To the seeking believers in Christ, all the aspects and characteristics of the New Jerusalem is their experience today. The throne of God is set in the center of their being, and from the throne flows a river of water of life. They eat the tree of life and are supplied with Christ as their life within.
They are daily experiencing being conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection, and they are welcoming pearl gates into the New Jerusalem for so many others. They have a high and great wall separating the world from them, and they protect God’s interests and His glory by speaking Christ and expressing God in their living.
They have a God-man living, a living and walk by the spirit and do everything in the Body of Christ. Furthermore, the seeking believers learn to walk by the divine nature, walking on the golden street in the New Jerusalem in their daily life.
We need to be such seeking believers, those who experience a foretaste of the New Jerusalem with all its features and characteristics in the church life today.
Specifically, today we want to see that the street of the New Jerusalem is pure gold (like the city itself), symbolizing the divine nature of God. This means that we need to have a daily walk not only according to God’s life but also according to God’s nature.
Do you walk according to God’s life? Do you allow God’s life to limit you, speak to you, supply you, and restrict you? This is good, but you still need to walk according to God’s nature, according to the very nature of what God is.
The principle of our daily walk should be according to God’s divine nature which is being formed in us day by day. As we walk according to the divine nature, we are being watered by the river of water of life (which flows in the middle of the street) and we are supplied by the tree of life (which grows on both sides of the river).
Walking on the Golden Street being Walking According to the Divine Nature of God
We can experience walking on the golden street of the New Jerusalem by walking according to the divine nature of God
The New Jerusalem is a city of gold – the city is pure gold, like clear glass (Rev. 21:18). Gold in the New Testament signifies God’s nature, pure, unchangeable, and precious. The street in the New Jerusalem is also of pure gold, like transparent glass (Rev. 21:21).
If we want to experience walking on the golden street in the New Jerusalem we need to walk according to the divine nature of God. In our Christian life and church life everything we do must be according to God’s nature and not according to our natural man and preferences.
In the way we dress, walk, speak, and do things – in everything, the only rule is God’s nature. We don’t have outward rules and regulations in the church life – we only have God’s nature as the unique way for us to walk on.
When we walk according to God’s nature which is being formed in us as we enjoy the Lord and grow in life day by day, we are becoming crystal clear, pure, without any mixture, and without any opaqueness.
There is a difference between walking by God’s life and walking according to the divine nature. For example, if we go shopping and there’s an article that we know is sinful, and yet we’re inclined to get it, the divine life within us bothers us and, if we cooperate with the Lord’s speaking within, we walk by God’s life and not buy that particular item.
However, after the divine nature has been formed in us through our cooperation with the Lord to develop the divine nature with all its virtues, whenever we go shopping we don’t even have an inclination toward buying or looking at some things – we simply walk according to the divine nature.
Since gold signifies the divine nature of God, our daily walk at work, at home, in the church life, and anywhere we are – should be according to the divine nature of God.
The Divine Life Flows in the Divine Nature as the Unique Way for our Daily Life
If the Bible would only encourage us to “walk according to the divine nature of God” without mentioning the life-supply for us to do it, this would be a bit too much. But in Revelation 21-22 we see that in the middle of the golden street there is the river of water of life flowing, and on both sides of the river there’s the tree of life growing and bearing fruit.
In our experience of the golden street, as we walk according to the divine nature, we have the flow of the divine life within. We don’t go certain places, we don’t buy certain items, and we don’t say certain things not because “the Bible says so” but because within we don’t want to lose the flow of life.
Whenever we do things according to the divine nature we immediately have the deep sensation of the flow of life watering us and the tree of life supplying us (see Rev. 22:1-2).
The street of the holy city is pure gold (Rev. 21:21). Gold symbolizes the divine nature. That the river of water of life proceeds “in the middle of its street” [22:1] signifies that the divine life flows in the divine nature as the unique way for the daily life of God’s redeemed people. Where the divine life flows, there the divine nature is as the holy way by which God’s people walk; and where the holy way of the divine nature is, there the divine life is flowing. The divine life and the divine nature as the holy way always go together. Thus, God’s river of water of life is available along this divine way, and we enjoy the river by walking in this way of life. (Rev. 22:1, footnote 6, Recovery Version)
At the time of our regeneration, we received God’s life, and God’s life has a nature – a way of living, a way of doing things, a “golden way”, the divine nature. In our daily life we need to learn to walk by the divine nature and we will be supplied with the water of life and the tree of life.
We all need a day-by-day experience of the divine street of gold with the river of water of life and the tree of life in its middle. When we drink and eat the Lord, we walk according to the divine nature; when we walk according to the divine nature, we are watered and supplied by Christ.
There is only one street on which we can walk in the New Jerusalem, and this street is the golden street, the divine nature of God. Our only way to walk in our Christian life and church life is walking according to the divine nature. And as we walk according to the divine nature, we are being richly supplied by the flowing and growing divine life.
Lord Jesus, we want to walk on the unique street in the New Jerusalem, the golden street, by walking according to the divine nature. May we have no other rule and regulation except living and walking according to the divine nature, being supplied by the divine life. Lord, we treasure the flow of life and we love eating the tree of life. May the divine nature in us grow and be formed so that we may walk no longer according to our natural man or in the self but according to the golden divine nature!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, God’s New Testament Economy (ch. 36), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 3 / msg 3, The Pearl Gates and the Golden Street.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I count not my righteousness mine— / ’Tis Jesus that lives in my soul. / I partake of His nature divine, / And in Him I am perfectly whole. (Hymns #523)
# There are seven golden lampstands in the nature all divine— / Nothing natural does the Body life allow. / When we’re one and share God’s nature, / how the lampstand then does shine— / Hallelujah, it is brightly shining now! (Hymns #1226)
# A flowing river and a tree, / Eden’s outstanding features are, / Man to supply with food and drink / That he may live fore’er. / God is in Christ to be my supply, / God as the Spirit nourisheth me; / If upon Christ in spirit I feed, / Filled with His life I’ll be. (Hymns #509)
Amen my dear brother