«　WEEK 6　DAY 5　»

　　Rev. 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

　　2 Pet. 1:4 Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature...

　　The New Jerusalem is built of three kinds of precious materials, signifying that she is built with the Triune God. First, the city proper, with its street, is of pure gold (Rev. 21:18, 21). Gold, the symbol of the divine nature of God, signifies the Father as the source, from whom the element for the substantial existence of the city is produced. (Rev. 21:21, footnote 1)

　　In the New Jerusalem, although there are twelve gates, there is only one street....The street is not straight but spiraling. In the first circle the street goes around the twelve gates, then as it turns inward, the circles become smaller and smaller until finally it reaches the throne. Thus, ...no matter which gate you enter in, you are on the one street. You can never get lost here. Ultimately, this street will take you to the center, to the throne. The street is pure gold....This indicates that the city is filled with God and the nature of God... [with] absolutely no earthy element. The street is...one—without any complication, and it is pure gold—without any mixture. (The Building Work of God, pp. 104-105)

　　The divine nature is what God is....The Bible tells us emphatically and directly that God is Spirit (John 4:24), God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and God is light (1:5)....The divine nature is a constitution of these three items—Spirit, love, and light. To be a partaker of the divine nature is to be one partaking of God as Spirit, as love, and as light. Spirit denotes the nature of God's person, and love denotes the nature of God's essence. God is a divine being with a divine essence. The essence is more intrinsic than the element of something. Within the element is the essence, and this divine essence has love as its nature.

　　Furthermore, the divine light is the nature of God's expression. John tells us that the divine birth brought a seed into us (1 John 3:9). In this seed is the divine nature. Peter, furthermore, tells us that God has granted to us all things which relate to life (2 Pet. 1:3). Based upon this fact, God gave us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these we might become partakers, enjoyers, of the divine nature.... When you partake of the divine nature, you enjoy God as the Spirit, as love, and as light.

　　[When we] fellowship with the Lord, ...we realize and enjoy the Lord as the Spirit, and simultaneously we enjoy the nature of God's essence, which is love. Love then saturates us and even becomes us. Before this time we may have been disgusted with many things. After this kind of fellowship, however, everything is lovable....This love has not only filled us but saturated us. The reason we Christians can love persons whom others cannot love is because we enjoy God as love. We enjoy the divine nature of this loving God....Only those who partake of the divine nature love people genuinely. They are not taught to love others, but they have become love toward others.

　　If we would spend an adequate amount of time in the morning with the Lord, we would be full of light inwardly.... [Then] whatever we do and whatever we say would be full of light. This is the issue of our enjoying of the divine nature....If we would all spend time to fellowship with the Lord, we would have the sensation that we are enjoying the Lord as the Spirit, and we would become a person of love. Love would saturate us. Furthermore, whatever we would say would be light, and whatever we would do would be transparent as crystal. This is an evidence or proof that we are partaking of the divine nature. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, "God's New Testament Economy," pp. 392-394)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, "God's New Testament Economy," ch. 30; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers," ch. 1