We need to grow in life and eventually blossom in life so that we may have the abundance of life, the expression of the fullness of life in the church’s humanity and the Lord’s speaking of warning in the church’s divinity. Wow, amen!
The good land is a land of pomegranates.
When we look at a ripened pomegranate with its bright red seeds we have the impression not only of life but abundance of life, beauty of life, and fullness of life.
What does it mean that the good land – a type of the all-inclusive Christ – is a land of pomegranates?
It means that we can enjoy and experience Christ to such an extent that we have the abundance of the life of Christ and the beauty of His life, and we can have the fullness of life. Hallelujah!
One way for us to have such an abundance of life is to love the Lord Jesus and allow Him to rule and restrict us within.
The more we’re inwardly ruled and restricted by Christ with His life in us, the more we grow in life.
If we see the vision of Christ and realize how all-inclusive and extensive He is, we will concentrate our whole being on Him, and He will fill and saturate us. As we come to the Lord in His word, we can see how all-inclusive He is; we realize that He is everything to us in a very subjective way.
As we daily enjoy the Lord and taste His riches, we are filled with Him, and He occupies our being.
We will realize that He is a treasure of great value, and we will pay the highest price to gain Him and be filled with Him.
What a rich, all-inclusive, and extensive Christ we have!
When we see a vision of the all-inclusiveness of Christ, we will concentrate our whole being on Him, and He will spread in our entire being little by little.
We will then grow with the growth of God, and it will be Christ who lives in us. Hallelujah!
Our growth will be in Christ and with Christ, and He will fill, saturate, and permeate us with Himself.
What a joy it is to gain Christ, enjoy Christ, partake of Christ, and be filled with Christ!
When we enjoy and experience the Lord in this way and then come to the meetings of the church or we meet other saints, we will have an overflow of life toward them, for there will be an abundance of life in us and overflowing from us.
This is to experience Christ as a land of pomegranates.
In this article we want to come to a particular portion in the Bible that mentions pomegranates, that is, the pomegranates on the bottom part of the high priest’s robe, which signifies the church.
We want to see what does it mean in our Christian experience and how can we apply this in our Christian life.
The Significance of the Pomegranates and Golden Bells on the Priest’s Robe – and their Application to our Christian Experience
In Exo. 28:33-34 we see another mention of the pomegranates.
God charged Moses to make a particular garment for Aaron and his sons, a priestly robe, which has many wonderful details.
This garment was for glory and for beauty.
A garment in the Bible signifies expression.
When the high priest was serving God, he needed to be clothed in an honourable, majestic way.
The priestly garment was very particular; no other garment on the whole earth could be similar to it, for it had both glory and beauty.
Glory is divine; beauty is human.
The priestly garment was worn by the high priest to express the divinity of God as glory and the humanity of man as beauty.
A particular aspect of the priestly garment is that, at the hem of the robe, there were pomegranates made of blue and purple and scarlet strands, all around the hem, and also golden bells.
There was one bell and one pomegranate all around on the hem of the robe.
This was to ensure that, when the high priest went into the sanctuary to function, whenever he walked, people would hear the golden bells, and they knew he was ok; if there was no sound, there was trouble.
It was very meaningful.
When the garment was being made, the pomegranates were before the bells, and in function, the bells came before the pomegranates.
The skits of the garment signify fullness; the fullness of Christ – the High Priest – is the church.
The pomegranates and the bells on the skirts must be matters related to the church.
The pomegranates were made of linen, signifying humanity; the bells were made of gold, signifying divinity.
What we have in the church life is both humanity and divinity.
The church should be full of life in her humanity; this is the significance of pomegranates made of linen.
The church is comprised of human beings, not angels.
We are human beings as components of the church, but we should not be natural fallen human beings but human beings that have been redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed.
Our humanity is not the natural, fallen humanity, but the humanity of Jesus that expresses and manifests the beauty of the divine life.
In our humanity there should be an expression of life – not the human life but the zoe life, the eternal life of God.
The divine life needs to be manifested in our humanity as men, as components of the church as the fullness of Christ.
Also, the church has divinity, and in the divinity of the church, there is a sounding of the bell, that is, the Lord’s speaking.
The Lord speaks to us in the divinity of the church.
We can testify that, when we go to the meetings of the church, on one hand, we see the fullness and overflow of life, even the abundance of life, and on the other hand, we have the Lord’s speaking.
