Is a person mature if he has both the golden nature of God and the silver element of Christ? Is he mature if he has both gold and silver? No, he is not. He still needs precious stones. What kind of work do precious stones represent? Precious stones represent the constituting work of the Holy Spirit within us. A saint who has the golden element of God and the silver redemptive work of Christ does not necessarily resemble the Lord, having the Lord’s flavor or the Lord’s image. This is because he lacks the constituting work of the Holy Spirit.
First, a believer needs to have the golden element, then he needs the silver element, and third, he needs the precious stones. Gold indicates that he is saved and has the life of God within him. However, at this stage he still may remain in his lust, wickedness, addictions, and temper, because he has not yet received the work of the cross—the silver element. As he is gradually delivered from his lust, wickedness, addictions, and temper, the silver work of the cross will become apparent. Then he will have gold and silver and will no longer have his addictions and wickedness. However, at this stage he may still have his own thoughts and others may not be able to sense any flavor of the Lord in his speaking. Moreover, his opinions may not come from the Lord. Such a person has received the life of God and the dealing work of the cross, but his preferences, emotions, opinions, views, and thoughts do not cause others to sense the Lord’s presence. Although his opinions are not wicked, and he does not aspire after the world, others cannot sense the Lord’s presence in his expression. This is because he has not received the constituting work of the Holy Spirit.
Precious stones are not originally created by God. People who study chemistry know that precious stones come from materials buried deep in the ground that have undergone burning and high pressure. Similarly, we are not precious stones originally. Our thoughts are not precious stone, our emotions are not precious stone, and our opinions are all the more not precious stone. No matter how good or how lofty they are, their nature is not precious stone. Our mind, emotion, and will are transformed into precious stone by being constituted and burnt by the Holy Spirit and also being pressed by the outward situations.
For example, suppose that you have a very good mind, a very clean emotion, and also a very proper will. Even if this is the case, these things are not precious stones. They are what you originally have in your natural being. They do not have the element of the Lord in them because they lack the work of the Holy Spirit. You have to let the Holy Spirit enter your mind, emotion, and will and allow Him to burn you like fire. You also have to allow the outward situations to coordinate together to deal with you. Through the burning, dealing, pressing, and constituting of the Holy Spirit inside and all the situations outside, your thoughts, emotions, and will receive the element of the Lord and even the Lord Himself. Eventually, this will cause your mind, emotion, and will to become precious stones.
At this point, when a person comes into contact with you, he will feel that you not only have the life of God and the work of the cross but also the Lord Himself in your mind, preferences, and opinions. As soon as a person comes into contact with you, he will feel as if he is coming into contact with the Lord. Spiritually, you will have the shining of the precious stones. Inwardly, you will have gold and silver, and outwardly, you will have the appearance of precious stones. This means that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit within you will also have worked out of you. This matches the expression of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. The brightness of the New Jerusalem is jasper, and jasper is a precious stone. Moreover, the wall of the New Jerusalem is also jasper, and the foundations of the wall are precious stones. In other words, the New Jerusalem is a city of jasper, and jasper is God’s expression.
Revelation 4:3 says that He who was sitting on the throne was like a jasper stone and a sardius. This shows that the appearance of the New Jerusalem is the same as that of God—both are jasper and precious stones. Precious stones are produced by the constituting work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the appearance of precious stones is also an issue of the constituting work of the Holy Spirit. This appearance is the expression of the Holy Spirit. This entirely echoes 2 Corinthians 3 which says that the expression of the Holy Spirit from within us is the shining and image, and this shining and image are the Lord Himself. Thus, we can see from Revelation that the appearance of the New Jerusalem is jasper and precious stones and that the appearance of jasper and precious stones is also the appearance of the Lord who is sitting on the throne.