In the Divine Romance we become One with God to be His Dwelling Place and City

In the divine romance, we become one with God to be His dwelling place and city for His corporate expression.

As those who love the Lord and pursue after Him in love, we need to become mature in the life of Christ and be built up as God’s house and His city, and we need to love the Lord with the best love so that we may be incorporated into the Triune God to be His dwelling place.

In Song of Songs, we see the process the loving seeker of Christ goes through in order to be fully one with the Lord, even to become the duplication of Christ to match Him for their marriage.

In Song of Songs 6:4 the loving seeker is likened to Tirzah in beauty and to Jerusalem in loveliness.

Tirzah and Jerusalem signify God’s sanctuary, God’s dwelling place, with God’s holy city surrounding it to be its safeguard.

There are many stages of transformation that we need to go through before we can become the house of God and the city of God for His dwelling and His kingdom.

We start off like a “mare” pulling Pharaoh’s chariots, full of energy in doing things in the world and advancing what the world is doing, and we go through a process of organic transformation until we become the duplication of Christ.

From being a mare, we go all the way to being a crown on Solomon’s head; we may think that this is where we want to remain, but this is not enough.

We need to continually be transformed, being on the mountain of myrrh and frankincense, that is, enjoy and experience Christ in His death and resurrection.

We need to experience more of Christ’s death and more of His resurrection; we need to have mountains of myrrh and mountains of frankincense until we are saturated and permeated with Christ.

What comes out of us will be Christ, for we’re permeated with Him.

And then the Lord calls us to the mountain of Lebanon, and from there we look down at the lion’s den.

We need to advance with the Lord until we reach the height, the highest mountain of Christ’s ascension.

We need to leave our own personal attainment to come to Christ and be with Him in the ascended position where He is.

It is here, in the position of ascension, that we can begin to engage in the spiritual battle against the enemy.

We need to advance with the Lord in our experience of the divine dispensing and in the divine romance until we reach the position of ascension, where we fight the spiritual battle one with the Lord.

And from here, we come down to the valley to be a garden to the Lord for His private enjoyment and satisfaction, producing all kinds of spices for the Lord’s enjoyment.

This, however, is still not the end; after becoming a private garden for the Lord to enjoy, we are as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem.

The entire economy of God is embodied here, and we can attain such a level of spirituality by remaining in the divine romance experiencing the divine dispensing.

May we advance with the Lord little by little, stage by stage, until we become His dwelling place and His city for His habitation and kingdom on the earth.

Becoming one with God to be His Dwelling Place and City, as Beautiful as Tirzah and as Lovely as Jerusalem

After we reach the point where we are called by the Lord to live in ascension, we as seekers of Christ have reached our highest attainment.

In this highest attainment, we become four wonderful things as the consummation of our transformation: a garden for the Lord’s enjoyment, a sanctuary to Him, heavenly bodies, and a terrible army as His overcomers.

On one hand, we become a garden for the Lord’s private enjoyment; this, however, is not as high or as deep as becoming a sanctuary with a safeguard, that is, Tirzah and Jerusalem.

Song of Songs 6:4 says You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as terrible as an army with banners.

We are becoming one with God to be His dwelling place and His city for His habitation and His kingdom on the earth.

Tirzah had a black background since it became the capital city for the kings of Israel after the kingdom was divided (1 Kings 14:17; 15:21, 33; 16:6, 8-9, 15, 17).

But in the positive sense, it was a lovely city for the king to dwell in.

As we live in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, we as lovers of Christ become mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that we become the sanctuary of God and its safeguard (Tirzah and Jerusalem).

We need to go on unto maturity and be mature in the life of Christ so that we become a building, the house of God and the city of God.

We may be happy to just be with the Lord, enjoying Him and Him enjoying us as His private garden, but the Lord is not satisfied with this.

The Lord desires to have a building, not just an individual seeker who is spiritually mature but is by himself.

The goal of God’s economy is not just about an individual person arriving at a high spiritual state; His goal is to gain the building of God, the dwelling place of God, for Him to be expressed corporately.

This building of God today is the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

We are being drawn today in a romantic relationship with Him, receiving His divine dispensing, for us not only to be spiritually mature but to also be built up to become the Lord’s dwelling place and city.

He wants to gain a dwelling, a sanctuary, and this dwelling needs to have a safeguard, to be protected from any attack of the enemy.

So we need to advance in our experience of the divine dispensing in the divine romance until we become His dwelling place and city.

We are not only God’s cultivated land, His garden, but also His building, the church as the house of God and the city of God (1 Cor. 3:9).

A garden is a visiting place for the king, not his dwelling place or his city; we need to advance in our growth and maturity in the life of Christ until we become His dwelling place and city.

We need to reach the highest peak, the building of God.

On one hand, we need to be flourishing in the element of Christ’s life with its unsearchable riches to be His garden for His satisfaction.

On the other hand, we need to be built up in the growth with the life of Christ with its unsearchable riches (Eph. 4:15-16) for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Tirzah and Jerusalem in the Old Testament typify the church as the dwelling place of God and as the city of God, the kingdom of God.

As the church, we are the organic Body of Christ to be His wife (Eph. 5:25-32), and we will be consummated to be the New Jerusalem.

In the Old Testament, the city of Jerusalem was built first, and then the temple with the palace was built under Solomon (1 Kings 6:1-7:1).

The palace was for the king to dwell in and the temple was for God to dwell in; in the Old Testament, these two were separate.

But in the New Testament we have the palace and the temple being one and the same thing: the church as the Body of Christ to be His dwelling and city, His house and His kingdom.

