Life and Building Teachings Pastor Denis Matovu

Christians have been told that they will go to heaven to live in a mansion and walk on streets of gold. But the pure revelation in the Bible tells us that our ultimate destiny is much higher, richer, and more profound. It is the New Jerusalem. We must see three crucial aspects of the New Jerusalem as our eternal destiny.

In the book of Exodus, which is a book of pictures, we have a remarkable picture of baptism. The New Testament speaks in various places regarding the significance of baptism. However it is exceedingly helpful to ponder the picture of baptism in the book of Exodus.

God asked David two questions: “Are you the one who will build Me a house?” and “When did I ever ask someone to build Me a house of cedar?” The answers to these two questions give us a clear understanding of what God desires for His dwelling place.

God gives significant attention in His word to an evil city that stands in direct opposition to His purpose with His people. This city’s name in Hebrew is Babel (Gen. 11:9) and its name in Greek is Babylon (Rev.17:5). Although the city possesses a prestigious reputation of strength and splendor, the Scriptures reveal Babylon as a place that captures God’s elect and seizes their pure and single-hearted worship toward Him. For this reason God makes a call to His chosen ones, saying, “Come out of her, My people...for her sins have accumulated up to heaven” (Rev. 18:4-5).

To understand what the self is, we must consider the creation and fall of man. God created man with a spirit, a soul, and a body (Gen. 2:7; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12). He made man’s spirit with the capacity to contact, receive, and contain God (John 4:24; 3:6; Rom. 8:16). God formed man’s soul with the faculties of mind, emotion, and will so he could express Him. God created man’s body so he could contact the physical world. God’s intention was for man to be filled in his spirit with God’s divine life to express Him through the organ of his soul.

We must pay careful attention to an expression such as “the processed Triune God” to correctly understand what it means. This matter is in the depths of the divine revelation, based on the Word of God and not on philosophy, religious theology, nor a self-invented understanding. The Bible clearly reveals that there is one God who is immutable in His essence and attributes; He does not change (Isa. 45:5; 1 Cor. 8:4). He is eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.