Pearl signifies Christ’s person in His redemptive death and life-secreting resurrection (Rev. 21:21). Pearl is produced of an oyster. When the oyster gets wounded by a particle of sand it secretes its life-juice around the sand, making it a pearl. Such a produce denotes Christ the person in His redemptive death and life-secreting resurrection.
Then we come to the jasper stone of the wall and the twelve precious stones of the foundation. Some of us must study the twelve different kinds of precious stones in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:14, 19-20). You need to study the best lexicons and the experts’ study of these kinds of minerals. I believe there is much spiritual significance in all these different stones. (The Lord may lead us to have a special training on the book of Revelation after we have finished the entire New Testament. We need at least thirty more messages on this book). God’s Word does not have any word of waste. Even a small preposition bears a lot of meaning. These twelve stones as the wall and the foundation of this ultimate consummation must bear a great significance. I did have a burden to study these twelve stones, but I did not have the time. Many of you young brothers should pick up the burden to spend a year’s time, even more, just to study the twelve precious stones of the New Jerusalem. This is worthwhile.
This is why I told some of you already that I do not like you to put the Life-studies aside with the footnotes in the Recovery Version. Our fellowship in the last chapter concerning the inclusion of Hymns, #1348 in our hymnal gives me the ground to say this. The outline in the Recovery Version for chapter twenty-one of Revelation clearly titles verses 3 through 4 “The Peoples on the New Earth” and verses 5 through 7 “The Sons of God in Eternity.” I made this so clear in the Recovery Version, yet still this hymn slipped into our hymnal. This means that if the editors of this hymnal and even the ones who arranged the numbers for the hymnal had picked up the proper knowledge from the notes of Revelation, they should have discerned that this was a wrong hymn. I never really looked into the supplement until one day a few months ago, and then I saw this hymn. This shows that many of you have passed through the trainings, but you missed much of the basic truths. The dear ones who edited and arranged this supplement have been with us many years, but the inclusion of this hymn indicates that they did not get into the depths of the book of Revelation. Still, some of you like to put the Life-studies and the Recovery Versions aside and go to the other books. I am not belittling others’ books, but I would ask you what better things you could get there. The better and more basic things are in the Recovery Versions and the Life-study messages, but because this is your property you do not treasure it. Most of what the Lord has shown us in these past years has been printed. I feel sorry that so much of Brother Nee’s ministry has not yet been put into print. This is why I had the burden to put all the things that the Lord has shown us into print. All these truths are in print and they are worthwhile of your study for five to ten years.
When standing on the shoulders of these truths you can go further to study the twelve precious stones. I hope that maybe six or eight young brothers would spend one year to study these twelve stones. I believe you can do a complete job within one year, since this is a big job. In addition to studying by using the lexicons and other Bible-study helps, it would help to get the stones themselves. Precious stones signify the transforming work of the Spirit with all the divine elements. Transforming work needs elements. A piece of wood can be petrified by being replaced with all the mineral elements. The Spirit, which is the flowing water, flows with divine elements to transform our entire being. Since this book of Revelation is made known to us by signs, all the precious stones are signs signifying the Spirit’s transforming work with all the divine elements carried and constituted into our being to transform us from clay pieces into precious stones. It is worthwhile to study these signs.
This is the Trinity as the constitution of this ultimate consummation—the Father’s nature, the Son as the precious One in His redemptive death and in His life-imparting resurrection, and the Spirit as the flow in His transforming work with all the divine elements. This is the ultimate consummation of the Trinity in one of His aspects. There are many more things to say concerning the book of Revelation, and we may need an entire year with two trainings to do an adequate job. The golden lampstands in chapter one and the ultimate consummation of the New Jerusalem in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two still need more ministry.