On the one hand, we enjoy the rich flow of the abundant life of Christ; on the other hand, we receive the Lord’s speaking, and there are also words of warning for us in our Christian life.
The church has humanity for the expression of the fullness of the divine life and also divinity for the sounding of the golden bells.
The church is not a kind of human system, a religious system, or a social system for the people to come together and read the Bible and do things for God.
Rather, the church has humanity that expresses the abundance of life, and the church has divinity for the speaking of God to His people.
When people come to the meetings in the proper church life, they will sense the abundance of the divine life and also the speaking of the Lord to His people.
Thank You, Lord, for the church having humanity for the expression of the fullness of life and divinity for the speaking of God in the church! Hallelujah for the church, the fullness of Christ, the One who fills all in all! Hallelujah for the fullness of life being expressed in the church and especially in the meetings of the church! Praise the Lord, our God is speaking to us and unveiling us to see what is in His heart and what path we should take! We open to You, Lord, in our daily life with all its daily activities. Keep us in Your presence. Keep us open to Your divine dispensing. Fill us with Your life. May the church meetings be filled with the abundance of life and with God’s speaking. Have a way to flow as life in the humanity of the church and speak to us in the divinity of the church. Gain a proper church life among us today!
A Proper Church Life has the Fullness of Life Expressed in her Humanity and a Voice of Warning in her Divinity
The golden bells and the pomegranates all around on the hem of the garment of the high priest are very significant to us in the church life today.
Fullness of life is expressed in the church’s humanity and the voice of warning is expressed in the church’s divinity.
On the one hand, the church is the fullness of the One who fills all and in all, and we can apprehend with all the saints what the depth and the breadth and the length and height are to be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19).
On the other hand, when God’s divinity is offended, when God has a problem with a certain situation or person, there is the sounding of a bell of warning.
These bells are not loud, like big steel bells uttering a loud sound.
Rather, they are small golden bells; the sound is discreet, but it is there to warn us.
Many times the Lord uses a little brother or sister here and there to speak something, and that speaking is a warning to us, keeping us on God’s way.
We can testify that many times we come to the meetings of the church and we enjoy not only the rich flow of life, the abundance of life, but also the sounding of little golden bells that warn us not to walk carelessly.
This is a good sign of a proper church life.
Someone may share in the meeting not only that they enjoyed Christ as life but also how God dealt with them in a particular matter, and that becomes a warning to us, something that keeps us on the Lord’s way and doesn’t allow us to go astray.
There’s a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the garment of the high priest.
This means that in the proper church life, we have both the fullness of life expressed in the humanity of the church and the voice of warning expressed in her divinity.
On the one hand, there’s the uplifted humanity of Christ being expressed, expressing the life of Christ through the human beings in the church.
At the same time, the Spirit has a way to speak something through some members of the church that is like a sound of warning, and this speaking is in the divinity of the church.
The fullness of life is expressed in the church’s humanity (pomegranates of linen), but the voice of warning is expressed in the church’s divinity (golden bells).
In the church life, we first have the expression of the fullness of life and then the sounding of the golden bells, that is, the speaking from the divinity of the church (Rev. 2:2, 4-5, 11, 13-14, 16, 29).
The beauty of life is expressed in our humanity and the divine sounding from the golden bells are signs of a proper church life.
The Lord wants to gain such a proper church life among us today. We all as believers in Christ have humanity and divinity.
Our humanity is being infused and saturated with Christ so that there may be the expression of the fullness of Christ’s life, the abundance of His life.
From our divinity there is a certain sound coming out, like the ringing of a small golden bell; this is the speaking from the Lord in His divinity in us, which many times warns us and keeps us in check.
It’s not easy to tell which one of these comes first: the sound from the golden bells or the linen pomegranates, but they are together.
Both are in the church as the long rain of Christ.
In the church life, we have the divine voice speaking from the church’s divinity and also the expression of the fullness of life; they alternate, and it is normal to have them both.
If we have only one but not the other, there may be problems.
If we only have the sounding of golden bells but no pomegranates, there may be gossip and criticism, and if we have only the pomegranates with no golden bells, there may be many problems in the church that are not addressed by the Lord.
We need both, and when we have the Lord’s speaking in the divinity of the church and the overflow of riches of His life in the church’s humanity, we have a proper church life.
