God Himself is Our Dwelling Place
In New Jerusalem, under the throne of God and the Lamb, with the river of life and the tree of life, “His slaves will serve Him” (Rev. 22:3). The Greek text of the New Testament has three different words often translated “serve;” here it means to serve as a priest.
We serve God in God Himself as the Spirit reaching us. When we pray, we pray in God Himself as the Spirit reaching us. The proper prayer and the proper service we render to God must be in God Himself. If we pray in ourselves, that prayer is not genuine. The genuine prayer must be to God and in God. God is our dwelling in the New Testament, and even the Old Testament saints had the same consideration. In Psalm 90:1 Moses said, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations.” This indicates that while Moses was traveling in the wilderness with the children of Israel for forty years, in his deep feeling he was dwelling in God. God was his dwelling place.*
The word of Moses in Psalm 90 refers to “all generations”, so it is true for us today. The Lord Jesus told us, “Abide in Me and I in you” (John 15:4). And 1 Thessalonians was written “to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 1:1).
To have God as our dwelling is not in the physical realm but in the spiritual realm. John 16 tells us that the Spirit guides us into all the reality, including the reality of abiding in God in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to open to the Spirit and seek this reality that we may appreciate it today, not waiting for the future.
In New Jerusalem God and the Lamb are the temple and the temple is the holy of holies which includes the whole city. Thus to be in New Jerusalem is to be in the holy of holies which is to be in God and the Lamb.
* From chapter 37, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.
Photo courtesy of NASA.
Posted by Don on April 28, 2023
