We have to take an extra moment because some people need some tea in order to stay awake this afternoon.
It is a blessing from the Lord to be here together for these days with such a large company of His people.
Some of you I have met before, but many of you I do not know. The other day I got on the elevator with some ladies and gentlemen. One of the ladies looked at me and started to giggle and point. I did not know what she was saying, of course, because she was speaking Chinese.
I found out after she got off the elevator that she thought I was Santa Claus.
So, just to set the record straight, my name is Dana Condon. I come from New York City.
Now I would like to know about you. If this is your first Far East Training Conference, would you raise your hand? That is quite a large number. Well, where are the rest of the people?
It is so good to be together because the Spirit of the Lord holds us together in His unity.
We want to read some verses of Scripture, beginning in Ephesians 1:9-10.
He made known to us the mystery of His will,
according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him,
with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times,
that is, the summing up of all things in Christ,
things in the heavens and things on the earth.
Then I would like for us to read together Revelation 21.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away,
and there is no longer any sea.And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying,
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men,
and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself will be among them.And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
and there will no longer be any death;
there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain;
the first things have passed away.”
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”Then He said to me, “It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”
But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars,
their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death.
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying,
“Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain,
and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God.
Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.
It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates,
and at the gates twelve angels;
and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones,
and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Then the one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall.
The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as its width;
and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles;
its length and width and height are equal.And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.
The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone.
The first foundation stone was jasper;
the second, sapphire;
the third, chalcedony;
the fourth, emerald;
the fifth, sardonyx;
the sixth, sardius;
the seventh, chrysolite;
the eighth, beryl;
the ninth, topaz;
the tenth, chrysoprase;
the eleventh, jacinth;
the twelfth, amethyst.And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl.
And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.The nations will walk by its light,
and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
In the daytime—for there will be no night there—its gates will never be closed;
and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;
and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it,
but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal,
coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
in the middle of its street.On either side of the river was the tree of life,
bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month;
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
There will no longer be any curse;
and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,
and His bond-servants will serve Him;
they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.And there will no longer be any night;
and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun,
because the Lord God will illumine them;
and they will reign forever and ever.
Let us just have a little prayer.
O Lord, You reveal such great things to Your bond-servant. But once again, we need the Holy Spirit to reveal to our hearts these things written in the precious Word.
This afternoon we ask, Holy Spirit, that You would quicken us—body, soul, and spirit—as Your servants before You.
We gather together as Your servants. Speak to us, Lord. We want to know all of Your will. In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.
We looked in the book of Ephesians at this mountain peak of Paul’s disclosure. Paul, seated in the heavenly places with Christ, depicted for us God’s plan from glory to glory.
Through the coming of the Lord Jesus, and then after Him the coming of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, the picture unfolded before the apostle Paul. It is a glorious picture.
The Lord is summing all things up in Christ. We tried to speak of this as a mountaintop. You look at that peak, and you see the Lord Jesus as Head over all things. All things are being summed up under Christ.
In the fullness of times, the kingdom of Israel will be summed up under the Messiah. In the fullness of time, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of Christ.
The Bible says that all creation, which is now subject to corruption, will be set at liberty—a glorious liberty—as the sons of God are set free. All this is seen in this tremendous mountain of God’s eternal purpose.
The Lord Jesus Christ will be pre-eminent in all things.
Now, it is of tremendous importance that servants of God see this revelation. As we serve God here upon this earth, there is much to discourage us in regard to work in the church.
In our serving, it is possible to lose sight of the importance of what we are doing before the Lord. When we minister about glorious things in Christ, we are ministering weighty matters.
You know, in the original Hebrew, the word glory is a word that actually means heaviness. There are many things in this world which are quickly passing away, but there are things that are glorious. They have substance and weightiness to them.
We remember Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians. He shared with the saints the afflictions that he had gone through, but in 2 Corinthians 4 he made this amazing statement:
Our light affliction cannot be compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us.
We have a choice as servants of God. Either we can look at and worry about little things and trivial matters—“Well, I mean, you know, how much of a pain this is”—or we can be concerned about weightier things.
