He said, Come with me! I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. Then in the Spirit He conveyed me away to a vast and lofty mountain and exhibited to me the holy, consecrated city of Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, clothed in God's glory. The luster of it resembled a rare and most precious jewel, like jasper, shining clear as crystal. It had a massive and high wall with twelve large gates... And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, all arrayed like a bride beautified and adorned for her husband; then I heard a mighty voice from the throne and I perceived its distinct words, saying, See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live among them and they shall be His people and God shall personally be with them and be their God. Revelation 21:9-12,2,3

This is a day when Christianity lies in ruins due to the infiltration, mixture and bondage of Babylon (this world system), just like when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured and destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and took the people captive. Yet God raised up Nehemiah to rebuild and restore the walls, even though the temple had been rebuilt, the walls of Jerusalem still lay in ruins. Walls are important - they separate and protect against the enemy.

How does this apply to us? We are being built as houses in the City of God (we are dwellings/houses that God lives in) ie the new Jerusalem. In the same way we are being built, purified and prepared as the Bride of the Lamb and knit together as members of His Body. God uses these examples to teach us important truths about who He is in us. They're not necessarily meant to be taken literally (eg if we're Christ's Body and the Bride, how do we marry ourself? Or how do you marry a city or a Rock?) but each have aspects that reveal something about how God views and works with us and in us.

What I believe God is showing is that He is wanting to rebuild close relationships in us, His Body and Family, just as Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. And it's for a purpose. HE is building His City and the gates of hell will NOT stand against it! Is He building the individual houses of this City now or will it happen suddenly at some future point? If we are not being built together now, being joined by every ligament in the Body here, now, how can we expect to be part of what He will bring to completion and perfection in the future? Even those who lived on earth before Christ came looked onward to this work of Building: Abraham was waiting expectantly and confidently, looking forward to the city which has fixed and firm foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God... For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched...But rather, you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering, and to the Ekklesia of the Firstborn who are registered as citizens in heaven. Hebrews 11:10, 12:22

There's one thing we are told to do NOW over and over again in the New Testament: love one another: Finally, all of you should be of one and the same mind, united in spirit, sympathizing with one another, loving each other as brethren of one household, compassionate and courteous, tenderhearted and humble. 1 Peter 3:8 When we are united in spirit in this way, we are like a strong and powerful wall: solid, strong, living stones (jewels) that are welded together with Love. The walls represent what God is doing now, building relationships with Himself and each other through Him and His Love, being built together into Him against Whom the gates of hell will not stand. However, we can only be built together when God has done much work in our lives and when we are living for and from Him and His Life and not our own. My sacrifice, the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, such, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; REBUILD the walls of Jerusalem. Then will You delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, justice and right. Psalm 51:17-19

When we truly love one another with His love (which we can only do as we die to self and allow HIM to live and love through us), oneness with Him and each other is a natural result and is the answer to the prayer of Jesus in John 17. In this way we are knit together, joined to each other through Him and His love flows through each of us and we truly become united! For my concern is that their hearts may be comforted, cheered and encouraged as they are KNIT TOGETHER IN LOVE, that they may come to have all the abounding wealth and blessings of assured conviction of understanding, and that they may become progressively more intimately acquainted with and may know more accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, which is Christ the Anointed One. For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your standing shoulder to shoulder in such orderly array and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Colossians 2:2,5

This bond of love produces strength and produces unity! When you have genuine unity brought about by the Spirit, you have strength; it is powerful and... the enemy KNOWS this and doesn't want it to happen! He tries to keep our love as merely head knowledge, not a genuine, experiential heart love so that we are not joined together. Mere knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow to his full stature. If anyone imagines that he has come to know and understand much of divine things, without love, he does not yet perceive and understand as strongly and clearly, nor has he become as intimately acquainted with anything as he ought or as is necessary. 1 Cor 8:1b,2

Our enemy will do his utmost to try to keep us distanced from one another (primarily through lies, confusion and accusation) and to keep us focused on many trivial things so that Christ's work of building in and through us ceases and this genuine love and unity does not happen. He is the accuser. The literal Greek meaning of the word for devil (diabolos) means to slander or accuse falsely!  The word for satan means adversary and corresponds with an Aramaic word which means "works" - the Greek word for evil is defined as: "full of labour and toil" - it is the opposite to God's Rest and Peace. Our adversary wants us to get caught up in trying to DO things ourselves instead of believing and resting in all that Christ has already done for us!  He uses false accusations and slander to bring condemnation but it only has any effect IF I am trying to justify or defend myself (works, labour, toil!).  My only justification and vindication and defence is in Christ and what HE has done!

When we listen to and believe his lies (either about ourselves or brothers and sisters), we build our own walls to defend ourselves and neglect the building up of Jerusalem. God will have to destroy these self-built walls and defences in order for us to be able to be built together with others in His Kingdom and City. This love of His is not about defending self, but being defenceless in the sense of confessing our sins and weaknesses to one another, bearing one another's burdens, thinking of others before ourselves, and being a "company of believers with one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32), losing ourselves in Christ and being hidden in Him. It is the opposite of the world's way, it is God's higher way.

The walls are like His people being joined together in love and the gates represent UNITY! Why is unity the gates? Because love and unity are inseparable, they are aspects of each other, they are joined. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that we must GUARD and preserve the unity of the Spirit; gates GUARD! In order to guard our unity and oneness, the gates will close on anything that is untruth, deception, and divisive; it will NOT be accepted or allowed to enter; in order to preserve our unity and oneness. Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Isaiah 52:1

We cannot be joined in our heart with anything of this world, we must allow God to loose us from its bonds. The gates of unity will GUARD truth, protect against untruth, and THAT is wisdom! Thus says the Lord: I shall return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of Hosts, the Holy Mountain. Zechariah 8:3 Truth IS Wisdom. And wisdom/truth from Him is likened to pearls. The Kingdom of God within each of us IS the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:46); hence the gates of the new Jerusalem are made of pearl (Rev 21:21). Gates in the Bible are sometimes referred to as representing wisdom and righteousness (Psalm 24:7-9, 87:2, 118:19,20, Proverbs 1:20-21, 8:2,3,34,35, Isaiah 26:2)

Elders sat at the city's gates, there were also gatekeepers to let people in and out, and watchmen in the towers above the gates warned of potential danger. The gates prevented the enemy entering. This city is a City of Light and Life and no darkness or death may enter its gates, unity must protect against that - unity is not EVER about compromise. Nothing that defiles or profanes or is unwashed shall EVER enter it, nor anyone who commits abominations or practices falsehood, but only those whose names are recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. Revelation 21:27

God loves the gates of Zion that protect! He LOVES unity and oneness in us who are Zion! That is His heart's desire. That they all may be ONE, just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are one: I in them and You in Me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know and recognise that You sent Me and that You have loved them even as You have loved Me. I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very Self and I will continue to make You known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them, felt in their hearts and that I Myself may be in them. John 17:21-23,26

His love in us is intended to show the world His love! Jesus said that we 'are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden' (Matt 5:14). May we be the fulfilment and outworking of His deepest desire in these days that He may rejoice over us with great joy!

And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment], so that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve what is excellent and of real value, and that you may be untainted and pure and blameless so that with hearts sincere and unsullied, you may approach the day of Christ not stumbling or causing others to stumble. Philippians 1:9,10

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