Seeing Who the Overcomers are, How are they Produced, and What is the New Jerusalem

Rev. 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to show to his slaves the things that must quickly take place; and He made it known by signs, sending it by His angel to His slave John.

This week we are coming to the book of Revelation to see a wonderful revelation of the glorious Christ. The book of Revelation doesn’t merely speak of “the end of the world” and of all kinds of signs and wonders that will happen when God will judge the earth but, as Rev. 1:1 says, it is a revelation of Jesus Christ.

The entire book of Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ! We need to know such a Christ so that we may be watchful until the day when we will see Him face to face.

The Apostle John knew the Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry, and when he spoke of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation he said He is “someone like the Son of Man”. This Jesus Christ in Revelation is the same One that John knew and walked with, but now He is a little different from the One in the Gospels.

What John was writing in Revelation was to testify the word of God (who is Jesus Christ) and the testimony of Jesus (the totality of the overcomers). The spirit of the prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, and the testimony of Jesus is the totality of the overcomers which Christ as the Spirit is producing in the stage of intensification.

In the New Testament there are three stages (both of the writings and of the experience): the stage of incarnation (where the Gospels were written, mainly to know Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection), the stage of inclusions (where the Epistles were written; Christ is the Spirit in whom all of God, man, and the processes Christ went through are included), and the stage of intensification (the book of Revelation, where Christ as the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to intensify His organic salvation, produce the overcomers, and consummate the New Jerusalem).

There are two main items in Revelation: the overcomers (chs. 1-20) and the New Jerusalem (chs. 21-22). Today we need to see – at least in part – who are the overcomers (and how are they produced) and what is the New Jerusalem.

Who are the Overcomers and How are They Produced?

In the Bible there are four main races of which God speaks and which He considers important: the created race (which failed God, see the fall of Adam), the called race (with the calling of Abraham and the earthly people of God, Israel; they also failed God), the church (the heavenly people of God, those regenerated by Him through their believing into Him; this race as a whole has also failed God), and the overcomers.

 The one thing we should do in this age is receive mercy from the Lord to stand in the breach and carry out the things the church should do but has not been doing (W. Lee, Three Aspects of the church: the Course of the Church, book 2, Ch. 19, section 1).

What are the overcomers and how are they produced? The overcomers are normal believers in the local churches who are not isolated from the Body of Christ but they are the stronger part, the representative part, and do what the church should have done but has not done. They are those who fulfill God’s purpose on behalf of the church.

The Lord today is calling for such ones (see Rev. 2-3). Christ as the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to produce the overcomers by intensifying His organic salvation.

Today we have the whole Bible opened up to us, and we can see clearly Christ and the church. But there’s a need for intensification of God’s organic salvation so that we may be produced as the overcomers who overcome the degradation in the church today.

Christ today is no longer in the stage of incarnation or only inclusion – He as the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold so that we may be brought into a vital condition to accomplish His economy.

We may know God’s organic salvation, but do we practice it? We may enjoy reading about and entering into the high peak of the divine revelation, but do we practice this? We know about the God-man living of the Lord Jesus and we know He can live in us the same kind of life – but do we let Him live in us? We know that Christ is our good Shepherd and He commissioned us to shepherd His sheep, but do we practice this?

We need the mending ministry of John to bring us from a stage where we’re not according to God’s standard through much mending, strengthening, vitalization, and intensification, to a stage where we are according to God’s standard. It is only by being intensified individually and corporately that God can have the consummation of His purpose and economy, and He can consummate this age.

Our morning time with the Lord needs to be intensified. Our study of the Word needs to be intensified. Our practice of the God-ordained way to meet and serve as revealed in the Bible needs to be intensified.

The entire Christianity has failed God, so in the Lord’s recovery we need to rise up and meet God’s demands and be intensified. But we need to realize that even among us – even we ourselves – are not up to God’s standard. We need to be overcomers! The Lord is calling today for overcomers, those who accomplish His purpose.

If we read the seven epistles to the seven churches in Rev. 2-3 we see that the Lord doesn’t want us to “do something new” or receive something out of the ordinary that will make us special. He simply wants us to hold what He gave us and be intensified. Repent and do the first works (Ephesus). Be faithful unto death (Smyrna). Hold fast the Lord’s name and don’t deny the faith (Pergamos). Hold fast until the Lord comes (Thyatira). Be living and not dead – the Lord knows our works (Sardis). Keep and hold fast what you have (Philadelphia). Repent and be hot in an intensified way (Laodicea).