But the only way we can live on this higher ground is by seeing what the Lord is after. That is why we need such revelation.
You will remember that in Ephesians 1 Paul prays a prayer for the saints in Ephesus. He prays that they might have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ. He prays that the eyes of their heart may be opened.
Did you know you have eyes in your heart? These eyes see revelation—things that are invisible.
Paul prays that they might see three things: the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
Sometimes, when you are serving God, you think, “Ah, what difference does it make?” We all have a tremendous and glorious calling in eternity. Paul had to remind Timothy sometimes about his calling.
Paul also prays that they might see the glorious riches of God’s inheritance in the saints. If we lived in the Middle East and were shepherds, we might get tired sometimes of the sheep.
But do you know that the saints—the body of Christ—are God’s riches? Do we treat our brothers and sisters as those who contain the glory of Christ? Are they sheep, or are they God’s treasure? This is something we need to see.
Paul also prays that they might know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
There is an interesting irony in serving God, because we often find ourselves asking God for more power: “Oh God, give me power. Fill me with the Spirit.” We always feel that we need more power. We always feel so powerless.
Then we discover that when we do something according to His purpose, there is an empowering that comes from God. It is not something we have to scratch and find. It is already there. It is available.
When we do the will of God, He always provides superabounding power to complete what He has called us to do. If we are going to be servants of God, we have to believe that it is not by our might or power, but by the Holy Spirit.
This afternoon we read this revelation in Revelation 21 and 22. John received this revelation some thirty years after Paul.
We all know John was a very faithful apostle. There he was, exiled on the isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus.
John was responsible as an apostle for the upbuilding of the churches, even in Asia Minor. If John was able to receive reports from Asia, he must have received at times some discouraging reports regarding these seven churches.
In fact, there were spiritual signs of declension in many of these churches.
But our God is sovereign. When the church is in decline and needs recovery, what does our God do? He reveals the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus, to His bond-servants.
There was a revelation, and John saw Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega. This is a very sovereign title. The Lord Jesus said, in effect, “I have started, and I will finish.”
John perhaps was burdened about the churches. But when he saw Jesus as the Alpha and Omega, then his heart could rest.
Then the Lord Jesus revealed Himself as a glorious High Priest, inspecting each of those seven churches.
Then the Lord was revealed as the Lamb of God, who has the scroll of the destiny of history in His hands and was unfolding it.
Now, on earth in Asia Minor, it looked like the church was in decline, and there were great problems. But when John saw such a glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, he knew the Lord had everything under control.
In these days, when there are such problems within the churches, we can take an earthly view of these problems and begin to read books about how to be a better pastor, how to feed the sheep, or how to fix divisions in the church.
There is a lot of practical work that needs to be done. But how does our God recover His church? By showing His servants the glorious church.
I mentioned to you before that in my early Christian days, I was a pastor in a traditional church. It was an evangelical church, and the particular emphasis was revival.
I would travel occasionally to various places and preach revivals. I actually spent a number of years going places and preaching and being part of revivals.
You come to an assembly, and they are in a low spiritual estate. You preach the lordship of Jesus, tell them to rededicate and consecrate themselves, and preach for them to repent of their sin.
Sometimes there was quite a stirring among God’s people. Sometimes I thought, “If I could preach with the authority of Santa Claus, revival would come to this assembly.”
But then I would receive a phone call a year later, asking me to come back and preach revival in the church. I began to see a pattern.
It is not just that you need a better pastor, or that the sheep need to be more dedicated, or that you preach revival and the young people come to the Lord.
The church needs to be recovered. In today’s church, at the very foundation, there are great problems.
If we are not assembling together in the simplicity of Christ, if we are not holding fast to Christ as our Head, then we have continual problems. A revival may bring some temporary relief, but it cannot recover the church in all its glory.
I cannot speak and say what others must do, but I remember what happened to me. Let me put it this way: I was a revival preacher in the church of Sardis.
