Stay in the Process of being Purified by the Lord’s Life and the Pure Word of God

We need to remain in the process of being purified from all mixture by reading the Bible, the washing of the Lord’s life, and by our obedience to the truth.

As believers in Christ, we can live out and work out the New Jerusalem by living and serving in the intrinsic significance of Ezra’s ministry and Nehemiah’s leadership; in particular, we do this by remaining in the process of being purified from all mixture by the obedience of the truth. Amen!

The entire Bible speaks of one thing, the eternal economy of God.

From Genesis to Revelation we see one main matter, the economy of God; this economy needs to become our governing vision in the church life today.

We see the matter of life and building in Genesis, in Exodus, in Psalms, in the prophets, in the Gospels, in the Epistles and in the book of Revelation.

Today we are inheriting the all-inclusive, all-encompassing vision of God’s eternal economy, standing on the shoulders of so many who went before us.

What we see today is a vision spanning from the tree of life in Genesis to the tree of life in Revelation and the New Jerusalem.

If we read any book in the Bible we can see the vision of God’s economy, and every chapter in the Bible reveals to us what is God’s desire.

May we realize that today we live out and work out the New Jerusalem so that we may become the New Jerusalem.

Every believer should be a little New Jerusalem, and every local church needs to be a miniature of the New Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem is not “a mansion just over the hilltop”; it is the holy city, the consummation of the work of God in man throughout the ages.

What we see in the New Jerusalem first is the throne of God and of the Lamb; the One on the throne is not us but God, so for us to experience the New Jerusalem, we need to be dethroned and God needs to be enthroned.

Out of the throne of God flows a river of water of life; when we enthrone the Lord in our being, there’s a river of water of life flowing to water us and nourish us.

But when we are on the throne, the river of life stops.

We need to check with the Lord concerning all things, communicating with Him and taking Him as our Lord and King so that there would be a clear and constant flow of life in us.

With the river of water of life, there’s the tree of life.

We can eat and drink the Lord, He is so available, and He is flowing and growing for us to partake of HIm and live because of Him.

Then there’s the street of gold; there is just one street in the New Jerusalem, and we can walk on this street of gold when we live according to the divine nature in us.

Finally, there’s the wall, a great and high wall, that separates anything that is not of God and protects the interests of God.

We experience this wall and we become this wall by being transformed and by being reconstituted with what God is to become the same as Him in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

May we have the experiences of Christ as life and everything to us so that we may become a little New Jerusalem, and may the church life be a miniature of the New Jerusalem in reality today.

Stay in the Process of being Purified from all Mixture by the Lord’s Life and His Pure Word

In order for us to live out and work out the New Jerusalem, we need to stay in the process of being purified from all mixture, taking the Lord and the interests of His eternal economy as our unique goal (Ezra 9:2; Matt. 5:8; 1 Tim. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:4a, 6; Luke 9:54-55; Heb. 4:12; 1 Kings 8:48).

Stay in the process.

We are already here, in the process of being purified from all mixture, and we just need to remain in this process.

We can be purified through the process of God’s enlightenment, exposure, and judgment.

We can be purified from all mixture through the termination and elimination of the cross.

We can be purified through the cleansing and washing of the blood of Christ and through the flowing and saturating of the Spirit (Psa. 139:23-24; 51:7, 10; Rev. 22:1).

This means that we need to spend time with the Lord.

We need to spend time with the Lord in His word, allowing Him to speak to us, infuse us, enlighten us, expose us, speak to us, and supply us.

Unless we spend time with the Lord in private in His word, we will not be able to continue in the process of being purified.

The more we spend time with the Lord in His word, the more He can enlighten us concerning our situation and condition, and He can expose and judge anything that is not of Him in our being.

As we spend time with the Lord in His word, thus remaining in the process of being purified from all mixture, the cross operates in us to terminate and eliminate anything that is not of God.

Furthermore, there’s the cleansing and the washing of the blood of Christ, and there’s the flowing and saturating of the Spirit.

The more we spend time with the Lord in his word, having a heart that is open to Him, we are enlightened, exposed, and judged, and we are also supplied.

The blood of Christ washes us and the Spirit flows and saturates us.

