The Twelve Gates Of The Holy City

Chapter Two

(The Gates are Pearls)

 

In the first chapter we learned that the City is a people and the Twelve Gates are how I get to be a part of these people. The Twelve Gates are twelve experiences we go through in order to enter into that fellowship and that habitation. The Twelve Gates progressively unfold line upon line, from glory to glory, the Christ nature from within you.

There is one street in the whole City. One street designates that there is one walk and it is a walk in gold which is the divine nature. There is only one way. Paul walked on this street. It is called Straight Street.

This brings us to the Fifth Principle. You will never see until you are made blind. Blind to the traditions of men who would add to the words of this prophecy. I praise God for that blinding light that knocked me from my feet! It put me on a street called Straight where I had to submit to ministry that would lay hands on me so that my eyes could be opened.

Rev 21:12 says that it had a great, high wall. The cities of biblical times had walls around them to keep out their enemies. This wall is the wall of His presence which the Prophet Zechariah called a wall of fire. Our God is a consuming fire. Aren't you glad enemies can not penetrate that wall? Would you like to enter into a walk where all your enemies are under your feet?

How do we get into this City? These twelve gates are twelve experiences we must go through to enter this City which will bring us to a people who have no enemies.

Rev 21:3 says:

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."

John said in John 1:14;

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."

When the Word became flesh God was manifested in the flesh and because God became man then man can become the expression of God. It is said of Jesus in Heb 1:3;

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being,.."

Jesus said in John 20:21;

"...as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."

Allow me to paraphrase this for you. As the Father has sent me to be the expressed image of Him, even so I send you to be the expressed image of Me. In John 8:12 He said, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." What He was saying was this, "I am the light of the world, you be the expression of Me and you will be the light of the world."

God becomes man and man becomes the expression of God. I am not talking about two beings but rather what Jesus prayed about in John 17:22:

"I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:"

God is finally going to have in us that which He has always longed for. A habitation and an abode, a dwelling place, a mansion, a City and a temple where He can rest.

Most of the Church today wants to fly away out of this visible realm over to the invisible realm. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are the reasons they want to fly away. Also the irresponsibility of not facing up to God's ultimate intention of bringing forth a dwelling place in the earth for Himself. This is a result of not accepting the responsibility of walking by faith and not by sight. Paul said in Romans 4:17:

"...even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were."

And in 2 Cor 4:18:

"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

If we ever get a revelation of this passage of scripture we will understand that this people, this City, by faith, will call those things which are invisible into the visible realm where all things will become visible, even God who will dwell among us as He once did with Adam. However, when the people of God in our time refuse to mature and walk by faith we will only see the flesh manifested.

When the economic and social pressures come (or Esau comes with 400 men) it is much easier for that Jacob nature to think of escape. God is going to have a people, who are even now beginning to manifest themselves, who are not the least bit interested in leaving the visible realm and going to the invisible realm.

The reason for this is because they have received revelation of the truth revealed in Rev 21 and 22. There will be a generation of people who do not ascend out of the visible realm to the invisible realm.

They understand that the invisible realm is going to descend from the invisible realm to the visible realm. What happen when the Word was made flesh? The invisible God was made visible and the divine nature could be touched.

You can not deny that He was all the fullness of the God head in bodily form. It is God's full intent to take His fullness and put it in a body, His Church, in order to express all that He is in the visible realm. Then the nations of the world can behold the invisible God through a visible expression.

I am not the least bit interested in being caught up because the New Jerusalem is coming down. You say, "But, what about the fact of being caught up?" Your problem is that you have the idea of direction in your mind when there is no such direction in the universe as up. Paul was caught up, Philip was caught up, and John was caught up, yet, they did not leave the earth.

What John saw was the fulness of God coming into the visible realm. Man in all his wisdom and strength could not get to God so God came down to man. If we could only understand that the realm of heaven is the realm of God and God is Spirit. The realm of heaven is the realm of the Spirit. God is a lot closer that we think. If the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved you would see right here and right now a habitation of God eternal in the heavens.

Would you like to see all that is coming out of the invisible? Heb 12:18 says;

" You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm;" And Verse 22; "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,"

As I said before, most Christians want to go from this visible realm to the realm of the invisible and they want to go any minute. The way the invisible will come into the visible is through the Twelve Gates.

This brings us to the Sixth Principle. We must ascend into the spiritual realm to receive spiritual revelation of God's eternal purpose for us individually and for us corporately. John said in Rev 4:1:

"After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit,"

I want you to notice that the messenger said to John, "Come Up Here!" Paul said in Col 3:2:

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

And in Phil 3:20:

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,"

If our citizenship is in heaven then that is where our vision must be. If you will come up into the Spirit realm you will be able to see clearer and understand the will of God. To those who are just coming into the Kingdom and to those who have just been resting in their salvation, God sends a ministry to them with the message, "Come on up here!"

Once you have learned to abide in that realm of the Spirit where the revelation of God is flowing, the Lord can say, "To those of you who have an ear to hear, I want to reveal to you what I have in mind."

