These local churches are lampstands. A lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God. How do we know this? First, the substance of the lampstand is gold, signifying God the Father and the divine nature. Then, the lampstand has a shape; it is not just a lump of gold but has a definite form. This signifies Christ as the very embodiment of God. Third, the seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lamb and the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 5:6; 4:5). The seven lamps as the seven Spirits of God are the expression of the Triune God. The Spirit is the expression, the Son is the shape, the form, and the Father is the substance of the church as the wonderful lampstand.
To say that the church is the embodiment of the Triune God is not to make the church a part of deity, an object of worship. We mean the church is an entity born of God (John 1:12-13), possessing God's life (1 John 5:11-12), and enjoying God's nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The church has the divine substance, bears the likeness of Christ, and expresses the very God. Since we have been born of God, we surely have God's life and possess His nature, and we enjoy this life and nature every day. We are learning by His mercy and grace not to live by our natural life but by the divine life and nature. As we are thus being transformed, there will be the fullness, the expression, the form, the appearance, of Christ, and we shall be shining, not by ourselves but by the sevenfold, intensified Spirit.
The church is the embodiment of the Triune God to express Him. We as members of Christ are the sons of God born of Him, having His life and possessing His nature. We are doing our best to live by this life and nature that we may be filled and saturated with this rich Christ to become His expression through the sevenfold, intensified Spirit.
This is a local church. It is not just an outward assembly. It is something inward, of life, yet expressing the very God. Dear saints, this is God's goal.
The content of the church is the pneumatic Christ. Great teachers in early church history used such a term. It means that Christ is identical to the pneuma, to the Spirit. We cannot explain this, yet it is a fact. Today you and I are living Christ. Christ is not only our inner life, but also our outward living. Paul said, "To me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21a). We live Christ. He is not merely the objective Christ sitting on the throne; this Christ who is on the throne at the right hand of God simultaneously is within us.
How can Christ be on the throne in the heavens and also be within us? Romans 8:34 tells us clearly that Christ is at the right hand of God, but verse 10 of the same chapter says "Christ is in you." In the same chapter, one verse tells us that Christ is in the heavens and another verse tells us that Christ is in us.
Electricity provides us with a good illustration of how this can be. The light in a room comes from electricity. This electricity is at the same time in the power plant and in the room. There is a current of electricity. This current connects the power plant to the building. Similarly, Christ is "electrical," pneumatic. There is a current from the throne of God to our spirit. Hallelujah! Our spirits are all connected to the heavenly throne, just as the lights in a room are all connected to the power plant by the inner current of electricity. The current of electricity is simply the electricity itself. The current is the electricity in motion. The moving electricity is the current. Christ is the moving pneuma. This moving current is called by John in his first Epistle the fellowship (1 John 1:3). The fellowship is the current of Christ. Christ is circulating, moving. We are short of the human utterance to describe something so mysterious and profound. Electricity, however, can help us illustrate such a mysterious, abstract matter.
Our Christ is the current of electricity. Our Christ is the blood circulation in His Body. He is the very fellowship between God and us and among all God's children. The current is the pneumatic Christ, and this pneumatic Christ is the very content of the church. Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), is always moving to impart Himself into us. The purpose of electric current is to impart electricity into the bulbs so that they might all express the light of electricity. This pneumatic Christ is moving within us for the purpose of imparting Himself into us that we may express His life. We all have been baptized in Him, and now we are drinking Him (1 Cor. 12:13).