THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM
THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM
Sunday, AUGUST 24, 2025
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Heb. 12: 22-23: But you have come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
In this City, in the realm of the Third Heaven (the Spirit), there is no distinction between humans and angels, neither does Paul differentiate between the saints in heaven and those still on earth. He says to the readers, “You have come…,” therefore, we are to include ourselves in the festal assembly. In referring to believers, the writer lumps them all into one category, “the church of the first born.” He gives this title to Jesus’ church because the Lord is God’s firstborn Son, and all true believers are in Him. Every person whose name is written in the “Lamb’s book of life,” is in the church of the First Born. Our citizenship is in this city right now (Phil 3:20). What’s more, the apostle says, We sit together with them in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). “You have come” --- not you will come. This is not future but present, Now, you have come!
Hebrews 12:24: And to Jesus “the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Last Sunday, after the teaching by Lisa on the Eastgate, I had people asking questions about the gates. I have multiple teachings on the Gates of the City.
1. The Twelve Gates of Pearl
2. The Blessing of the House of Jacob (Twelve Stones in the foundations of the wall of New Jerusalem). (Genesis 49).
3. The Twelve Precious Stones (of the Breastplate).
4. Nehemiah – The Twelve Prophetic Gates.
New Jerusalem 21:2: is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 21:9b: Come here I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife having the glory of God: and her light was like to a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel.
21:21: And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gates was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
Ez. 43:4: The glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
In Revelation 21, the Lord is speaking to John in metaphorical language. This is one of the languages of God through which he has always spoken to His prophets and he still does.
Whether he has used a temple, a city, the Bride, the Sons of God, the tabernacle, etc. etc. All of these images are used to describe a people in whom dwells the fullness of God. This is the Body of Christ, the Lamb’s wife, The church in glory and perfection. This is God’s dwelling place among men. There is no need of a separate temple. If the Lord is there, then the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. In the present Gospel order, the “Temple,” “City,” and commonwealth are all in that dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
1 Cor. 3:9-10: For we are laborers together with God. You are God’s husbandry; you are God’s building. According to the grace of God, which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon, but let every man take heed how he builds thereupon.
In Ezekiel 43 and 44, the Eastgate is the Gate that was shut when the Glory of God departed from the temple. We are now the Temple of the Lord and the Glory of God has returned through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit as we give him place and repent of our sins that He may dwell in us and the Glory of God will dwell and abide in the Bride of Christ.
Rev. 21:3: Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God.
Ez. 48:31: The name of the city from that day shall be, ‘THE LORD IS THERE’ (Jehovah-Shammah). BLESSING, PEACE, SECURITY, AND GLORY.
The Eastern Gate in within a people.
Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory (Ez. 43:1).
“It had a great and high wall with twelve gates and twelve angels at the gates.” The wall is our security. The city has a wall that is impregnable as well as precious. The guards to the gates of the city are twelve angels to admit and receive the redeemed. “These gates will always stand open; they will never be shut day or night (Isaiah 60:11).
“On these gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.” The beloved city is thus marked out as the people of God whether Jew or Gentile. Gal. 4:26: Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. This is emphasized by the re-occurrence of the number twelve and it’s multiplies. Twelve is metaphorical of the number of the elect or chosen (Kingdom government).
Neh. 3:29-30: THE EAST GATE - To emphasize that each of us are prophetically positioned by the Lord for his Kingdom purpose. This is the principle of newness of life, glory, and power. The Glory of the Lord again fills the Temple! The principle of the praise and worship in a new day! Judah camped on the EAST! The rising of the sun in victory as the glory of the Lord covers the earth! The golden gate, an entrance to the Temple area from the Mount of Olives.
As most of you have heard through many years, I have preached New Jerusalem multiple times. I actually saw the vision around 1989, but did not preach and teach the vision until 1992.
NEW JERUSALEM
Vision given to Carolyn Sissom
July 28, 1992
The Lord spoke to me to teach metaphorical language. This is one of the languages of God which is used throughout the Bible especially in prophesy. “A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as if it were another.” The Bible is full of parables, types, proto-types, symbols, fables, allegories, metaphors, and idioms.
I began praying about where to teach. Should I teach Psalms, the Major Prophets, the Minor Prophets? What?
Well, I soon got my answer. The Lord spoke to me, “Teach from the Book of Revelation.” Later the Lord gave me a vision of the night and showed me New Jerusalem.
Vision: “I was on a high place and saw the city at a far distance. The buildings of the City were white as pearl and the streets of the city were pure liquid gold. It seems to be flowing like a river. I saw that it was a walled city, but that was the only detail I was shown except the roof lines of the city were sculptured domes.
The Lord spoke to me in the vision.
He said, “CAROLYN TEACH NEW JERUSALEM AS PURITY.”
Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins, let them consider the plan, and if they are shamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement, its exits and entrances—its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow its regulations:
This is the law of the temple: All the surrounding area on top of the mountain will be most holy. Such is the law of the temple (Ezekiel 43: 10-12).
The vision of Ezekiel’s temple begins in chapter 40. These chapters deal with the Temple and God’s Glorious House. This section emphasizes the permanence of the Glory of the Lord; Ezekiel’s book begins with a vision of God’s Glory in chapter 1 and concludes with the same. We see a New Temple (40: 1-43:12) and a New Worship (43:13-46:24) and a New Apportionment (47:1-48:35)
The dimensions in Ezekiel’s temple are much greater than Mount Moriah! It is larger than Jerusalem or Canaan.
There is a stream from the temple all the way to the Dead Sea.
This teaching is a follow-up of a previous teaching of the Brazen Altar. In that teaching we covered the nine (9) temples (abode) of God. To understand the temple of New Jerusalem, I will briefly re-cap the temples of the Bible.
God created man for one reason: God longs to have fellowship with man. God chose us to reveal and magnify His Glory.
God’s first dwelling place with man was in the garden. “And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” The God who made man and placed him in the Garden was the God who came down to that man, walked with him and talked to him. Then sin separated man from God. But we know that God walked with Enoch, talked to Abraham and spoke to Moses face to face.
Then God spoke to Moses saying, “Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 24:8). There is no suggestion that Moses proposed to God. It was God’s idea, - His desire. This temple was a portable, temporary dwelling place. The Lord said “There I will meet with you and I will commune with you.”
The Tabernacle of David comes between the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon. It remained approximately 40 years. It was given by revelation to David and was a single tent with a single piece of furniture, the Ark of the Covenant.
Then God gave his consent at the request of David to build a permanent temple. But, not to David because he was “a man of war;” but to his son, Solomon. With great magnificence and with tremendous costliness he built the temple. “Then on the great day of dedication the glory of the Lord filled the house of God” (1 Kings 8:11). Then man’s sin of idolatry angered God and God allowed the destroyer, manifested in Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the temple.
After seventy years, there was a return of the people to Jerusalem under the leadership and anointings of Ezra and Nehemiah. Zerubbabel’s temple was then built. This temple was modest compared to Solomon’s. But the people gave the best they had for the construction materials. God accepted it and dwelt in it. “And the children of Israel kept the dedication of this House of God with joy.”
The next temple to be built was Herod’s temple. There is no indication that this temple was built in the will of God. Herod tore down Zerubbabel’s temple and constructed the new temple for the perpetuation of his name.
God again provided His own temple. Men could not keep the law and God’s covenants, so God had already made provision from the foundations of the earth for a “new and better way” to fellowship with man.
“God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them…” (2Cor.5:19). “Jesus said, ‘destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
Each temple was short lived. The temple of Christ’s body was destroyed when they nailed it to a tree. When Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven and the Holy Spirit of God descended upon the disciples, another temple came into being.
“Know you not that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you.” (1 Cor. 3:16). “For you are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.”
God has again come very near to man. Because this temple (our earthly bodies) is not eternal, God made a way through grace that the dominion of death was destroyed by the death conqueror for those who have been brought from death to life.
The ninth temple described in the Word of God is a spiritual temple.
“For we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1).
Ezekiel saw this spiritual temple in visions of God beginning with Chapter 40. He saw metaphorically the fullness of the gospel temple erected by Christ and his apostles. Under the types and figures of a city, temple, altar, priests and sacrifices is foreshown the spiritual worship that would be performed in gospel times and perfected at last in the Kingdom of Glory. I do not believe the holy remnant in any generation has to wait for the 1000-year reign of Christ to enter into this glorious spiritual temple. “For we are the temple of the living God.” “Christ went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man made. That is to say not a part of this creation” (Heb. 9:11).
I believe for those whom God has saved and called to a holy life, for his own purposes and by his grace, He will raise up a Church Triumphant on this side of heaven that will experience the Glory of the Lord in all of its fullness. But it is not automatic; it must be received by faith and the Blood of Christ Jesus.
“Son of Man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet. This is where I will lie among the Israelites (true or spiritual) forever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name – neither they nor their kings – by their prostitution and the lifeless idols of their kings in high places…I will live among them forever” (Ezekiel 43: 7-9).
Any view of restoring animal sacrifice in Israel is a direct insult to the words of Jesus in John 4: 19-14 and the clear teaching of Hebrews that HIS SACRIFICE WAS ONCE FOR ALL, AND NEVER TO BE REPEATED.
“The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit and they had worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth.”