Jesus said in John 16:12:

"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth."

Once you get into the flow of Spiritual revelation and allow your mind to be renewed, you will begin to see a brand new concept of heaven and earth.

There are trumpets sounding today, messengers, for all those who are in the Spirit saying, "

Come Here! I want to show you what must shortly take place!"

What I have been saying to you so far in this discussion of the Twelve Gates is, "

Come here and allow me to show you the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb."

Where have we been so far? Carried away! Your mind is not the same as when you begin to read this article. In your thinking you have been carried away. You say, "Man! We got carried away!"

There are many messengers in the world today who are fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi who said they would proceed the manifestation of the Son of God. A messenger who would prepare His way by preparing God's people for Him. This woman spoken of here has made herself ready and is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. She is prepared by a plurality of ministries that have told her how to get ready and how to enter these twelve experiences into this City. Therefore, the invitation is: "Come closer! You have been too far off!"

Those who are truly disciples of the Lord are maturing and coming into a totally new dimension of revelation of the eternal purpose of God. Others are like the sons of the prophet who follow Elijah and Elisha afar off and will not take the step of faith to enter into that Spiritual realm. This is where most Christians are today, following Him afar off.

There is a messenger running through the ranks of Spirit filled people saying, "Come Here!" John had to come here in order to get closer to the messenger. God is dealing on the local level to bring the sheep closer to the ministry. The pastors that are after His heart are saying, "Come here and allow me to show you the Bride and the sheep that hear His voice are doing just that. The goats, on the other hand, are still following afar off looking for a city.

Revelation 21:11 says of the City:

"It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal."

The word that is translated here as `glory' is No. 1391 in Strongs concordance and is the Greek word `doxa, dox'-ah' ; from the base of G1380; glory (as very apparent), in a wide application (lit. or fig., obj. or subj.):--dignity, glory (-ious), honour, praise, worship.

This City is filled with the Praises and worship of His People.

Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6:1-3 which says:

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory."

Notice that they were calling to each other and saying, "He's Holy! Holy! Holy! As they were doing this glory filled the heavenly temple. They were actually creating glory for God and He stepped out into the glory they were creating. We have had the false concept that the glory comes down from God to us. Perhaps because He said that He would not give His glory to another. He simply said that the glory we create is for Him and no other.

The only place He is enshrined and the only place He will dwell is in glory and the only atmosphere in which God manifest power is in glory and David said that God dwells in the praises of His people. This is why it is so important for us to praise Him daily. When we praise God to each other we are creating the glory for Him to dwell in and this is where His power is pored out. (Read my lesson on Holy! Holy! Holy!)

The reason the nations today are in confusion and staggering like a drunken man is because they have no light. Therefore, they cannot see the glory of God. If we will begin to praise God to each other in the Third Dimension His pure presence will be seen by the nations.

This brings us to the Seventh Principle. Every gate of this Holy City that you enter into will cost you and bring you pain and irritation. Is it any wonder that most Christians just want to look for the city?

Revelation 21: 21 deals with this:

"The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl."

Do you know how a pearl is formed? By irritation and pain. A grain of sand gets inside the shell of that pearl producing creature and begins to irritate it. In order to alleviate the pain the oyster secretes a substance that surrounds the grain of sand and through a process of pain and irritation the pearl is formed. Paul said in Romans 8:17-18:

"Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

Jesus talked about the pearl in Matt 13:45-46:

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."

On the surface it would seem as if Jesus is the pearl of great price but He is not. The City is the pearl of great price. It cost Jesus His life. Just to get this treasure He gave His life as ransom for the whole world. It cost Him a lot of pain and irritation. It stands to reason that if we are to enter into this City that it will cause us a lot of pain and irritation and, like Jesus, it will cost us our lives. Not the life of our body but the life of our soul. We will have to die to our way of thinking and doing things.

The pain and irritation we are experiencing, both individually and corporately, is the loss of the old nature and the loss of the old man. As we pay the price to enter each gate of this City there becomes less and less of the old man and more and more of the new man revealed. There is more of His life revealed and less of ours. The reason there is irritation and pain is because surgery is taking place in you. The old man is being cut off. Only a spiritual man will endure the cross, despising the shame like Jesus did because of the joy set before him.

There are few Spirit `filled' ministries who are wanting to enter in through the suffering of these twelve pearls and even less Spirit `filled' people. The whole rapture teaching is an escape from pain and irritation. I don't believe that there is a person alive that enjoys pain. Jesus didn't but He was willing to suffer in the flesh that He might obtain the joy set before Him.

Heb 12:2 says:

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus endured the Twelve Gates, He endured the cross, He endured the pearls and He despised the shame. If you allow the Holy Spirit to reveal this to your spirit and you begin teaching this and walking in the light of it you will become the despised of the Spirit `filled' community.

The reason people refuse the Twelve Pearls is because they do not want to become a curse. The one thing institutional and organizational Christianity hates more than anything else is the divine order of God's government of the local assembly and revelation knowledge. The reason they hate this is because it requires them to change. A revelation of this Great City will put to death their religious system and if you dare to follow Jesus you will be made a curse to all that is of the flesh.

