The Christian Life Explained: Living in Two Realms (July 1988 Conference Part 1)

Peter needs a habitat. John needs a habitat. Are you with me? Cows have a habitat. By the way, a fallen man has invented a habitat by now. Do you know what it is?

Audience: Church building.

It’s part of it. The church building is part of it. That’s pretty good, brother. A fallen man has a habitat. What is it? You can call it the world system, or you can call it civilization, but that’s not my species, and that’s not your species. Now, Peter needs a habitat. He belongs to both realms. John needs a habitat. John’s looking for a habitat. Let’s talk about John. Adam had a habitat. It was a garden. It had a tree in it. It had a river in it. It had gold in it. It had pearls in it. It had precious stones in it. Had God in it, had man in. You remember that? Well, John is in spirit, and he is looking for his own, and the hands of God rip open the fabric of the universe again. The door opens. And what does John see? I’m going to tell you what he sees. He sees a tree, and he sees God, and he sees a river, and he sees gold, and he sees pearl. He sees all matters of precious stones, and he sees a man.

Now, isn’t there some place where this has happened before? Where did that happen before? Tell me where that happened before. In creation, in the garden, in a joining of two realms. Is that right? Tree, a God, a man, a river, gold, precious stone, and pearl. There’s the garden. Right? No. No. That garden grew up and has become a city, and it’s half of the other realm and half of this realm. By the way, where is it headed? Down. That’s right. Where? To this earth. To the new earth. Where is it coming out of heaven? Now, what does that say? What does it say? It says it belongs to both realms, does it not? But it’s not a garden anymore. It is the new Jerusalem.

What has Jerusalem always stood for as an image in the Old Testament? The city of God. More than that, for us, it has always represented the church. Now you listen to me. Here comes man’s habitat, his eternal habitat. For you are a believer, and you belong to both realms, and you need a habitat right now. And sister, what you’ve got on this earth is a foretaste of the new Jerusalem, and it is called the church.

Now, see that didn’t mean a thing in the world to you. You ought to be up on your chairs shouting glory because of all that the church means to you, because it is a place where you and I, species of both realms, can come together with God and be like Adam in the Garden of Eden. The church is a place of two realms. That’s what she is now. She is for you and me a foretaste. She is where we live. She is our flock. She is our herd. She is our school. She is in our band. She is our civilization. She is our habitat, where together we know the living God in this realm and the other one.

And John sees those sparkling, beautiful diamonds coming down out of the heavens. And the more he looks and the more that city brightens and glistens, it changes and becomes a great Host of all the redeemed. No man could possibly know. And he keeps looking, and the brightness goes brighter, and the great Host of the redeemed comes together in shouts of praises, and the glory brightens into a whirling light. And they all just seem to become, in some way, one glorious, bright, shining light as great as the light in the face of God. And John sees that it is no longer a city or a multitude, but somewhere glorious.