Now we must see something of the building. Everyone knows that to build a proper building there is the need of the proper materials. This is why for God’s building there is the urgent need for transformation. We have seen that the New Jerusalem is built with precious stones (Rev. 21:19-20). Precious stones are not created, but transformed. Therefore, for the building of the church, we all need to be transformed. Naturally speaking, we were made with clay. But God could never make the New Jerusalem with clay. All the buildings of Satan, such as the city and tower of Babel, the pleasure cities of Egypt, and Babylon, were built with bricks. In the Bible, brick is the production of man’s natural work, of man’s human labor with clay. But precious stones are something transformed, not made with human labor. All of Satan’s cities were built with bricks, but God’s city is built with precious stones. All natural things are not good for God’s building. For God’s building transformation is needed.
It is clear that we all have different kinds of personalities. Some are quick, some are slow. Some are humble, others are proud. Some are kind, and others are hard. But none of these are good for the building of the church. They are all muddy. Regardless of how loving you are, your love is a muddy love. Your humility is muddy and your kindness is muddy. Everything natural is muddy. This is why the Lord has brought all of us to the cross and terminated us. Not one of our natural dispositions is good for the building. All of our dispositions must go to the cross. Therefore, we need something new, something divine, something heavenly, something holy, and something eternal to replace our natural make-up. This is why we need transformation. Among today’s Christians, it would be difficult to find a place where you could hear someone give a message on transformation. Most of the messages are on correction, adjusting, and improvement. They even quote 2 Timothy 3:16 to say that the Bible is good for correction. But the Lord does not need the corrected things; He needs the transformed things. For the building up of the church, we must have transformation. The building up of the church could never avail by our natural character, regardless of how good we are. This is just building with bricks, but there is no place in God’s building for bricks. In the New Jerusalem there is only one kind of material—the precious stones which have been transformed. What God needs is the transformed precious stones for His building.
Transformation is not something corrected; it is something transformed from one essence into another element. Therefore, we need another element to get into us, and this other element is Christ Himself. For example, eating and drinking cause a great deal of transformation. Day by day our body is undergoing a process of metabolism. New elements get into our body to discharge and replace the old. This is called metabolism. Our body is constantly being metabolized, which gives us the daily newness. In the same way we must take Christ in daily. This is why the Bible tells us that Christ is our food and drink (John 6:35, 57; 1 Cor. 10:4). This should not be just a term; it must be our spiritual reality. Then Christ will get into us to be the new element to replace and discharge all of the old things. In this way we will have a divine metabolism. That is transformation. Only transformed brothers and sisters are good for the building of the church. How much we could be built into the church depends upon how much we will be transformed, and the way to be transformed is to eat and drink Christ. In the New Jerusalem there is the tree of life and the river of water of life (Rev. 22:1-2). This is why the whole city is something transformed because the whole city is maintained by eating the tree of life and drinking the water of life (Rev. 22:14, 17).
Today, the church life is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. What we need for the church is simply the daily eating and drinking of Christ. Trying to correct or improve ourselves will never work. What we must do is learn to take Christ in every day, eating Him by pray-reading the Word, and drinking Him by calling on His name. All day long we must call on the Lord. “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” I know that some people are opposing this kind of calling, saying that it is just vain repetition. Yes, it is repetition, but it is not vain. Breathing is repetition, but I do not suggest that you stop. We can never graduate from breathing. I have been breathing for over 70 years, but I do not plan to stop. Eating is also repetitious; every day we eat at least three times. All of the things that sustain life must be repeated.