All posts tagged partake of the divine nature

By being born of God (John 1:12-13) we can become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

New Creation with God’s Life and Nature

In Christ we are a new creation. Outside of Him everything presently remains in God’s original creation, which became the old creation because of the fall of man which brought in sin and death.

The old creation is our old man in Adam (Eph. 4:22), our natural being by birth, without God’s life and the divine nature. The new creation is the new man in Christ (Eph. 4:24), our being that is regenerated by the Spirit (John 3:6), having God’s life and the divine nature wrought into it (John 3:36; 2 Pet. 1:4), having Christ as its constituent (Col. 3:10-11), and having become a new constitution. This refers to the nature, the inward and intrinsic organic constituent, of the church. Thus, the new creation is composed of sons; it is a corporate, divine sonship (3:26; 4:5, 7) brought forth through Christ’s redemption, the Spirit’s regeneration, and God’s dispensing of Himself into us, and through our entering collectively as this new man into an organic union with the Triune God.*

New JerusalemThank the Lord for our new beginning through redemption and regeneration and for our renewing by God’s life flow into us, His dispensing. We have “been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). This is our spirit being made alive, born, of the Spirit (John 3:6).

Gradually the Spirit in our spirit spreads through our being to make us wholly new. This is the path to New Jerusalem. When we are fully new, the Lord will then remove all the oldness around us and bring in the new creation and New Jerusalem will manifest His work in us.

* Part of footnote 1 on Galatians 6:15 in the Recovery Version Bible published and © by Living Stream Ministry. A New Testament of this Bible, with 9000 footnotes, is available in multiple languages for free from Bibles for America, Bibles for Canada, Bibles for Europe.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

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by Don on May 10, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on May 10, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/05/10/new-creation-with-gods-life-and-nature/

Partakers of the Divine Nature for New Jerusalem

New Jerusalem is a heavenly city with a divine constitution. It “comes down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2). The city is not merely a thing from God but it comes out of God Himself. God gave us divine life in Christ Jesus. The gospel of John says much about this.

God has also made us partakers of His divine nature. Second Peter 1:3 ends saying God “has called us by His own glory and virtue” and verse 4 continues “through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might New Jerusalembecome partakers of the divine nature.”

Gold in the Bible signifies God the Father. New Jerusalem is golden because it is of God and filled with God. We will participate in this golden city by partaking of the divine nature now. Our current partaking brings forth the churches as golden lampstands in many cities (Rev. 1:11-12).

These lampstands become the unique eternal golden lampstand, New Jerusalem, because then we will no longer be separated by time or location. This eternal golden lampstand shines with the glory of God.

 

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by Don on February 5, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on February 5, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/02/05/partakers-of-the-divine-nature-for-new-jerusalem/

New Jerusalem Has the Divine Nature

New Jerusalem is a heavenly city on earth. We must interpret all its characteristics spiritually based on the entire Bible.

Revelation 21:18— “the city was pure gold.” Do not expect physical gold. That would sadly be an extension of mankind’s striving for riches. “You cannot serve God and mammon [material wealth]” (Matt. 6:24).

“Gold” signifies the divine nature. Second Peter 1:4 declares that God “has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature.” We partake of this divine nature now to become part of the golden city, New Jerusalem.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

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by Don on January 17, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 17, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/01/17/new-jerusalem-has-the-divine-nature/

New Jerusalem is Heavenly

 

New Jerusalem

Hebrews 12:22, “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”

Revelation 21:2, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”

New Jerusalem has a heavenly nature and its source is divine and heavenly.

Do not try to explain New Jerusalem by applying characteristics of earthly cities.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

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by Don on January 3, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 3, 2024

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2024/01/03/new-jerusalem-is-heavenly/

The River, the Spirit, Brings All God’s Riches to Us

In Revelation 22:1 the river of water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 

New JerusalemThe Triune God reaches us in this river, and this reaching of the Triune God is the realization of all the divine riches. This reaching river makes everything that the Father is and has and everything that the Son is and has so practically real. The Spirit as the realization of all the divine riches is all-inclusive. The throne of God and of the Lamb is in this river, this river flows in the golden street, the divine nature, and in this river and along its banks is the tree of life (v. 2). All the divine things are wrapped up with this one flow.*

John 16 presents the Lord’s promise that “when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality….He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you.” In resurrection the Spirit of reality came as the river of life reaching us. Now He guides us into all the riches of the Father and the Son.

As stated in John 16, this guiding is to glorify the Son (and to glorify the Father in the Son). This glorification is in this age and is a precursor to New Jerusalem’s greater glorification of the Triune God in eternity.

* From chapter 44, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The text of this Bible is at text.recoveryversion.bible; this too is © by LSM.

