In the Old Testament we see that God created all things. God's creation has to do with His will. God created all things according to His will (Rev. 4:11). Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God created man in His image that man may express Him and represent Him. At the end of Genesis, God gained Jacob, with Joseph, as His expression and representation. Jacob was a crafty person and a person who held on to everything. But after years of God's dealing and transformation, in his old age Jacob became Israel, the prince of God. At the end of Exodus, God gained the race of Israel, who were built up to be His moving habitation, the tabernacle on earth, for the expression of His glory.
At the time of David and Solomon, God gained His permanent habitation on earth, the temple, for the full expression of His glory. The temple was filled with God within, and it expressed God without. Later the temple was destroyed by the enemy of God; but at the end of the Old Testament, it was rebuilt and continued to be God's habitation for the expression of His glory on earth, until the beginning of the New Testament.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus came. He was the embodiment of God and was God's tabernacle on earth. Through Him God was able to dwell on earth to express Himself (John 1:14, 18). He lived a human life on earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He was crucified in His flesh, and was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. After His resurrection, He charged His disciples to disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19), that is, to bring the believers into the Triune God and into an organic union with the processed God. Through this, God dispenses Himself into His believers to form the church. This church is the house of God, which is the habitation of God, and the tabernacle of God, the temple of God, as the expression of God's fullness, to make known to His enemy the multifarious wisdom of God (Eph. 2:21-22; 3:17-19; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Eph. 3:10).
However, today we have not yet arrived at such a condition. Many people are not living in the spirit to allow God to carry out His dispensing; instead, they are still living in the soul and still have themselves as the center and the lord. For this reason we must help the brothers and sisters to allow the element of Christ to increase in them day by day. Eventually, we the redeemed, regenerated, and transformed saints will be prepared to be the bride and counterpart of Christ through partaking of the riches of Christ's life and nature, and will become the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of Christ and the church. The New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle for God's dwelling and the temple for the saints' dwelling in eternity, and will be the ultimate and full expression of the processed Triune God, who is joined and mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite saints (Rev. 21:1—22:5). At that time all things will be headed up under Christ, and there will be full peace and harmony.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in San Francisco, California on August 24, 1990)