The central matter in the entire Bible is the building of God, and the bride of Christ is the building of the Triune God, seen in a picture in Genesis when God built Eve out of Adam and in fulfilment in the New Jerusalem; the blueprint in Genesis is fulfilled in the accomplished fact in Revelation. Hallelujah!
This week we come to the topic, The Building of the Bride. The entire Bible is a romance, in the most pure and the most holy sense; it is a romance of a universal couple – God in Christ as the Bridegroom and God’s redeemed people as the bride.
Today the Lord wants to gain His bride. One aspect of the bride is that she is mature, for the overcomers have arrived at maturity in life to match Christ.
It is not too late for the older saints and it is not too early for the younger saints to grow in life unto maturity.
We need to have our concept changed to seeing things how God sees them so that we may realise that every day we can give the Lord our best cooperation to grow in life unto maturity.
We need to be propelled into a deeper and more romantic relationship with our living Lord. He is not only our Redeemer and Saviour but even more, He is our Husband.
He wants to have a romantic relationship with us. We see this throughout the centuries, as we read the Bible.
God is a lover. God loves. He created us in His image for us to love Him. Our Maker is our Husband. He wants us to just love Him. And He comes to us day by day in love to manifest Himself to us and love us, even to infuse His love into our being.
We are many times like the people of Israel in the Old Testament, going after other idols and trying to satisfy ourselves to many other things; the Lord sees this as our cheating on Him, so He comes to woo us, gain us, and draw us to Himself.
We are in a fantastic romance with the Lord. He is our beautiful, adorable, loving Lord Jesus. We are preparing ourselves to be His bride, and for this we want to grow in life unto maturity. We must grow and we must grow normally. We must grow normally in a quick way.
This is not a mushroom kind of growth, something overnight, or something super. We need to grow in a normal yet quick way, so that we may be one with the Lord for the fulfilment of His eternal purpose.
As we grow in life, as He grows in us day by day, we are built up in God and with the saints, and God gains the building.
Genesis 1-2 are the Blueprint of God’s Architectural Plan to have His Divine Building and Revelation 21-22 are the Photograph of the Finished Building
The building of God is the central matter in the entire Bible, and the bride of Christ is the building of the Triune God.
Genesis 2:22 tells us that Jehovah built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man.
In the second chapter in the Bible we see a revelation not only of the bride but also of the building, and the building is the bride.
The bride of Christ is the building of the Triune God. God is after a building, and the bride of Christ is the building of God. From Genesis to Revelation we see how God wants to gain the building, and at the same time we see how the enemy is against God’s building.
First, there’s the building of the ark, then Jacob’s dream at Bethel concerning God’s building, and in Exodus, we see the tabernacle.
Later, we see the temple, which is destroyed and then rebuilt. Then the Lord Jesus came and likened Himself to the temple, and He said that He will build His church.
Eventually, in the last two chapters of the Bible we see the New Jerusalem, the ultimate building of God.
The entire Bible may be likened to a building manual; the revelation concerning the garden of Eden, as the beginning of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, and the revelation concerning the New Jerusalem, as the ending of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, reflect each others.
The first two chapters in Genesis and the last two chapters in Revelation match each other. God is the Author of the Bible, and He wrote it in such a way that the first and the last two chapters of the Bible would reflect each other.
What is revealed in these two parts of the Scriptures is the central thought of God, the central line of the divine revelation, and a controlling principle of interpreting and understanding the Holy Scriptures.
In the Bible, God opens His thought to man, and even David exclaimed in Psalm 8, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?
Wow, what a privilege for us to enter into God’s heart and know His thought, even the central thought in the Bible.
We need to consider everything in the Bible in the light of God’s building, the central line in the Bible; even the negative things need to be considered in this light.
There’s the positive line of God’s building, and there’s also the negative line of building as well.
There are the cities of Enoch, Babel, the city of Sodom, the treasure cities of Pharaoh, the vessels of God’s building being put in the house of the gods of the kings and emperors, etc. Satan is also doing a work of building, which will eventually be destroyed.
Genesis 1 and 2 are the blueprint of God’s organic architectural plan to have His divine building (Heb. 11:10).
God’s desire is to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ so that He may gain a corporate man to express Him in His image and to represent Him with His authority (Gen. 1:26; 1 Cor. 3:9; Matt. 16:18; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a).
God is the first Architect; He laid out the blueprint of God’s architectural plan in the first two chapters of the Bible.
He is designing and building a city, and the entire Bible shows us the construction and building of this city, the building of God – the bride of Christ.
May we follow the blueprint that He set for us in the Bible and not turn aside from it. Revelation 21 and 22 are the photograph of the finished building, the corporate expression of the Triune God.
The New Jerusalem is the reflection and fulfilment of the divine revelation concerning the garden of Eden. Wow! God will gain what He is after; He will gain the bride of Christ as the corporate building of the Triune God and man.
John saw the photograph of the finished building and wrote about it. We need to see the blueprint and remain in the central revelation in the Bible, doing all things according to the central thought of God as revealed in the Bible.
