This week we have been prayerfully considering the spiritual meaning and application of the rainbow around God’s throne, and our realization is that the spiritual reality of the rainbow needs to be wrought into us so that we will have the appearance of a rainbow, bearing God’s testimony.
God’s testimony is multi-colored: His divine attributes expressed through human virtues cover the full spectrum of light, and the main divine attributes are His righteousness (signified by color blue, the sapphire throne), holiness (signified by color red, the divine fire), and glory (signified by color yellow, the brightness of the divine light).
We need to experience Christ and let Him work Himself into us until we corporately bear God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory (Ezek. 1:28; Rev. 4:2-3; 10:1; 21:19-20). We need to be in Christ and let Christ live in us and be expressed through us so that, in Christ we may become the righteousness of God.
We need to enjoy God being in us, live in God, and seek to be mingled, permeated, and saturated with God, so that we may become holy, even as God is holy.
Hallelujah, we have Christ dwelling in us as the hope of glory, and we are daily being transformed into His image from glory to glory, until we fully bear His image.
Because we are in Christ, we bear Christ as righteousness, holiness, and glory; in God’s eyes we look like righteousness, holiness, and glory, and we have the appearance of a rainbow!
Ezekiel said that what he saw was the appearance of the glory of the Lord. “When I saw it, I fell on my face and I heard the voice of someone speaking” (Ezek. 1:28b). If we want to hear the word of the Lord in the following chapters of Ezekiel, we all need to come to the same point—under a clear sky in front of the throne with a man sitting on it and bearing the shining and reflecting rainbow. This is the place where we can hear the voice from above. Being here positions us to hear the voice speaking from the heavens. I hope that every one of us will come to this point, and I also hope that all the local churches will also be here. Then the Lord will have a way to speak to us. (Life-study of Ezekiel, pp. 133-135)
Having the Spiritual Reality of the Rainbow Manifested in the Church Life Today
For eternity we will be the New Jerusalem, the rainbow city, and this is what God desires to gain; although this rainbow will be fully manifested in eternity, the spiritual reality of this bright rainbow should be manifested in the church today (1 Tim. 3:15-16).
We need to pray that every church would be a rainbow church, bearing God’s testimony in the way of a rainbow; we need to pray that all the saints – both brothers and sisters – would bear the testimony of God and experience God’s attributes (His righteousness, holiness, and glory) more and more, day by day.
A very good definition of the rainbow according to the high peak of the divine revelation is this: the rainbow is the manifestation of God’s rich and bountiful attributes expressed in the aromatic human virtues. God wants to express His attributes – which are rich, many, and wonderful, and He wants to do so in our human virtues.
His faithfulness guarantees that this will happen; He bound Himself by His covenant that we would not just be saved from eternal perdition but that we would be made the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead!
In the church life we need to allow God to work in us, and we need to receive grace to the extent that everything becomes righteous, holy, and glorious (Phil. 2:12-13). In the Christian life and the church life we are here to receive more grace, even the abundance of grace, to the point that God’s divine attributes is expressed in the enriched and uplifted human virtues.
If we allow God’s holy fire to burn away everything that doesn’t match Him so that His holy nature is manifested as gold through our humanity, the church will be filled with God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory (see Eph. 3:21).
This righteousness, holiness, and glory will combine and reflect one another to form a bright rainbow expressing God and testifying for Him.
If you look into how the optical phenomenon of the rainbow comes into being, there’s a combination of the reflection, the refraction, and the dispersion of the light in the millions of the droplets of water, and there’s a wide range of colors that is being displayed to form a rainbow.
When God comes into us, there’s a refraction: His righteousness and holiness comes with God in Christ as the Spirit, and then He hits our spirit – there’s a dispersion of this multi-colored God in His rich attributes experienced by us.
As we enjoy God, experience God, allow Christ to make His home in our heart, let the fire of God burn in us to purify us, and are being saturated with God, God fills us with His attributes and is being expressed through our virtues, and people see the rainbow being displayed in the church: we manifest God in the flesh.
The invisible God whom no man can look at or approach (just as we can’t stare too much at the bright beam of the sun) is becoming communicable, being expressed in Christ through all the saints in the church life who allow God’s attributes to fill and be expressed through their human virtues to be the spiritual reality of the rainbow manifested in the church life.
Lord Jesus, may the spiritual reality of the rainbow be manifested among us and through us in the church life today. We want to allow You to work in us, and we want to be open to receive grace to the extent that everything becomes pure, just, and holy. Lord, may the divine fire burn in us everything that doesn’t match God so that His holy nature may be manifested as bright gold in and through the humanity of all the brothers and the sisters. May the church be filled with God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory being experienced and manifested through the saints in their daily living.
