The accomplishment of God’s building requires His judgment. God’s judgment is carried out by Christ’s being the One with seven flaming eyes to burn, enlighten, search, purify, and refine us. Eventually, these flaming eyes infuse us with all that He is, metabolically transforming us into His being. The whole city of New Jerusalem will have the same essence and appearance as God. As we have pointed out several times, the appearance of God sitting on the throne in chapter four is of jasper (4:3), and the appearance of the New Jerusalem, especially its wall, in chapter twenty-one is also of jasper (21:11, 18-19). Thus, the essence and appearance of God and of the city are the same. How can this be? Only by having the very God wrought into us. The essence of God is wrought into us by means of transfusion.
Do not ignore the seven eyes, the seven Spirits. Revelation is not a book of one Spirit; it 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. How we need to see this vision! This is God’s recovery today.
Although the Bible cannot be improved, the truth in the Bible is progressive, and the recovery of the divine truths in the Bible is even more progressive. Four hundred years ago, very few of the truths in God’s Word had been recovered, but this is not so today. The recovery of the truths is richer now than it was just twenty years ago. This does not mean that the Bible changes or that we change the Bible, for no one has the right to do that. It means that the Lord is moving on in the recovery of His truths.
God’s recovery of the truths in the Bible is absolutely for His building. The first year I was opposed was 1958, the very year that I was first burdened to minister on God’s building. That was the cause of all the opposition and criticism. Nevertheless, I only care for God’s building. I thank the Lord that He has vindicated the recovery. Man’s word means nothing; only what God says counts. God has said that He is for His building. The entire Bible is for this. At the very beginning, in the book of Genesis, we have the tree of life and the flowing river producing gold, bdellium (pearl), and precious stones (Gen. 2:9-12). At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, we have a city built with these precious materials, with gold, pearl, and precious stones (Rev. 21). Hence, the whole Bible is for God’s eternal purpose of securing His eternal dwelling place by dispensing Himself as life into His chosen ones. This is the governing vision.
If we have any other view, it means that we are shortsighted. God is not seeking holiness or spirituality. He is seeking the building. In 1958 I said that our spirituality must be tested by God’s building, that is, by the church life. When I said that God does not care for our spirituality, the opposers took this sentence out of context and condemned me, saying, “Listen! Brother Lee says that God does not care for spirituality. Isn’t this heretical?” If you keep this statement in its context, it is not at all heretical. God does not care for our spirituality; He cares for how much we have been built into His church. Individualistic spirituality is cancerous. Any individualistic member of the church is a cancer in the Body of Christ. You may say that you are spiritual or holy, but your spirituality and holiness must be tested by the church life. Perhaps your holiness is individualistic. If it is, then it is not healthy, for true holiness is for God’s building.
God does not want a group of individualistic spiritual persons; He wants the building. He does not desire a heap of precious stones for exhibition. God, of course, needs individuals, but He needs them as the material for the building. All the individual stones must be put into the building. This is not a mere doctrine but a serious fact. Have you been built into God’s building? Or are you one who is saved, who fears God, who loves the Lord, and who prays, but who says, “I don’t care about the church”? Do you say, “It is not good to talk so much about the church; it is better to be alone with the Lord and read the Bible”? You may enjoy this, but God is not as fond of it as you are. He wants you to lose yourself. You must be enlightened, searched, purified, refined, and then infused with all that He is that you may be transformed into a precious stone for God’s building. This is God’s desire today.
Why did God call the Israelites out of Egypt? It was for the building up of His dwelling place on earth. Eventually, the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth became the center of the people of Israel. Whenever they were wrong with the tabernacle, they lost all their wars. But whenever they were right with the tabernacle, they were victorious. After the Israelites entered into the good land, they built the temple as the center of their life as God’s people. When they were right with the temple, they were right with God, and when they were wrong with the temple, they were wrong with God. This is a brief abstract of the Old Testament. What do we have in the New Testament? We have the church today and the New Jerusalem in the future. Therefore, a brief abstract of the whole Bible is God’s building.
Because of the darkness and degradation of this age, God has been forced to exercise Himself as the sevenfold intensified Spirit to enlighten us. We need the searching and enlightening of the seven Spirits. Perhaps you have been clinging to doctrines for years. What good have they done for you? The degraded recovered church has so much doctrine, but what did the Lord say of them? He said that they were neither hot nor cold, but rather that they were lukewarm and therefore qualified for being vomited out of His mouth (3:16). This is the condition of the church in Laodicea.
We thank the Lord that the light concerning His building is brighter today than it has ever been. The light is shining over us. It is not a matter of being an individualistic overcomer in some minor things, but of being an overcomer in the major things for God’s building. Many Christians do not understand the meaning of overcoming in Revelation. To overcome in this book means to overcome degraded Christianity. We must overcome the degraded situation of the so-called church for the sake of God’s building. Read the book of Revelation again and again and you will see that its governing view is the building of God. We must keep this before us. Everything is for God’s building. The revelation of Christ in chapter one is for the building; the seven epistles to the seven churches in chapters two and three are for God’s building; and the scene in heaven after Christ’s ascension and the vision of Christ as the Lion-Lamb in chapter five are also for God’s building. Christ’s having the seven eyes which are the seven lamps and the seven Spirits of God is not that we might be individualistically holy, but is absolutely for God’s building. May the Lord have mercy on us. In this age, we are in a dark night and we need the intensified sevenfold Spirit as the seven shining lamps to enlighten, search, purge, and refine us. Ultimately, what we need is the Lord’s intensified infusion. We need to be infused with all that He is so that we might become transformed stones for God’s building.