“God is building a different kind of temple. You are living stones, put together, fused together without the sound of a hammer, without man-made religious systems trying to organize you, brought together by the Spirit of God into a relationship and a unity which only God can do…this is the Temple that Ezekiel saw. This is the temple that has a river running out of it. A river of life, clear as crystal. John on the isle of Patmos saw it, Ezekiel saw it and I saw it. “You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ...” (Bill Britton)
“To this point, we see the complete exclusion of man from the design of the Temple. Man is incapable of determining the standards of Divine holiness. Its entire design was a caricature of the holiness and the perfection of God.” (k.v.) (43:10-12):
‘CAROLYN TEACH NEW JERUSALEM AS PURITY.”
The Glory of the Lord returned by way of the East. His voice was like the voice of many waters and the earth shined (Matt. 17: Mk. 9) with HIS GLORY. The Lord Jesus (God’s Glory) was brought to the temple to be circumcised and dedicated. (Lk.1-2).
Another copy of this heavenly tabernacle is described to us in Revelation 21 as “The New Jerusalem”. The Lord said, “Carolyn teach out of the Book of Revelation.”
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” (Rev. 21:1)
Isaiah also prophesied of this, “For behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)
With the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the way has been cleared for the emergence of this new creation, ‘THE HOME OF RIGHTEOUSNESS”.
But within keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends since you are looking to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. (2 Peter 13-14)
There was no longer any sea, I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (the glorified community of the people of Christ) coming down out of heaven from God: It is thus emphasized that the church is the city…whose architect and builder is God, Not a voluntary association of men and women. “Our mother-city is the heavenly Jerusalem, and she is not a slave to Jewish laws.” (Gal. 4:26…acceptable to God because of our faith”. (Verse 31 L.B.) Hitherto, the glorified saints have been seen in heaven with Christ ‘prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” The beloved community is both city and bride. “A loud voice from the throne” Now the voice proclaims the eternal consummation of the blessings of the gospel.
“THE DWELLING OF GOD IS WITH MEN, AND HE WILL LIVE WITH THEM.”
THE COVENANT BLESSINGS IN Jeremiah 31:33:
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people.”
So, it was when the Word became flesh and pitched his tabernacle among men, so it is in the renewed earth because of the presence of the redeemed community, reflecting the glory of God. (4) Paraphrased F.F. Bruce bible Commentary
“They will be his people and God himself will dwell with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death.” The old order of things has passed away. I am making everything new. If anyone is in Christ, says Paul, “he is a new creation.” James wrote, “He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.”
blessings of the new creation begins with those who through fear have denied the faith in the face of persecution.
The vision of holy Jerusalem was delivered by the angel who was the messenger of the gospel to the apostle. “The angel said, ‘come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high’”. This is the spiritual mountain of vision to which all prophets will be brought. Ezekiel described it in Ez. 40:2: in visions of God, he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city.” John describes it in Rev. 21. “And showed me the Holy city Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from God. It shone with the Glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.:
John ransacks the resources of language and metaphor – jewels, gold and pearls – to describe the indescribable glory which the Holy City reflects.
“No longer will violence be heard in your land or ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise” (Isa. 60:18).
This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. This is emblematic that the former dispensations were now done away. Moses and Elijah regarded in Judaism with religious awe are now to give place to A greater than Solomon (Mt. 12:42), greater than Jonas (Mt. 12:41), greater than Jacob (Jn. 4:12), greater than the temple (Mt. 12:6), greater than Abraham (Jn. 8:53). The work of the servants is done ---merged into the glory of their Master. The rod of Moses has become the rod of iron. The mantle of Elijah falls on the greater Elisha ---Jesus was to be hailed “King of the Jews.”
The shadow is transformed into the substance. The Old Testament is a type and shadow of the Christ. In Christ alone, is the end, meaning and reality of the Passover- the besprinkled lintels, ---the smitten rock, the serpent of brass, ---the blood-stained mercy-seat, the priesthood, the temple, and the feasts.
For some the old church order cannot fence them in. Our eyes are like the eagles—on heavenly things. Once we have tasted of the spiritual, the supernatural presence of God, the old order no longer fills the hunger within. Our eyes are set on heavenly things. Our spirits wants to search out the things of God only to find His riches unsearchable.
We have set our affection on things above. We have a cry in our spirit, “Let us go on unto perfection.” For this elect, this chosen number, “it is Christ within the hope of Glory.” When we are “in Christ,” we are in glory. We will not have to run to and fro looking for a service to give us goose bumps. Hallelujah!!!!! The eyes of men have yet to behold the greater glory of the Father which shall be revealed through his church.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church, 10115 West Hidden Lakes Lane, Richmond, TX
www.eastgateministries.com
This is a teaching. It is a vision the Lord gave me. I entered into the labors of C.W. Slemming, Matthew Henry, quoted from F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, Bill Britton, and Kelly Varner. If there are others, I have long ago forgotten. There is no intention to plagiarize only to present a vision and teaching of that vision given to me from the Lord.
Carolyn Sissom