May we grow in life and blossom in life so that we may be full of life and have the expression of the fullness of life.
As we grow in life unto maturity, we will not gossip or criticize but rather, there be some words coming out of the divinity of the church to warn and deal with things, and both us and others are warned and kept in check by the Lord.
In the church life we don’t have human control, but we have the pomegranates and the bells.
When we speak, we exercise our spirit to speak one with the Lord so that there would be expression of the fullness of His life, and also there would be the sounding of the golden bells in the divinity of the church.
Lord Jesus, gain a proper church life among us today. Gain the church life where we have both the overflow of the riches of Christ’s life and the speaking of the Lord with His warning to us. Keep us growing in life unto maturity so that we may eventually blossom in life and have the expression of the fullness of life. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we all express the fullness of Christ as life in our humanity! May there be the Lord’s voice being expressed through the divinity of the church. Gain the church as the fullness of Christ and as the oracle of God. May we all exercise our spirit to speak one spirit with You in the church life, and may You be expressed through us, even having a way to speak what You want to speak among us today. Yes, Lord, may we have the beauty of life expressed in the church’s humanity and the divine sounding from the golden bells in the church’s divinity among us today! Gain a proper church life today among us!
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 brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 130, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 9, entitled, A Land of Pomegranates.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– The life of divinity mingled with humanity, a portion from, Four Crucial Elements of the Bible, The—Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
– 5 Benefits and Ways of Speaking Christ Daily, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– The building of God into man and man into God, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
– The Heavenly Christ as the Living Star and the Shining Stars in the Churches as Christ’s Duplication, via, Living to Him.
– The workers of the tabernacle, the furniture, and the priestly garment, a portion from, Life-Study of Exodus, Chapter 170.
– Recommending the life-study of Exodus on radio broadcast here. - Hymns on this topic:
– Jesus is getting us together, / Come and see the saints in one accord. / His love is knitting us together, / To the stature of the fullness of the Lord. / Thus with all saints we can apprehend / All the vast dimensions of God. / Knowing Christ’s love passes all we know, / We’re together filled to fullness with our God. (Hymns #1232 stanza 2 and chorus)
– The Lord has made us one with Him for His recovery: / The riches of this Christ, the church His fullness, men must see. / Yes, all we have and all we are, we every day outpour / For His tremendous purpose, ever dearer than before. (Hymns #1152 stanza 4)
– In Revelation two and three, / The seven local churches see: / The lessons there for you and me / Are for the Lord’s recovery. / The words to them are words to us, / So that the church be glorious, / And all their warnings we must heed / So that the Lord can meet His need. (Hymns #1274 stanzas 1-2)
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Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1442-1444, by Witness Lee
Dear brother, in the proper church life we have the expression of the fullness of life in the church’s humanity and also the speaking from the divinity of the church.
We need to grow in life and blossom in life, and we will have the fullness and beauty of life.
Also, we need to have the Lord’s speaking through the saints so that we may be warned not to walk carelessly.
Yes, brother, The true and proper church is the living body of the Lord that manifests itself through a beautiful message from the Lord and an abundant life expressed in humanity.
Praise the Lord.
Amen Lord! Cause us to grow in life for a proper church life to express sonship!
Amen, dear brother, in the church we have holy living and the word as the holy breath to speak to others and give life to the church, then we would have a living of pomegranates and bells, not of iron that resounds, but a sweet sound of golden bells.
Praise the Lord! 😃🙌🙋🏼
https://youtu.be/wpTJ9KRp_nY?si=t0ut9HiBh5wUpNli
Yes Lord Jesus, amen.
Like pomegranates we need to grow until we receive the fullness of life to influence others, replacing criticisms and gossip with the gentle sound of the golden bell so we may be warned not to walk carelessly.
Amen yes Lord more life!
The pomegranates & bells on the the skirts of the priests signify matters related to the church life.
The church should be full of “pomegranate,” that is, full of life in her humanity.
However, the voice of warning is always expressed in the church’s divinity.
In the church, we are not under human control — but we are controlled by the “pomegranates & bells.”
Therefore, our church life should have the beauty of life expressed in our humanity, and the divine sounding of the golden bells.
Enjoyed this portion from the MR today.
