The pearl gates of the city signify regeneration. Once we are saved, we enter through the pearl gates by regeneration. A pearl is produced when an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand. The oyster being wounded to produce a pearl signifies Christ being wounded by us and dying for us in order to make us pearls. Hence, the pearl gates signify our regeneration. As a result of being saved and regenerated, we have God’s life, the pearl gates, and the street of pure gold in us, but the question is, do we have the jasper wall? A wall is a separating boundary, a powerful protection. Everything that belongs to the city is inside the wall, and all that does not belong to the city is outside the wall. The wall is the separating boundary.
Many saved ones, even though they have entered through the pearl gates and have the nature of pure gold within them, do not have the wall—the protection and separating boundary. They cannot tell what is of God and what is not of God, what pleases God and what displeases Him, or what God wants and what He does not want. They do not have the power of separation in their friendships, their work, or their career, because they lack a wall, a separating boundary. This separating boundary is the jasper wall, and jasper is the image of God. The separating boundary in us is our likeness to God. How much of the appearance of God we have determines how much separation we have. If our appearance of God is “two feet high,” then the jasper wall in us will also be “two feet high.” If the element of God increases in us by “three feet,” then the separating boundary in us will also increase by “three feet.”
The issue of God’s work is to produce such a separating boundary that acts as a wall within us. This wall is nothing other than the appearance of God. The wall and God are exactly the same in appearance. God on the throne is jasper, and the wall is also jasper. At the end of Revelation, the result of the completion of God’s work is that all those who have passed through His work have the radiance of God and are the same as God. The result of God’s work is a city with jasper as its wall. The radiance and color of the city are exactly the same as the One who is sitting on the throne.
The work of the Holy Spirit is to produce spiritual reality. The Holy Spirit is working in us continuously to work the image of God into us, and the result of this work is that we become exactly the same as God. God is jasper, and we also have jasper in us. This jasper becomes a wall, a separating boundary within us, and whenever anyone sees this separating boundary, they see the image of God. Whoever passes through the work of the Holy Spirit will be made to be exactly the same as God.
First Corinthians 3 tells us that a worker who is useful to the Lord must do the work of gold, silver, and precious stones instead of wood, grass, and stubble (vv. 12-13). This is the kind of work that the Triune God does within us, a work of gold, silver, and precious stones. God the Father is the golden nature. When His life and nature enter into us, this is the gold. The redemption of God the Son is the silver. The issue of the work of God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is the precious stones. Both gold and silver are created, but precious stones are produced through a process of burning, high heat, high pressure, and reconstitution. Hence, the precious stones signify the burning work of the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit who is within us puts us—those who were originally made of clay—into the fire of the Holy Spirit. After we have passed through the burning of the Holy Spirit, the result is precious stones.