Come to the Spiritual, Heavenly Reality

The prior post has Biblical examples of symbols/types/figures/shadows of spiritual realities. Revelation, the conclusion of the Bible, also has many symbols, including:

• In 1:8, the Lord God declares “I am the Alpha and the Omega” using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet to show Himself as the beginning and end of everything.
• Explaining some of what John saw, in 1:20 the Lord told him, “The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
• In 5:5,6 the Lord is described as both “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” and “a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes.”
• Verse 11:7 and chapters 13-17, 19-20 describe several beasts which are symbols of evil; also chapter 12 and following include a dragon portraying the devil.
• Verse 16:13 mentions “three unclean spirits as frogs.”

New Jerusalem is heavenly, spiritual, and eternal, and is a city fully in resurrection. It is described by many physical signs but we should not focus on these but on the spiritual, heavenly meaning of each sign. One example is gold signifying the divine nature. We are partakers of this nature (2 Peter 1:4) yet we must be diligent to let it develop in us (1:5-8).

Please do not try to imagine New Jerusalem as a physical city. May the Lord turn our hearts fully to the things above (Col. 3:2), the eternal, unseen things (2 Cor. 4:18), the things hoped for and substantiated by faith (Heb. 12:1).

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

Tagged building up is spiritual, heavenly Jerusalem, Lamb of God, living hope, resurrection, Revelation 12–18, Revelation 19, Revelation 20, Revelation 5–11, spiritual signs, we walk by faith

Posted by Don on April 3, 2026

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2026/04/03/come-to-the-spiritual-heavenly-reality/