Christ uses the Key of David for our Transformation and Building into Pillars in God

To the recovered church, the church in Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love, the Lord is the One who has the key of David not only to objectively open the door for the spread of the church but even more subjectively for our transformation and building into the house of God so that we may become the same as He is, even to become the New Jerusalem.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one can shut! Hallelujah, Christ has opened the door for His church to move and spread throughout the earth! Praise the Lord, Christ is has opened the door inwardly for us to be transformed and built up into the church as the house of God so that we may become the New Jerusalem! Amen!

May we remain on the pathway of life, taking the God-ordained way that leads to life today.

May we do this personally in our personal and intimate experience with the Lord, and may we do this corporately in the church life, as the church.

What the Lord is after is the way of Philadelphia, for this church is the overcoming church, the church that the Lord desires to have today.

In the church in Philadelphia, there is brotherly love; love prevails in the church.

The Lord desires to recover the church in Philadelphia in reality among us; He desires to have a recovery in quality, a recovery of the inner substance of God, which is love.

May His love prevail among us so that we love the Lord and love the brothers with God as love. May we be those who pay more attention to life than to work, caring more about quality than quantity.

Though we have little power, which we do not deny that we have, we need to realise that what pleases the Lord is not our doing much for Him but our doing our best for Him with what we have.

He has given each one of us a certain measure, a certain portion of grace, and we need to do our best for the Lord in love for Him.

We do not deny His name and we keep His word. We love His word, we read and pray His word, we store up His word in our heart, and we speak His word.

We do not deny the Lord’s name by denominating ourselves by any other name than the Lord’s, and we love to call on the name of the Lord.

As we enjoy the Lord in the Word, allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, we become rich toward God, for we pray-read and prayerfully muse on the word so that we may receive the riches of Christ embodied in His word.

As we call on the name of the Lord, we receive and enjoy His riches, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all those who call on Him. Amen, may we be those who call on the name of the Lord, pray-read His word, and love the Lord and love one another today in the recovered church!

The Lord uses the Key of David to Open the Door for the Spread of His Recovery and for us to be Transformed and Built into the House of God

At the beginning of each epistle to the seven churches, the Lord Jesus introduces Himself in a very particular way; what He is toward that church is to meet the need of the church and produce the overcomers in that church.

To the church in Philadelphia, as seen in Revelation 3:7, the Lord says that He is the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens.

This is a very particular description of who Christ is, and as such a One, He is producing the overcomers in Philadelphia if they enjoy Him as such a One.

The Lord is the One who has the key of David, and He uses this key to open the door to the recovered church. He does it both objectively and subjectively.

Christ uses the key of David to open the door for the spread of His recovery objectively.

Thank the Lord that He has opened the door for the truths to spread throughout the earth so that many believers in Christ would come to the full knowledge of the truth, be perfected, and become building members of the Body of Christ!

Such a door is opened by Christ, who has the key of David! This is objective.

The Lord also uses the key of David subjectively to open the door in our inner being for us to be transformed and built into the house of God as a pillar with the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the new name of the Lord (v. 17; 3:12; 21:22).

Christ opens the door in our inner being for us to be transformed from natural men, even clay, into a pillar in the temple of God and into a white stone (2:17).

As a pillar in the temple of God, we are built into God’s habitation and will never come out.

What is the key of David? It is the key with authority to open up many doors for the word of God to go out and spread to many places. It is the key to open man’s heart for the word to come in, grow, spread, and transform us.

As we learn to live the church life in the church of brotherly love, the church in Philadelphia, we have little power and keep the Lord’s word and do not deny His name.

We are nobodies; we are not someone great or powerful, but the Lord has the key of David, and He opens the door.

The door is open to so many countries for the truth to spread, feed and nourish many seeking believers, and even produce local churches as the local testimony of the one universal Body of Christ.

The Lord uses the key of David also to open the door in our heart, even in the hearts of many people, for there to be a hunger for the truth, a response to the high truths, and a desire to be transformed and built up.

As the One who has the key of David, the Lord transforms us and builds us into a pillar in the temple of God, and by no means will we go out anymore.

He writes upon us the name of His God and the name of the city of His God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from His God, and His new name.

The fact that these three names are written on us indicates that this is what we become.

We are becoming the same as God, we are becoming the city of New Jerusalem, and we are becoming Christ in a new way, for the new name of Christ is written upon us.

This means that, if we open to the Lord as the One who has the key of David, He makes us a pillar in God Himself, making us God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead, He makes us a constituent of the New Jerusalem, and He makes us Christ in a new experiential sense.

His name is written on our foreheads, and others see God, the city of God, and Christ in a new way in us. He works Himself into us, He builds Himself into us, He transforms us, and He builds us to be a pillar in the temple of God.

We are becoming the New Jerusalem, which is the new Christ, that is, Christ who is enlarged and experienced by us in a new way for God’s building.

We are God’s enlargement and expansion, and we are Christ in a new sense as the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah!

The new Christ is not the same as He was in the four Gospels – we are now becoming the bride of Christ, His duplication, His increase, and His reproduction as the Bridegroom, to be the New Jerusalem, His ultimate corporate expression for eternity (John 3:29-30; Rev. 21:9-10). Hallelujah!

May we open to His inner work today so that He may transform us and make us the same as He is in every possible way for us to be His building, the church today, the bride in the next age, and the New Jerusalem for eternity!

