God is Obtaining a Holy Temple and a Holy City to Dwell with and Reign in His People

At the end of Ezekiel and at the end of Revelation God gains a holy temple and a holy city in which He can rest, dwell, be satisfied, and rule among man. In the holy city God can rule and reign with His authority, and in the holy temple He can dwell with His people to have fellowship with them.

This is a type of the church life today, where we are both the temple of God for Him to dwell and have fellowship with us, and the city of God in which He can rule and reign. All this is the result of our enjoyment and experience of Christ as the all-inclusive good land.

When we daily enjoy the Lord, experience Him, and live in Him as our good land, we will become His temple for God to dwell in and His city for God to have His rule and reign.

When we as God’s chosen people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, experiencing Him as all the riches of the good land, we are constituted with these riches to be the church, and through us for can show His multifarious wisdom to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.

In this good land, the all-inclusive Christ as the bountiful life-giving Spirit, we have everything we need. Here we have milk and honey flowing. In Christ we enjoy His judicial redemption and His organic salvation, being washed and cleaned by the blood of Christ and being much more saved in His life daily.

Our only requirement is that we live as priests and kings, that is, that we contact God, enjoy God, minister to the Lord, and allow Him to shine in us, agree with the light, and let the Lord reign and rule in our being.

Day by day we need to enjoy the riches of the good land and labor on Christ to gain Him, be filled with Him, be constituted with Him, and be saturated with Him, so that we may become the church, the house of God, the temple of God, and the city of God.

Our enjoyment of Christ needs to increase every day, and our application of Christ to all the positive things of our daily living needs to be real in our daily life. Christ is really the good land in which we live, walk, have our being, work, and do everything.

The more we enjoy Him, the more the Lord is gaining a holy temple and a holy city, which consummate in the New Jerusalem.

The Bible testifies, both at the end of the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament, and at the end of the book of Revelation in the New Testament, that God will obtain a holy temple and a holy city. Hallelujah, God will gain what He is after, and today we can cooperate with Him for the fulfillment of His purpose!

God is Obtaining a Holy Temple and a Holy City for Him to Dwell with and Reign in His People

At the end of the book of Ezekiel we see that God obtains a holy temple and a holy city in the holy land (see Ezek. 40-44, 47-48).

God dwells in the temple, and He also dwells in the city; as He dwells in the temple, He has fellowship with His people and He dwells among them, and as He dwells in the city, He reigns among His people and through them.

This holy city has four sides and three gates on each side, just like the New Jerusalem, so that, no matter what gate you enter through, you are in the same city.

This is a city of oneness, because – as we see in Rev. 21:21 and vv. 1-2, as we enter through the gate (that is, through any gate), we are on the one street, we drink of the one river, we eat of the one tree of life, and we are brought to the one throne of God.

The holy city is a city of oneness for there is one street, one river, one flow, one drink, and one tree or life, and no matter which gate you enter through, you enter into oneness. Hallelujah!

As the issue of all the experiences we have of Christ, from being under the heavenly vision in Ezekiel 1 to enjoying Christ as the good land, God gains the church as a holy temple and a holy city. Throughout the Bible we see that God desires to gain a place to dwell in, a place in which He can fellowship with man.

The tabernacle of Moses was a type as a precursor, the temple was an enlargement of the tabernacle, and the church today is the real tabernacle and temple of God for God to fellowship with man and dwell in man and with man.

Christ came to be the tabernacle of God, and in Christ God dwelled in an individual way in His fulness. Through His death and resurrection, Christ has been increased and enlarged to be the church, the enlarged temple of God for God to dwell with man and for man to dwell in God.

Eventually, God will obtain the New Jerusalem, the real and consummate holy temple and holy city, and this city is the mutual dwelling place of God and man. In the holy city God can rule and reign in and among His people, and in the home temple He can fellowship with man.

God doesn’t want to dwell in the heavens only – He wants to dwell with man and be one with man, having fellowship with man and bringing man into fellowship with Him. God doesn’t want to merely rule among the angels and cherubim, He wants to rule and reign among men, in man, and through man in the universe.

God wants to fellowship with man, dwell with man, and be expressed and represented among men. And as the consummation of all His work in and among man, He will gain a holy temple and a holy city where He can dwell with man, fellowship with man, flow in man, and reign in man, to be expressed and represented through man for eternity.

Lord, we praise You for You will gain what You are after: a holy temple and a holy city where You can dwell with Your people and reign among them and in them! We give ourselves to You, Lord, that You may dwell in us, we may fellowship with You, we may be under Your ruling and reigning, and we may be in reality the holy temple and the holy city. We yearn to have more fellowship with You and have You dwell in us even as we dwell in You. We enthrone You in our being and we give You the preeminence in all things. Amen, Lord, gain a holy temple and a holy city today in the church life!

The Church is the Center for Fellowship with God and for Reigning with God

The holy temple with the city in the good land in Ezekiel typify the church in the present age as the center for the fellowship with God and for the reigning of God (see 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Heb. 12:22-23).

In the church today we are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us; we are the temple of God – we are a holy temple for God to dwell in.

The church today is the city of the living God, the place where God rules and reigns not outwardly but inwardly in His people. In the church as a holy temple and a holy city, we enjoy Christ as the good land, and God has His expression, God and His people enjoy one another mutually and have mutual satisfaction, and God rules and reigns.

The church as God’s temple and God’s city will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 22). If you want to meet God, you need to come to Christ; if you want to see Christ and know Christ, you have to come to the church.

It is in the church that God has a temple and a city; in the church God is expressed, God is met, and God is ruling. This should be the situation in all the local churches today: every local church has to be a center for the fellowship with God and for the reigning of God.

As those drawing near to God, we must be the priests who enjoy Him as the reality of the good land, and we will be built up to be the temple of His expression and rest.

Also, we need to be the kings of today who enjoy Christ, allow Him to rule and reign in them, and rule and reign with Christ to be His city and bring in His kingdom on earth.

This will consummate to be the New Jerusalem – the holy temple of God and the holy city of God – for God’s expression and His eternal reign. May this be our situation today in the church life.

May we be those who have an adequate enjoyment of Christ as the good land so that we may fellowship with Him and He may fellowship with us, He may reign in us and we may reign with Him, and the church would be a center for the fellowship with God and for the reigning of God.

When people come among us they should be able to sense that God is present among us, His presence is with us, and He reigns among us.

In the church life we don’t have a code of morality and ethics that we keep, neither should we have a hierarchy that we observe and respect.

Rather, in the church life we should all just enjoy Christ and experience Him as the good land, we should all fellowship with Him, and we should all let Him reign in us, so that He may gain the reality of a holy temple and a holy city among us.

Lord Jesus, may the church today be the center for the fellowship with God and for the reigning of God. We want to have an adequate enjoyment of Christ as the good land so that we may become the reality of the holy temple and the holy city in the holy land! May there much mutual fellowship between God and man in the church life, and may there be the reigning of God among us and through us, so that God may gain a holy temple and a holy city in and through the church today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 27 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Ezekiel (2), msg. 11 (week 23 in the HWMR), The Holy Temple and the Holy City in the Holy Land.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God and the Lamb the Temple are! / We shall behold His glorious face; / His presence never will depart, / We’ll worship Him thru endless days. (Hymns #979)
  # Tis the holy city, / New Jerusalem; / With His saints God mingles, / Makes His home with them. / He becomes their content, / His expression they; / They shall share His glory, / One with Him for aye. (Hymns #971)
  # 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)