What the Lord desires to gain is the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the Body of Christ, and for us to live out the New Jerusalem is to grow up into the Head by the mingling of God with man. Furthermore, to work out the New Jerusalem is to function out from the Head for the oneness of the Body of Christ.
Every believer should be a little New Jerusalem, and every local church should be a miniature of the New Jerusalem.
How can we be the New Jerusalem today, and how can we live out and work out the New Jerusalem? This is something wonderful, high, and so sweet.
For us to live out the New Jerusalem and work out the New Jerusalem we need go be the Zion of today, the overcomers answering the Lord’s call to live a normal Christian life of overcoming anything that replaces Christ; we need to be those enjoying Christ, being mingled with Christ, and living Christ in the reality of the Body of Christ.
Actually, the Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ by our living out and working out the New Jerusalem.
In the Old Testament Zion was the location of the temple, the place where God dwells, and the place from which God blessed His people.
Today in the spiritual reality and application of Zion, the overcomers are the Zion in the churches as the reality of the city of Jerusalem, and the overcomers are the center, the high peak, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church.
In the church life today we need to aspire to be the overcomers who cooperate with the Lord to overcome anything that replaces Christ and anything that is in us and is a hindrance to Him being wrought into us.
We need to be those who cooperate with the Lord to be produced by Him as the overcoming ones, those answering His call to overcome the degradation in the church and live a life in the mingling of God and man, living in the reality of the Body of Christ today.
There have to be some in the church life who uplift the church, build up the church, strengthen the church, enrich the church, and are the beauty and the reality of the church on behalf of the church.
These are not special believers or outstanding Christians, but they see God’s purpose, are joined to Him for His desire, and aspire to be the Zion in the local churches for they realise that God wants to gain the reality of the Body of Christ so that the New Jerusalem may be consummated for His eternal expression and representation.
The overcomers in the churches are the reality of the Body of Christ, and they consummate the building up of the Body of Christ on the local churches to bring in the holy city, the New Jerusalem, on the earth. Amen, Lord, may we see such a vision and may we be such ones!
We need to Live out and Work out the New Jerusalem in the Mingling of God and Man
The New Jerusalem is not merely a place or a city, but a person – it is the consummation of the mingling of God with man for eternity.
In the New Jerusalem we see God, man, the river of water of life, the tree of life, the redeemed humanity, and the processed and consummated Triune God. This is what God wants to gain today – the mingling of God and man, consummating in the New Jerusalem.
How can we experience the New Jerusalem today? We cannot see in the plain text of the Bible how we can live out the New Jerusalem or work out the New Jerusalem, but in Eph. 4 in particular we see a way for us to live out and work out the New Jerusalem.
In vv. 15-16 we are told to hold to truth in love so that we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Wow.
So the way for us today to live out the New Jerusalem is to grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. We need to grow up into Christ in all things by allowing Christ to grow in us.
This means that we need to have Christ increase in us in all things until we attain to a full-grown man (v. 13). We need to live out the new Jerusalem by growing up into the Head in the mingling of God and man.
This means that we need to eat the Lord Jesus as our spiritual food and drink Him as our spiritual drink so that we may be mingled with Him and grow up into Him in all things. We are what we eat, so if we eat Christ, we will become the same as He is in life and nature.
We need to drink the Spirit of the reality of Christ, who is the embodiment of God, and we will grow up into the Head.
On one hand we need to take root downward into Christ by having a lot of secret, private time with Him, and on the other, we will bear fruit upward for His glorification (see Isa. 37:31).
To live out the New Jerusalem is to grow up into the Head, and to work out the New Jerusalem is to function out from the Head for the oneness of the Body of Christ. As we grow up into Christ as the Head, we will have something out from the Head for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Our operation should be out from the Head, with His supply, and for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, for the oneness of the Body.
We see in 1 Cor. 3:6-12 that we are God’s fellow workers, His cultivated land, that is, we cooperate with God in His work by allowing God to work Himself into us, and then we can infuse others with the God who has been infused into us.
This is to live out and to work out the New Jerusalem, and this is in the mingling of God and man.
We need to realise that the New Jerusalem is the mingling of God and man; the processed Triune God is mingled with His redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified corporate man who has become the bride of Christ.
