In verse 12 the Lord also promises the overcomer, saying, “I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” Firstly, the Lord says that He will write on the overcomer the name of God. A name is a designation. Your name designates who you are. For the overcomer to bear the name of God means that God has been wrought into him. Only when God has been wrought into us are we worthy to bear His name. This does not mean that we become God; it means that God has been wrought into us and that we are one with Him. Therefore, the Lord gives us a designation—God. “God” is upon the overcomer, indicating that he has been saturated with God. When you see him, you see God.
Secondly, the Lord promises to write upon the overcomer the name of the city of God, the New Jerusalem. For the overcomer to bear the name of the New Jerusalem means that he is a part of the New Jerusalem. This indicates that the coming New Jerusalem has been wrought into his being. Thus, the overcomer also bears the designation of the New Jerusalem. The Lord’s writing always corresponds to the facts. It would be ridiculous to write the word lion upon a monkey, or to write the word lamb upon a cat. When the Lord writes the names of God and the New Jerusalem upon us, it reveals that we are one with God and are a part of the New Jerusalem.
Finally, the Lord promises to write upon the overcomer His new name. This new name will be according to our experiences. I cannot tell you what the Lord’s new name will be because it is according to our personal experiences of Him. In other words, what we experience of the Lord will become us. We experience God, and God becomes us. We experience the New Jerusalem, and that also becomes us. We experience the Lord in an intimate, personal way, and that becomes us. Therefore, the Lord will rightly designate us, writing upon us the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and His new name. This will indicate that we have become a person who is one with God, who is a part of the New Jerusalem, and who has experienced the Lord Himself as the One who makes Himself us.
The name of God, the name of New Jerusalem, and the Lord’s new name written upon the overcomer indicate that the overcomer is possessed by God, by the New Jerusalem, and by the Lord; that God Himself, His city, the New Jerusalem, and the Lord Himself all belong to him; and that he is one with God, with the New Jerusalem, and with the Lord. The name of God means God Himself, the name of the New Jerusalem means the city itself, and the name of the Lord means the Lord Himself. To write the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the name of the Lord upon the overcomer indicate that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the Person of the Lord have all been wrought into the overcomer. The mentioning of the New Jerusalem as a prize to the overcomer indicates that this promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom. The New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom will be a prize only to the overcoming saints, whereas the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth will be the common portion of all the redeemed for eternity.
The recovered church also needs to take heed of the Spirit’s speaking. The more we love the Lord and the more we are in His recovery, the more we need the rich speaking of the intensified Spirit.