We need to just go back to what the Lord gave us and let Him intensify us to be produced as His overcomers!

Lord Jesus, intensify Your organic salvation and produce us as Your overcomers. Lord, save us from being lukewarm toward You. Rekindle our love for You. Intensify our morning time with You. Intensify our Bible study and our getting into the ministry. Have a way to produce us as Your overcomers in this age! We don’t want to remain lukewarm and dead. We don’t want to have a routine church life and an ethical Christian life. Lord, intensify Your organic salvation and produce us as the overcomers You need in this age!

The New Jerusalem: the Totality of the Overcomers

What is the New Jerusalem? First of all, even though the description of this holy city contains many precious stones and materials, this city is not a material or physical one. The consummation of God’s purpose and heart’s desire is not something physical or material. The New Jerusalem is the totality of the overcomers throughout the ages, the consummation of God’s plan and the highest peak of what God desires to do in and with man in the universe (Rev. 21-22).

Throughout the ages the Lord has been working to gain a people who would be fully for Him, accomplishing His purpose. Even though the Adamic race, the Abrahamic race, and Christianity as a whole failed God, He has His overcomers in each of these races.

Today in the church age the Lord is gaining His overcomers, and these ones will be the ripen ones, those who will be qualified to enjoy a foretaste of the New Jerusalem in the coming age, the age of the kingdom of 1000 years (Rev. 2:7; 3:12). If we cooperate with the Lord today to be intensified in His organic salvation, we will enjoy the New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom.

However, the Bible clearly reveals that the majority of the believers will NOT be in the millennial kingdom enjoying a foretaste of the New Jerusalem. Even though they are genuine Christians washed by the Lord’s blood, regenerated, and relatively transformed, the majority of believers do not cooperate with the Lord to be matured in this age and so in the coming age they will be in the outer darkness, suffering discipline and being matured for one thousand years (see Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30).

The Lord wants all His people to be mature, perfected, fully mended, and for this He allows us to live on earth for a period of time to cooperate with Him. If we are not matured today, the Lord arranged a period of discipline and punishment for the immature believers for one thousand years, during which time all believers will be fully transformed and matured.

After the millennial kingdom, the Lord will clear up the entire universe through His judgement at the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15) and there will be a new heaven and a new earth with the New Jerusalem! The New Jerusalem will be enlarged to include all the believers, who by now have been fully matured (Rev. 21:7).

May we cooperate with the Lord to be produced as the early overcomers, those who will be rewarded with a full enjoyment of Christ in the coming age. What the Lord will reward us with is what we enjoy today of Him – but in an intensified way!

We need to enjoy the Lord and experience Him today, and the Lord will reward us with an intensified enjoyment and experience of Christ in the New Jerusalem! Today the Lord is looking to gain these ones, Zion, the overcomers (Rev. 14:1; Psa. 51:18; 102:21; 128:5; 135:21; Isa. 41:27; Joel 3:17), those who cooperate with the Lord to be ripened faster today so that they may enjoy the early reward in the millennial kingdom, the precursor and foretaste of the New Jerusalem!

Lord, save us from failing You as the general Christianity has. We open to You without reservation – intensify us! Increase our enjoyment and experience of Christ today. Lord, by Your mercy, produce us as Your overcomers! You desire to gain Zion, the overcoming ones. Grow in us unto maturity that we may become the Zion today, the overcomers that You need to consummate Your economy and end this age!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The Overcomers (ch. 1), as quoted in, in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 4 / msg 4, The Vision of the Glorious Christ.
• For more details on the many aspects of the New Jerusalem – see newjerusalem12.wordpress.com.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Will you be an overcomer? / Christ is calling now! / Will you then be such a follower, / Though you know not how? / Will you be an overcomer? / Will you make this choice? / Christ is calling, Christ is calling, / Listen to His voice! (Hymns #894 by W. Lee)
  # Christ has called us once to Him, / But He calls us once again. / To His call we say Amen! / Overcome! / For the church has fallen low, / Thinking everything they know, / But the life is missing; so, / Overcome! / Overcome! Overcome! / Overcome degraded Christianity! / All your working lay aside, / All the teachings that divide; / Eat the Lord whate’er betide— / Overcome! (Hymns #1273)
  # In the third stage of intensification: / To intensify His organic salvation, / To produce the overcomers, and / To consummate the New Jerusalem. / Incarnation, inclusion, intensification. (New Hymn)