This week we have been tracing the eight main aspects of the church as the testimony of Jesus through the book of Revelation.
We have seen that the testimony of Jesus is the golden lampstands, the great multitude, the universal bright woman with the man-child, the firstfruits and the harvest, the overcomers on the glassy sea, and the bride of Christ.
Today we want to see how the church as the testimony of Jesus is the bridal army who fights together with Christ and defeats Antichrist and his armies (Rev. 19:14-19) and the New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the tabernacle and the temple, the eternal building of God and man (Rev. 21:3-22).
Throughout the centuries God has been working to get a testimony in humanity, and He will obtain it in the New Jerusalem. Today we as believers in Christ need to just love Him, enjoy Him, let Him work in us, and abide in His word that His word may abide in us, and the Lord will make us His overcomers, even His bridal army to defeat His enemy!
God will get the glory: He will gain an expression in humanity for eternity!
The Testimony of Jesus is the Bridal Army in Revelation 19
In Rev. 19:14-19 and Rev. 17:14 we see that the testimony of Jesus is the bridal army, the overcomers who fight together with Christ to defeat the Antichrist with his armies. Christ is the embodiment of God, the reality and the truth, and Antichrist is the embodiment of Satan, the deceiving one.
Toward the end of this age the Lord is looking to gain His bride, a group of people who love Him to the uttermost and give Him the first place in all things. This group of overcomers are the bride of Christ, and after their wedding feast with the Lord He will take them “on a honeymoon” – they will descend as the bridal army to fight together with Christ to defeat Antichrist and his armies!
We see these two aspects of the church in Ephesians also: in Eph. 5:25-27 the church is the bride, the wife of Christ, and in Eph. 6:10-20 we see the church as the warrior.
Today the enemy is working on earth to bring forth Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, and when he comes, he will eventually lead all human governments in open rebellion against God and His people.
Before Christ descends to earth to deal with Antichrist and the totality of human government, He will have a wedding, uniting His overcomers with Himself as one entity (Rev. 19:7-9; see Dan. 7:25; 6:10; Eph. 6:12). Christ’s overcomers have been fighting the battle against God’s enemy for years, and in the wedding feast, after their rapture, they will be joined and united with Christ.
After His wedding feast, Christ will come with His newly married bride to the earth “on their honeymoon” to destroy Antichrist, who in this time has rounded up the whole earth with their armies to fight against God directly (see Rev. 19:11-16).
How can we become the bridal army that returns with Christ to destroy the Antichrist and bring in the kingdom of God to earth? It is by the word of God.
We become the beautiful bride of Christ by the “washing of the water in the word” (Eph. 5:26-27) – the beautifying word of God produces us as the bride of Christ. We become the corporate warrior to engage in spiritual warfare for God’s dominion by the killing function of the word of God through our taking in the word of God by means of all prayer and petitions (Eph. 6:17-18).
Genesis 1:26 is fulfilled by the word of God: through the washing of the water in the word we are beautified as the Bride of Christ for His expression, and by allowing the word of God to become a two-edged sword through our pray-reading it we become the corporate warrior for His dominion.
The Testimony of Jesus is the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21
The consummation of the testimony of Jesus is the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate consummation of the tabernacle and the temple (see Rev. 21:9, 3, 22).
The New Jerusalem is the eternal divine-human incorporation, the eternal building of God into man and of man into God. The New Jerusalem is the consummation and completion of God’s purpose of being expressed and represented.
The entire city has the appearance of jasper, and the One sitting on the throne looks like jasper (Rev. 21:11, 18-19). Since the city is composed of all the redeemed ones of God who have been fully transformed to become precious stones for God’s building, we all will become the same as God is in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in His Godhead, to express Him corporately in universe!
Also, the New Jerusalem is a mutual abode of God and man; it is the tabernacle for God to dwell with man and the temple for man to dwell with God. Today we can have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem by loving the Lord Jesus and keeping His word, which brings in the Father’s visitation to make us His abode – the Triune God abides in us and we abide in Him (see John 14:23).
We can live out and work out the New Jerusalem as the divine-human incorporation by taking the Lord as our abode for us to be His abode (John 15:4-5). How can we abide in the Lord? We abide in Christ by letting His word abide in us.
