Being Transformed into Stones and Pillars Anointed with the Spirit for God’s Building

The most crucial point in the book of Genesis is Jacob’s dream in Gen. 28:10-22, a dream which unveils the most crucial matter in the revelation of God: God desires to have a house on earth composed of the transformed people whom He called and is building up to be His dwelling place.

God wants to have Bethel in reality, the house of God composed of God and man mingled and incorporated together, where Christ is the heavenly ladder set up on the earth and bringing heaven (God) to earth (man) and joining earth (man) to heaven (God), making these two one for eternity (see John 1:51).

In the record of the dream Jacob had at Bethel there are a few outstanding items: the stone, the pillar, the house of God, and the oil. We have seen the significance of these items, and now we need to see in more detail how these apply to our Christian experience today.

What God desires is to have a house on earth constituted with His redeemed and transformed elect, and this house is the issue of Christ as the ladder, the issue of joining of God and man.

Today we as God’s chosen and redeemed people are in the process of transformation from clay into living stones and even precious stones for the building up of God’s house. God’s house today is the church, the dwelling place of God and man, the mingling of God with man, and the manifesting of God in the flesh. The church as the house of God, the reality of Bethel today, will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal dwelling place of God and His redeemed elect (see Rev. 21:3, 22).

In the church today we need to both pass through the process of transformation and building up, and to be under the Spirit’s anointing and mingling, the reality of the oil being poured upon the stone.

The story of Jacob in Gen. 28 is very significant and full of meaning, and I think he didn’t fully realize what really was happening there. In God’s sovereignty, what Jacob did was a type of what Christ did and what we are in the process of doing in order to build up the church.

The Stone for God’s Building: Christ and the Transformed Man

1 Pet. 2:5 You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house…

We may never know why Jacob chose a stone to lay his head on and why not something softer, but God used this as an illustration to show us things concerning His building. The stone symbolizes first Christ as the foundation stone, the topstone, and the cornerstone for God’s building (see Isa. 28:16; Zech. 4:7; Acts 4:10-12).

Any time the stone is mentioned in the Bible in a positive way it refers to Christ as the real building material for God’s house. From top to bottom and from side to side, the building material is Christ Himself as the stone.

The stone also symbolizes the transformed man, that is, the believers in Christ who have been constituted with Christ as the transforming element to be the material for the building God’s house.

In Gen. 2:12 we see the precious stones in the river flowing from the garden of Eden, in Matt. 16:18 the Lord Jesus is building His church on the stone / rock of Christ and the revelation of Christ, in John 1:42 the Lord changed Simon’s name into Peter, a rock, and in 1 Cor. 3:12 we see that we can build God’s house with gold, silver, and precious stones.

In 1 Pet. 2:5 we are being built up as living stones into God’s house, a spiritual priesthood. In Rev. 21:11 and 18-20 we see that the foundations of the New Jerusalem are adorned with every precious stone.

We are made of clay, red earth – we are Adam, not suitable for God’s building. There is a need for us to pass through a metabolic process through which we will be changed in nature and even in appearance so that we would be transformed with the element of Christ, the stone element, to be living stones and even precious stones for God’s building.

When Christ is wrought into us, transformation takes place, and we become suitable material for God’s building. In Jacob’s life we see a life of transformation; he lived under the transforming hand of God, which is the work of the Holy Spirit in our life today.

All circumstances and all things are arranged by God in our life for our transformation, so that we may become a buildable material for God’s building. Our transformation is NOT just for our own spirituality but for God’s building, the building up of the church. As believers in Christ we are in the process of being transformed into stones for God’s building.

The Stone-Pillow Becomes the Stone-Pillar Anointed with Oil for God’s Building

Rev. 3:12 He who overcomes, him I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.

What is the significance of Jacob using a stone for a pillow? Christ is the stone, and the divine element of Christ constituted into our being through our subjective experience of Him becomes a pillow for our rest and satisfaction for a solid support.

In the dark night of this age we can rest only in Christ; He is calling us to come to Him with all our burdens, cares, toils, and problems, and He will give us rest (Matt. 11:28). Christ is our real pillow, and we can lay down on Him to rest and be satisfied. If you are tired, put your head on Him; if you need support, lay on Him.

When he woke up, Jacob took the stone-pillow and made it a stone-pillar, and then poured oil upon it, calling this place, Bethel, the house of God. Wow! How did he know to do this, and why did he do this? It must have been God who worked in this supplanter and cheater to show him a marvelous and amazing dream which captured him, and as a result of the dream, he did all this.

After awaking from his dream, Jacob set up the pillow-stone as a pillar: this signifies that the Christ whom we have experienced, who has been wrought into us, and on whom we rest, becomes the material and the support for God’s building. The pillow becomes the pillar: Christ is our support personally (the pillow) and He is the support of God’s house (the pillar).

The pillow holds our head and gives it rest, and the pillar holds the Head, Christ, giving Him rest. The pillow is for our rest, and the pillar is for His rest; the pillow must become the pillar so that our rest would be for His rest. When God doesn’t get His rest, we have no rest; when we are at rest in Him, He is at rest being in us. When God gets the building, the house of God, He is at rest.

Christ is the pillar holding God as the reality in the universe, and we as the church are the pillar and base of the truth, holding God and Christ as the reality in the universe. As we are experiencing Christ and have Him wrought into us, the One on whom we rest becomes the material and the support for God’s building (cf. 1 Kings 7:17, 21; Gal. 2:9; Rev. 3:12).

May we experience and enjoy Christ as the pillar to the extent that we become the pillars in the church, the overcomers in this age, and the necessary pillars in the house of God.

Jacob poured oil on the pillow-becoming-pillar – the transformed man is one with the Triune God and expresses Him! What a strange yet wonderful thing: Jacob poured oil on the stone he used as a pillow and then set up as a pillar. This signifies that the holy oil has to cover and anoint everything in God’s house, just as the holy anointing ointment was put on the tabernacle, the furnishings, and the priests.

In the New Testament today, the life-giving compound Spirit is poured out and anoints us as believers in Christ to make us one with God and cause us to express God. Today we can stand on earth anointed with God and filled with Him for His testimony an expression.

In Bethel, the church as the house of God, we are becoming pillars holding Christ as the head and expressing Him to the entire universe. When others look at us, they see transformed human beings who are anointed with the Spirit and express Christ.

Lord Jesus, we come to You with all our problems, toils, griefs, and pains; we lay our head on You and we take You as our rest and satisfaction. We want to rest in You so that You may find rest in the church. Lord, work Yourself into us and transform us to make us the pillars in the house of God, those who are constituted with Christ to express Christ and support God’s house. May we realize that our transformation is for God’s building. Transform us, build us up, and anoint us with the Spirit for Your building!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-Study of Genesis (msg. 69), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 1 / msg 1, The Dream of Bethel.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # 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. (Song on Being for God’s Building)
  # But if I delay, / I write that you may know / How one ought to conduct / Himself in the house of God, / Which is the church, / The church of the living God, / The pillar and base, / The pillar and base of the truth. (Scripture song on 1 Tim. 3:15)
  # Our testimony in the church today, / Is the expression of God through man, / Let’s be the pillars for His dwelling place, / But don’t be passive — trust in His way. (Song on God’s Testimony in the Church)