Revelation is a book of the seven Spirits, the seven eyes of Christ, whereby the redeeming, overcoming, and building Christ transfuses Himself into all His members. While He is transfusing Himself into us, He is searching, enlightening, judging, purifying, and refining us. In this way He transforms us. This is God’s recovery today.
A person’s eyes cannot be separated from him, for a person’s eyes are his expression. Our inner being is mainly expressed through our eyes. In like manner, the seven Spirits are the seven eyes of Christ by which Christ expresses Himself. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the expression of the Son. The seven eyes of Christ, the seven Spirits of God, are Christ’s expression in a judging way in God’s move for God’s building. Even now, Christ’s burning eyes are flaming over us to enlighten, search, refine, and judge us, not that we might be condemned but that we might be purged, transformed, and conformed to His image for God’s building (v. 29; 12:4-5). The Lord’s judgment is motivated by love. Because He loves the church, He comes to search, enlighten, judge, refine, and purify us in order to transform us into precious stones. Eventually, this book consummates in the New Jerusalem, which is built with precious materials that come from the seven eyes of Christ, that is, from the life-giving, transforming Spirit.
The seven Spirits, as the intensification of the Triune God, are the seven eyes of the Lion-Lamb to carry out God’s New Testament economy. The Triune God is embodied in the Son and is realized and consummated in the all-inclusive Spirit, and as the seven Spirits, the intensification of the Triune God in the book of Revelation, He finalizes His New Testament economy. Our Savior, the Lion-Lamb, stands before the throne and takes the scroll to execute God’s economy. His seven eyes are the seven Spirits as the executors carrying out His administration. Today the whole world is under the authority of our Redeemer.
The seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls are parts of God’s administration in His judgment (Rev. 5:1; 8:2; 15:7). Therefore, in the book of Revelation the number seven signifies administration in judgment. This gives us the meaning of the seven Spirits. The Spirit of God in Revelation is mentioned as the seven Spirits because here He is not the Spirit of grace but the Spirit for the divine administration through the divine judgment. The Spirit is the seven eyes of the Lamb that can see into things clearly and the seven lamps that are burning and full of light. None of us can hide anything from the seven eyes of the Lamb. When the Lamb with the seven eyes looks at us, everything is exposed and searched out. By the seven Spirits of God as the seven lamps of fire, we experience something shining in us to search out every secret of our entire life. Anything that is brought into the light is exposed. These searching and enlightening eyes of the Lord are for judgment. The seven Spirits of God are the burning fire and the searching eyes to search, enlighten, and judge.
The seven eyes of the Lamb in Revelation 5:6 are the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne in Revelation 4:5. The center of the universe is the throne. On this throne there is the one God, and before this throne there are seven lamps, which are the seven eyes of God, the seven Spirits of God. These seven Spirits come out of God by shining and observing through Christ, who was slain and resurrected. The shining and observing seven Spirits are sent forth into all the earth to observe everyone in every corner. Wherever the seven Spirits look, there is blessing and there is the shining of God’s lamps of fire, and wherever God’s lamps of fire shine, there is the burning of the fire of God. The fire of God is the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is God Himself. Wherever there are God’s lamps of fire, there is the presence of God, and wherever there are God’s lamps of fire, there is God Himself. Eventually, the result of the burning of the fire of God will be a group of people who are completely the same as God.
Wherever there is the shining of God’s lamps of fire, there is the burning of fire, and wherever there is the burning of fire, there is the filling of the Spirit. In Acts, when the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, He was like tongues of fire (2:3). The Lord Jesus also said that He came to cast fire on the earth (Luke 12:49). That fire is the Spirit of God, God Himself. When the Lord Jesus came, He brought God to the earth so that man may receive God. God in the Lamb is the lamps of fire and the flames, and both the lamps and the flames are the eyes.
When the Spirit observes us, we sense that He is like light that shines upon us. This shining gives us the feeling that we are being burned—everything that should not be in us is burned away and consumed. On the other hand, this fire within us also acts as a motivating power that drives us from within. This experience fills us with the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit is Christ (2 Cor. 3:17), and Christ is God (Rom. 9:5). Thus, when we are filled with the Spirit, we are filled with the element of God, and this element, which is God Himself, is a consuming fire. The result of such burning is that we have the splendor of God, the appearance of God, and the radiance of God so that we become exactly the same as God (Rev. 4:3; 21:11, 18-19).