Not only that, but you will be made sin! SIN!.... WHAT?.... The brass serpent that Moses hung on a pole represented Jesus Christ because on the cross Jesus became sin. He had my sins and yours on Him and this is the same way the world will see you. The world will see you as a serpent and a devil. They said that He is doing this by the power of Beelzebub and that He is demon possessed.One of the greatest things ever said of me was by a woman who attended our fellowship. She told a friend of hers that this pastor expects you to grow.

Because most people do not want to change and because they do not want to grow up, the description of Moab in Jeremiah 48:11 applies to them. Jer 48:11 says:

"Moab has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another--she has not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged."

Amos said in Amos 6:1:

"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion,..."

Moab was the son of Lot's oldest daughter and here it says he had been at ease since his youth and had settled on his dregs. In order to understand this verse you must understand something about how wine was made in biblical times.

The Greek word for `dregs' is No. 8105. shemer, sheh'-mer; from H8104; something preserved; i.e. the settings (plur. only) of wine:--dregs, (wines on the) lees. Lees or Dregs is solid matter that settles out of wine during the fermentation process. In ancient Palestine, wine was allowed to remain on the lees to increase its strength and flavor. Such wine "on the lees" was much preferred to the newly fermented product. In Isaiah 25:6, a banquet of wine on the well-refined lees symbolizes God's people enjoying the best God can offer. Zephaniah 1:12 pictures the inhabitants of Jerusalem who did not believe God would act as wine resting on the lees. Compare Jeremiah 48:11. Since wine was normally strained before being drunk, the prophetic images point to a temporary respite. To drink dregs or lees is to endure the bitterness of judgment or punishment In Psalms 75:8 it says:

"In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs."

Zep 1:12 says:

"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, 'The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.'

In the purification process of making wine the wine would be poured from one vessel to another and left for a time in order to allow the dregs to settle and then poured to another vessel for a time. With the pouring from vessel to vessel the wine became purer and purer. Any waste or worthless residue and impurities would be left behind.

Jeremiah describes Moab as those who do not want to go through the purifying process. They refuse to allow their life to be poured out. They attempt to save their life, yet, Jesus said in the end they will loose their life.

I have had a lot of friends in my life but I find that as God pours me from vessel to vessel that I am also poured from relationship to relationship. In my purifying process many times I must leave former relationships behind because they are either not yet ready for the next purifying process or they refuse to walk any deeper with the Lord. They do not want to be poured out and to be purified. I find that most of my friends wanted to stay back at the first gate of the City because most of their friends and relatives are there and they do not want to be labeled as an odd ball. So they become satisfied with just being save from going to hell.

 Jesus said Matt 19:29:

"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

Our priority must be to seek the Kingdom of God first and all these things shall be added to us.

As I am poured from vessel to vessel, as I enter through each gate, as I move from pearl to pearl, from pain to pain, from irritation to irritation, I discover that I do not even know anymore the people that used to irritate me. God has given me a brand new family to irritate me now. It's much like divorce. You just go from one set of irritations to another until you come to realize that it is you who must change. We must learn to allow this irritation process to work and develop our patience.

Two things happened to the wine as it was poured from vessel to vessel. It got sweeter and clearer. He is going to pour us out and empty us over and over and over. We must not allow ourselves to get settled down into the dregs of complacency. If we settle down in our dregs we become impure again. As He pours us again and again, we get sweeter and sweeter and clearer and clearer until we are clear as crystal. Pure as gold with no impurities, no faults and no darkness. Jesus sold all that He had just to purchase this pearl of great price.

What happens to those who do not want to be poured out? Jeremiah said that Moab has gone into exile. Nobody wants to be a prisoner of the Lord. They want to do their own thing. They don't want to have any ministry or authority over them. They want to believe the bible the way they want to see it and they want to go to the church of their choice. They refuse to go into captivity and be led by the Lord's Spirit.

Jeremiah said that as a result Moab tastes the same and his aroma is unchanged. He is preaching the same thing he did thirty years ago and wonders why it is not working today. His scent, his aroma have not changed. This is a very polite way of saying, "HE STINKS! In biblical times where did they put the garbage dump? Where did they put the dung hill? Outside the City! Those whose aroma does not change are going to find themselves outside the City along with the dogs, the murderers, the whoremongers, the abominable, and those that love to make a lie.

You must understand that when I talk about the City, I am not talking about a Heaven or Hell situation. I am talking about an abode which God is preparing as a dwelling place for His fullness and if you want to have a part in this dwelling you must enter these gates.

As you read this book you are going to come face to face with a decision that you will have to make. Will you pay the price necessary to enter into this City. If you are willing you will be changed and you will get sweeter and sweeter and clearer and clearer and your aroma will become like the apostle Pauls. He said in II Cor 2:15-16:

"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?"

And when the book of your life is opened, you will be an epistle known and read of all men and you will know who is in the City and who is not. Those who walk without will be in darkness, but those who walk within will be the light of the world.