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Scripture Reading: Rev. 22:1-2
I. Its supply is the processed and consummated Triune God — Rev. 22:1-2:
А. Signified by the river of water of life (the Spirit) and the throne of God (the Father) and of the Lamb (the Son).
B. Proceeding out of the throne of God — the administration of the divine authority.
C. Based on the nature of God, signified by gold as the base of God’s throne.
D. In the middle of its street — in its fellowship (signified by the street) from the throne to the twelve gates.
E. Its main element for the life supply to nourish the entire city is the tree of life (signifying Christ).
F. In the Spirit, signified by the river of water of life as the beverage supply to quench the thirst of the holy city.
II. The nourishment and the beverage of its supply are for the seeking believers’ growth in the divine life for their building up to be the organic constitution of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect.
Prayer: Lord, we praise You for Your victory in the past messages. We believe You will shame the enemy. You will win the war. You will gain the victory again. Strengthen us. Be our boldness. Amen.
In the New Jerusalem the number three is very striking. As we have seen, the main structure of the city is of three factors: gold as the base, pearls as the gates, and precious stones as the wall. There are also three furnishings in the holy city. The throne refers to God the Father. The temple refers to Christ. In the New Testament, Christ is called the temple of God (Rev. 21:22; John 2:19-21). We serving ones are all dwelling in Christ as God’s temple. We dwell here as the many sons with the firstborn Son. The Father is the King, and all the sons are the co-kings. The temple is the palace. Also, God the Son is the lamp with the Father in Him as the shining light. This lamp is not an electrical lamp but an oil lamp. The oil signifies the Spirit, so the hidden One of the Trinity here is the Spirit. God is the shining light, Christ is the container of God as the lamp, and within the lamp is the oil, the Spirit.
The three factors of the structure and the three furnishings of the city signify the Triune God. Now we come to the third group of three signifying the Triune God. This group is concerning the supply of the city. The street as the base signifies the Father, the river flowing with the water of life signifies the Spirit, and the tree of life signifies the Son, Christ. Thus, the basic structure of the holy city is the Divine Trinity, its furnishings are the Divine Trinity, and its supply is the Divine Trinity.
In every chapter of the book of Ephesians we can see the three of the Divine Trinity. For instance, in chapter 1 there are the Father’s blessing, Christ’s blessing, and the Spirit’s blessing (vv. 3-14). Then in chapter 4 there are the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father as the intrinsic essence of the Body (vv. 4-6). The three of the Divine Trinity are the very intrinsic essence for the constitution of the Body of Christ. The entire divine revelation in the holy Word shows how God in His Divine Trinity dispenses Himself into His chosen people. In this last and greatest sign in the Scriptures, the sign of the New Jerusalem, its structure, furnishings, and supply are the Triune God.
The supply of the holy city is the processed and consummated Triune God (Rev. 22:1-2). Our God is not a “raw” God. Some teach a God who is raw, “uncooked,” that is, not processed and not consummated. But the very God we preach and teach is the One who, according to the divine revelation, has been processed and consummated. It is the processed and consummated God who can be our supply.
The Triune God passed through incarnation, human living, and an all-inclusive and all-problems-solving death. Then He entered into an all-surpassing resurrection for the dispensing of life and an all-transcending ascension to execute through His heavenly ministry what He accomplished in His earthly ministry. Even God the Father has been processed. In whatever the Son passed through, the Father was with Him. The Son said that He was never alone but that the Father who sent Him was always with Him (John 8:29; 16:32). This is the revelation concerning the Triune God given by the Lord to the recovery. No other Christians teach and preach the processed and consummated Triune God. It was only within the last forty years that we began to use the terms processed and consummated to describe the Triune God.
If Christ had not been processed, how could He have become a man to die on the cross to take away all our sins? If Christ had not been processed through resurrection, how could He have become the life-giving Spirit? Through the process of incarnation God became a man, Jesus. Jesus was a genuine man, but through His death and in His resurrection, another two steps of His process, He became the life-giving Spirit. If God had not become a man to take away sin, how could He be our Redeemer? If He had not become the life-giving Spirit, how could He have entered into us to be our life and our life supply? The supply of the city is the processed and consummated Triune God.
The third of the Divine Trinity is signified by a river. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is realized as the Spirit, so the Spirit is the flow. The Triune God has been consummated into one life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the flow signified by the river of water of life. The supply of the city is the Father as the source, the Spirit as the flow, and Christ as the content, typified by the tree of life.
This river proceeds out of the throne of God. This source is the divine administration and the divine authority.
We have seen that everything we are and do in our move and work for God needs to be based upon the golden nature of God. Even the flow of the Divine Trinity is based on the golden nature. The river is flowing in the street, and the street is the base.