Then God, by His mercy, gave me a revelation of the glorious church under Jesus. As soon as I saw the glorious church, I knew we were wrong.
Nobody had to tell me we were wrong, because when you see God’s standard, you realize where you are.
The Lord said, “You are Sardis. Wake up. You call yourself Christian, but Christ is not your Head. You serve the way you want to serve. Many have soiled garments.”
I am just speaking some things from the book of Revelation regarding Sardis. In the end, I repented, and I left this church in order to find how the Lord could recover His church according to His desire.
The apostle John came along thirty years after Paul because the church needed recovery. The greatest problem with the church is that we think we are all right.
What do you think of the assembly where you meet? “Oh, it is okay. It could be better, but it is better than them. It is okay. I like it. My friends go there. Sometimes we get a good message.”
This is the way we all feel about our assembly. But what does the Lord think about your assembly?
You remember that the Lord came to seven churches in Asia Minor. I think most of them thought they were okay. But when the Lord shone His light upon these churches, they needed to repent.
As the Lord came and spoke to the seven churches, probably most of the people in those assemblies did not understand. They heard it, but they did not believe the Lord.
But there were those who heard what the Lord said: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying.” “To him who overcomes.”
This is the condition of the church today, even as it was in John’s day. We need the Lord to reveal Himself to us in order that we may understand what His desire is for His church.
With that as the background, we want to look at this final revelation in Revelation 21 and 22.
An angel came to John and carried him away upon a high mountain. He said, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” Then he showed him the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.
This is all things summed up in Christ. This is a revelation of the finished product.
What is the New Jerusalem? It is the bride of the Lamb. What does that mean? It is made up of many, many multitudes, but they all have one love for the Lord Jesus.
But in this revelation He also shows a city. What is a city? It is a center for government. That is where the throne of God’s kingdom will be, and that is where His people will live.
I love the city. I live in New York City. This is not the New Jerusalem. I love Hong Kong—not the New Jerusalem. But this was a beautiful city, the bride of the Lamb.
Once again, we see the same mountain we saw in Ephesians 1. But in Ephesians 1, it was a vision of what was to come—a seeing of the summing up of all things in Christ.
Now, in Revelation 21, it is done.
Do you remember what the Lord said in Revelation 21:6?
Then He said to me, “It is done.”
There it is. Everything is summed up in Christ. There is Christ. There is the church all together. There is nature; there is creation all together. He says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”
God says, “This is My end. Do not settle for the state of Ephesus, or the state of Thyatira, or the state of Sardis. This is My end.”
What a beautiful picture. This is what God wants.
It is interesting, is it not? Many Christians think, “Well, when we die, we are going to go to heaven.” And it is true; the Bible says that.
But here in this vision, we see heaven coming down to earth. The New Jerusalem is heaven on earth.
I like to live on the earth. I do not know about the oxygen supply on Mars, so I like to stay on Earth.
But when the old earth and the old heaven are done away, and the new heaven and earth appear, there will be plenty of oxygen wherever it is.
There is life there—full of life—radiant in glory. Everything about the city shines.
That mysterious glory of God is now shining because God is pleased. It is done. What a wonderful vision. That is what the Lord is doing.
If we see this vision, it is going to affect our lives. It is not like we just stay the way we are, and then one day God does a trick and changes you and me from lazy, carnal Christians into perfect stones in the New Jerusalem.
Now, God could do that. We could all stay lazy and believe that God is just going to change us completely. But that is not what is going to happen.
The Lord is right now changing us from glory to glory, and He will get us into the New Jerusalem.
How do I know that? If He is the Alpha and the Omega, He has started in me, and He will finish.
We need to keep our eyes on the New Jerusalem. Tell the Lord, “That is what I want. That is what I want.”
The angel takes John on a Google Earth tour of the New Jerusalem. Sorry for those of you who have no idea what Google Earth is.
I want us to zoom in right to the center of the city. What is the center of this city? It is the place where the generator is. It is the place where all the life comes out.
There it is: the throne of God.
