For the harvest of the seed of the building, we need to read Revelation 21:10-11, 18-21: "And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, as a jasper stone, clear as crystal....And the building material of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone: the first foundation, jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold as transparent glass."
The Lord's discourse in Matthew 5—7 begins with our being poor in spirit and concludes with the building. I believe many Christians have never seen that the Lord's discourse on the mount consummates with the building. In the reality of the kingdom, what we are, what we do, and what work we accomplish must be for the building. Otherwise, our work can never stand solidly; what we have done will either be destroyed or burned.
The New Jerusalem will be the consummation of God's building work in our building. God builds through our building. You may consider that you cannot build. But Paul said, "I have laid the foundation" (1 Cor. 3:10). He said that we all need to build on this foundation and that we need to take heed how we build. This means we can build something. The building is not just a kind of work. It also must be our daily walk and our daily living. All these things will be in the building. In Matthew 7 the building was a little seed. In the Epistles there was the development and growth of the seed. The Epistles contain many verses concerning the development of the building. Eventually, the building consummates with the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the harvest of the building.
The life of the reality of the kingdom is for the building. We know this because the conclusion of the Lord's word in His discourse on the mount concerning the reality of the kingdom is the building. What we are, what we do, and all our work must be for the building. We must take heed what we build and how we build. We may build something that will not stand the test from God. We may be able to stand the test from man or even from Satan, but we can never stand the test from God. If we live in the reality of the kingdom and if we walk and work according to the inner life, taking Christ as our life, eventually we will build up something which can stand the test from every direction. Eventually, all the building will become consummately God's eternal building, the New Jerusalem.
We should not consider that all these aspects of the reality of the kingdom are something we ourselves can work out. No! It is impossible for us to work out even one little point. We need to realize that all these aspects and points signify this one thing: Christ as our life within. All these aspects and all these points are simply a complete expression of Christ. Hallelujah! Christ has come in! Christ is now within us as our life. We simply need to open ourselves to Him, to cooperate with Him, to take Him in and enjoy Him, and to let Him out. Then we will experience all the aspects and all the points. This is the reality of the kingdom.
We have already seen that in Daniel 2 a stone became a great mountain. That stone signifies the Lord Jesus, and the mountain signifies the kingdom, filling the earth. We all have to realize that the stone is within us. Christ, the building stone, is within us. This stone within us will be enlarged as we take Him as our nourishment and our enjoyment. When He is manifested from within us at His coming back, that will be the reality of the kingdom. The kingdom will simply be the enlargement of the indwelling Christ. The kingdom life which has been planted into us will consummate with the building. The Gospels show that the Lord Jesus is sown into us as the seed of the kingdom, and the Epistles show how the seed grows and develops within us. Finally, Revelation shows how the growth consummates with a building, New Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! This is the kingdom! This is the Lord Jesus as the seed, the growth, and the harvest of the reality of the kingdom.