Sufferings and Transformation for New Jerusalem (7)
Revelation 21’s description of New Jerusalem includes: “her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone” and “the building work of its wall was jasper” and “the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone.”
The precious stones are produced out of sufferings. We who believe into Christ “are being guarded by the power of God through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time; in which time you exult, though for a little while at present, if it must be, you have been made sorrowful by various trials.”
We exult in the glorious coming of our Lord because we look away from earthly trials to the heavenly, eternal things (2 Cor. 4:17-18).
Sometimes when we sit in the presence of an elderly person, we feel that he is one who is really walking with the Lord. There is a life in him which very much characterizes him; it has become his special nature….He has a special quality, something which has come out from the fire; he is a precious stone.
In the New Jerusalem there are precious stones. Without precious stones, the New Jerusalem will never come into existence. God needs a group of people who will manifest the quality of precious stones. Oh, may God deliver us from being shallow! Only what the Holy Spirit has wrought into our life is of any value or use.
May we not wait passively for the Lord’s return. In Bible time, prayer, praise, singing, rejoicing, and fellowship with other Christians, let us pursue being transformed into precious stones for New Jerusalem.
Through Sufferings to New Jerusalem (7)
Through Suffering to the City of Glory (2)
From Suffering to Glory (2)
* 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.
Photo courtesy of burningwell.org.
