Every genuine believer in Christ is a small New Jerusalem, and every local church is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. (Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, ch. 38)
The New Jerusalem is not a distant city that only some will attain to or be worthy to be there. Rather, the New Jerusalem is something we are becoming and working out daily.
We need to open to the Lord that He may unveil us, unload us, and cause us to see a fresh new light concerning what is in His heart through His word concerning the New Jerusalem.
Every genuine believer in Christ is a small New Jerusalem, and every local church is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. (Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, ch. 38)
This means that in our daily living and experience we need to enjoy and experience the many aspects of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is not a physical city made of gold, silver, and precious stones; rather, the New Jerusalem is the consummation of God’s economy and work throughout the ages.
We need to open to the Lord, call on Him, and ask Him to tell us great and hidden things which we don’t know concerning the New Jerusalem (Jer. 33:3; Rev. 21-22).
We need to let the Lord open our eyes so that we may see the wondrous things in His word concerning the New Jerusalem; we need to see visions of God and have His special, fresh, and vivid words that convey divine revelation come to us and infuse us. May His hand follow His speaking so that He may perform what He speaks in us concerning the New Jerusalem.
Having the Vision, the Life, and the Work of Eternity
May the Lord show us that every believer should be a little New Jerusalem and that every local church should be a miniature of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is a great corporate universal God-man with Christ as the centrality and universality.
Our Christian church life is a small New Jerusalem, and our church life is the miniature of the New Jerusalem. In order for us to see this, in order for us to see what God desired from eternity past and what He will obtain in eternity future, we need to have the vision of eternity, which is the vision of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9-10).
We need to ask the Lord to carry us onto a great and high mountain in spirit so that we may see the vision of the New Jerusalem, the city-bride who descends from God. The vision of eternity is the vision of the New Jerusalem!
After we see the vision of eternity, we will live a life of eternity – we will live out the New Jerusalem. We are not merely “going to the New Jerusalem”; we are becoming the New Jerusalem by living out the New Jerusalem day after day.
To live out the New Jerusalem means to live out Christ by being filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19) to live Christ for His magnification day by day. To live Christ is to live out the New Jerusalem.
Paul lived Christ, and his testimony was that he was crucified with Christ and it was no longer he who lived but Christ lived in him, and the life he lived in the flesh he lived by faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself up for him.
Daily we need to live such a crucified life with Christ, letting Him live in us, and living by the Son of God being infused into us as our faith. If we have the vision of eternity and the living of eternity, we will also have the work of eternity, that is, we will work out the New Jerusalem.
In 1 Cor. 15:58 and 16:10 Paul mentioned doing “the work of the Lord”. The work of the Lord is the working out of the New Jerusalem, and we need to abound in the work of the Lord.
Also, the work of the Lord is to build up the church as the Body of Christ NOT with wood (the works of our natural man), grass (the efforts of our flesh), or stubble (lifelessness), but with the precious materials (the Triune God wrought into us for the building up of the church) – see 1 Cor. 3:12.
In other words, to work out the New Jerusalem is to experience God the Father with His divine nature (gold), God the Son with His redemptive work (silver), and God the Spirit with His transforming work (precious stones) being wrought into our being so that we may minister God to others for the building up of the church. This is to do the work of eternity!
God has Put Eternity into Man’s Heart
Eccl. 3:11 says, He has put eternity in their heart, yet so that man does not find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. What does it mean that God has put eternity into man’s heart?
[In Ecclesiastes 3:11 eternity is] “a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy” (The Amplified Bible). God created man in His image and formed in him a spirit that man may receive and contain Him (Gen. 1:26 and footnote 3; 2:7 and footnote 5). In addition, God put eternity, an aspiration for something eternal, in man’s heart so that man will seek God, the eternal One. Hence, temporal things can never satisfy man; only the eternal God, who is Christ, can satisfy the deep sense of purpose in man’s heart (cf. 2 Cor. 4:18). (Eccl. 3:11, footnote 1)
God has put eternity into man’s heart, and nothing can satisfy us but God Himself!
In each one of us there is a divinely implanted sense of a purpose which nothing and no one on earth can satisfy but God Himself. God was in eternity past, He is now in time, and He will be in eternity future; He fills time and space.