We may build and do lots of things for God, but the Lord on that day may say, Depart from Me, workers of lawlessness; I never knew you.
The Lord doesn’t contradict that many do things in His name and even perform great works of power for God, but they do not do it according to His central thought in the Bible; they don’t do it according to the blueprint revealed in the Bible.
God told Moses to build the tabernacle according to the blueprint and design He showed him on the mountain.
May we see the central thought of God, the central line of the divine revelation, and may we build according to God’s organic architectural plan to have His divine building!
A well-written book has an introduction, the content, and the conclusion; the introduction is consummated in the conclusion in a proper way. The Bible speaks of the same thing at the end as it speaks of in the beginning.
At the very beginning of the Bible we have two chapters revealing to us the principles and the outline with the main points of God’s eternal purpose.
Genesis 1 and 2 present to us the outline of God’s central thought, the blueprint of God’s plan. And the end of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, show us the consummation, the picture of the finished building.
What we see in the last two chapters is a picture of the issue of what God has been doing through all generations, a picture of the realisation of the central thought of God. Wow! In Genesis 1 and 2, we see a couple, a tree, a river, and precious materials.
In Revelation 21 and 22 we also see the same things but in a built-up way; we see the tree of life, the river of water of life, a divine-human couple, and the precious materials built up in and as the New Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Christ will come back as the Bridegroom to marry His bride, who will be the totality of the overcomers; this building up by the overcomers in this age is for the initial consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age (19:7-9) and eventually for the full consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (21:2). Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, unveil us to see that the building of God is the central matter in the entire Bible. May we see that the bride of Christ is the building of the Triune God! Praise the Lord, the entire Bible can be likened to a building manual! Amen, Lord, may we see that in Genesis 1 and 2 we see the blueprint of God’s organic architectural plan to have His divine building. May we realise that Revelation 21 and 22 are the photograph of the finished building, the corporate expression of the Triune God! Amen, Lord, shine on us to see God’s desire to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ! Yes, Lord, gain a corporate man to express God in His image and represent God with His likeness! Constitute us with Yourself and build us together for You to gain the bride of Christ, the building of the Triune God! Hallelujah, Christ will come back to marry His bride, who will be the totality of the overcomers! Make us Your overcoming ones, dear Lord!
Exercise our Spirit to Contact God, enjoy Him, eat Him, be Transformed, and be Built up to be the Building of God, the Bride of Christ
It is quite amazing to see that the blueprint of God’s organic architectural plan to have His divine building is in Genesis 1 and 2, and the photograph of the finished building is in Revelation 21 and 22!
In between these two ends of the Bible we see God’s building work; He is working according to the blueprint to obtain the building of God.
In particular, both in Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelation 21 and 22 we see four corresponding things: a bride, the tree of life, a flowing river, and three precious materials.
In Genesis, we see Eve, the bride, being built of the rib God took out of Adam, the man. Also, we see the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and we see a river flowing and having precious materials in it.
In Revelation, we see the New Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb, a building composed of God’s redeemed and chosen people.
We also see the precious materials being built into the New Jerusalem, and in this holy city we see the river of water of life and the tree of life.
How can we apply all these to our being today? How can we cooperate with God’s building work today so that we may be part of the bride of Christ, the building of the Triune God?
We need to be deeply impressed that we are a vessel made with a spirit – an inner recipient to receive God. Having this recipient to contact God and receive Him, we need to learn how to exercise our spirit continually to contact and receive God.
We must realise that God in Christ by the Spirit is the tree of life, our real spiritual food for us to eat and enjoy.
As believers in Christ, we can exercise our spirit to partake of the tree of life today.
Furthermore, Christ has become the life-giving Spirit to be the living water flowing to quench our thirst and water us. As we eat Christ as the tree of life and drink the Spirit as the water of life, we are being transformed.
Our natural element is removed and discharged, and God’s divine element is added to our being.
We are being transformed from clay into precious stones (1 Pet. 2:2, 4), and we are building up the church not with wood, grass, or stubble but with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12).
We are becoming precious materials for God’s building through the exercise of our spirit to contact God, eat and drink Him, and be transformed. As transformed materials, we must be built up with others.
We cannot be individualistic; we need to be built up together with the saints, being related to others and very dependent.
Finally, as we remain in this process, we will be the bride on this earth, and the bride of Christ will satisfy Christ.
Seeing the blueprint of God’s organic architectural plan to have His divine building, we need to enjoy Christ as our food, drink the Spirit as the living water, allow the Lord to transform us, and be built up together to be part of God’s building, the bride of Christ.
Only when we cooperate with the Lord in this way can we be transformed and built up to become the bride who will bring the Lord back.
In our natural life and by our natural man, we cannot please God or fulfil His purpose. In our natural man, we cannot be one with others, for we are peculiar and independent from others. Our natural life needs to be swallowed up by Christ.
May we all learn how to contact and feed on Christ in our spirit. On the negative side, we deny the self and reject the natural life so that we may live by Christ.
On the positive side, we exercise our spirit to enjoy the Lord as the tree of life and allow Him to flow in us as the river of water of life so that we may be transformed into His image and built up with others into His building, the bride of Christ!
