How can we become like the Lord? How can we have the image of God? The first step is to let God’s life, which is the Spirit, enter into us. In this way we will have gold in us. Then we need to let the cross work in us, separate us from sins, the world, lust, and our preferences. Is this separation by the cross sufficient? It is not. The Holy Spirit still needs to constitute us and burn within our mind, emotion, will, and entire inner being. Together with the pressing work of the outward environment, the work of the Holy Spirit will work the Lord’s image as a precious stone into us. This transforms us into precious stones. When that time comes, God will have completed His work in us, and we will be mature.
There are three steps to the work of the Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit. We were originally created by God to contain God. However, we fell into sins and the world. So one day God came to redeem us and cleanse us with the blood of His Son. Moreover, He put His life and nature, His golden element, into us. Thus, we were regenerated and saved. From then on Christ’s cross has been carrying out its separating work in us so that we are separated time and time again from sins, the world, temper, and lust and are placed on God’s side. Then the Holy Spirit burns within us and carries out a constituting work within us. Because we are rebellious and resistant, the Holy Spirit also uses the outward environment in coordination with His work within us to burn us, press us, and constitute us to the extent that our mind, emotion, and will all have the shining image of God and become like precious stones, that is, resemble the Lord. This image is the image of the glory of the Lord. This is what it means to be transformed into the image of the Lord, even as from the Lord Spirit.
By this time we will not only have gold and silver but also precious stones. We will be bright and honorable. When people come into contact with us, they will sense the Lord’s presence. We will have the image of the Lord, and our speaking and expression will have the flavor of the Lord. Our thoughts, emotions, opinions, views, and choices will also have the Lord’s flavor. Even those who do not like us will respect us from deep within because we will have weight before the Lord and will have been constituted with the Holy Spirit. We will have the brightness of precious stones, which is the image of the Lord.
How does the Holy Spirit constitute and burn within us? The Lord loves and cares for each one of us. We have all been saved and have the life of the Lord. We are also willing to let Christ’s cross work within us. Thus, we have gold and also silver. But this is not enough. We all need to have the experience of the precious stones. We are now undergoing the process of becoming precious stones. Although we have not experienced sufficient burning, sufficient pressing, and sufficient constituting, we are in this process. The Holy Spirit is operating and constituting within all of us.
For example, suppose we dislike someone, and the mere sight of this person annoys us. At this point, the Holy Spirit will begin to work within us. If we dislike someone, the Holy Spirit will give us a sense within and cause us to feel that it is not right for us to dislike this person and that our dislike does not come from the Lord. The Holy Spirit will bother us, stir within us, and at the same time will constitute us with Himself so that we will be knit together with Him. The Holy Spirit will bother us today, stir within us tomorrow, operate within us the day after, and burn within us a few days later. Then bit by bit, after a few months we will no longer dislike that person as much as we did before. However, we still may not like him—some feeling may still remain within us. Therefore, the Holy Spirit will raise up the environment. He will hit us on the left, press us on the right, and cause us to suffer from some illness or to encounter some other difficulty. The Holy Spirit will deal with us outwardly in this way. Then one day, without knowing why, our dislike for this person will disappear, and when we see him, we will even think that he is nice and gentle. Moreover, when we see him again at another time, we will even be able to have good fellowship with him. This is the constituting work of the Holy Spirit within us.
Having been burnt, constituted, and pressed by the Holy Spirit, our emotions and preferences, as well as our mind, thoughts, will, and opinions, will have the flavor of the Lord. Very often, our mind and thoughts do not have the Holy Spirit. They are simply our own thoughts, thoughts that are according to the ways of the world. Therefore, the Holy Spirit will touch us—bothering, turning, and stirring within us—and ask us, “Is this the Lord’s way? Is this the Lord’s truth? Is this the Lord’s method?” If we do not listen to these questions and this speaking inside of us, an outward environment will come to hit us, press us, and deal with us. Eventually, all we will be able to do will be to bow down before the Lord. Our mind will have been smitten, our emotion broken, and our will defeated. Now we will have the Lord’s image, and everything that comes from our mind, emotion, and will shall be like precious stones—being glorious and bearing the Lord’s presence. This will be the expression of the Holy Spirit and the image of the Lord.
Revelation tells us that the New Jerusalem is a golden mountain. The street of the city is pure gold, and the wall of the city is jasper. This depicts the work of the Holy Spirit within us. At the time of our salvation, we receive the gold inside of us but not the wall outside of us or the image of the Lord. Thus, the Holy Spirit will work in us further until bit by bit our mind, emotion, and will receive the Lord’s image. When we receive the Lord’s image, we will have the wall, precious stones, and glory. All these things are the expression of the Lord and are God Himself. The precious stones are the image of God, the manifestation of God. This is what it means to be mature.