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
And the city has no need of the sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Then, in Revelation 22:1:
Then he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal,
coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
This throne is the center. Out of the center comes light. It is not this kind of light. This is glory light.
You know, in the United States, we cannot use regular light bulbs anymore. We have to use these squiggly things, trying to save energy. But I cannot see so well with these lights.
But in the center of the New Jerusalem is glorious light. Out of the center throne there comes a river of life. This is the throne of the Alpha and the Omega.
But we notice that something has happened here, because it is God’s throne and the Lamb’s throne.
You remember, at the beginning of Revelation 21, it says:
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.
We have fellowship with the Father and with the Son. At present, our fellowship is in spirit, but in the New Jerusalem we will dwell with the Father and the Son. No more tears.
What does it say about the servants? Are you going to be a servant in New Jerusalem? What will you do anyway? Everything is done. What will you do?
I think there must be a lot more things to do. He says we will rule and reign forever and ever.
But this one promise alone is worth everything. In Revelation 22:4, it says:
They will see His face.
Do you want to see God’s face? Do you want to see the face of the One who saved you by His grace?
There is a golden highway there. It says it is a street, but actually the Greek word is like a plaza—like Tiananmen Square, a big, huge plaza.
The idea is that many servants will come and say, “Okay, God, I want to talk to You.” And God says, “Good, I want to talk to you.” We see Him face to face—many, many people out there in the heavenly Tiananmen Square.
Will that not be worth it all? Just to see God.
That is the center of the New Jerusalem, right in the center of the whole. God provides the life and the energy for everything in the new creation.
But let us back off just a little bit and see you and me. Where are you here?
There are several things that we see in the New Jerusalem. First of all, in Revelation 21:16, we notice that the city is actually a cube.
It is perfect in its dimensions, just like the Holy of Holies. It is perfect symmetry. It is perfect equality.
Even though there is a disproportionate number of Chinese in this world population, in the New Jerusalem there is a perfect population. It is cubic. Every race, nation, tongue, and people will be in the New Jerusalem.
Then, in Revelation 21:12, it talks about walls—glorious walls. In Revelation 21:18, it says the material of the wall is jasper.
Now, in America, we do not know what jasper is, so I tell everybody it is diamond. Then I see the sisters immediately become more interested. The walls are diamond.
This is so beautiful, is it not? There are foundation stones, and foundation stones with the names of the apostles of the Lamb on them. They are beautiful.
These foundation stones are adorned with precious stones. We read in Revelation 21:19-20 of the many different kinds of beautiful precious stones.
Then it mentions the twelve gates, one for each of the twelve tribes. Each gate is made out of a priceless pearl.
But the main thing I would have you notice is twice repeated.
The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
Do you see yourself in this city? There you are: pure gold, precious stone, or pearl. All things precious, but all things with one thing in common: completely transparent.
The millions of believers who will make up the New Jerusalem will be transparent so that Christ’s glory can shine through each and every one.
Those individual precious stones could speak of individuals in the church. Each one is different, has a different color, but all of them are transparent.
Nothing opaque—only transparent. Have you ever seen transparent gold? If you did, you did not notice it. Maybe you thought it was just an ice cube.
We have never seen this. But this is what the New Jerusalem is made of: transparent saints.
There is God and the Lamb at the center of the New Jerusalem, and Their glory radiates out north, south, east, and west.
There we are, the gold of the New Jerusalem, completely transparent—like a light bulb for the glory of God. The glory just shines through His church.
Now, do you see yourself in that picture? If you see something of this wonderful ultimate destiny, it helps you understand what is going on in your present life.
The first thing I would say is this: the Holy Spirit is dedicated to making us transparent vessels of the Lord.
Our flesh is opaque. We hide ourselves from God. But the Holy Spirit uses the effect of what Jesus did on the cross to cut out that flesh until we are transparent.
If I said, “Do you believe God wants to make gold out of you?” you would say, “Amen.” But are you willing to go through the process?
Just think about how much darkness is in our minds. The enemy has lied to us, and we have believed many lies.
