The New Jerusalem is the totality of the overcomers, and today we want to be the earlier overcomers, those who have highways to Zion in our heart, love the Lord more than our self, and live out the reality of the Body of Christ.
These past few weeks we have been enjoying the matter of the reality of the Body of Christ, but as we prayerfully consider this matter before the Lord, we need to realise that what He is after is not merely the reality of the Body of Christ as a thing in itself, but the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the Body of Christ.
Our practice of the church life should be with the New Jerusalem in view, and we need to live out and work out the New Jerusalem in the church life today.
Actually, every believer in Christ is and should be a little New Jerusalem, and every local church is and should be a miniature of the New Jerusalem. This means that all the aspects, features, and characteristics of the New Jerusalem need to be found in their spiritual reality in our experience both personally and corporately in the church life.
For us to live out the New Jerusalem, as we see in Eph. 4, is for us to grow up into Christ, the Head, in all things. The growth of Christ in us as we hold Him as the Head of the Body, this growth is not for us merely to be more spiritual or holy but for us to live out the New Jerusalem.
We need to spend much time secretly and privately with the Lord to enjoy Him, eat Him in His word, drink Him as the Spirit of reality, and send roots downward into Him, so that He may increase in us as we decrease. This is for the living out of the New Jerusalem.
For us to work out the New Jerusalem, however, we need to hold Christ as the Head and function from Him for the oneness of the Body of Christ.
As we grow up into Him in all things, out from Him there will be a function, a measure for us to participate in the work, and this is for our working out the New Jerusalem.
The place where we can live out and work out the New Jerusalem is the local church, the local expression of the universal Body of Christ. In the local churches we need to practice the Body life, living out and working out the New Jerusalem.
Our living of the church life should be with the Body in view, for the local churches are merely the procedure for God to obtain what He is after, the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem is the eternal dwelling place of God and man, for it is the tabernacle for God to dwell in and the God and the Lamb are the temple for us to dwell in.
The Earlier Overcomers have Highways to Zion in their Heart to be Incorporated into God as their Dwelling Place
The earlier overcomers, as the reality of Zion within Jerusalem, have highways to Zion in their heart (see Psa. 84:3-5).
Wow, what are these highways to Zion, and how can these be in our heart?
What the Lord wants to gain is Zion, the overcomers in the churches, and these have the highways to Zion in their hearts. To have highways to Zion in our heart means that we take the way of the church internally, not merely externally, for the highways to Zion are in our heart.
On one hand we have entered into God through regeneration and baptism, but on the other hand, we still need to enter further into God by having the highways to Zion in our heart.
This is shown in a picture in these verses in Psa. 84, where we see that at the two altars (the burnt offering altar in the outer court and the incense altar in the Holy of Holies) even a sparrow has found her home, and a swallow a nest for herself.
We are these sparrows and swallows who find their home at the two altars.
The first altar is the altar of burnt offering, a type of the cross of Christ; at the cross of Christ all our problems with God are solved, for Christ offered Himself as the reality of all the sacrifices to satisfy God.
When we experience the crucified Christ as the reality of the burnt offering altar, we are qualified to enter into the tabernacle, which is a type of Christ as the incarnated and enterable Triune God.
Then, we can come to the golden altar to experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension is the incense for us to be accepted by God in peace.
Through our prayer at the incense altar we enter into the Holy of Holies — which is our spirit (Heb. 10:19) — where we experience Christ as the Ark of the Testimony with its contents. Hallelujah!
Through such an experience of Christ at these two altars we are incorporated into the tabernacle, the incarnated Triune God, to become a part of the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12) as God’s testimony for His manifestation.
Daily we need to enjoy and experience Christ as the crucified and resurrected One, the One who both solves our problems and satisfied God in peace, and we will enter into the Holy of Holies to be incorporated into God and be part of the corporate Christ as the testimony of God.
We need to make the cross of Christ our refuge from any problems and troubles, and here we need to find our home and bring our young, that is, produce new believers through the preaching of the gospel.
Then, we need to experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension, the reality of the incense altar, and we will be accepted by God in such a Christ, thus finding a home, a place of rest, in the house of God.
Hallelujah, when we have the highways to Zion in our heart, we are being incorporated into the house of God for the corporate expression of God!
