Message Eleven

God’s Dwelling Place—
a House of Prayer and the House of His Beauty

Scripture Reading: Isa. 57:15; 66:1-2; 56:7; 62:6-7;
60:1-3, 7, 9, 13-14, 19-21

1. The central thought of the Scriptures is that God is seeking a building as a living composition of persons redeemed by and mingled with Himself—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16:
   1. God’s intention is to have a group of people built up as a spiritual building to express Him and represent Him by dealing with His enemy and recovering the lost earth—Gen. 1:26; 1 Pet. 2:5.
   2. God’s building is the desire of His heart and the goal of His salvation—Exo. 25:8; Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:2-5.
   3. God’s building is the expression of God as life in a corporate Body—Eph. 2:21-22; 4:15-16; Rev. 4:2-3; 21:11, 18a.
   4. The principle of God’s building is that God builds Himself into us and builds us into Himself; that is, God mingles Himself with us as one building—John 14:20; 15:4; 1 John 4:15; Eph. 3:17a; Rev. 21:3, 22.
   5. God’s building is the corporate expression of the Triune God—1 Tim. 3:15-16; John 17:22; Eph. 3:19b, 21.
2. The Lord Jehovah desires to have as His dwelling place a group of people into whom He can enter—Isa. 57:15; 66:1-2:
   1. God intends to have a dwelling place in the universe that is the mingling of God and man, in which God is built into man and man is built into God, so that God and man, man and God, can be a mutual abode to each other—John 14:2, 20, 23; 15:4; 1 John 4:13.
   2. In the New Testament this dwelling place, this house, is the church, which is God’s habitation in the believers’ spirit—Eph. 2:22; 1 Tim. 3:15:
      1. The Lord looks to the one who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and He dwells with the contrite and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite—Isa. 66:1-2; 57:15.
      2. For the building of God’s dwelling place, the Lord is one with our spirit, and our spirit is one with the Lord; our spirit is where the building of the church, the dwelling place of God, takes place—1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 2:22.
   3. The ultimate consummation of this universal building, this universal house, is the New Jerusalem; in this city God is in man, taking man as His dwelling place, and man is in God, taking God as his habitation—Rev. 21:3, 22; Gen. 28:12, 17; 2 Sam. 7:12-14.
3. God’s dwelling place is the church as a house of prayer—Isa. 56:7; 62:6-7:
   1. In the church as a house of prayer, God wants us to pray concerning His sons, concerning the work of His hands, and concerning Jerusalem:
      1. “Concerning My sons, / And concerning the work of My hands, command Me”—45:11.
      2. “Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, / I have appointed watchmen; / All day and all night / They will never keep silent. / You who remind Jehovah, / Do not be dumb; / And do not give Him quiet / Until He establishes / And until He makes Jerusalem / A praise in the earth”—62:6-7.
   2. In the church as a house of prayer, we pray for the fulfillment of God’s desire, the carrying out of God’s will, and the accomplishment of God’s economy—1 Kings 8:48; Dan. 9:1-23; John 15:7; Matt. 6:10; Eph. 3:14-21; 5:27; Rev. 14:1; 21:2:
      1. In the church as a house of prayer, we pray according to God’s desire and thought; such prayer is precious and weighty, and it will shake the gates of Hades and affect Satan—Dan. 9:1-23.
      2. The prayer that is pleasing to God is the prayer that asks for the accomplishment of God’s will and for the completion of God’s work—Matt. 6:10; Col. 1:9; 4:12; Isa. 45:11; 62:6-7; Ezek. 36:37.
      3. Our prayer in the church as a house of prayer should be for the fulfillment of God’s economy; the Holy Land, the holy city, and the holy temple are three crucial things regarding God’s economy—1 Kings 8:48; Dan. 6:10.
      4. The prayer in the church as a house of prayer is in the position of ascension, and with this position of prayer there is the authority of prayer; when we have the heavenly position and authority, our prayers become God’s administration, the executing of God’s will—Eph. 2:6; Matt. 6:9-10.
      5. In the church as a house of prayer, we pray in an executing way, binding on the earth what has been bound in heaven and loosing on the earth what has been loosed in heaven; this is the prayer of the Body; we can have this kind of prayer only when we ask “in harmony”—18:18-19.
   3. The central subject and goal of prayer in the church as a house of prayer is to prepare a glorious church for Christ, a church that will match Him and fulfill the desire of His heart—Eph. 1:5, 9; 3:14-21; 5:27.
4. Jehovah will beautify the house of His beauty so that He may be beautified—Isa. 60:7, 9, 13, 19; Psa. 50:2:
   1. “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty” (Isa. 33:17a); “the King will desire your beauty” (Psa. 45:11a).
   2. All the beauty, the excellency, and the attributes found in the Godhead depend upon the Godhead being three yet one; three yet one—here is the beauty—Heb. 2:3-4; Matt. 28:19.
   3. In the corporate constitution of the Body of Christ, there is much beauty, excellency, and virtue—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16.
   4. The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate, corporate expression of the Triune God, full of beauty—Rev. 21:2, 10-11.
   5. The virtues manifested by us Christians should be the manifestation of the glory and beauty in the divine attributes; a Christian is one who has divinity as his element and reality, from which the divine glory and beauty are expressed through the human virtues—1 Cor. 10:31; Phil. 1:20-21a; 4:5, 8.
   6. In Song of Songs the lover and the Beloved both have beauty, and they appreciate the beauty in each other—1:15-16; 4:1-5, 7.
   7. As the bride, the church needs beauty—Eph. 5:27:
      1. The beauty of the bride comes from the Christ who is wrought into the church and who is then expressed through the church—3:17.
      2. Our only beauty is the shining out of Christ from within us; what Christ appreciates in us is the expression of Himself—Psa. 50:2; 90:16.
5. The glory of God will be seen in the house of His beauty—Isa. 60:1-3, 13-14, 19-21; 2 Chron. 5:13-14; Ezek. 43:1-5; Hag. 2:1-9; Eph. 3:21; Psa. 26:8; 29:9b:
   1. Glory is the expression of God; the glory of God is God expressed in His divine life and nature—Acts 7:2; John 17:22.
   2. Eternal glory is the ultimate goal of God’s salvation; God’s salvation leads us into His glory—Rom. 8:21; Heb. 2:10.
   3. The Lord Jesus prayed for the believers’ oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God—John 17:22-23:
      1. This oneness fulfills the Son’s prayer that He be fully expressed, that is, glorified, in the building up of the believers, and that the Father also be fully expressed, glorified, in the Son’s glorification—vv. 1, 5.
      2. The Father is glorified through the organic union of Christ’s believers with the Father in the Son in a wonderful coinhering oneness—v. 23.
      3. The oneness in John 17 is for the Father’s glorification in the Son; this oneness is actually the divine glorification.
   4. An outstanding feature of the New Jerusalem is that it has the glory of God, His expression; the city will be completely filled with the glory of God, containing God and expressing Him—Rev. 21:10-11.
   5. The church today should have God’s glory, manifesting and expressing Him in this marvelous divine attribute; God’s glory is wrought into the church, and He is expressed in the church; hence, God is glorified in the church—Eph. 3:21.