There are many strongholds of darkness in our minds because we ate so long from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But only the Lord, with the weapons of His warfare, can take every thought captive to Christ.
This helps explain what is going on in our lives.
I know there are some preachers who say, “If you come to Christ, you will live the comfortable life. He will take care of you. You will never be sick, and you will prosper.”
Indeed, the Lord does bless us. But we walk by way of the cross.
The Lord changes us as we keep looking, from glory to glory. How are we changed from glory to glory? As we see the Lord.
The Spirit of God allows us to see the Lord, and we are transformed into His image.
Secondly, if you and I are going to be part of the New Jerusalem, it means that we already have a glorious treasure within.
Do you have a treasure within you? I know we are just earthen clay vessels, but there is a treasure within.
Part of the process of our transformation is for that treasure to begin to shine out of us.
Sometimes He must break that earthen vessel. Paul talks about that in his own life—how the Lord crushed his vessel so that the glory of Christ could come out.
There is an interesting reality that Paul is talking about here. The Lord has to deal with our flesh by the work of the cross, but sometimes He breaks our vessel for the sake of others.
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul is talking about how God had broken his vessel in order to bring life to saints.
This is a lesson we learn as we are marching toward the New Jerusalem. Sometimes we suffer for the sake of our brothers and sisters. Sometimes the Lord breaks us under great pressure, that His glory may come out.
The Lord makes precious stones through great pressure. Deep in your life, He puts pressure on, but He is turning you into something precious. He breaks the outward man in the process of preparation.
Thirdly, understanding our destiny in the New Jerusalem also explains why there are some people who have inexplicable sufferings.
Even through my years of being a Christian, I do not understand what some people have to go through. There is just no explanation for the suffering. It is like Job’s condition. It does not seem right. It is hard to explain.
I recently read this wonderful biography about Amy Carmichael, a wonderful sister and missionary working in India.
For the rest of her life, she had to lie on her bed. Who can explain this?
But God is also producing precious pearls, and pearls are made through suffering.
No oyster likes that piece of sand that gets inside the shell. The oyster wants to get it out.
Sometimes you go and have a nice dim sum, and something gets stuck in your tooth. For hours, you are just trying to get it out.
No oyster volunteers to take sand into its shell. The oyster does not like that sand. It is so rough.
So it puts a little bit of oil on it. It still bothers the oyster, so it puts a little more oil on it. Then years later, the sister goes to the store and buys the pearl.
Some people suffer. Do not say it is because they have done something wrong. Many of them are faithful to the Lord. We cannot even explain it.
We will understand it in the New Jerusalem: pearls and transparent gold.
Fourthly, if you see a vision of the New Jerusalem, you understand why church life always goes through incredible battles.
Do you dream of being part of a perfect church—one that has no troubles? Well, there are some. They are completely dead.
But if you want to gather together and stand as a testimony for the Lord Jesus, you are in for trouble.
The enemy does not like a testimony of the Lord. He will try to plant tares among the wheat. He will start to put pressure on the saints in order to wear down their love.
Some of the churches around you will persecute you.
There is a definition of what a fanatic is. I like the definition. What is a fanatic? It is somebody who is more spiritual than you are.
If there are people who desire to be spiritual and desire to live a holy life, the usual Laodicean Christian does not like them at all.
Some of you know that occasionally I have gone to Russia and preached the gospel. Many people in Russia are being saved by these born-again churches preaching the gospel.
But who is their greatest opposition? The state church—the Russian Orthodox Church. They do not like these born-again people. They like everybody to come to Russian Orthodox Russia.
So they suffer for desiring to be God’s people.
If we want to be the Lord’s testimony, we will have many battles among the saints. The temptation is to stop holding fast to the Head, our Lord Jesus.
This is my picture: if we hold fast to the Head, our Lord Jesus, as it tells us in Colossians 2, we have to hold on with both hands.
Now, you cannot fight each other that way. But the temptation is to take your hands down and pinch. The enemy always wants to get us into a fight.
We sometimes call the church in Philippi the most loving of the churches. But there were two sisters, Euodia and Syntyche.
