Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28 was a dream of God’s goal, the dream of Bethel, the house of God, which is the church today and which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal dwelling place of God and His redeemed elect. After he saw this wonderful dream, Jacob went through a lot of things that allowed God to deal with him, break him, and transform him.
After we see God’s dream – the church, the house of God, consummating in the New Jerusalem – we will experience dealings and the breaking of our natural life so that we may be transformed for God’s building, and then we will make a crucial and radical turn from the individual experience of God to the corporate experience of God – the experience of God as the God of Bethel.
After more than twenty years since Jacob had the dream, God appeared to him and told him to go again to Bethel and build Him an altar there (Gen. 35:1-3). This second coming of Jacob to Bethel was not a dream – it was a reality, since in the meantime he was dealt with, broken, and transformed by God, and there was something real of God wrought into him through his experience of God.
This is very similar to our coming into the church life; we come into the church life twice, first “in a dream” and the second time in reality.
When we first come into the church life we are in a dream: everything is heavenly, wonderful, and so great! But after a few years of experiences of dealings, breaking, and transformation, we enter into the reality of the church life, the reality of Bethel.
It should matter to us whether or not our outer man has been broken so that Christ may come forth. It took Jacob more than 20 years to enter into the reality of the dream God gave him; it will take us also quite a while until we enter into the church life a second time to experience God as the God of Bethel, the El-Bethel, the God of the house of God.
Here, at our second coming to Bethel, God is experienced by us in a new way, and we have our name changed in reality into Israel, a Prince of God, a member of the Body of Christ depending on God and on the Body. May the Lord take us further in our experience of Him to be in Bethel in reality, having a new name as we experience God in a new way!
Coming to Bethel the Second Time – Not just a Dream but a Reality
In Genesis 28 Jacob came to Bethel the first time, and God gave him the dream of Bethel, the dream of the house of God. In Genesis 35 God called Jacob to go to Bethel a second time and build Him an altar there; this time, Jacob came to Bethel not merely “in a dream” but in reality.
Bethel signifies the church, the house of God, the practicality of which is the church life today. We all come into the church life twice: the first time in a dream and the second time in reality.
When the Lord gives us the dream of Bethel, we are besides ourselves – we see the heavens opened, Christ as the heavenly ladder joining earth to heaven and bringing heaven on earth, and the church as the building of God, the house of God and the habitation of God, consummating in the New Jerusalem! We may not be changed outwardly but we are governed by this dream.
As we go on with the Lord in the church life, we experience dealings, breaking, and transformation, and we do not remain the same. The Lord arranges our environment at the exact appointed time to expose our natural strength and then give us a decisive blow in our entire natural being.
We realize that we cannot go on in the church life if we remain the same, that is, strong in our natural man. We realize that we are a prison to the Lord: He came into our being so graciously, and He is willing to be imprisoned in us until we allow Him to spread in all our inner being and make His home in our heart.
Every part of our soul has to be broken by God so that our bright mind, powerful emotions, and strong will would be touched and subdued by the Lord. We realize that we need the Body, and the vision of the Body breaks us; we are wrecked under the vision of the Body. The best we can do is pray,
Lord, have mercy on us. Save us from being a prison to You. Make Your home in our heart for the Body. Transform us for the Body. Lord, may we see the vision of the Body. We seek You, Lord: break through in us! Don’t let us remain the same! Bring us to Bethel the second time in reality! We open our being wide to You that You may work Yourself into us more and more!
After we pass through a certain amount of experiences of dealings, breaking, and transformation, we come to Bethel the second time, this time not in a dream but in reality. Everything in the reality of Bethel is the same as in the dream we had years ago, but this time it is real – God is being wrought into our being and we are no longer the same!
It is not the many years we spend meeting with the saints in the church life on the ground of oneness that usher us into the reality of Bethel, but the experience of dealings, breaking, and transformation. May the Lord save us from being “old in the dream”, that is, being in the church life for many years but just getting old and not being broken and transformed.
If in the years we are in the church life we are being dealt with, if we receive God’s drastic blow to the natural man, and if transformation takes place in us – unbeknownst to us – we are ushered into the reality of Bethel. We need both the dream and the reality, but we need to enter into the reality of the dream!
Having our Name Changed – being the Israel at Bethel
After Jacob wrestled with God in Gen. 32 at Peniel, God changed his name into Israel, one who wrestled with God and with man and won, the prince of God. However, it was at the time of Jacob’s coming the second time at Bethel that he had his name changed in reality, since this time his being has changed and his experience matched his new name – he was Israel at Bethel (Gen. 32:28; 35:10).
No matter what kind of persons we were before coming into the church life, after we came in we sensed the need to be renewed inwardly. There was an inward demand to be renewed daily and become a different person from within through transformation.
As we experience God and pass through dealings, breaking, and transformation, we get a new name – Israel, the church people filled with God living together with God to enjoy God and express God. Also, the God we enjoy and experience, the One who shepherds us, takes care of us, and deals with us also has a new name – El-Bethel, the God of the House of God.
We are not merely those who wrestle with God and with man, neither are we only the prince of God; we are the people of God, the church people, those living in the church life by depending on the Lord and on the Body of Christ, those filled with God to express God.
May we continue to advance in our experience of God in our Christian life and church life until we have a new name which matches our dealt with, broken, and transformed being – the Israel of God. May we advance from the individual experience of God to the corporate experience of God, the experience of God as the God of the house of God.
Lord, bring us to know You and experience You as the God of the house of God, El-Bethel. We open to Your dealing, breaking, and transformation. Lord, make us the church people, the members of the Body of Christ who are filled with God to express God. Fill the church life with the experience and enjoyment of God as the God of the house of God. Oh Lord, without being dealt with, broken, and transformed we have NO WAY to go on and the church has no way to go on. Enlighten us, touch us, move us, and make us willing to cooperate with You in Your transforming work until You make us Israel at Bethel, those who know God as the God of the house of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 78-79, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 4 / msg 4, The Reality of Bethel and the Bringing forth of Christ as the Son of Affliction and the Son of the Right Hand.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Never did I dream before, / Such a place could e’er be found, / Where the tears of sorrow cease, / Songs of endless joy abound. / One who seldom ever sang, / Now delights his voice to raise; / Singing hymns with all the saints, / Echoing the ceaseless praise. (Hymns #1238)
# O Lord, I place myself on the altar for You, / For Your desire, that Your dream may become true. / As for my life, I’d gladly dwell in a lowly tent, / To be a drink off’ring outpoured for man / God’s pillar, stand to fulfill God’s eternal plan. (Song on Seeing God’s Dream)
# You have purposed in time that You’ll build Your church / That nothing prevails over her. / As we flee to meet with the saints, / You’re building Christ into our hearts. / Oh this is not an outward activity! / A meaningful life, one day all men will see— / Oh Lord stir our hearts, to never depart, / To give all we are—for Christ and the church. (Song on God’s Dream and Our Dream)
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