Having God built into us and being Built into God to become Pillars in the Triune God

The Lord Jesus promises to make the overcomer in the recovered church a pillar built into the temple of God; this involves the fact that we’re being transformed into pillars in the church, and God is building Himself into us and us into Himself to make us pillars in the Triune God.

The overcomers are made by the Lord pillars in the temple of God; no one can know whether he or she is an overcomer until we have finished our course.

Paul is a pattern of this; in some of his epistles he said that he has not arrived, but that he is pressing on, but in his last epistle he said that he is sure the Lord will give him the crown of righteousness, for he has finished his course.

On one hand, we aspire to be the overcomers, we pray to be overcomers, we remain in the process of being an overcomer, and we consecrate to the Lord for this.

On the other hand, only the Lord knows when and who will be His overcomers, and only He is the Overcomer that is reproducing Himself into His believers.

What we want to do is not presume that we are overcomers but rather, we want to cooperate with Him to be produced as His overcomers.

We want to see what is the process of becoming an overcomer and cooperate with the Lord day by day, consecrating ourselves to Him, opening our whole being to Him, and allowing Him to carry out His central work in us.

The central work of God is that God is building Himself in Christ into our being and He is building us in Christ into Himself; He is working tirelessly not only to transform us and renew us but even more, to gain the building of God and man.

Such a vision should govern our daily life, day and night; we need to see God’s central work of building Himself into us and building us into Himself, and we need to cooperate with Him for Him to build Himself into us and us into Himself.

On one hand, we stand on the ground of oneness, we do not deny the Lord’s name but love His name and are gathered in His name, we hold to His word and remain in the pure revelation of God’s word, and we enjoy HIm as the One who has the key of David to bring us into all the riches of God and open the whole universe for God.

But on the other hand, we want to advance, proceed, and go on so that we may cooperate with His building work so that God would work Himself into us, build Himself into us, and build us into Himself to make us pillars in the Triune God, pillars in the temple of God.

The Lord makes us Pillars by Transforming us and Constituting us with Himself to be Pillars in the Temple of God

In Rev. 3:12 the Lord promises to the overcomers in the church in Philadelphia that He will make them a pillar in the temple of His God, and they shall by no means go out anymore.

What a wonderful promise! The LOrd is calling for overcomers, and to those who overcome in the recovered church, He will make them pillars in the church, that is, pillars in the temple of God.

This promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom as a prize to the overcomer.

To those who overcome in the recovered church, the Lord doesn’t promise to give them this or that; He promises that they would become pillars in the temple of God.

For us to overcome in the recovered church, we need to keep what we have received; we need to keep the Lord’s word and not deny His name, and He will transform us into pillars.

For us to become pillars in the temple of God involves transformation; pillars are pieces of stone, and for us men of clay to be pillars of stone, transformation is involved.

This reminds us of Jacob’s dream in Gen. 28; he was fleeing his brother Esau and was on the way to his relatives, to Laban, and God gave him a dream of the heavenly ladder with angels ascending and descending on it.

After he had that dream, Jacob set up the stone which he had used for a pillow to be a pillar, and that pillar was for God’s building.

It is the same principle today in the church life in the Lord’s recovery; the Lord is setting up many brothers and sisters to be pillars in His recovery.

He is transforming us with His stone element to make us stone pillars in His house, and He is constituting Himself into us to make us immovable pillars in God’s building.

Once we are set as pillars in the house of God, we can never be removed, even if we wanted to; pillars are immovable, set, and solid, supporting the building of God.

Today the Lod is making us pillars by transforming us, that is, by removing our natural element and by replacing it with HIs divine essence.

The process of Him making us pillars in the temple of God, the church, is the process of constituting us into pillars by transforming us and by constituting Himself into us.

In the church life today and in our daily Christian life, we need to be open to the divine flow in us to carry away the elements of our natural being and replace them with His very element, His transforming element.

Gradually, day by day, little by little, the Lord is adding Himself to us, He is transforming us, and the result of His transforming work is that we become pillars in the temple of God.

It is so encouraging to know that the Lord makes us pillars by transforming us, that is, by carrying away our natural element and replacing it with His divine essence (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).

He is constituting us into something, that is, He is constructing us in a creative way. Our God is the most creative being; He is constituting us into pillars in the temple of God by working Himself into us.

May we remain open to His working of Himself into us, His transforming us, His constituting us with Himself so that we may be made and constituted into pillars in the temple of God!

May we open to Him throughout the day to cooperate with His transforming work by praying short prayers and asking Him to transform us and constitute us with Himself.

Lord Jesus, make us the overcomers in the recovered church so that we may be made into pillars in the temple of God. Amen, Lord, make us and constitute us into pillars in the church. We open to Your transforming work. We want to cooperate with Your building work. Constitute us into pillars in the church. Add Yourself more into us and remove what is natural in us. Amen, Lord, may there be a daily process of constitution and building going on in us! Keep us in the divine flow so that the natural element would be removed and the divine stone element would be added to us to constitute us into pillars in the temple of God!