They were having trouble holding on to the Head because they wanted to punch one another. This is a problem in all of our assemblies.
People come and challenge us, and we want to fight flesh with flesh. This immediately causes division. How we need to come together and hold fast to the Head.
There is one thing we can never forget: our all-wise, sovereign Lord is one step ahead of every problem that ever comes up.
Through such a problem, He may humble us. He may make us wait. He may make us all repent. But He knows what is best. Hold fast to Him.
When we try to be what the Lord wants us to be and bear testimony to the Lord Jesus, we either suffer deflation or inflation.
Spiritual deflation is when we become discouraged and want to quit.
Spiritual inflation is when we get puffed up and say, “Oh, look what a good church we are.”
But the church needs a stable economy: trusting the Lord.
If we have seen the glory of the New Jerusalem, it changes our perspective.
I want to finish by reading one Scripture. I would like for us to turn to Exodus 34.
Moses was a servant of God, and he learned much in the presence of God. While Moses was up on the mountain with the Lord, he prayed a prayer and said, “Lord, show me Thy glory.”
The Lord said, “I have to put you in the cleft of the rock and hide you there, because you cannot bear to see My full glory.”
But then we read in Exodus 34:5 that the Lord came by.
And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord.
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed,
“The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;
who keeps lovingkindness for thousands,
who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.”
Moses asked to see the Lord’s glory, and the Lord responded by revealing what His heart is like: compassionate, merciful, longsuffering, and forgiving.
That touched Moses’ life. If we want to be servants of God, then we need to have the same character as our Lord.
As we are moving together with brothers and sisters toward the New Jerusalem, we need to be merciful, longsuffering, kind-hearted, and forgiving one another, even as Christ Jesus has forgiven us.
This is the only way we can march together toward the New Jerusalem.
Servants of God are always tempted to get angry and strike the rock. But the Lord has infinite patience.
If you are like Jacob and you are wrestling with God, then I ask you the question: who is going to win?
We might wrestle and wrestle and think we are doing pretty good, but God has a super karate move. One move, and the hip is out of joint.
We are dealing with a sovereign God. He wants a bride for His Son, and He will have this bride. He will produce glory in our lives. He is the sovereign God, and He can do it.
Who are we going to bet on? We can look at the earthly circumstances around us and say, “You know, things are very bad.”
Or we can see, in the unseen reality, a God still faithfully doing His work.
Remember, when Jesus spoke the seven parables regarding the mysteries of the kingdom of God, He spoke four of them out in public. Then He went inside.
The disciples did not understand any of the parables. The Lord had to explain. But then the Lord told some parables just to His disciples. He was speaking about unseen mysteries of the kingdom.
Here was the parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who found treasure in a field.”
Many Christians interpret that as the fact that we have found the treasure in Jesus. But actually, the parable is talking about the King. He has found the treasure in us.
He went and sold all that He had and laid down His life to gain you and me.
God says, “You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, My special treasure.”
This is a deep mystery, is it not? Look around here. Do you see any treasure? Look at that sister next to you. Is that a treasure? We will not even ask about the brothers.
But the Lord has found the treasure here on earth. The Father is now preparing to bring the treasure to His Son.
In these last days, there is much confusion on earth. But do not forget: we can look to the mountain.
As Paul says:
We look not at the things which are seen, which are temporary,
but at the things which are unseen, which are eternal.
This is the secret for the faithfulness of a servant of God.
May the Lord bless us. Let us pray.
Lord, we thank You so much that You have counted us Your treasure. We cannot imagine why, but You have shown us the New Jerusalem.
We see ourselves summed up in Christ. You are the center of our life, and we are transparent saints. We look forward to that wonderful day, when we see that it is done.
Even as You are moving us and we are going through many circumstances here on earth, we remember that it is all working together for good, as You bring us all under our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, help us to be faithful, to not be disobedient to this heavenly vision.
We pray for Your mercy in these days, that we might hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches and that we may overcome.
We pray that in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.