The lamps are for enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning. All this is for the carrying out of God’s administration. Today, God is administering His government by means of enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning. Anything that does not correspond to God’s nature will be burned by His fire. Although we have been saved and have undergone some amount of transformation, our work will be burned if it is wood, hay, and stubble and not gold, silver, and precious stone (1 Cor. 3:12-15). Any fleshly work, work done in the name of the Lord but actually having nothing to do with Him, will be burned. Everything that is not of God or according to God, whether it be a so-called church, a Christian work, or even gospel preaching, will be counted by God as wood, hay, and stubble, and it will be burned by fire. This burning is the carrying out of God’s administration. The Bible reveals that God is the burning One (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). All things outside of Him or that do not correspond to His nature will be burned.
Although the seven enlightening, searching, exposing, judging, and burning lamps will burn all that does not correspond to God, they will refine those things that are truly according to His nature. Instead of being burned away, those things will be refined. The dross will go to the lake of fire, but the refined gold will go to the New Jerusalem.
We may be able to hide things from one another, but when the seven lamps shine on us, we are utterly naked and exposed. Then it is no longer possible to hide or cover ourselves. All that we are, do, say, and think is exposed, judged, and burned. If your talk corresponds to God’s nature, it will be refined gold. If not, it will be dross. This is the experience of the seven lamps.
The seven lamps are simultaneously the seven eyes of the Lamb and the stone. The lamps are for enlightening and burning; the eyes are both for watching and observing and also for infusing and transfusing. The seven eyes transfuse all that the Lamb-stone is into our being so that we might be made the same as He. First Peter 2:4 and 5 say, “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house” (Gk.). The way for us to become living stones is to come to Him and to be seen by Him. As the Lord enlightens and judges us, He looks at us, and His seven eyes transfuse Himself into us. In this way we are transformed.
If we were not saved, it would be a dreadful experience to be enlightened in this way by the Lord’s seven lamps. But, as saved ones, it is wonderful to be enlightened in this way. However, if our work and our living are fleshly, not in the spirit, but according to the self, it would be terrifying to be enlightened by the seven lamps, for our living and our work would be exposed and burned by fire. But if we live in the spirit and according to God’s nature, the more the seven lamps enlighten us and the more the Lord looks at us, the more we shall be transfused and infused with all He is. This is confirmed by our experience.
When the seven eyes look at us, transfusing and infusing us with all the Lord is, the seven eyes immediately become the seven Spirits imparting life into us. As the eyes infuse us, the seven Spirits impart life into our whole being. Therefore, the lamps are for enlightening and judging, the eyes are for transfusing and infusing, and the Spirits are for imparting life so that we may be transformed into His image. The more we experience this, the more we are built up together. For this reason, the book of Revelation, which covers God’s building in an ultimate way, includes these two chapters unveiling that God’s building is accomplished through the seven lamps, the seven eyes, and the seven Spirits. We all need to be under the enlightening of the seven lamps, under the beholding of the seven eyes, and under the imparting of life of the seven Spirits. In these days many of us are under the seven lamps, the seven eyes, and the seven Spirits. Praise the Lord for this! I can testify that day by day I am being exposed. Is this not your experience also? But we are also being transfused. I can testify that every day something of the Lord is transfused into me. The issue of this is more growth in life. Do not think that only the young people are growing in life. Although I am an older one, I am still growing because I am daily receiving more life through the life-imparting work of the seven Spirits.
Eventually, the seven lamps before the throne become the river of life proceeding out of the throne. In chapter four we have the seven lamps burning before the throne of God, and in chapter twenty-two we have the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God. Thus, the seven lamps become one river. According to our experience, the seven Spirits of God are firstly the seven burning lamps. After we receive the burning of the seven lamps, the seven Spirits become one flow. In chapter four we do not yet have the New Jerusalem, for with only the seven lamps there is no building. However, when we see the river proceeding out of the throne to replace the seven lamps, we know that the building has also come. Perhaps yesterday you were under the enlightening and the burning of the seven lamps. But this morning you are in the flow of the water of life. With only the lamps, there was no building; but with the flow, there is the New Jerusalem. When we are in the flow, we are a part of God’s building.
According to the book of Revelation, the seven Spirits of God are firstly the lamps burning before God’s administrative throne. Eventually, in God’s building, these seven Spirits of God become the river of water of life proceeding from the throne. Now this throne is not only the administrative throne, but also the supplying throne. In this way we have the building. The more we are enlightened and receive the burning, the more we are in the flow of life, and the more we are in the flow of life, the more we are built up. This is the way to experience the building. Praise the Lord!