatever the Son passed through, the Father was with Him. The Son told us He was never alone but that the Father who sent Him was always with Him (John 8:29; 16:32). This is the revelation concerning the Triune God given by the Lord to the recovery. No other Christians teach and preach the processed and consummated Triune God. It was only within the last forty years that we began to use the terms processed and consummated to describe the Triune God.
If Christ had not been processed, how could He have become a man to die on the cross to take away all our sins? If Christ had not been processed through resurrection, how could He have become the life-giving Spirit? Through the process of incarnation God became a man, Jesus. Jesus was a genuine man, but through His death and in His resurrection, another two steps of His process, He became the life-giving Spirit. If God had not become a man to take away sin, how could He be our Redeemer? If He had not become the life-giving Spirit, how could He have entered into us to be our life and our life supply? The supply of the city is the processed and consummated Triune God.
The Third of the Divine Trinity is signified by a river. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit, so the Spirit is the flow. The Triune God has been consummated into one life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the flow signified by the river of water of life. The supply of the city is the Father as the source, the Spirit as the flow, and Christ as the content, typified by the tree of life.
This river proceeds out of the throne of God. This source is the divine administration and the divine authority.
We have seen that everything we are and do in our move and work for God needs to be based upon the golden nature of God. Even the flow of the Divine Trinity is based on the golden nature. The river is flowing in the street, and the street is the base.
The river of water of life flows in the middle of the street, and the street signifies the fellowship. The one tree of life growing on the two sides of the river signifies that the tree of life is a vine that spreads and proceeds along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. The tree of life is not a pine tree shooting up into the sky but a vine tree creeping on the earth. This vine, the tree of life, grows within the middle of the street and along it. Thus, in the middle of the fellowship is the tree of life.
The street begins from the mountaintop, God, to reach all the twelve gates of the city. In the middle of this street is the river of water of life to flow out the riches of God to be our supply. This street with the river is a two-way traffic, coming and going, proceeding down and spiraling up. This coming and going is the fellowship. All who enter into the city through the pearl gates participate in the same fellowship. This fellowship begins from God as the source to reach all the twelve gates. That means it reaches all the ones who have entered into the city to bring them back to God.
Its main element for the life supply to nourish the entire city is the tree of life, signifying Christ. At the beginning of the Bible in the second chapter of Genesis, the tree of life is seen as the center. Because of man’s fall the way to touch that tree was closed by God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. Later, Christ’s death on the cross fulfilled all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness to reopen the closed way to the tree of life. Christ is our way to enter into the city, so He is signified by the pearl gates, which include the reality of His death and His resurrection.
Human beings need food as the supply to nourish them, but without water they cannot survive. We need water as our beverage to match the food that we eat. All these things are signified in this great sign.
(The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)