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To live out and work out the New Jerusalem to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must experience God the Son in His death and resurrection, typified by the pearl gates—Rev. 21:21a:
１
Pearls signify the issue of Christ's secretion in two aspects: His redeeming and lifereleasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection—John 12:24; 19:34; cf. Zech. 13:1; Jer. 2:13.
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We must experience the death of Christ by the power of Christ's resurrection so that we may be conformed to His death and to the image of the firstborn Son of God—Phil. 3:10; 1:19; Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 4:7-13.
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To live out and work out the New Jerusalem to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ, we must experience God the Spirit in His transforming work, typified by the jasper wall with its foundations of precious stones—Rev. 21:18-20:
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By our growth in the divine life in Christ as the living stone, we are transformed into precious stones to have the same appearance as God—1 Pet. 2:4; 1 Cor. 3:12a; Rev. 21:10-11; 4:3; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2.
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The wall functions to separate, to sanctify, the city unto God from all things other than God, thus making the city the holy city; the wall also functions to protect the interests of the riches of God's divinity on the earth and the attainments of His consummation—Rev. 21:2a, 10b; cf. John 17:17.
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To live out and work out the New Jerusalem to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ requires spiritual warfare; at the time of Nehemiah, "those who built the wall and those who carried burdens took the loads with one hand doing the work and with the other holding a weapon"—Neh. 4:17:
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There are three aspects of the attack of the enemy: the first aspect is the enemy's mocking (2:10; 4:2-3); the second aspect is for the enemy to set up plots through the destroyers of the divine building asking for meetings and discussions (6:2); the third aspect is to cause us to be discouraged, weakened, spiritually sick, and in discord (4:10-12).
２
As a person who loved God, Nehemiah prayed to God to contact Him in fellowship; for the rebuilding of the wall, Nehemiah stood on God's word, prayed according to it, and was aggressive to take action in a properly aggressive way in resurrection—1:1-11; 2:4; 4:4-9; 13:1-30.
３
We need to stand against the stratagems of the devil by fighting the battle in the Body with fighting prayers, praying at every time in spirit to put on the whole armor of God to build up the Body of Christ as the house of God for the glory of God and as the kingdom of God for the dominion of God for the complete fulfillment of the economy of God—Eph. 6:10-20.
Morning Nourishment
Rev. 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl...Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
The twelve gates of the city are pearls, which signify the Son's overcoming death and life-imparting resurrection, through which entrance to the city is gained. (Rev. 21:21, footnote 1)
When an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand and makes it into a precious pearl. Pearls signify the issue of Christ's secretion in two aspects: His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection....The death of Christ secretes, dispenses, to produce the gates of the city. The twelve gates are the issue of Christ's secretion also in His life-dispensing resurrection. (CWWL, 1994- 1997, vol. 3, "The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers," p. 218)
Today's Reading
Both Christ's death and resurrection have an issue, a secretion....Both kinds of secretion (dispensing) require the seeking believers' daily experience of the death of Christ subjectively by the power of Christ's resurrection that they may be conformed to the death of Christ (Phil. 3:10). We have to put not just Christ's death itself but the secretion of His death into our daily experience subjectively.We cannot do this in and by ourselves....Everyone likes to argue. Arguments come from our natural life, from "I," not Christ. But we should have this "I" all the time crucified on the cross. We have to put this application of the subjective death of Christ into our daily experience. We can experience His death only by the power of the resurrection of Christ.... Yes, we have been crucified, but how can we keep ourselves on the cross all the time? No human beings can do it except those who know the power of the resurrection of Christ; they have the capacity, the ability, to practice this. By the power of the resurrection of Christ, we have the ability and the power to keep our pitiful self on the cross.
The New Jerusalem's transformed and built-up wall functions in four main ways. First, it sanctifies all the things belonging to God. God would not let any of His things be mixed up with the things that are not of Him, so there is the need of separation. The New Jerusalem's wall functions to separate the New Jerusalem unto God as something holy. This is why it is called the holy city.
Second, ...the wall of the holy city protects the interest of the riches of God's divinity and the attainments of Christ's consummation.
The third function of the wall is to express God....Revelation 21:11 reveals that the city's glory is like the glory of jasper. That is God's appearance [4:3]. Today, the function of the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem, is to express Christ.
The fourth function of the wall with its foundations is to guarantee God's unfailing faithfulness for eternal security. The New Jerusalem standing upon the twelve layers of its foundations in the colors of the rainbow guarantees God's faithfulness.
In our created state we were dust, but...by His Spirit [God] transforms us through the renewing of our mind, emotion, and will....The soul is the natural man, the natural man is the fallen man, and the fallen man is the man abandoned by God. If we want to change our status, we need transformation. In order to be transformed, our mind, emotion, and will must be renewed.
Day by day, we should live a life not according to our natural concept but according to our renewed mind. Our mind is renewed by the word of God. Only the word of God can renew our mind. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers," pp. 218-220, 232-234)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers," chs. 2-3; The Building Work of God, chs. 9-10