And this house of God is nothing else but the processed and consummated Triune God united, mingled, and incorporated with all His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect (John 14:1-23) to be the Body of Christ in the present age and the New Jerusalem as the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed in eternity (Rev. 21:3, 22).
Wow, Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, we aspire to be the earlier overcomers, those who have the highways to Zion in their heart by taking the way of the church internally. We want to take the way of the church internally by being incorporated into God as our dwelling place through the crucified Christ and the resurrected Christ. Lord, may our home be at Your two altars for us to experience the crucified and resurrected Christ so that we may be incorporated into God and become His dwelling place. Oh Lord, our home is in You, and Your home is in us!
The Lord is Waiting for Overcomers to Live out the Reality of the Body and Bring Him Back
In this age of the degradation of the church, the Lord is working as the sevenfold intensified Spirit to produce the overcomers.
The earlier overcomers will be the bride of Christ for one thousand years (Rev. 19:7-9; 20:4-6), while the rest of the believers will go through a process to become the later overcomers and be the wife of Christ for eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 7).
Our desire and aspiration today is that we would be the earlier overcomers, those who are qualified to be the bride of Christ and enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb for one day (which in the Lord’s eyes is one thousand years).
That day, the wedding day of the Lamb, is worth to the Lord one thousand years; after the wedding day, the age of eternity will come in, and we will be the wife of Christ eternally.
If we aspire to be the earlier overcomers, we need to love the Lord more than our self, more than our soul life; an overcomer knows and loves only Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ (see Phil. 3:10; 4:12; Rev. 2:4-5, 7; 12:11).
May we be those who give ourselves to love the Lord and learn the secret of enjoying Christ in any kind of situation and circumstance.
Paul was such a one – he learned the secret how to be abased and how to abound, for in all things he experienced and enjoyed Christ as his secret of sufficiency.
All believers in Christ will be part of the wife of Christ, the New Jerusalem in eternity, but only a relatively small part of the believers will be the overcomers.
When the Lord returns, He will take away only the overcomers, leaving the rest of the believers because they don’t have the maturity in His divine life.
The earlier overcomers will be raptured, but the rest of the believers will suffer discipline in the outer darkness (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30) so that they would be perfected for their maturity and become the Lord’s overcomers.
What is the Lord’s reward for His overcomers? It is nothing else but what they are in Christ; Christ is their reward, and what we have of Christ wrought into our being is what we will enjoy for eternity.
The Lord today is still waiting for His overcomers to be produced; the reason He has not closed this age is that He is still waiting for a group of overcomers to live in His Body in resurrection to be the means for Him to usher in His kingdom age.
The Lord cannot return by Himself; He needs to gain the reality of the Body of Christ lived out sufficiently on earth so that the bride may be prepared and He may be returned.
In Rev. 14 we see the principle that, even though many are saved, only one hundred forty-four thousand are overcomers; this is the principle of the remnant, a small number of people who pay the price.
May we be those who receive mercy from the Lord to be one of His overcomers in His age, those who bring Him back and usher in His kingdom age.
Lord Jesus, may we receive Your mercy and grace to be Your overcomers in this age, those who bring You back to usher in the kingdom age. Amen, Lord, gain a group of overcomers who live out the reality of the Body of Christ in resurrection to become the bride of Christ and bring the Lord back. May our love for You increase, Lord, until we love You more than we love our self, more than we love our soul life. Lord, grant us to be the earlier overcomers who know and love only Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The Overcomers,” pp. 182, 184-185, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 6, Living Out and Working Out the New Jerusalem to Build Up Zion as the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Men, as the sparrow, frail and small, / When living in Thy house find rest, / Relying on the altar’s blood, / Enjoying there the incense blest. / How blessed are those men indeed! / Trusting in Thee they are made strong; / Highways to Zion in their hearts, / The way they care not, rough or long. (Hymns #851)
# Lord we pray, preserve us faithful in the way / All our days, never to fall away. / By Your grace, keep us pursuing You, / Taking up the cross to follow You. / Consecrate we unreservedly, / Absolute for You entirely. / In our hearts, Lord, let the highways be / Unto Zion single-heartedly. (Song on, I Want to Follow Him)
# I’ll be raptured into glory, / In the Holy City dwell— / New Jerusalem, New Jerusalem; / With the overcomers shouting, / How our praises then will swell, / In the New Jerusalem. (Song on, When I’ve run the race before me)
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