As the New Jerusalem we will be a Rainbow Testifying to All that God is Faithful!
The New Jerusalem has the appearance of a rainbow – the holy city looks like a rainbow (see Rev. 21:19-20). The colors of the twelve layers of the foundations have the appearance of a rainbow, surrounding the eternal God as His testimony; this signifies that the entire city is built upon the eternal faithfulness of the faithful God.
The New Jerusalem is a city with foundations; the foundation is made of twelve layers of precious stones, who together have the appearance of a rainbow, testifying of the eternal faithfulness of the faithful God, the One who is faithful to His own covenant.
The New Jerusalem is built upon and secured by God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant (Rev. 4:2-3; 21:19-20).
The New Jerusalem with the twelve foundations having the appearance of a rainbow is an eternal declaration that, when God judged sinners according to His righteousness, He did not destroy everyone but saved many from destruction as a testimony of His faithfulness.
As we experience God’s faithfulness today and allow Him to work in us to make us His expression as the rainbow, for eternity we will be a rainbow testifying forever that our God is righteous and faithful.
It is by His righteousness, His holiness, and His glory that we will have the appearance of a rainbow, declaring to the whole universe God’s faithfulness. The consummation of our Christian life and of the church life will consummate in the rainbow city, the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem, the rainbow city, is the fulfillment of the desire of God’s heart.
Throughout the ages God has been judging fallen man according to His righteous throne, His holy fire, and His glorious nature, but He did not destroy all men – He has saved some, spared them, and worked Himself into them to the extent that they have become a bright rainbow reflecting His glory and testifying of Him and His faithfulness forever.
Hallelujah, the New Jerusalem shows that the heaven and earth have been connected, God and man have been joined, and God has obtained a corporate expression in man for eternity!
In God’s economy we need to be constituted with the faithful God to be faithful even as He is faithful (see 1 Cor. 4:2; 7:25; 1 Tim. 1:12; 2 Tim. 2:13).
As we all experience God today and allow Him to be expressed through us, together – as millions of droplets of rain – we will express the Lord corporately as the rainbow city, the New Jerusalem, testifying to all that our God is faithful!
As the New Jerusalem in eternity we, the aggregate of God’s saved ones, will be a rainbow testifying forever that our God is faithful.
Praise the Lord, by God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, we will have the appearance of a rainbow declaring to the whole universe God’s saving faithfulness. The New Jerusalem will be a declaration and testimony of God’s faithfulness as the fulfillment of the desire of His heart.
Lord, constitute us with the faithful God so that we may be as faithful as He is. Work Yourself into us, grant us the abundance of grace, remove all impurities from us, and saturate us with Your element so that we may corporately display Your divine attributes through our human virtues. Lord, gain the New Jerusalem, the city with foundations, the rainbow-city that testifies of God’s faithfulness for eternity! Work on Your believers today that You may gain a rainbow testifying forever that our God is faithful! Amen, Lord, we want to testify to the whole universe of God’s saving faithfulness!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, pp. 131-135 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 9 (week 9), The Rainbow — the Consummation of the Experience of the Christian Life and the Church Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# With the Man, with the Man is a rainbow fair; / Glorious bow, ’round the throne, faithfulness declares: / We deserved to be served with God’s judgment sore, / But we have been spared to praise Him more and more. (Hymns #1189)
# The rainbow round about Thy throne / Thy faithfulness declares; / This attribute forevermore / The holy city bears. (Hymns #18)
# May the meaning of the rainbow / Be our full reality; / In the church and in our living, / God expressed for all to see; / ’Round the throne in that bright City, / Grateful voices we shall raise: / “God is faithful in salvation! / Shout to His eternal praise!” (New song on the rainbow)
About aGodMan
Even the New Jerusalem has the appearance of a rainbow. The foundation stones of the New Jerusalem are of twelve layers, with each layer being a different color (Rev. 21:19-20). Some time ago I read an article which stated that the twelve layers of the foundation stones have the appearance of a rainbow in color….This rainbow signifies that the city is built upon and secured by God’s faithfulness in keeping His covenant. This rainbow will declare for eternity that when God judged sinners according to His righteousness, He did not destroy everyone but saved many from destruction as a testimony of His faithfulness. In eternity we, the aggregate of the saved ones, will be a rainbow testifying forever that our God is righteous and faithful. (Life-study of Ezekiel, p. 133)
Amen