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by Don on December 1, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 1, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/12/01/the-river-the-spirit-brings-all-gods-riches-to-us-and-44-2-3/

Redemption for Life unto New Jerusalem

Praise the Lord that we are the partakers of the divine nature and that we also have the redeeming Christ. We have the full right and privilege to enjoy the divine light and to claim the divine flow. Both the divine light, God the Father, and the divine flow, God the Spirit, are our portion even today. We must apply God the Father as the divine light in the redeeming Christ, and we must apply God the Spirit as the flowing river in the divine nature.*

New JerusalemJesus Christ is both our Redeemer and our Life. Ephesians 1:7 tells us “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses.” This is wonderful but this is not God’s goal.

Ephesians 1 goes on to the abounding grace to us, “making known to us the mystery of His will,” His purpose, “to head up all things in Christ,” and “that we would be to the praise of His glory.”

For God to accomplish this, He wants us to live in the Father’s light expressed through the redeeming Christ (Rev. 21:23) and to drink the Spirit as the water of life flowing out. Redemption cleanses us, qualifying us to receive the divine life and nature, which gradually spread and operate in us to bring forth New Jerusalem as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s purpose.

* From chapter 43, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

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by Don on November 10, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on November 10, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/11/10/redemption-for-life-unto-new-jerusalem-43-2-5/

Walk in God’s Divine Nature, Have the Flow of Life

According to our experience, if we do not behave and live according to God’s divine nature, we feel dried up within, and we do not sense the flow of life within us. We have the flow of the water of life within us when we are living, behaving, and having our life according to God’s divine nature. If you do not walk in the divine nature as the divine street, you are dried up because there is no riverbed for the flow of the street.*

New JerusalemSecond Peter 1:4 proclaims “He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.”

Outwardly we are still living in the world and are surrounded by things of corruption. But inwardly we are partakers of the divine nature.

The divine nature is portrayed by the golden street of New Jerusalem. This shows that our Christian walk today should be according to the divine nature in us. When we feel dry, even this sense is from the Lord and indicates that we should confess our failures to be cleansed and live the divine nature (1 John 1:9).

The divine nature and the flow of the Spirit are our current foretaste of New Jerusalem. The more we enjoy them, the more we will eagerly await the Lord’s return which will fully save us from the world’s corruption.

* From chapter 43, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

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by Don on November 8, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on November 8, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/11/08/walk-in-gods-divine-nature-have-the-flow-of-life-43-2-4/

Walk in God’s Divine Nature, Drink the Water of Life

Revelation 21:21’s description of New Jerusalem is “the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.”

New JerusalemThe river flows out of the throne, but it flows in the middle of the street. Revelation 21:21 tells us that the street of the city is pure gold….The street in the New Jerusalem is the very riverbed of this flowing river. The street being gold indicates that the way in the New Jerusalem is God’s divine nature. The Christian way for the Christian life is God’s divine nature. We should dress according to God’s divine nature, behave ourselves according to God’s divine nature, talk to others according to God’s divine nature, and deal with our spouse according to God’s divine nature.*

Practically, the walk according to God’s nature is to walk according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16). It is not to walk according to a printed rule book. To walk according to the Spirit is described in Romans 8:6, “the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.”

The sense of death can be weakness, uncertainty, doubt, hesitation, etc.; the sense of life and peace can be joy, brightness, and more.° Life and peace should be our way today and will be our unique way in New Jerusalem where death will be no more.

* From chapter 43, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

° For more about these feelings, see the chapters on the sense of life and the sense of the Spirit in Knowledge of Life which is available for free from Bibles for America and in many languages from Rhema Books.

 

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by Don on November 6, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on November 6, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/11/06/walk-in-gods-divine-nature-drink-the-water-of-life-43-2-3/

The Existence of New Jerusalem Applied to Daily Life

The divine life is the highest life and it is eternal. Because it is the highest life, it requires time to mature in us. God’s creation gives our human lifespan sufficient length for the divine life in us to mature, if we cooperate with its growth.

There is the need of much time for the divine nature within us to develop and for our growth in life, yet we have to realize that the existence of the New Jerusalem should be applied to our daily life. The New Jerusalem has the Father’s nature as its city proper and the pearls as its gates. We must live by Christ, we must live Christ, and we must magnify Christ by His living in us. When He is living in us, He is surely secreting His resurrection life around us, making us pearls, and these pearls are His magnification.*     100

New JerusalemTo grow we need to hold to Christ our Head. We grow up into Him in all things (Eph. 4:15) and a rich supply flows out from Him for “the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love” (v. 16). This growth and building up of His Body is our growth unto New Jerusalem.