We can be purified through the washing process of the water in God’s pure word; the more we remain in the word of God, the purer we become (Psa. 12:6; 119:9, 140; Eph. 5:26; Isa. 55:8-11).

The word of God is pure, like silver refined in a furnace on the earth, purified seven times.

When we touch the word of God, we become pure.

How can we as young ones keep our way and remain on the way of the Lord? It is by guarding it according to God’s word.

We need to hide the word of God in our heart so that we may not sin before God.

The more we remain in the word of God, reading the Bible and praying to open to the Lord, the more the word of God operates in us to free us from any mixture and evil element of the enemy.

The word of God is living and operative, working in us to divide the soul and the spirit and eliminate the mixture.

Our only hope is the word of God; we need to be in the word and we need to let the Lord examine us, know our heart, search us, and enlighten us.

Situations may happen, things may take place, and our environment may change, not always to what we think is good for us, but as long as we love the Lord and remain in His word, all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28-29).

If we remain open to the Lord, He will be able to continue the work of purification in our daily life.

Even in the church life, as we meet, serve, and coordinate with the saints, we need to be purified.

May we come to the Lord in His word a little every morning and dwell on His word throughout the day so that His living word would operate in us and we would be in the process of being purified from all mixture.

Lord Jesus, we want to stay in the process of being purified from all mixture. We take You and the interests of Your eternal economy as our unique goal. We come to You, dear Lord, and we come to Your word. Keep us in the process of being enlightened, exposed, and judged as we open to You in coming to Your word. May there be the termination and elimination of the cross in our being so that we may be purified from all mixture. Amen, Lord, how we need the cleansing of the blood and the flowing of the saturating Spirit! Cleanse us, wash us, and purify us. Add Your element to our being. Oh Lord, Your word is pure; we want to read Your word and abide in Your word so that we may become pure. Purify our mind, emotion, and will as we come to You in Your word. May Your word guide us, direct us, and operate in our being. Amen, Lord, purify us to make us part of the pure holy city, New Jerusalem!

We Purify our Souls by our Obedience to the Truth to be Pure and without any Mixture

Lev. 19:19 reveals that God wants everything to be according to its kind, without any mixture (Rev. 17:3-6; Deut. 22:5, 9-11; cf. Gen. 1:11, 21, 24-26; 2:7-9).

We may read this portion and we may not fully understand how does this apply to us, but thank the Lord for the ministry of the age which opens it and applies it to our experience!

Breeding cattle without mixture signifies that life is not allowed to be mixed; those who live by the life of God must not live by the flesh (Gal. 5:16).

We need to remain in purity before God, for mixture is hated by Him.

Mixing the things of God with the things of the world and mixing the things of the flesh with the things of the Spirit should not take place; this is the principle of Babylon.

Sowing seeds without mixture signifies that in the ministry of the word only one kind of seed, only one kind of teaching, should be sown; this teaching is the unique teaching of God’s eternal economy (Deut. 22:9; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; 6:3).

We must remain in the healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy and reject any differing teaching, which is the sowing of a different seed.

Making a garment without mixing materials signifies that our conduct is not allowed to be mixed.

This means that those living in the life of the New Testament should not live by the ordinances of the Old Testament (Gal. 2:19-20; 5:1-6), and those who belong to the Lord should not live according to the customs of the Gentiles (Lev. 20:23; 18:3; cf. Eph. 4:17; Rom. 12:2a). Amen!

We should not walk like the Gentiles.

Those around us may go in a certain direction and do particular things, but we need to live Christ and experience Christ in our daily life.

This doesn’t mean that we should condemn them or be weird; rather, we need to be purified from all mixture and simply live one with the Lord.

We may have friends in the world, and we may want to be with them from time to time; however, we need to realize that we are God-men, those who have God living in them.

It should matter to our friends that we are Christians, and our very presence should sanctify them.

How do we do this? We need to come to the Lord in His word.

We need to purify our soul by our obedience to the truth unto unfeigned brotherly love, loving one another from a pure heart fervently (1 Pet. 1:22).

Our soul is so full of mixture. Simply by living in this world and doing the things of our daily life, our soul with the mind, emotion, and will is full of mixture, defiled, and contaminated.