He is the Word of God in eternity past and He will become the New Jerusalem in eternity future. On the bridge of time God became a man and He is bringing man into God. In eternity future God becomes the New Jerusalem, God incorporated with the man whom He redeemed, regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified.
Because nothing except the New Jerusalem satisfies God, we who are made in God’s image are not satisfied by anything less than the New Jerusalem.
Man may chase after material things, sensations, feelings, and knowledge, but within man there is an aspiration for something eternal, and in man’s heart there is a seeking for the eternal God, the only One that can satisfy man.
Temporary things cannot satisfy man; knowledge and anything that this world has to offer cannot satisfy man. Only the eternal God, who is Christ as the life-giving Spirit today, can satisfy the deep sense of purpose in man’s heart (see 2 Cor. 4:18).
We need to be recovered from things which are seen to things which are not seen, and from things which are temporary to the things which are eternal. Today Christ is with us, one with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17); He is Immanuel, that is, God with us (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23).
Christ, the God-man, the mingling of God and man, who is the Shoot of Jehovah and the fruit of the earth (Isa. 4:2), is Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 18:20; 28:20). Immanuel is all-inclusive; He is first our Savior (Luke 2:11), then our Redeemer (John 1:29), then our Life-giver (1 Cor. 15:45b), and then the all-inclusive indwelling Spirit (John 14:16-20; Rom. 8:9-11). Actually, the content of the entire New Testament is an Immanuel (Matt. 1:23; 18:20; 28:20; Rev. 21:3), and all the believers in Christ, as the members of Christ, are a part of this great Immanuel, the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11). The sign of Immanuel consummates in the New Jerusalem, which will be the aggregate of Immanuel, the totality of God being with us. (Isa. 7:14, footnote 1)
The entire content of the New Testament is an Immanuel, and all the members of the Christ are a part of this great Immanuel (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11). Christ came and was called Immanuel, God with us; then, He assured us that whenever we meet in His name He is with us (Matt. 18:20); finally, He guaranteed us that He is with us until the consummation of the age (Matt. 28:20).
Christ is with us – He is in us, making us all a part of the great corporate Immanuel, God with us. The consummation of Immanuel is the New Jerusalem, which is the totality of God being with man.
How we need to have our view lifted up from anything earthly and even anything that relates to us – to see what is God’s purpose, His economy, and the New Jerusalem!
We are meant for eternity, we have a divinely sense of eternity implanted in our heart, we are not satisfied until we know and enjoy something eternal, and we are meant to see eternity, live out eternity, and work out eternity! That is, we are meant to see the New Jerusalem, live out the New Jerusalem, and work out the New Jerusalem!
Lord Jesus, unload us and unveil us to see the New Jerusalem, live out the New Jerusalem, and work out the New Jerusalem! Recover us from anything outward and temporal to the unseen and eternal things! We want to enjoy Your new dispensing and Your fresh new speaking concerning what the New Jerusalem is to You and what the New Jerusalem should be to us. Lord, make us a little new Jerusalem and cause the local churches to become a miniature of the New Jerusalem! Cause us to see the New Jerusalem. Make us those who live out the New Jerusalem by living Christ for His magnification! May we work out the New Jerusalem by building up the church with the experiences of the Triune God wrought into us! Lord, gain the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, God’s New Testament Economy (ch. 38), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 1 / msg 1, The Throne of God and of the Lamb, the River of Water of Life, and the Tree of Life (you can buy this morning revival book here).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Jerusalem, the ultimate, / Of visions the totality; / The Triune God, tripartite man — / A loving pair eternally — / As man yet God they coinhere, / A mutual dwelling place to be; / God’s glory in humanity / Shines forth in splendor radiantly! (song on Seeing the New Jerusalem)
# Living, living, Christ is all our living, / He’s so practical: / Small things, big things, anything and all things — / He’s involved in all. / Live Christ in every way; / Oh, live Him out today. / His name you now must call, / And give Him your all for all. (Hymns #1240)
# We have a most glorious King; / The heavens, He says, are His throne; / All worlds are His mighty domain, / All kingdoms His scepter shall own. / He dwells with His people below, / He loves in their trials to share; / We dwell with the King for His work, / His burden we willingly bear. (Hymns #904 by A. B. Simpson)
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