Having God built into us and being Built into God to become Pillars in the Triune God

Rev. 3:12 tells us that the overcomers will be pillars in the temple of God in the coming age; Rev. 21:22, however, says that the New Jerusalem in the coming age and in eternity has no temple, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Today the church is the temple of God, the house of God, and the Lord is taking many willing believers through the process of transformation and reconstitution to make them pillars in the church.

However, for us to be made into pillars means that we’re made into pillars in the triune God, for the church as the temple of God will become one with God to the point that the Triune God becomes the temple in the New Jerusalem.

Even today in the church life, the overcoming saints are pillars in the Triune God; they are not only pillars in the church, supporting and upholding the truth, but they are also pillars in the Triune God, being one with God.

A good illustration of this is the golden lampstand; the church is a golden lampstand shining forth with God as the light in the universe, and all the features of the golden lampstand point to the Triune God.

The golden lampstand is a symbol of the church (Rev. 1:12, 20); at the same time, the lampstand is the embodiment and expression of the Triune God.

The gold nature of the lampstand signifies the nature of the Father, the form of the lampstand signifies Christ as the embodiment and image of God, and the seven lamps signify the Spirit as the expression of the Triune God.

The lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God and also a symbol of the church; in actuality, the church is the embodiment of the Triune God.

Today this is a mystery, but for eternity the church will become the embodiment of the Triune God to express God and represent Him to the whole universe.

So the Lord is making His overcomers pillars in the church, that is, pillars in the Triune God, for the Triune God Himself will be the temple.

Our response in prayer should be so simple, Lord, please make me a pillar in the Triune God!

The Lord knows that we may begin by desiring to be a pillar in the church in a selfish way, as a personal seeking, but eventually our experience and prayer will be Body-conscious, for we will want to be pillars in the Triune God.

For us to become pillars in the Triune God we need to allow God to build Himself into us and to be built into the Triune God.

We want to be pillars in the Triune God for the Lord’s sake, for Him to say on that day that we have contributed to the fulfilment of the desire of His heart.

For us to become pillars in the Triune God, we need to be mingled with the Triune God and constituted with Him.

In our experience, we need to ask the Father to strengthen us into the inner man through the Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart; day by day we need to ask the Lord to work Himself into us and build us into Himself (Eph. 3:16-17).

It is not enough for us merely see, know, and agree with the fact that God desires to make us pillars in the Triune God – we need to pray this back to Him and open to Him throughout the day for Him to do it in us.

Like David who prayed this when he received God’s word that He will build him a house and his son will be the king, the Son of God, so we need to come to the Lord and pray this to Him.

We want to cooperate with the central work of God so that He may make us into pillars in the church, pillars in the temple of God, pillars in the Triune God.

This may not mean that He will make us leading brothers or leading sisters; it simply means that we cooperate with the Lord and serve in simplicity and purity, and we care for others according to God.

Even today in the church life, the overcoming saints are pillars in the Triune God (Rev. 3:12; Gal. 2:9); these saints sometimes have the consciousness that the church is actually nothing more than the Triune God, as indicated by the golden lampstands as a symbol of the church.

The pillars in the church today are pillars in the Triune God; in the coming age, these overcoming believers will be pillars in the temple of God, which is God Himself. Wow!

Amen, may we aspire to be made pillars in the Triune God and may we cooperate with the Lord to mingle us with Himself, constitute us with Himself, build Himself into us and build us into the Triune God for the building of God!

May we be simple concerning this before the Lord and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, sanctify us more today for Your building. May today be a day of being renewed in the spirit of our mind for the church. Make Your home in our heart more. Grow in us for the Body. Strengthen us into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. Amen, Lord, we simply open to You; build Yourself into us and build us into the Triune God. May we daily go through the process of transformation and building so that God may be wrought into us and we would be made pillars in the Triune God! Amen, Lord, grant us the grace to be Your overcomers in this age. Save us from not living an overcoming life. Make us overcomers for the Body and in the Body. Amen, Lord, gain Your building today! Gain the pillars in the temple of God, the pillars in the Triune God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 112 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Vital Factors for the Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life (2021 ITERO), week 8, The Factor of Living an Overcoming Life in the Recovered Church to Consummate the Divine Economy and Become the New Jerusalem.
• 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)
  – He who overcomes, / him I’ll make a pillar in the / temple of My God, / He who overcomes, / he shall by no means go out, / go out anymore. / I come quickly; / hold fast what you have, / I come quickly; / hold fast what you have / that no one, no one / take your crown. (Scripture Song)
  – Lord, deeper make Thy home in me / ’Til ev’ry room belong to Thee, / That Thou might fully make me Thee / And so full rest Thou have in me. / So also deeper into Thee / I’d make my home, my rest in Thee; / A pillar in Thy temple be / And stay in Thee eternally. (Song on, Lord, Deeper Make Thy Home in Me)