As we are transformed and built up, God’s goal will be attained!
Lord Jesus, impress us deeply that we are a vessel with a spirit to contact God and receive Him! Amen, Lord, we want to learn to exercise our spirit continually to contact and receive God! Hallelujah, God in Christ by the Spirit is the tree of life for us to eat and partake of as our real food! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to eat You as the tree of life. We call on Your name to drink the flowing river of water of life, the Spirit as the living water! May today be a day of enjoying Christ as the tree of life and the living water! Oh Lord, transform us into Your image as we eat and drink You! Transform us into precious stones and build us up together with others into Your building! We want to learn to be related with others and be very dependent. Gain Your bride, Lord, Your building! Gain the corporate building of God and man, the bride of Christ! May we all learn to deny the self, reject the natural life, and live by Christ, partaking of Him in spirit and living because of Him!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ricky Acosta in this conference, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1964, vol. 4, “The Vision of God’s Building,” chs. 1-2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Preparation of the Bride (2025 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 2, The Building of the Bride – day 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Our God is a God of purpose, / What He plans, He will fulfill! / Genesis to Revelation / Shows His full and glorious will. / What He’s after is a building. / In creation He began / With a simple garden planted— / This, the setting for His plan. / Man was made, the first step God took / To achieve His final goal, / As a vessel, a container, / Three parts—body, spirit, soul. / God, of dust, a body formed him, / Breath of life into him breathed— / This part is man’s human spirit / By which God may be received. (Hymns #1324 stanzas 1-2)
– It was a garden in the primal age, / But at the end it is a city square; / Creation’s center in the garden was, / God’s building issues in the city fair. / Both in the garden and the city fair / A river and the tree of life are seen, / Christ typifying as the life supply, / The Spirit showing as the living stream. (Hymns #975 stanzas 1-2)
– Drink! A river pure and clear that’s flowing from the throne; / Eat! The tree of life with fruits abundant, richly grown; / Look! No need of lamp nor sun nor moon to keep it bright, for / Here there is no night! (Hymns #1151 stanza 1)
About aGodMan
Life-study of Genesis, pp. 224-225, by Witness Lee
The entire Bible can be likened to a building manual – in Genesis 1-2 we see the blueprint of God’s architectural plan to have His divine building and in Revelation 21-22 we see a photograph of the finished building, the corporate expression of the Triune God, the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah!
May we enjoy the Lord today, eat Him and drink Him, be transformed into precious materials, and be built up as the church, the bride of Christ, for Him to return and rapture us!
From Genesis to Revelation, from Eden to the New Jerusalem we see the central matter of the Bible is God’s building.
The bride of Christ is the building of God and the bride to match Him can only be prepared by the process of enjoying Christ as our real food to swallow up our natural life to become transformed material to be built with others.
Wow brother, the Bible is not only a book of the divine romance, a romantic book, a love story but also a building manual.
The way to prepare the bride is for her to be built up.
But how? Oh how we need to exercise our spirit realising that God in Christ is the tree of life.
As we enjoy Christ as our food supply He becomes in us the Spirit, the river of living waters transforming us. The more we are transfomed, the more we are built up not just personally but also corporately to be the bride.
Brother, we must be deeply impressed that we are a vessel made with a spirit, an inner recipient to receive God.
We must excercise our spirit continually to contact and receive God and realise God in Christ by the Spirit is the tree of life as the real food for us to eat and enjoy so that we may be transformed to be built up with others.
In our natural life we can never be one with others, our natural life must be swallowed up by Christ!
Amen, brother! What a wonderful vision of God’s building throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
I feel very much in need of the Lord’s fresh dispensing day by day.
May He grow in us, transform us, and build us together with the saints in this new stage, so that we may become His precious materials for the New Jerusalem.
What an awesome accomplishment is the New Jerusalem, a living complete unit composed of divinity & humanity.
Of all God’s people throughout the ages, we are privileged to have the complete blueprint of this awesome entity through which man will express God’s glory and exercise God’s authority over the new Earth.
We must learn how to exercise our spirit continually to contact & receive God so that we may become the expression & representative of God as well as the bride of Christ.
Our natural life needs to be swallowed up by Christ.
We are vessels made with a spirit to contact and receive God.
We need to turn to our spirit enjoy Christ as the real food and as we enjoy Him, we will be transformed into precious stones that can be built up together for the as the building to satisfy Christ.
The blueprint was portrayed in Genesis and we see the final photo in Revelation.
Amen my brother, how precious!
First we look at the blueprint; then we read the building instructions and go to work; finally, at the end, we attain the finished structure, similar in every detail to the photo in the manual.
It is only when we are enjoying Christ as our food that we may be transformed, and it is only as we are being transformed that we may be built up with others, and it is only as we are built up with others that Christ will have full satisfaction with us. We will be the expression and representative of God as well as the bride of Christ.
Hallelujah for such a building work!!!
aaamen! Lord Jesus keeps us enjoying you always in all our situations, build us up with all the saints to be Your corporate bride. Lord Jesus Christ we love You.