And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. Revelation 21:21.
Most believers know that everything in the hook of Revelation is rather symbolic. This Scripture is a symbolic picture of the New Jerusalem, the holy city, in which streets are pure gold, refined to a point where the gold is like transparent glass. Very simply, this pure gold is symbolic of God’s word. The word of God to us is like gold refined in the fire; and both now and in the days to come, we walk upon the word that is purified, the word that is tried and proven to our hearts.
As we look at some important Scriptures related to this truth, we will see the symbolic meaning more clearly. We will be reminded of the great host with their crowns of pure gold. Those golden crowns are the word that has been refined in them, bringing them into the mind of Christ.
In I Peter 1:3–9 we read, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not jade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith (the word that God has given), being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. This beautiful Scripture shows us that our faith is going to be tried by fire.
The end-time walk with God is involved in a war over the word. God allows the testing to come, and Satan becomes the tool by which the word of God is slowly but surely refined in the crucible of your life as gold is tried in the fire. The word of God that is coming in this hour is being tried. Anyone can receive a word from the Lord and jump up in the next service and start prophesying. But can that person then go through a week of fire and prophesy that word again the next week? Then can he face another week of fire and also prophesy it the following week? Will Satan be able to wrest the word from him? Will that word slowly but surely be discarded, or will it be refined?
When the word is refined, it is etched like fire on the tablets of your heart (II Corinthians 3:3). A definite process is involved. First a word comes which thrills you and inspires you. The Holy Spirit quickens it to you, and it becomes alive. Then as you meditate upon it, the enemy begins to battle you. Slowly but surely that word ceases to be just an inspiring thought, an inspiring revelation; and it becomes a word. A revelation is different from a word from God. A revelation that is preached to you becomes a word when it is confirmed and tried, proven and refined.
In the refining process, your faith also becomes like pure gold because your faith and the word are inseparable. Believing the word is a type of faith, but when you have been tried on that word, the human element is finally refined out of it, and pure gold remains. What does it mean to have the human element refined out of you? You may have your own ideas and concepts and interpretations about the word. But after God refines it, it is no longer your opinion and your concept; it is a word from God that is written on the tablets of your heart. No more does reason enter in, deciding whether to accept or reject it, because the human element has been burned out of it. You walk in it because it is a word that is the gold under your feet in the new city that God is making for His people.
You stand, you walk, and you will live for eternity, not on the basis of what you accept or reject, but on the basis of a word written in your heart. The word is your thought; the word is your life; the word becomes everything to you. But until the human element is refined out of you, you still retain in your mind the right to accept or to reject that word. When that word is believed long enough through fire, you reach a place where there is no question and never will there be a question about the word. The war over the word is ended for you. Satan cannot take it away, because you have become a living epistle; you have become a living word. Satan cannot destroy it, because you have become that very word. Not only has it been incorporated into your life as a principle by which you live; it is your life. God’s words are spirit and life to you.
The war over the word will continue, and it will be allowed by God until the fire has refined that word to a point beyond which any human element can disturb it, dilute it, or divert it in any way. This is why God puts you through tests. Every time you reach a new spiritual level, God immediately gives you a word; and then comes the furnace. Just about the time that you rejoice in the beauty and the blessing of the word and in the way that you prevailed, God puts that word through another testing. In this way God incorporates His own being into you. One of the greatest things He can do for you is to bring forth His word in you. He is not bringing forth a word to be quoted; He is bringing forth His word in you to make you a living expression of Himself. Knowing this, you can go back and read the passage from I Peter with even greater understanding.
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distresed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I Peter 1:6, 7.
This leads us to another passage of Scripture, in the book of Revelation, which shows us a picture of the Laodicean church. “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.’ ” Revelation 3:14–17.
The picture here is one of contrast. In it we see the church of Laodicea boasting of its high estate, not realizing that by real values the opposite was true. They were miserable, wretched, poor, blind, and naked.
The passage continues with this word of counsel to that church: “ ‘I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich….’ ” Verse 18.
This is the message that the Church needs today. And we do not mean the apostate church, nor the modernists who have no faith in the Bible at all; we are referring to people who are rather fundamental in their whole approach. What does God say to them? He says, “Buy from Me gold.” What they have is often not refined, yet they will not pay the price for the pure gold.
You must buy the gold that is refined in the fire; it is not given to you without a price. You may receive the gold along with a lot of the rocky human element in it. But when God wants to give you the pure word, He says, “Come on. Now you will have to pay the price.” You must make a deliberate choice to walk with God. If you run away from paying the price and being involved with the testing, you will never walk on that fine gold.
“ ‘I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eyesalve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.” Revelation 3:18.
This speaks symbolically of the deep need of revelation and the deep need to appropriate Christ’s fullness. But beyond all that, it speaks of the necessity for the believer to have this word that is refined in the fire. The refining process does not happen overnight. But however long it takes, the minute that God gives you a word, He lights the match to the furnace.
Hebrews 12 is also appropriate to our study. Verse 29 says, …Our God is a consuming fire. This chapter shows us that we are to receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken. It is a Kingdom which will be refined to such a very high point that everything will be shaken (verses 26–28). If there is anything in us of that human element that can dilute or divert the word, He will still put the fire to us.