The river of water of life flows in the middle of the street, and the street signifies the fellowship. The one tree of life growing on the two sides of the river signifies that the tree of life is a vine that spreads and proceeds along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. The tree of life is not a pine tree shooting up into the sky but a vine tree creeping on the earth. This vine, the tree of life, grows within the middle of the street and along it. Thus, in the middle of the fellowship is the tree of life.
The street begins from the mountaintop, God, to reach all the twelve gates of the city. In the middle of this street is the river of water of life to flow out the riches of God to be our supply. This street with the river is a two-way traffic, coming and going, proceeding down and spiraling up. This coming and going is the fellowship. All who enter into the city through the pearl gates participate in the same fellowship. This fellowship begins from God as the source to reach all the twelve gates. That means it reaches all the ones who have entered into the city to bring them back to God.
Its main element for the life supply to nourish the entire city is the tree of life, signifying Christ. At the beginning of the Bible in the second chapter of Genesis, the tree of life is seen as the center. Because of man’s fall, the way to touch that tree was closed by God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. Later, Christ’s death on the cross fulfilled all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness to reopen the closed way to the tree of life. Christ is our way to enter into the city, so He is signified by the pearl gates, which include the reality of His death and His resurrection.
Human beings need food as the supply to nourish them, but without water they cannot survive. We need water as our beverage to match the food that we eat. All these things are signified in this great sign.
The tree of life is for our nourishment, and the river of water of life is for our beverage. The supply that Christ affords is for our nourishment, and the water that the Spirit brings to us is for our supply to satisfy us and quench our thirst. But to nourish and to satisfy are not the final goal. Christ nourishes us and the Spirit quenches our thirst for our growth in the divine life, and the growth of the divine life is for the building up of the city as the organic constitution of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect.
Christ’s nourishment and the Spirit’s beverage are for us to grow, and the growth by these two supplies is for the building up of the New Jerusalem. Even today the New Jerusalem is still under construction. If we look at today’s outward situation, we can see the lack of the building up of the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem. This is why the Lord has charged me to release the high peaks of His divine revelation. First, we need to release the truth that God became a man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. Then we need to release the truth concerning the New Jerusalem. My burden is to release these two great truths.
Since the Lord has released these high peaks of His truths, we have to learn the new language to speak them. Paul and the co-workers around him were different because of what they ministered. Today in the recovery all the co-workers must be different. They must learn to speak these high truths concerning God’s economy — that God became a man that man may become God, with the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation. This is a great miracle and a deep mystery.
The New Jerusalem is constructed with the Triune God as the main factors. It is furnished with the Triune God as the throne, as the temple (the palace), and as the lamp. Also, the New Jerusalem is a city supplied by the Triune God — the Father as the source and the base, the Spirit as the flow, the river, and the Son as the main supply to nourish the entire city. Through this nourishment and divine beverage we members of the new city grow in the divine life and are built together.
From now on, we must consider that our work is a building work by the growth of the saints in the divine life. The divine life is the Divine Trinity, who is the structure, the furnishings, and the supply of the holy city. As we grow in the divine life and minister the Triune God to others for their growth in the divine life, we are building up the Body of Christ, which will consummate the New Jerusalem. We need to experience and speak these things. The more we speak, the more we will have to speak. The more we speak, the more we will be nourished and satisfied. From now on, the co-workers and the elders must know how to speak these things.
I do expect that after the study — a study with a seeking heart and with an enlightened spirit — of these five chapters, a crystallization-study of the final part of the Holy Scriptures, we all have seen clearly and evidently that the New Jerusalem is an organic constitution of the processed and consummated Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect. It has a threefold stress with the Divine Trinity in the three main aspects of this organic constitution:
1. The first main aspect in its structure with its base signified by the gold as the Father’s nature, its gates signified by the pearls as the issue of the Son’s redeeming death and life-dispensing resurrection, and its wall signified by the precious stones as the consummation of the Spirit’s transforming work.
2. The second main aspect in its furnishings with the reigning center of the Father signified by the throne, the abiding place of the Son signified by the temple, and the enlightening and shining light of the Spirit signified by the oil in the lamp.
3. The third main aspect in its supply being the flow of the Divine Trinity; its base and source for the flow is the Father signified by the street, its flow is the Spirit signified by the river of the water of life, and the element of its flow is the Son signified by the tree of life.
The entire constitution of the New Jerusalem is the processed and consummated Triune God built with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect in His Divine Trinity in a threefold way. It is impossible for such a constitution to be anything physical; it has to be the Divine Trinity in His threefold blending with His redeemed elect. May we receive the eternal mercy and the sufficient grace of the unlimited Christ so that we could live a life as a foretaste of such an organic constitution in this age for its full taste in eternity.
