Ⅲ
Whatever is ascribed to the New Jerusalem should be both our personal and corporate experience for us to become the New Jerusalem and build the New Jerusalem by the mingling of God with man for the oneness of the Body of Christ to fulfill the eternal purpose of God:
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The New Jerusalem is the totality of the overcomers; a remnant of the Lord's believers, the earlier overcomers, will be the bride of Christ for one thousand years (19:7-9; 20:4-6); then they will join the rest of the Lord's believers, the later overcomers, to be the wife of Christ for eternity (21:2-3, 7):
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The earlier overcomers, as the reality of Zion within Jerusalem, the reality of the Body of Christ within the church, have highways to Zion in their heart; they take the way of the church internally by being incorporated into God as their dwelling place through the crucified Christ, typified by the bronze altar as their nest for their refuge, and through the resurrected Christ in ascension, typified by the incense altar as their home for their rest—Psa. 48:2; 84:3-5; cf. Prov. 27:8.
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To overcome means that we love the Lord more than our self, more than our soul-life; an overcomer knows and loves only Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ—Phil. 3:10; 4:12; Rev. 2:4-5, 7; 12:11.
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The Lord is waiting for a group of overcomers to live out the reality of the Body of Christ in resurrection to become the bride of Christ to bring Him back and to usher in His kingdom age; for this we need to pray, "Lord, may I receive Your mercy and grace to be one of Your overcomers."
Morning Nourishment
Rev. 14:1 And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.4 ...These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He may go. These were purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
The New Jerusalem is the totality of the overcomers.... Only a relatively small part of the believers will be the overcomers.... At the Lord's coming, He will take away only the overcomers, leaving the rest of the believers...because they will not have the maturity in His divine life.... [They] will suffer discipline in outer darkness (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). This is so that they can be perfected for their maturity.
The earlier overcomers will be rewarded. The Lord will reward the overcomers in this age with what they are in Christ.... Eventually, the majority of the believers will enjoy what they are in Christ for eternity.
To overcome...means that we love Him more than our self, more than our soul-life. An overcomer knows and loves only Christ.
The New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth for eternity...will be the totality of all the believers throughout all the generations of the Old Testament and the New Testament. By then all of God's chosen and redeemed people will have been made overcomers. (CWWL, 1991- 1992, vol. 4, "The Overcomers," pp. 182, 184-185)
Today's Reading
On the one hand, we have entered into God; on the other hand, we are still on the highways to enter into God. That the highways are in our heart means that we need to take the way of the church internally, not merely externally. (Psa. 84:5, footnote 1)At the bronze altar, a type of the cross of Christ, our problems before God are solved through the crucified Christ as the sacrifices. This qualifies us to enter into the tabernacle, a type of Christ as the incarnated and enterable Triune God, and to contact God at the incense altar. At the golden altar of incense in front of the Holy of Holies..., the resurrected Christ in His ascension is the incense for us to be accepted by God in peace. Through our prayer at the incense altar we enter into the Holy of Holies— our spirit (Heb. 10:19)— where we experience Christ as the Ark of the Testimony with its contents. Through such an experience of Christ we are incorporated into the tabernacle, the incarnated Triune God, to become a part of the corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12) as God's testimony for His manifestation. (Psa. 84:3, footnote 1)
The cross of Christ, typified by the bronze altar, is our "nest," our refuge, where we are saved from our troubles and where we "lay" our young, that is, produce new believers through the preaching of the gospel. When we experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension, typified by the golden altar of incense, we are accepted by God in such a Christ and find a home, a place of rest, in the house of God. This house is the processed and consummated Triune God united, mingled, and incorporated with all His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect (John 14:1-23) to be the Body of Christ in the present age and the New Jerusalem as the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed in eternity (Rev. 21:3, 22). (Psa. 84:3, footnote 3)
The reason that the Lord still has not closed this age is that He is still waiting...for a group of overcomers to live in His Body in resurrection to be the means for Him to usher in His kingdom age. In Revelation 14 we see that even though many have been saved, the overcomers number only a hundred and forty-four thousand. May the Lord have mercy on us to make us the overcomers in the present age for Him to close this age and bring in His kingdom age. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, "A General Outline of God's Economy and the Proper Living of a God-man: A Fellowship with the Elders from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia," pp. 524-525)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1963, vol. 1, "Experiencing the Mingling of God with Man for the Oneness of the Body of Christ," chs. 4-5