In you and me, there is a certain amount of divinity. From this element of divinity a sound comes out in a small scale, like the ringing of a little bell…
For the proper church life (the linen robe) there needs to be the fullness of life, typified by pomegranates, the expression of humanity with the speaking, the sounding out of a warning – pictured by the golden bells – originating from divinity.
If our speaking in the church is of God as our source and we have the proper humanity through the growth in life, then such a speaking, including how the Lord has dealt with us, will help the saints to be warned, that they too may grow in the church to be full of life to replace any gossip and criticism to have the proper speaking.
Then there will be the proper church life, the expression of Christ.
Yes Lord!
Wow brother, in the church we are not under human control, however we are all controlled by the pommegranates and the bells.
Because the pomegranates and bells are attached to the skirts of the long robe indicates that they are related to the church life.
Whatever we speak in the church life must of divine origin, of the divine source, at the same time we need fullness of life expressed in linen, in humanity!
Exodus 28:33-34 say, “And you shall make on its hem pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet strands, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all around: A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe all around.”
In the Old Testament, the high priest would wear a long robe. In the book of Revelation, Christ is revealed as wearing a long garment down to His feet, a perfect robe of the High Priest. In the Bible, the garment signifies what a person is and what he does (Isa 64:6; Rev 19:8).
Christ’s long robe signifies His splendor in His virtues, which is expressed mainly in and through His humanity (Isa 6:1). In the Old Testament, a priest was not to be exposed in any part (Exo 20:26); all parts of his body had to be clothed.
Christ’s wearing a perfect garment indicates that He is perfect. His long robe signifies that He is short of nothing and that this God-man has human virtues that are sufficient to cover His whole being. He has all the virtues with no shortage whatsoever. With Him, nothing is short, lacking, or needed. He is fully qualified to be a priest. He is walking in the midst of the churches as the High Priest in a perfect robe to bring the local churches into the priesthood.
The high Priest wearing an ephod on his breast signifies Christ caring for the church. At the hem of the robe are pomegranates and golden bells woven alternately (Exo 28:33-34). The pomegranates were blue and purple and scarlet strands, while the bells were made of gold (Exo 28:33). Blue signifies heavenliness; purple, royalty; and scarlet, Christ’s redemption. The color of the robe was all of blue, indicating that the church is completely heavenly. Gold signifies holiness or divinity.
Pomegranates signify the fullness of life. Christ, as the embodiment of God, is the fullness of God (Col 1:19; 2:9). Since God is the source of life, the fullness of God means the fullness of life. Christ thus is the fullness of life. Individually, at the time of our regeneration, we, the believers in Christ, received Christ as life into our spirit, causing us to receive His fullness, the fullness of life (John 1:16). Then, corporately, we, the church, as the Body of Christ, would eventually also become the fullness of Christ, which is the fullness of life (Eph 1:23).
On the one hand, pomegranates signify the fullness of life, expressed in the church’s humanity. On the other hand, golden bells signify the warning sound or voice, expressed in the church’s divinity. Exodus 28:33 speaks of pomegranates and then bells, but Exodus 28:34 speaks of bells and then pomegranates. This means that when the priestly garment was being made, pomegranates came before the bells.
Pomegranates and the golden bells signify that the church should be full of life in its humanity and that the speaking of the church must come out of its divinity. The fullness of life is expressed in the church’s humanity, but the voice of warning is expressed in the church’s divinity.
When we take time to absorb the Lord, He infuses Himself as life and everything into our inner being, issuing into an outflow of life. The fullness of life causes us to speak in the church meetings, which comes forth from the overflow of the divine life from within our humanity.
The speaking of the saints in the church meetings will become a pleasant voice to cherish and supply the saints and a warning sound to warn others not to be careless or loose in their Christian church life. This is the significance of the pomegranates and the golden bells.
Amen Lord more growth in us today to the blossoming point, keep our ears inclined to your speaking
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaeYzu3Ta-M
Rumble:
https://rumble.com/v4wqocl-in-the-church-we-have-the-fullness-of-life-and-the-speaking-of-god.html
Exo. 28:33, footnote 1 on “pomegranates”, Recovery Version Bible
[HWMR-Week 9 Day 3]
Ameen!!!
Lord bring all the churches in Your recovery to this standard of being full of life and full of Your speaking!! May we have these signs borne by all the churches where the beauty of life expressed in our humanity and the divine sounding from divinity. Advance in life in all the churches.
🙏🙏🙏