In 1 Corinthians 3:12 Paul says that we should build with precious stones. We can say that stones are created by God, but precious stones are the product of transformation. Precious stones are formed when carbon is transformed through heat and pressure. Before we were saved, we were like a pile of dirt, but we thank the Lord that we are saved. We have received God’s nature into us. We are also precious stones, because we have experienced some transformation. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that when we behold the glorious Lord with an unveiled face, we are transformed to bear the Lord’s image. What is the image of the Lord? Revelation 4:3 says, “He who was sitting [upon the throne] was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance.” God is like a jasper stone in appearance. The color of jasper is dark green, which signifies the richness of God’s life. God is sitting on the throne, and His appearance is jasper; He is full of life. The New Jerusalem is a mountain with a height of twelve thousand stadia. The length, breadth, and height of the New Jerusalem are equal. The wall of the city, which is one hundred and forty-four cubits high, is jasper (21:16-18). The jasper wall of the New Jerusalem signifies that the entire city, as the corporate expression of God in eternity, bears the appearance of God. God’s appearance is like jasper, and the New Jerusalem looks like jasper.
In order for us to be transformed into jasper, we need to behold the glory of the Lord day by day (2 Cor. 3:18). The more we behold Him, the more His element is added into us, and we are transformed from glory to glory into His glorious image. We will be transformed from one degree of glory into another degree of glory until we are like God. This is spoken of in 1 John 3:2, which says, “Now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is.” He is a precious jasper stone. For us to be like Him means that we will be transformed into precious jasper stone.
The workers of the Lord who want to build up the church must never build with wood, grass, and stubble. Instead, we must build with God as pure gold and with the Lord Jesus Christ as the element in the Spirit. We must minister the Triune God into people so that they can have an inward change and gradually be transformed into precious stones. When the Lord’s recovery first came to the United States over twenty years ago, the Americans did not feel comfortable with me because I am Chinese. They had the concept that it is Americans who go as missionaries to China to preach the gospel but that the Chinese could never go to the United States to preach the gospel. However, I knew that even though I am a small Chinese man, I had a treasure from the Scriptures that they did not have.
The Americans have the good quality of not holding on to oldness. They may look down on others, but once they see something real, they accept it. They are not proud in this regard. We were able to start the work in the United States because we have a rich store of “precious gems.” One of the gems I presented was the human spirit. I went to many places through the years and preached that man has a spirit. I also quoted Zechariah 12:1, which says, “Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.” The people who heard this were amazed. They could not believe that this verse is in the Bible, because they never saw it. Now preachers everywhere in the United States say that man has a spirit. This is our treasure.
We also encountered some obstacles. The majority of those whom we gained initially were young people, because it was easy for them to follow us. When we asked them to call on the name of the Lord, they called with much vigor, and when we asked them to pray, they prayed earnestly. There was a young man who called on the name of the Lord at home after his salvation. When his parents heard him and found out that he learned to call on the Lord from a Chinese person, they warned him to be careful and not to get too involved. However, the divine nature, the element of gold, within this brother increased daily, and he changed. When he went home at the end of the semester, his parents realized that he was not the same. He had the element of God; he had gold as well as precious stones.
About five years ago I went to Berkeley to hold a conference. The university in Berkeley has caused much agitation and unrest concerning human rights, but there is a church there. At that conference the saints gave similar testimonies about how their parents initially opposed them but are now in the church life. This happened because their parents saw God in the saints. There was much gold, and there were many precious stones in that conference. This proved that my labor in the United States was not in vain. I am not building the church with wood, grass, and stubble. Rather, I have God, and I work the divine nature and element into people; I work “gold” into them. My work is not a work of gold plating but of filling people with gold. I also have the Spirit of Christ, the life-giving, transforming Spirit who caused the young people to change and be transformed. The young people were transformed after they obtained the nature of God. This caused their parents to enter into the church life.
The Bible does not wait until Revelation to speak of gold and precious stones. Rather, Paul spoke of gold and precious stones in 1 Corinthians 3. We can boast to the angels that many of our young people have gold within them and are becoming precious stones. They are being transformed. Perhaps their parents only wanted them to study well, but after a few years their parents will see gold and precious stones in them.
The New Jerusalem, which is a mountain of gold, shows the story within every Christian: God grows in us daily, and the element of God increases within us gradually. The mountain of gold is increasing gradually. Those who do research in minerals say that minerals are continually being formed. The gold in us is continually increasing and growing. Even though this is a slow process, the gold is increasing every day. In addition, the carbon within us is being transformed into precious stone.