The New Jerusalem is a couple, the Spirit and the bride becoming one (Rev. 22:17). The holy city is the tabernacle of God for God to dwell in (Rev. 21:2-3) and God and the Lamb are the temple for man to dwell in.
The New Jerusalem is a mutual dwelling place of God and man, for both God and man to dwell in one another, and this city is the consummation of the mingling of God with man.
Today we can live out the New Jerusalem by enjoying Christ and growing into Him as the Head in all things, and we can work out the New Jerusalem by functioning from the Head with the supply we receive from Him. And this is all in the mingling of God and man.
Lord Jesus, we want to live out the New Jerusalem by growing up into Christ in all things. Amen, Lord, grow in us. Keep us eating You as the spiritual food and drinking the Spirit of reality daily so that we may grow up into Christ in all things. Lord, we want to work out the New Jerusalem by operating in the measure you have assigned us, with the supply which comes from You, and for the building up of the Body, in the oneness of the Body. Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us in the mingling of God and man until we become and bring in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
God Desires to Gain the New Jerusalem through the Body of Christ Produced in the Local Churches
God’s desire today is to gain the New Jerusalem through the precursor of the organic Body of Christ produced in the local churches (Rev. 2:7; 12:5; 14:1-4).
In the beginning of the book of Revelation we see seven golden lampstands, the seven local churches; at the end of the book of Revelation we see one city.
Today God is building up the local churches so that the Body of Christ may come into being, but one day the local churches will be over – only the Body will remain forever, and this Body will consummate to be the New Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God with man.
The New Jerusalem is the unique tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on this earth, the unique bride of the Lamb (Rev. 21:2-3).
Therefore, we need to pay much more attention to the Body of Christ than to the local churches, realising that what God is after is not only the outward structure of the local churches but the inward reality of the Body of Christ.
As human beings we have an outward structure, our human physical body, but the reality of this body is the person living in the body. It is the same in the spiritual realm; the outward frame is the local churches, and the inward reality is the inward reality and person is the Body of Christ.
The church is the Body of Christ, and within this church is the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father; the church as the Body of Christ is the mingling of God and man (Eph. 4:4-6).
Within the outward structure of the local churches there’s an organic constitution, the Body of Christ, who is the organism of the unseen God; this Body will consummate to be the New Jerusalem. This is what is after today – He wants to gain the organic Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.
Eventually, the local churches will be over; only the Body of Christ will remain forever as the unique mutual abode of God and man so that God and man are married together, mingled and incorporated together, to be one entity, a great corporate God-man (1:11-12; 21:2-3, 22; 22:17a).
This is why today we need to live out the New Jerusalem and work out the New Jerusalem in the church life, and we need to live in the mingling of God with man for the oneness of the Body of Christ.
The more God mingles Himself with us, the more He constitutes Himself into us, the more we are also living in Him and dwelling in Him; this mutual mingling, dwelling, and abiding is a precursor of the New Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place of God and man.
Lord, show us Your desire to gain the New Jerusalem through the Body of Christ produced in the local churches. May we live the church life today with the Body of Christ in view, being in the mingling of God with man and caring for the Body. Amen, Lord Jesus, work Yourself into us and mingle Yourself with us more today. Keep us in Your word, in the mingled spirit, and in the church life so that we may remain in the mingling of God with man. Lord, do this for the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 117-118, 120, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 6, Living Out and Working Out the New Jerusalem to Build Up Zion as the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Further reading: see the outline on msg. 17 on, The Mending Ministry of John, entitled, Living out and Working out the New Jerusalem by the Mingling of God with Man for the Building up of the Body of Christ.
Hymns on this topic:
# ’Tis the city God hath built, / ’Tis the dwelling God requires, / ’Tis the new Jerusalem / Which fulfills His heart’s desires…. / God in man and man in God / Mutual dwelling thus possess; / God the content is to man, / And the man doth God express. (Hymns #972)
# From the fruit of daily living, New Jerusalem we’ll see, / It’s the ultimate in mingling—it’s divine humanity. / And what joy that we can share it all, and share it corporately. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
# God and man will have one living, / Always in the mingled spirit; / We two are incorporated / One organic entity! / This the vision of the ages / Will control our daily living / That the Lord may have His Body / Shining as the holy city. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
About aGodMan
