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Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee
In verse 12 the Lord also promises the overcomer,
saying, “I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of
My God, the New Jerusalem which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new
name.” Firstly, the Lord says that He will write on the overcomer the name of
God. A name is a designation. Your name designates who you are. For the
overcomer to bear the name of God means that God has been wrought into him.
Only when God has been wrought into us are we worthy to bear His name. This
does not mean that we become God; it means that God has been wrought into us
and that we are one with Him. Therefore, the Lord gives us a designation—God.
“God” is upon the overcomer, indicating that he has been saturated with God.
When you see him, you see God.
Secondly, the Lord promises to write upon the
overcomer the name of the city of God, the New Jerusalem. For the overcomer to
bear the name of the New Jerusalem means that he is a part of the New
Jerusalem. This indicates that the coming New Jerusalem has been wrought into
his being. Thus, the overcomer also bears the designation of the New
Jerusalem. The Lord’s writing always corresponds to the facts. It would be
ridiculous to write the word “lion” upon a monkey, or to write the word “lamb”
upon a cat. When the Lord writes the names of God and the New Jerusalem upon
us, it reveals that we are one with God and are a part of the New
Jerusalem.
Finally, the Lord promises to write upon the
overcomer His new name. This new name will be according to our experiences. I
cannot tell you what the Lord’s new name will be because it is according to
our personal experiences of Him. In other words, what we experience of the
Lord will become us. We experience God, and God becomes us. We experience the
New Jerusalem, and that also becomes us. We experience the Lord in an
intimate, personal way, and that becomes us. Therefore, the Lord will rightly
designate us, writing upon us the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem,
and His new name. This will indicate that we have become a person who is one
with God, who is a part of the New Jerusalem, and who has experienced the Lord
Himself as the One who makes Himself us.
The name of God, the name of New Jerusalem, and the
Lord’s new name written upon the overcomer indicate that the overcomer is
possessed by God, by the New Jerusalem, and by the Lord; that God Himself, His
city, the New Jerusalem, and the Lord Himself all belong to him; and that he
is one with God, with the New Jerusalem, and with the Lord. The name of God
means God Himself, the name of the New Jerusalem means the city itself, and
the name of the Lord means the Lord Himself. To write the name of God, the
name of the New Jerusalem, and the name of the Lord upon the overcomer
indicate that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the Person of
the Lord have all been wrought into the overcomer. The mentioning of the New
Jerusalem as a prize to the overcomer indicates that this promise will be
fulfilled in the millennial kingdom. The New Jerusalem in the millennial
kingdom will be a prize only to the overcoming saints, whereas the New
Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth will be the common portion of all
the redeemed for eternity.
(Witness Lee, LS of Revelation,
192-196) |