“TAKE ANOTHER LOOK” W1S175 (08-19-20) Revelation 21:2
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Revelation 21:2 (NKJV) “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
● Remember, last time that we began looking at the symbolic or spiritual meaning of the word “heaven” which shows us the idea of being covered by God. It seems today that some do not realize that Father-God created all humankind, yet He is not BIG enough to have your back covered.
● The fact is that the Creator of all things knows exactly how to take care of His creation and has made provision since before the foundation of the universe. Keep in mind that as John writes in verse one that he saw a “new heaven” and a “new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had (past-tense) passed away.”
● The idea of heaven is not a place to go to, but to live from the idea of what heaven represents, which is to abide within His mind, or His presence, inside and out; just as Adam and Eve had experienced each day in the Garden. And so that reason John saw a new heaven and a new earth is that the old had passed away.
● So, from last time, we saw how that the phrase, “passed away,” refers to being non-existent. But as far as “a new heaven and a new earth,” the word “new” comes from the Greek word neos {neh’–ous} which figuratively is used as the word regenerated.
● This is where many get side-tracked in their thinking in that the English word for “heaven” comes from the Greek word Ouranos {ü–ddrä–nous} which is through the idea of elevation; or within the context of comparing line up on line and percept upon precept, heaven refers to the abode of God.
● Therefore, “heaven” and “earth” is not something physical by which was walk by sight, but it is a matter of something supernatural by which we walk by faith in. To walk by faith and not by sight is a matter of depending in what you cannot see with your natural eyes, but what you know with your supernatural mind. Now, remember that the heaven, earth, and sea are Hebrew metaphors for how they saw the temple, as in the most holy place, the inner court, and the outer court. The outer court or the sea realm was the place where a human being had little to no memory of a supernatural Creator.
● Yet John said in Revelation 21:1, that the sea-realm was no more. This does not mean that there is no more water on planet earth, but that what the sea-realm symbolizes, no longer exists. So, what this does means is that the sea realm has a clear path or an open portal of awakening to the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. As we progress in this lesson, keep in mind that to “awaken” to something, means that it was there the entire time.
● Revelation 21:2 (TPT) says, “I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, descending out of the heavenly realm from the presence of God, like a pleasing bride that had been prepared for her husband, adorned for her wedding.”
● If something descends out of the heavenly realm, and heaven is defined as the abode of God which is “within us,” then the presence of God flows within His abode also. Even at times when mankind does not experience or even know the presence of God, still, yet, the presence of God is ever abiding. Therefore, projected from out of His abode, the presence of God is “LIKE” “a pleasing bride that had {past-tense} been prepared for her husband, adorned for her wedding.”
● So again, this is what takes place in the soul of mankind, in that our minds are renewed or adorned to the truth of the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.
● Revelation 21:2 (Expanded Bible) “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem [C the believers’ eternal dwelling place; 3:12], coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride ·dressed [adorned] for her husband [19:7, 9].”
● So, notice what it was that was prepared to come down or manifest from out of the abode of God. It was the holy city, the New Jerusalem. So, the Expanded Bible says that the “holy city, the new Jerusalem” is “the believer’s eternal dwelling place,” which means, that you have always been the dwelling of God. From the moment you were created, and even to this point in time and always, you were created in the fullness of God, of the fullness of God, and from the fullness of God.
● There is much to see in this single verse of Revelation 21:2. So, I hope you are enlightened and inspired to “dig deep into the well of the Father’s mind within,” as you watch this video lesson!