You may wonder when you are going to stop failing. You will no longer fail when the gold is refined, when the word has gone through the testing again and again. You may have failed God many times, and you will continue failing God until that human element is completely burned out. In fact, God will see to it that you keep on failing Him. You will continue to exhibit a shame of nakedness and a poverty of spirit. Until you buy the eyesalve, there will always be a blindness to prevent you from seeing. Until you buy the gold refined in the fire and the white garments with which you can be clothed, God will continually expose your nakedness.
Who wants to pay the price? No one likes to hear about such experiences, but they are common to everyone who truly walks with God. After a while the seasoned veterans come forth with faith and love and strength. They still go through testings, but their faith in God is purer than ever before. They have endured a war over the word. Oh, how Satan has tested it. How he desired to wrest it from them. But they have clung to it until finally they and that word have become inseparable.
There is a new process in dentistry whereby a certain type of porcelain can be combined with gold and worn down to a fraction of an inch until it becomes almost transparent. It will never chip off. That illustrates what God does to bring forth a pure spirit. He has a way of causing His word and you to go through the fire of refining, until there is such a close adherence that no longer is there any separation. You cannot chip it off nor dig it away. You cannot remove it, because the word and your spirit are one. That is the goal.
When we walk in a revelation from the Lord and go through the fire, after a while that revelation will become a reality within us. Becoming that word is what a walk with God is all about. We cannot say that we eventually will have a walk with God; walking with God is a relative term that defies any definition. But as we walk with God, our revelation will become a living word.
We can see now why the Apostle John wrote, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. John 1:1,14a. Christ was inseparable from the Word of the Father. He actually became God’s Word. The Spirit of Christ and the Word of the Father were not two entities that could be separated. This describes clearly the end purpose of our walk with God.
In Revelation 3:19, we read another message to the Laodiceans: “ ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.’ ” We need that zealous repenting; not the kind of repenting that slips off in a corner and cries a few tears, saying, “I am sorry,” but the kind of repenting that cries out, “I want that gold refined in the fire; I want the word of God to be pure in my heart; I want my faith to be pure in the war of the word.” How zealously we should shout for it and cry out in repentance with all our heart. We must be zealous to repent because we want that word alive within us. We want it fulfilled. To any extent that we receive the word of God casually, we must come to hate that lukewarmness. We must fight against it and resist it. With all our heart we must cleave to that word.
Christ did not rebuke the Philadelphia church as He rebuked the Laodiceans. Rather, He told the Apostle John to write this to the beautiful church at Philadelphia: ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word…’ ” Revelation 3:8. They had gone through the testings, but they had kept His word. Remember this key, and every time the fire strikes, be determined that you will not give up the word. John continued: “ ‘Because you have kept the word of My” perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth.’ ” Verse 10. Keeping the word through testings is the answer.
As we glance back to what Peter said about the proof of our faith being like gold tried in the fire, we see that it is tested in the fire, but it is manifested at the revelation of Jesus Christ (I Peter 1:7). This testing process is the end-time preparation for the judgments of God to be loosed upon the earth. The word will bring judgment on the earth, but we will be that word. This is our immunity. We bring judgment, not receive it.
John saw the throne of God in vision, and he wrote in Revelation 4:4: And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. If the streets of gold symbolize the word that has been refined in the fire, we can understand that the golden crowns, too, are like a word that has been so purified that no longer does the carnal mind enter in to contest that word to dilute it, to divert it, or to weaken it. The golden crowns speak of the mind of Christ which crowns us after the refining process.
To receive a word, first the revelation of it must come to your heart. It does not have to be a personal word. You can simply hear what God is doing in the earth, or hear the prophecies that come in a service, and embrace them in your heart. Then the furnace experience will begin, because that word will have to be refined like pure gold. The human element must be removed from it.
In our study of gold, we can find many illustrations of significant meaning in the objects that were overlaid with gold in Solomon’s Temple. The ark of the covenant provides one beautiful illustration. It was made of pure acacia wood overlaid with gold, symbolizing the word of God. Inside the ark was placed the old covenant of the Law, indicating that God’s very presence was to linger always with the word He had given them. His presence and His word were to be inseparable. The Shekinah glory rested above the mercy seat between the two cherubim—a very unique manifestation of the presence of the Lord in the earth. How beautiful it must have been! But the significant feature about the ark, for our study, was the little loops on the sides that held the staves by which it was carried. Whenever the Tabernacle was moved in the wilderness, the priests carried it on their shoulders to the next place where they were to camp. This symbolized the fact that the presence of God was movable in their lives. They even carried the ark into battle until they sinned and lost it to the Philistines.
When Solomon’s Temple was built, the priests placed the ark in the holy of holies and drew out the staves, which were then discarded. This meant that they made no provision for His presence to leave them again. They no longer had any power or choice or any human means by which they could remove the ark. They could not touch it, or they would die. From then on, their attitude was this: “Live or die, He dwells among us.” That is the way His word should be in your heart.
Draw out the staves and throw them away, so that there will be no more provision ever to abandon the word that God has given you. When you go through the fire, it is much easier if you have no way out. Burn the bridge behind you until you have no way to withdraw from Him, until there is no provision to reject that word. Commit yourself to it. Live or die by that word. Everything is based upon obeying, believing, and standing upon the word that God has given you until it is etched upon your heart inseparably.