We need to come to the Lord in His word and allow His word to shine on us.

Simply by spending time to read the Bible a little in the morning and considering it prayerfully during the day, we remain in the process of being purified.

Our obedience to the truth causes us to be purified.

To be purified is to have our soul delivered from all things other than God and fixed on God as the sole object and unique goal (1 Cor. 2:9-10; 2 Thes. 3:5).

When we obey the truth, saying Amen to the word of God, the content and reality of our faith in Christ (2 Tim. 4:7; Titus 1:1), our entire soul is concentrated on God and is thus purified from all things other than God.

To purify our soul doesn’t mean that we stay away from this or that thing; it means that we have God as our only goal by setting our mind on the word of God to be purified.

God becomes the first and the second and the third and the fourth and so on; He becomes the first and everything to us. Amen!

Since the purifying of our souls causes our entire being to be concentrated on God so that we may love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).

Such purifying issues in unfeigned brotherly love, our loving from the heart fervently those whom God loves (John 13:5, 14-17, 34-35; 2 Pet. 1:5, 7; Rom. 12:9-11; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 1 Thes. 3:12; 4:9-10; Heb. 13:1; 1 John 2:5-8; 3:11, 23; 4:7-8, 16-21).

May this be our experience day by day.

May we remain in the process of being purified by our obedience to the truth so that we may purify our soul.

Others among us can see and sense that we are not like them; we are not mixed and twisted and defiled, but we are pure.

The saints in the church life will also sense that we are pure in our intention and desire.

Only by our obedience to the truth can we have our soul purified.

When we obey the truth, our soul is concentrated on God, and in this way, our soul is purified from all things other than God.

May we remain in the word of God day by day.

May we allow the Lord to purify us and may we cooperate with His purifying work.

And may we be honest with the Lord concerning this and ask Him,

Lord Jesus purify our soul. Show us how can we have our soul purified. We want to have our mind, emotion, and will be purified in Your pure word. Keep us coming to You in Your word day by day so that we may purify our souls by our obedience to the truth unto unfeigned brotherly love. Amen, Lord, may our soul be delivered from all things other than God and fixed on God as the sole object and unique goal. May our soul be concentrated on God and thus purified from all things other than God. We say Amen to Your word. We focus our mind on You, we love You with our emotion, and we choose You with our will! Amen, Lord, keep us in the process of being purified day by day as we remain in Your pure word!

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 Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 113-114, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 11, entitled, The Intrinsic Significance of Ezra’s Ministry and Nehemiah’s Leadership – to Build up the Church as the House of God and the Kingdom of God by Living out and Working out the New Jerusalem.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The purpose of discipline being for the cleansing, a portion from, Gospel of God, The (2 volume set), Chapter 22, by Watchman Nee.
  – What Does It Mean to Be Pure in Heart? Article via, the Bibles for America blog.
  – Continuing in the Life-Studies, a way to be purified, article via, Living to Him.
  – See His Face in New Jerusalem, as seen in Matt. 5:8, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The need for purification, a portion from, The Recovery of God’s House and God’s City, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – The ministry of Christ in the stage of intensification, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – “So great a salvation,” ye saints of the Lord, / To us is revealed in His marvelous Word! / Since all that He is and has done is for us, / We’ll give earnest heed to this word glorious… / He’s washed all our sins, purified them fore’er; / Tasted death on the cross, ended slavery there. / He took on our nature, the devil has slain, / And put you and I in His glorious train. (Hymns #1129 stanzas 1 and 3)
  – Oh, purify us, Lord, by speaking in our heart; / Thy living, spoken word this washing will impart. / Increase Thy speaking, Lord, and cleanse our every part. / Oh, purify us, Lord, we pray. / Oh, purify us, Lord, today; / Wash all our natural life away. / Speak now Thy words in us, / And make us glorious. / O Lord, do speak in us today. (Hymns #1135 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – In dealings with the Lord as life / We need a proper heart, / That of His riches, in His grace, / We fully may take part. / We need a heart in all things pure, / With mind both sound and clear, / To understand His mind and heart / In trembling and in fear. (Hymns #744 stanzas 1-2)