Furthermore, in Revelation the redeeming Lamb becomes the Executor of God’s New Testament economy (5:7-10).
As another Angel He cares for God’s chosen people, the Israelites, executes the prayer of the saints concerning God’s economy, possesses the earth in the future, and appears in glory to make the whole earth the kingdom of God (7:2-8; 8:3-5; 10:1-5; 18:1; 11:15). The all-inclusive One has another title—another Angel. The book of Revelation mentions this Angel four times. Revelation 7:2-8 indicates that this Angel takes care of God’s chosen people, Israel. On this earth God has two peoples—the chosen people of Israel and the redeemed people, the saints, the church. In Revelation 8:3-5 Christ is mentioned again as another Angel to present the prayers of the church to God and to carry out the answers to these prayers. God is taking care of His two peoples, Israel and the church. Israel has been and still is under persecution. The entire world has been trying to diminish Israel, so Israel needs special care in order to be preserved. The little nation of Israel is surrounded by many Arab countries, yet it still survives. This is because another Angel is taking care of Israel.
God also has another people, the church. The church’s function mainly is to pray, call on the Lord’s name, and cry out to the throne; then the other Angel offers all the church’s prayer to God and brings down the answer to these prayers (Rev. 8:3-5). His way to bring down the answer is to scatter the answer upon the earth. Christ offers the prayer to God, He adds Himself as the incense, then He receives the answer and pours the answer out upon the earth. Today the entire earth is under the answers of the saints’ prayers.
The third time the book of Revelation mentions Christ as another Angel is in 10:1-5. As the strong Angel coming down out of heaven, Christ, the universal Person, places His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the land. To place His feet on the sea and upon the land is to tread upon them, and to tread upon them is to take possession of them (Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:3; Psa. 8:6). This indicates that Christ is coming down to take possession of the earth. Only He is worthy to open the scroll of God’s economy, and only He is qualified to possess the earth. Eventually, all the peoples of the earth who are fighting in order to claim more territory will discover that they have done this in vain. The earth is the Lord’s (Psa. 24:1) and by the time of Revelation 10 He will come to take possession of it. All the waters and the lands will be under the feet of Christ! He will be the universal One coming to tread on the sea and the land. The land and the sea are His, not the rulers’ of this earth. All the nations who are seeking to possess and dominate other countries are working in vain.
Finally, Revelation 18:1 shows us that as another Angel of God He appears in glory to make the whole earth the kingdom of God (11:15). He comes to take over the entire earth and make it His kingdom and God’s kingdom. The kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of Christ at His coming back after His judgment upon the nations (Dan. 7:13-14; 2:44-45). This is the wonderful One to be the Executor of God’s administration to take care of His people, to present His people’s prayer to God, and to possess the earth to make the earth His kingdom.
Also, the redeeming Lamb as the Executor of God’s New Testament economy marries the Bride (19:7-9), and as the Word of God judges and wars against Antichrist and his armies (19:11-21). The church eventually will be the Bride for the Lamb to marry, and the worldly people will consummate in Antichrist with his army against God. This wonderful Executor as the Lamb of God will marry the positive people, the Bride. Then as the Word of God He will slay the negative ones. To us He is the Lamb of God. To the worldly people who are in rebellion against Him He is the Word of God. The Bible tells us that God judges, condemns, and puts people to death by His Word (2 Thes. 2:8). The totality of God’s Word is Christ. The Christ in John 1:1 and 14 is the Word for incarnation and redeeming, but in Revelation 19 Christ as the Word is for judging. Both the Lamb and the Word are aspects of this wonderful Executor. As the Executor of God’s New Testament economy He is another Angel, the Lamb of God, and the Word of God.
The seven eyes of the Lamb as the Executor of God’s New Testament economy are the seven lamps upheld by the seven lampstands, the seven churches, shining and enlightening as the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:9b, 11-12). This burning, judging, purifying, refining, and producing Spirit is the lamps upheld by the lampstands, the churches. This means the churches shine through the lamps and these lamps are the Spirit, the real testimony. We have stressed very much that the seven Spirits today are judging, purifying, refining, and bringing forth the churches. We must realize, though, that the extent to which the seven Spirits refine is the extent to which they shine. If we do not allow the seven Spirits to refine us, the seven Spirits have no way to shine and there is no testimony. The shining of the seven Spirits is the testimony. The more we let the Spirit purify us and refine us, the more He shines through us and this shining is the testimony of the churches. This is why we have to open ourselves every day to welcome Him to enter into our being to refine, to judge, to purge, and to purify us. Then He will shine through us and this shining is the very testimony of the church, the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is the shining of the seven Spirits from within all the believers in the churches.
The seven Spirits who are the lamps of fire in this age, executing God’s New Testament economy (4:5), will become the river of water, saturating the holy city of God, the New Jerusalem (22:1-2). First, the seven Spirits are the lamps of fire and eventually the seven Spirits will be the river of water. Fire and water both refer to the same Spirit. Fire is to purge, refine, and produce, and water is to saturate and to supply. The Spirit is the refining fire in this age, and the Spirit is also the saturating, supplying water, first in this age and then in the coming age and eternity. The refining fire produces the lampstands, the churches, in this age with the saturating water, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Both the lampstand and the New Jerusalem are the full expression of God and the testimony of Jesus, in this age and in eternity.