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Jan. 28, 2010Hymnal.NetThe New Jerusalem has two natures, humanity and divinity. According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God among men, the dwelling place of God in His humanity among men on the earth (Rev. 21:3). In the Bible the tabernacle is a human dwelling place. Likewise, the New Jerusalem is a human dwelling place because it is constituted with humanity. John 1:14 says that God was incarnated in the flesh to tabernacle among men. He is God, but He has become a man. He partook of humanity as His nature; hence, He dwells in humanity.

According to its divinity, the New Jerusalem is the temple of God as the dwelling place of His redeemed elect (Rev. 21:22). The holy city is the temple of God because it is divine. It is the temple of God, yet it is the dwelling place of His redeemed. Because this is God's temple, the dweller must be divine. According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle; God dwells in the tabernacle. God can dwell in a human dwelling place because He has become a man. According to the divinity of the New Jerusalem, it is a temple for God's dwelling. If we are only human and not divine, we cannot dwell in the temple. As believers in Christ and children of God, we human beings can dwell in a divine temple because, having the divine life and nature through regeneration, we have been made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. The New Jerusalem is therefore a mutual abode. According to its humanity, it is a human tabernacle, and according to its divinity, it is a divine temple. It is a human dwelling place, but the Dweller is God. God can dwell in a human place because He became a man. In the same way, we human beings can dwell in God's temple because we have been made God. This is the mutual abiding of God and man.

The tabernacle is built mostly with the humanity of God's people to be God's dwelling place, whereas the temple is built mostly of divinity to be the dwelling place of God's redeemed. This indicates that God takes us as His dwelling place and gives Himself to us to be our dwelling place. The divine God lives in a human tabernacle, and redeemed man lives in a divine dwelling place. This indicates the mingling of divinity with humanity, in which both humanity and divinity became a mutual abode. Concerning God and His redeemed in the New Jerusalem, a new hymn says, "As man yet God they coinhere, / A mutual dwelling place to be." The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God indicates that the redeemed of God are the dwelling place of God, and the redeeming God as the temple indicates that God is the dwelling place for His serving ones.

For eternity the New Jerusalem will be the fulfillment of the Lord's brief word in John 15:4: "Abide in Me and I in you." To abide in the Lord means to take Him as our dwelling, our habitation. When we take the Lord as our dwelling, He abides in us. This abiding is mutual, for we abide in the Lord, and He abides in us. There is no need to wait until the coming New Jerusalem to abide in the Lord and to have Him abide in us. We can testify strongly that many times we know that we are truly in the Lord and that He is actually abiding in us. When we abide in Him, we immediately sense that He is abiding in us. If we say, "Lord Jesus, how I thank You that right now I am abiding in You," we will have the deep sense that He is abiding in us. Wherever we are—at home, at work, or at school—we can say, "O Lord Jesus, I am abiding in You right now," and something within us will say, "And I am abiding in you." This is a miniature of the coming New Jerusalem, which will simply be a mutual abiding place for us and for God and the Lamb.

Source: The Conclusion of the New Testament, chapter 430. (LSM)

May 16, 2008Hymnal.NetPaul said, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19). What was the heavenly vision to which Paul referred? It has been at least seventy-three years now since Brother Nee was raised up by the Lord to speak for Him among us. During this period of time, not only our hearts but even our hands have never left the Bible. According to the number of pages we have touched, it is as if we have thoroughly handled a hundred Bibles. Moreover, we have many notes of what we have gained from our study of the Word. After seventy-three years, we may say that the Lord's revelation among us has reached its peak with a consummation during the Chinese New Year's conference last year. This consummation can be seen in the new hymn that I wrote: "What miracle! What mystery! / That God and man should blended be! / God became man to make man God, / Untraceable economy!" The heavenly vision which the Lord showed Paul was this economy, the New Testament economy, the eternal economy of God. This economy is the revelation of the entire New Testament.

Source: The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible, chapter 1. (LSM)

Mar. 31, 2008Hymnal.NetIn this conference we have a new hymn with four stanzas (using the tune of Hymns, #499), expressing God's highest purpose concerning man. I hope that every one of you will sing this new hymn until it gets into your being.

Source: The Dispensing, Transformation, and Building of the Processed Divine Trinity in the Believers, chapter 1. (LSM)

Mar. 25, 2008Hymnal.NetAccording to this hymn, it is a great miracle and a deep mystery that God has a way to be joined to man and mingled with man. God became man that man may become God. Such an economy is incomprehensible to both angels and man. This economy is of God's desire, and it will reach, attain, the high peak of God's goal. Ultimately the holy city, Jerusalem, will be the aggregate of all the visions and revelations throughout the Scriptures. The Triune God and the tripartite man will become a loving couple in eternity as man yet still God. Divinity and humanity will become a mutual abode, and the glory of God will be expressed in humanity radiantly in splendor to the uttermost.

Source: Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, chapter 2. (LSM)

Mar. 25, 2008Hymnal.NetGod is God, and He Himself has begotten us as His children. Whatever anything is born of, that is what it is. We cannot say that when sheep beget sheep, the old sheep are sheep but the little sheep are not sheep. Since God has begotten us, we are the children of God. Furthermore, 1 John 3 says that God will work on us to such an extent that we will be like Him completely (v. 2). From the day God created man, this has been the purpose of God. Hence, what He created was man, yet He created man with the image of God. Adam was created with God's image and likeness. Then God set man before the tree of life, meaning that He wanted man, who had God's image, to receive God as his life. As a result, if a man who has received God as his life is not God, then what is he? But the Lord also shows us clearly that we are God in life and nature. A father begets a son, and this son surely is the same as the father in life and nature. Suppose the father is an emperor. We cannot say that all his children are emperors. The children have only their father's life and nature but not his status; this is clear. God did this that He might produce a Body for Christ, that is, that He might produce an organism for the Triune God, the ultimate manifestation of which is the New Jerusalem.

In the Chinese-speaking conference in February of this year, the brothers wanted me to speak, and my burden was to speak about this matter. For twenty-seven years I had not written a new hymn. Several days before the Chinese-speaking conference I wrote a new hymn with four stanzas:
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After singing this hymn, you can realize that it is a special hymn. In the two-thousand-year history of Christianity there is not one hymn that is of this category. This is the unique hymn in this category of hymns. This hymn speaks very clearly concerning the high peak of God's vision.

Today in the Lord's recovery, it is not that we will not preach the gospel anymore; but preaching the gospel is for begetting. And it is not that we will not nourish the saints anymore or that we will not perfect the saints anymore. All the begetting, nourishing, and perfecting are for the building. However, what are we building? Are we just building the local churches? No. We are building the local churches for the building up of the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Then, does this mean that we just forget about the local churches? No. The local churches are the procedure for God to accomplish the building of the Body of Christ. God still has to greatly use the local churches. Thank the Lord, through this kind of fellowship I hope that we all know where we are today and also where we should be and what we should do.

Source: The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, chapter 1. (LSM)