Sufferings and Transformation for New Jerusalem (6)
Revelation 21:18 tells us that “the city was pure gold, like clear glass.” This gold portrays God’s life, given to us upon our believing. But precious stones are also an important part of New Jerusalem, which we see in Revelation 21. 
These stones signify the Spirit’s transforming work in us, constituting us with something divine through many difficulties.
These difficulties might be in our physical environment, such as something breaking. They could also be in our relationships with people. Some difficulties might be merely possibilities that cause anxiety. But God wants us to turn to Him from every anxiety, actual or imagined, “casting all your anxiety on Him because it matters to Him concerning you” (1 Peter 5:7; also Phil. 4:6).
We should never refuse the trials that come upon us through our environment. We should never refuse the discipline of the Holy Spirit, nor complain when God’s hand encircles and encloses us in every way….How we would like to break through all the bondage and limitation and be released for a while. But we must remember that [God] is forming us so that one day we will come out as precious stones. God has not only given us His life, but He is also working in us to the extent that we may possess a special quality. This is what the Holy Spirit is forming in us through all the circumstances which God allows, and this is called precious stone.*
Paul had a physical suffering and “I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me” (2 Cor. 12:8). But (v. 9), “He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” So Paul decided (v. 9), “Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.”
Paul’s weakness here was his physical suffering. Yet he was willing to suffer to experience the Lord’s grace, the Spirit’s transforming power. The same applies to us in our sufferings. The sufficient grace is constituting us with the precious materials of New Jerusalem.
* From chapter 5 of The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org/ and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html.
Graphic courtesy of pixabay.com.
Posted by Don on July 8, 2022