The seven Spirits of God as the seven eyes of the Lamb are also for observing. If we were to keep our eyes upon a certain person, it would indicate that we mean business with him. This is an intimate, dear visitation. The Lord Jesus today has seven eyes. While He was on earth, He had only two eyes when He looked at Peter. But today when Christ comes to see us, He has seven eyes. This means that today the Lord’s visitation is more serious and intensified. Yes, our Lord is the redeeming Lamb. But this Lamb has seven eyes, and His seven eyes are seven burning lamps. In one sense He is visiting us, and in another sense He is observing us and burning us. This is the reality of the sevenfold intensified Spirit today.
When we attend a church meeting, we are under a special kind of observation. Just by going to one meeting, we may begin to sense the living observation of the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Before we attend the meeting, we may speak freely, but after the meeting Christ regulates our speaking. In the evening some kind of inner voice within us may urge us to go to a meeting. It may not be our natural preference to go, but we cannot avoid going. Then when we arrive at the meeting, we touch the living Christ. The burning, searching, enlightening, and observing reality of Christ as the life-giving Spirit is in the churches.
Moreover, the seven eyes of the Lamb are for transfusing and infusing. After the seven Spirits of God as the seven lamps of fire burn within us, in our experience they become seven eyes. Eyes are the loveliest part of a person. If a person closes his eyes, we cannot see what is lovely in him. A person’s loveliness is in his eyes. After we experience the burning, judging, and purifying, the burning lamps of fire become the lovely eyes. We may wonder whether these seven eyes are fearful or lovely. One may say that they are sometimes fearful and sometimes lovely. Yet whether the Lord’s eyes are fearful or lovely depends not on Him but on us. If we live properly as children of God, His eyes will be lovely, but if we are disobedient, His eyes will be fearful. Regardless of whether His transfusion is that of love or of fear, as He looks at us with His eyes, God is transfused into us.
Whenever the Lord looks at us, we receive a precious infusion. When one person looks at another person, he transfuses his feeling into that person. A person’s eyes are the expression of his inner being. To transfuse is to transmit a person’s inner being into the one whom he is looking at (cf. 2 Cor. 2:10). The seven Spirits are the seven eyes by which Christ expresses Himself. As the Lord looks at us, His seven eyes transfuse Himself into us. Whenever the Lord looks at us with His eyes, we can understand if He is happy or unhappy. There is no need for Him to say anything. By looking at us, He transfuses all that He is into our being. His seven eyes are gazing at us to infuse God into us.
Transformation is the transfusing of the Lord’s lovable person into us (3:16-18). The church is the place where the Lord transfuses His inner being into us for our transformation (Rom. 12:2). Experiencing the transfusion of God is the reality of the church (cf. vv. 4-5). The church is a group of people who have experienced God’s transfusion. This is the nature of the church; without the transfusion of God, we do not have the church. The seven eyes of the Lamb are in the church; hence, in order to receive the transfusion of the seven eyes, we must be in the church. The more a meeting is full of the nature of the church, the more it is full of the operation of the Spirit, which is the seven Spirits transfusing and infusing. The Spirit is life, and the seven Spirits are for us to receive the supply of life and to be equipped in life. The lamps have become the fire, the fire has become the eyes, and the eyes are the Spirit. God first shines within us, then He burns in us, and then He transfuses and infuses Himself into us. The issue is that we have the supply of life and are equipped with life. Eventually, our function is manifested in the church, and we grow in life and are built up together with others. As a result, we are not merely the church but the functioning church in which all the saints minister. We not only are enlightened, burned, and infused; we also receive the supply of life and are equipped in life. Thus, we become the functioning members in the Body.
The Lord also guides us with His eyes. Second Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout all the earth.” Today God’s eyes are running to and fro, seeking those whose heart is perfect toward Him. Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teach you concerning the way you should go; / I will counsel you; my eye is upon you.” The guiding of the eyes is the most intimate kind, and it is used by those who are intimate. When two very intimate people speak with one another, they may not necessarily use their mouth; instead, they may use their eyes. The Lord guides us not mainly with words or other indications but with His eyes.