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one can shut! Praise the Lord, Christ opens the door to the recovered church today, and the gospel of the kingdom is being preached throughout the inhabited earth! Amen, Lord, thank You for opening the door to the gospel and to the spread of the church life! You open the door and no one can shut it! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord for opening the door in our inner being for us to be transformed and built into the church as the house of God! Amen, Lord, open the door to our inner being a little more today so that we may be transformed and built into a pillar in the temple of God. Inscribe Yourself on us. May You write upon us the name of God, the name of the city of God – the New Jerusalem – and Your new name! Keep us open to You, Lord, so that we may daily enjoy and experience You for our transformation and building into the temple of God, consummating in the New Jerusalem!

Abide in the Lord and Deny the Self, being Open to the Lord to Transform and Build us into His Pillars

The Lord’s speaking to the church in Philadelphia is so encouraging and sweet.

He introduces Himself as the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one can shut, and He promises the overcomers that He will make them into a pillar in His temple, and He will write Himself on them. Hallelujah!

Today we in the church life in the Lord’s recovery are in the recovered church, and we need to open to the Lord so that He may use the key of David in our being to renew us, transform us, and build us up into His pillars.

If we consider this matter and look at our situation, we may think this is impossible.

How can we be built into God? How can we become a constituent of the New Jerusalem? How can we become a part of the new Christ? This is humanly impossible. It is impossible to become what the Lord promises that we will be.

But praise the Lord, our God deals with impossible cases, for to Him all things are possible (Luke 18:27)! What is impossible to man is possible to God. What is too wonderful for man to do is not too wonderful for God!

He has come into us and has installed the Triune God into our being as the law of the Spirit of life to operate in us spontaneously and automatically so that He may transform us and build us into pillars in God’s temple (Rom. 8:2).

Christ as the heavenly ladder has been set up in our spirit at the time of our regeneration; our spirit is the gate of heaven, and when we turn to our spirit, we enjoy Christ with all that He is, and we can live a heavenly life on earth (Gen. 28:12-19; John 1:51).

May we set our eyes not on what we can do or on our progress but on what the Lord can do and what He is doing! May we just open to Him!

As John the Baptist said in John 3:29-30, may the Lord increase and may we decrease. When He increases in us, we become the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ.

He must increase, and we must decrease. As He increases in us, we become part of His increase, which is the church today and the New Jerusalem as the bride of the Lamb in the future.

The New Jerusalem includes all of God’s regenerated ones (Rev. 21:9-10).

The things the Lord speaks to us in the Bible are so wonderful, so lofty, and so glorious; we should not look at our condition and not believe but look to the One who has the key of David and believe into Him, for He can do it!

He is in us as the law of the Spirit of life, operating in us constantly, and we are in Him! We have been grafted into Christ, and now we need to simply abide in Him (John 15:4).

This is the key: He is in us and we are in Him, and we simply need to abide in Him. We should not stay in ourselves but get out of ourselves and abide in the Lord.

This means that we need to deny the self and keep it on the cross (Matt. 16:24) so that it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).

When we abide in the Lord, He abides in us, and He does everything in us.

When we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, say amen to His word, and simply abide in Him by being in our mingled spirit, Christ lives in us and the life we live in the flesh is in faith! Hallelujah!

On one hand, the law of the Spirit of life within us contains an element that deals with impossibility, and to Him all things are possible.

On the other hand, as we abide in the Lord by denying the self and keeping it on the cross, we are transformed and built up into pillars in the house of God.

May we remain in the organic union with the Lrod day by day, and may we remain in the truth in God’s word daily so that we may be freshly infused with God, be one with the Triune God, and be made the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead, to be the New Jerusalem, His consummated corporate expression!

Lord Jesus, we look to You as the One who has the key of David. Do in us according to Your word. We say amen to Your word. Make us the same as Christ in every possible way. Build us into God. Make us a constituent of the New Jerusalem. Grant us the new experiences of Christ so that we may have the new name of Christ written on us. Amen, Lord, we open to Your inner operation as the law of the Spirit of life. Praise the Lord, what is impossible with man is possible with God! Hallelujah, the law of the Spirit of life within us contains an element that deals with impossibility! Amen, Lord, we open to Your inner operation in our being. We want to abide in You today. We deny the self and keep it on the cross, and we simply allow You to live in us and be expressed through us. Keep us in the organic union with Christ in spirit so that we may be transformed and built up into the pillars in the house of God! Praise the Lord, we are becoming parts of Christ, parts of God, and parts of the New Jerusalem to be the enlargement of God and the increase of Christ! Hallelujah!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, pp. 74-77, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 through 7 (2025 September ITERO), week 7, Entering through the Narrow Gate and Walking on the Constricted Way That Leads to Life, the Ever-blessed Condition of the Kingdom – day 4.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Hallelujah, overcomers, / “In the temple of My God, / I will build them in as pillars, / Nevermore to go abroad.” / God’s own name is written on them / And the new name of the Lord. / With the triune God they’re blended; / They’re the city of our God. (Hymns #1275 stanza 4)
  – Like “Philadelphia” she must be / To keep Christ’s word, confess His Name; / All “lukewarm” pride she must o’ercome / To feast with Him who overcame. / Thus will the Church be purified / To be the lampstand of pure gold, / To match the testimony pure, / The life of Jesus fit to hold. (Hymns #822 stanzas 7-8)
  – He that hath the key of David, / He that shuts and opens too, / Knows thy works, O Philadelphia; / That’s why you’re His Bride so true. / Not so strong by worldly standards, / Hidden from religion’s fame; / Jesus loves you, Philadelphia, / For you’re faithful to His name. (Hymns #1276 stanzas 4-5)