I really like Brother Witness Lee’s succinct explanation of this matter in, The Conclusion of the New Testament (page 3995),
We abide in Christ so that He may abide in us by dealing with the constant word in the Scriptures, which is outside of us, and the present word as the Spirit, which is within us (John 5:39-40; 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6; Rev. 2:7). By the outward, written word we have the explanation, definition, and expression of the mysterious Lord, and by the inward, living word we have the experience of the abiding Christ and the presence of the practical Lord (Eph. 5:26; 6:17-18). If we abide in the Lord’s constant and written word, His instant and living words will abide in us (John 8:31; 15:7; 1 John 2:14). We abide in Him and His words abide in us so that we may speak in Him and He may speak in us for the building of God into man and man into God (John 15:7; 2 Cor. 2:17; 13:3; 1 Cor. 14:4b).
What is most striking about the New Jerusalem is that it is composed of and built up with all kinds of precious stones (see Rev. 21:9-11, 18-21). Jasper signifies the appearance of God shining with the glory of God as the light of the New Jerusalem for the expression of God (see Rev. 4:3; 21:11, 18-19).
The fact that the whole city has the appearance of jasper means that all the redeemed ones of God will have been fully transformed, matured, and glorified to the point that they are all overcomers, shining out God!
Today as we enjoy the judging Spirit, the burning Spirit, and the flowing Spirit – the Lord Spirit – we are being transformed to become precious stones. Through the judging, burning, and flowing of the Spirit, we are being transformed by the experiences of the riches of Christ as the God of resurrection gained through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross (see Isa. 4:4; John 4:14b; 2 Cor. 1:8-9).
Christ is shining on us, judging us in His light, and then flowing with His life to supply us, so that we would be reconstituted with Christ to be the New Jerusalem. We simply need to do everything through the cross and by the Spirit, ministering Christ to one another all the time.
We need to keep drinking the river of water of life until we will be one with Christ. And the consummation will be that,
By our growth in the divine life in Christ as the living stone, we are being transformed into precious stones; through the process of transformation, the Triune God is being wrought into and structured together with us to the praise of the glory of His grace with which He graced us in the Beloved for us to become the New Jerusalem as the ultimate testimony of Jesus and the good news to the entire universe (1 Pet. 2:4; Rev. 21:18-21; Eph. 1:3-6; cf. Luke 4:18-19). [last point on the outline in the HWMR on msg. 6 of, The Mending Ministry of John]
God will get the glory! The whole universe will praise Him in glory, because the New Jerusalem is God’s full expression and representation!
And today we can cooperate with Him by loving the Lord with our first love, enjoying Him as grace, and we will spontaneously express Him in His glory – He will be expressed through us! Love Him! Enjoy Him! Let Him be expressed!
Lord Jesus, we love You! We want to enjoy You! We don’t want to be superficial or flamboyant when we come to Your word! Lord, we want to give You our best love and abide in Your word! We want to be washed in Your word that we may become Your beautiful bride. We allow Your word to operate in us and kill anything negative in our being that we may be Your bridal army. Lord, to Your word we say Amen! Shine on us, judge anything that’s not of Your, and flow into us to reconstitute us with Yourself that we may be transformed as the precious materials which constitute the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Crystallization-study of Song of Songs (msgs. 1, 12), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 5 / msg 5, Christ’s Heavenly Priesthood Ministered to the Churches for the Producing of the Overcomers.
- Further reading: recommending the NewJerusalem blog, where bro. Don explores more and more aspects of the New Jerusalem.
- Hymns on this topic:
# The churches are the Body / Of Christ on earth today. / They are His testimony, / That He may have a way. / They are the golden lampstands / In cities far and wide. / They are His fighting army, / And His beloved Bride. (Hymns #1265)
# An army terrible with banners / Christ’s lovers overcome to be. / Those attracted by His beauty, / Fully trusting in His power. / Her romance is now the dances of two camps. / The Shulamite, His duplication, / His counterpart has now become. / She’s the same in life and nature, / His expression to the full; / Consummated as the New Jerusalem. (New song on Song of Songs)
# By the flow of life divine, / Man becomes a precious stone / Fit for building God’s abode, / That His glory might be known. / ‘Tis the city God hath built, / ’Tis the dwelling God requires, / ’Tis the new Jerusalem / Which fulfills His heart’s desires. (Hymns #972)
# Take me Lord, and fill me with Your dear Self, / Till my whole being is one with You. / Lord, I’m willing to open to You / Every moment in my life; / Fully trusting You, to live Your dream / For Your rest and expression. / Beside You I have no one / In heaven or on the earth. / To You, dear Lord, I give my all. / I will not let You go. / Make Your desire my heart’s desire / For our goal, the New Jerusalem. (new song – Fill me Lord with Yourself)
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