Everyone who pursues and serves the Lord should have a basic spiritual vision, a basic spiritual seeing. A person who pursues the Lord should not serve the Lord according to his natural feeling, his natural insight, or his natural view.
All those who serve God according to their natural insight cannot truly serve or touch God. Saul of Tarsus was one who served God fervently, but he served God in a natural way, not according to revelation. Thus, his service could not truly serve or touch God. One day on his way to Damascus his eyes were opened to see a vision. Then he began to bring forth genuine service, service that reached God. Formerly he had served God, but his service could not touch God. This may be likened to boxing. In the past he had been beating the air, but then his eyes were opened to see how he should box. It is the same with the matter of pursuing the Lord. Some people pursue but fail to obtain what they are pursuing. Some may even shed tears in their desperation, but they still fail to obtain what they are pursuing. The reason is that they are pursuing according to their naturalness, their own feeling, and their own insight. They are pursuing for their own interests and by their own inclination, without any revelation, seeing, or vision. They are running in vain and laboring fruitlessly because their eyes have not been opened.
Hence, we cannot say that pursuing the Lord is good enough. The pursuits of many people are empty pursuits, their prayers are empty prayers, and even their shedding of tears is in vain, because they pray according to their own inclination, pursue according to their own insight, and shed tears according to their own feeling. Everything they do is natural, without any revelation. Thus, their pursuit is a waste of effort because they have not pursued what they should pursue and have not obtained what they should obtain. Therefore, in spiritual matters, we must have sight, vision, and revelation.
The first spiritual vision we need to see is the vision of the mingling of God and man. God has a desire to mingle Himself with man. Although we cannot find such a statement in either the Old or the New Testament, this fact is clearly revealed from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
The first mention of man in the Bible is in Genesis 1, which speaks of how man was created in the image of God. Why did God create man in His image? God created man in His image because God’s purpose is to mingle Himself with man. Thus, when He created man, He created man just like Him. We can play with a dog, but that dog cannot be our intimate friend because it is different from us. We simply cannot become close friends with a dog. In the beginning God created man in His image and made man just like Him because His intention is that man would be a vessel to contain Him.
The last mention of man in the Bible is in Revelation 21, which describes the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. In this chapter three different titles are used to depict man. First, man is called the New Jerusalem; second, he is called the wife of the Lamb; and third, man is the tabernacle of God in which God dwells (vv. 2-3, 9).
Revelation is the last book of the Bible. Many of the important types that are mentioned in Genesis to Jude are fulfilled in Revelation. When God called the children of Israel and formed them into a nation, He raised up something special among them—the building of the Tent of Meeting. The Tent of Meeting in the Old Testament refers to the tabernacle. This tabernacle was erected in the midst of the children of Israel, and God dwelt in it. After the children of Israel entered Canaan, the tabernacle became the temple. The tabernacle in the wilderness was mobile, but when it became the temple in the land of Canaan, it became stationary. The tabernacle and the temple are of the same nature. The tabernacle was a type, typifying the dwelling place of God among men and His mingling with man. In Revelation 21 the New Jerusalem, typified by the tabernacle, is practically accomplished. Although the New Jerusalem is a city, it is the dwelling place of God among men throughout the ages and is typified by the tabernacle. Hence, the New Jerusalem is the totality of God’s dwelling place among men.
In the New Jerusalem the Lamb is the temple of God because God is in Christ the Lamb (v. 22). Christ with God dwells in the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal dwelling place of God among men. Hence, on the one hand the New Jerusalem is a city, and on the other hand it is a group of people. The city as the dwelling place of God is a group of people—the bride of the Lamb and the wife of the Lamb. The city matches God. Therefore, the last time the Bible mentions man, it says that man as God’s counterpart matches God. When the Bible first mentions man, it says that man bears the image of God, but when the Bible mentions man at the end, it says that man is God’s counterpart. This shows us that God is working continuously for the purpose of working Himself into man to make man one entity with Him. The first step of this work was the incarnation of the Lord Jesus. When the Lord was incarnated, He was called Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (Matt. 1:23).
There are two aspects of God’s being with man. God was not only among men, but He also came into man. When the Lord Jesus was in the flesh, He was with the disciples, but this kind of presence was not sufficient. It was objective and outward, not inward. Therefore, one day the Lord Jesus told the disciples that He was going to the Father who had sent Him. This made the disciples sorrowful. Then He told them that it was expedient for them that He go away, because if He went, He would come again (John 16:5-8). Before He went away, He was with the disciples by being in their midst, but when He came back, He would be with the disciples by being in them.