For this growth, we need to “put off our former manner of life” (v. 22) whether good or bad, and be renewed in our mind by His Spirit flowing through our human spirit into our mind (v. 23). Through these actions we “put on the new man” (v. 24) both for proper Christian living and expression today and for New Jerusalem.

* From chapter 41, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

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by Don on September 18, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on September 18, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/09/18/the-existence-of-new-jerusalem-applied-to-daily-life/

The Trinity Prepares us for New Jerusalem

New JerusalemIn the New Jerusalem there are three materials for its existence: gold signifies God the Father in His divine nature, pearls signify the produce of Christ through His death and in His resurrection, and precious stones signify the produce of the Spirit’s transforming work. According to Ephesians 4:4-6, we see the Spirit, the Lord, and God the Father for the existence of the Body of Christ today.…In Ephesians 4 the existence of the New Jerusalem has been applied to us already and is still being applied to us. Day by day we who are in the church, in the Body, are enjoying this application of the existence of the New Jerusalem.*

Colossians 2:9-10 and 18-19a warn us not to be distracted from Christ Himself who is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead and is the One who fills us (and who is realized by us as the Spirit – 2 Cor. 3:17). A rich supply flows out from Christ the Head of the Body.

As we hold Him as our Head, by the rich supply coming to us the whole Body “grows with the growth of God” (Col. 2:19). The human body is a picture of Christ’s Body. A baby needs a rich supply of milk and gradually of other foods and over many years grows to be an adult.

The growth of the Body of Christ is the bringing forth of New Jerusalem. The rich supply will go on forever in the eternal city and we, without the hindrances of the old creation, will enjoy it much more than we do today.

* From chapter 41, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986

Photo courtesy of pexels.com.

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by Don on September 8, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on September 8, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/09/08/the-trinity-prepares-us-for-new-jerusalem/

The God of Peace is the Foundation of Jerusalem

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.”

New JerusalemThrough the promises of God, we can enjoy the divine nature wrought into our being as our intrinsic element. Philippians 4:6-7…contain a promise through which we can deal with anxiety and partake of the divine nature. When you have anxiety, the enjoyment of the gold within you is annulled….Whenever anxiety threatened to take me over, I said, “Lord Jesus, Philippians 4:6!”…To let your requests be made known to God means to tell God what you need….In nothing be anxious, but in everything tell God what you need.*

To tell God what we need is to exercise the diligence urged in 2 Peter 1. We do not need to beg God. We come to Him (this is what He longs for!) and “let our requests be made known.” He knows what we need but sometimes He allows trials to cause us to turn to Him.

The result of our coming to Him is “the peace of God” which in verse 4:9 is “the God of peace.” This is an aspect of New Jerusalem because the name Jerusalem is composed of two Hebrew words—Jeru means “foundation,” and Salem means “peace.” The peace in Philippians 4 is a foretaste of eternal New Jerusalem where there will be absolutely no anxiety.

* From chapter 40, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

Photo courtesy of unsplash.com.

More about the foundation of peace:
Jerusalem—the Foundation of Peace
The Foundation of Peace
New Jerusalem, Habitation of the God of Peace (9)

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by Don on August 21, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on August 21, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/08/21/the-god-of-peace-is-the-foundation-of-jerusalem/

Diligence for a Rich Entrance to the Eternal Kingdom

In 2 Peter 1:4-11 there is a record of the divine nature and its development. The development of the divine nature is the growth of the divine nature. The divine nature has been given to us for us to partake of and enjoy. Through the promises of God we can enjoy the divine nature, and by this the divine nature develops and grows from one state to another. While we are enjoying God’s nature, we are being constituted with it.*

New JerusalemThe development in 2 Peter 1 has its base in what God has given us, to which we add our diligence (v. 5). It progresses through eight steps: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, endurance godliness, brotherly love, love.

For more about these eight, you can order a free study New Testament with many explanatory footnotes from biblesforamerica.org (E, Sp), biblesforcanada.org (E, Fr), biblesforeurope.org (E, Fr, Ge, Pol, Port, Sp), biblesfornewzealand.org.nz, www.biblesforaustralia.org.au.

The promise in 2 Peter 1:8 is “For these [eight] things, existing in you and abounding, constitute you neither idle nor unfruitful unto the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 10 again encourages our diligence. Verse 11 has another wonderful promise, “the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly and bountifully supplied to you.”

The growth of the divine nature constitutes New Jerusalem into us. This brings us into the reality of “the eternal kingdom” not in a meager way but “richly and bountifully supplied.”

* From chapter 40, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.

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by Don on August 18, 2023  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on August 18, 2023

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2023/08/18/diligence-for-a-rich-entrance-to-the-eternal-kingdom/

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