God dwells in the palace as the King, and He as God resides in the church as Hid dwelling place.

May we be those who live in Christ’s ascension in resurrection to become mature in the riches of Christ’s life so that we may become the building of God, the sanctuary of God and its safeguard.

Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying and experiencing the divine dispensing in the divine romance in our Christian life. Go on in us, Lord, and keep us advancing with You so that we become Your dwelling place and Your city, Your house and Your kingdom. We want to be one with You to become God’s dwelling place, as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem. Amen, Lord, we want to live in Christ’s ascension in resurrection to become mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that we become the building of God, the sanctuary of God and its safeguard. We love You, Lord Jesus! Grow in us unto maturity until we become mature in the life of Christ to be not only a garden to Christ but also the sanctuary of God and its safeguard! Amen, Lord, gain Your building, Your dwelling place, and Your kingdom!

Loving the Lord with the Best Love to be Incorporated into the Triune God to Become His Dwelling Place

The way for us to become the dwelling place of God in reality is not by doing this or that or by striving to achieve this or that in the spiritual realm. It is all in the divine romance under the divine dispensing.

We need to love the Lord with the best love.

As we love the Lord with the best love, we are incorporated into the Triune God to become His dwelling place (Rev. 2:4; John 14:20-23; Eph. 3:17).

This is the highest peak of the divine revelation in God’s word; according to this highest peak, we are not only Christians but God-men, members of Christ to be His corporate expression on earth.

We become His dwelling place and city simply by loving the Lord and remaining in the divine romance.

In this process of loving the Lord with the best love, we experience Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s ascension, and our being built up together.

Whenever we turn to the Lord and contact Him, the Lord brings us on with Him stage after stage until we reach maturity in the life of Christ.

We all are in the process of arriving at the stage of being Tirzah and Jerusalem, the dwelling place of God and His kingdom.

This is what God desires to gain, and this is what He is working for many centuries to obtain.

As we are approaching the end of the age, God is waiting for the building up of His dwelling place and city, for He seeks to gain the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God.

What He wants is not many individual believers who love Him and seek Him but a built-up city, the Body of Christ being prepared as the bride of Christ for Him to come back.

Since the apostles departed, hardly anyone touched the matter of God’s building like brother Witness Lee and brother Watchman Nee; today we inherit all the riches and speaking from these brothers for us to be built up into God’s dwelling place and city for His satisfaction.

We need to give ourselves to love the Lord with the best love so that we may be incorporated into the Triune God and become His dwelling place.

We need to complete the building work by remaining in the romantic relationship with the Lord and by loving the brothers.

It is the love in God that gives Him the yearning to unite, mingle, and incorporate Himself with us; it is the same love in us that gives us the yearning to be united, mingled, and incorporated with Him (1 John 4:19, 8, 16).

He has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

The love which is God Himself has been poured out into our hearts to be the love by which we love God and we love one another.

Because God poured out His heart into our hearts, we now love the Lord and we love the brothers.

By loving the Lord with the best love and by participating in every aspect of the divine romance, we become the New Jerusalem, which is the enlarged Holy of Holies (Song of Songs 1:2-3; 2:14; 4:8; 6:4; Rev. 21:9-10).

We do not “go to the New Jerusalem”; we are becoming the New Jerusalem.

We are becoming the dwelling place and city of God – we are becoming Tirzah and Jerusalem to be lovely and beautiful to the Lord.

And we are becoming this by loving the Lord with the best love and by participating in every aspect of the divine romance.

May we just love the Lord and open to Him, allowing Him to take us through the process He deems necessary for us, so that we may become His dwelling place and city!

Lord Jesus, we want to love You with the best love so that we may be incorporated into the Triune God to become His dwelling place. We love You, Lord Jesus! We open to You. We give ourselves to love You with the best love. We are here for You and for Your interest on the earth. Thank You for pouring out Your love into our hearts so that we love the Lord and love the brothers with God as our love. Oh Lord, Your love in us gives us the yearning to be united, mingled, and incorporated with You. We love You, Lord, and we want to participate in every aspect of the divine romance so that we may become Your dwelling place and city, consummating in the New Jerusalem!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “Crystallization-study of Song of Songs,” pp. 333-340, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the Divine Economy (2022 Thanksgiving Weekend Conference), week 2, entitled, Experiencing the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by Living in the Divine Romance.
• Further Reading:
  – The Divine Romance of a Universal Couple – via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Love and Light – portion from, Conclusion of the New Testament, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
  – What is the New Jerusalem? — Part 1, via, Radio Newsletters, LSM radio.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – From the garden comes the city, / All materials thus supplied; / God is satisfied completely, / And the foe is terrified. / “Thou art fair, my love, as Tirzah, / Comely as Jerusalem.” / O Lord Jesus, Hallelujah, / Thou wilt do it all! Amen! (Hymns #1161 stanzas 5-6)
  – Lovers of Christ in His ascension— / Enjoy the riches of His life. / She becomes His private garden / With its fountain, fruit, and spice. / Christ is hers and she is Christ’s dear love. / She is as beautiful as Tirzah / As lovely as Jerusalem. / Through her living in Christ’s ascension / Her dear heart is now His home. / She’s become the sanctuary of God. (Song on, Lovers of Christ)
  – Finally, in Revelation, / Is the picture of Christ’s Bride— / Consummation of God’s purpose; / He is fully satisfied. / New Jerusalem, a city, / Is the Bridegroom’s counterpart— / So the church built up together / Forms the Bride for Christ’s own heart. (Hymns #1324 stanza 8)