The book of Revelation refers to the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6). These seven Spirits are the seven lamps of fire burning before God’s throne and also the seven eyes of the Lamb. Since Revelation mentions the seven Spirits, we must ask whether God the Spirit is one or seven. According to the mathematics in our mentality, one is one and seven is seven. But according to the mathematics of the Bible, there is a sense in which seven is one and one is seven. The one Spirit is called the seven Spirits.
According to the traditional understanding of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are regarded as three distinct Persons. Some even go so far as to insist that they are distinct and separate Persons. According to the Bible, however, the Three cannot be separated. I wonder what those who advocate the traditional understanding of the Trinity do with Revelation 5:6. This verse tells us that the seven Spirits, the third Person, are the seven eyes of the Lamb, the second Person. If the Son and the Spirit were two separate Persons, how could the seven Spirits be the eyes of the Lamb? In other words, how can one Person of the Trinity, the Spirit, be the eyes of another Person, the Son? There is no room in the traditional understanding of the Trinity, especially as it follows the formulation of the Nicene Creed, for “the Spirit,” the compound Spirit, or the seven Spirits, Actually, those who hold to the tradition are very narrow and restricted in their understanding, but those who hold to the pure Word in its entirety are very broad and inclusive.
We may use the word persons to speak of the Three of the Triune God. However, we must be careful not to press this word too far. W. H. Griffith Thomas recognized the danger of this. In The Principles of Theology he said this concerning the Trinity: “The term Person is also sometimes objected to. Like all human language, it is liable to be accused of inadequacy and even positive error. It certainly must not be pressed too far or it will lead to Tritheism....” Those who press the term persons too far will end up not merely with the three Persons of the Godhead, but with three Gods. Eventually, what they have is tritheism instead of the Trinity. Without realizing it, many Christian teachers have done this very thing. We need to recognize that we are simply not able to define the Trinity adequately. We do not even have a thorough understanding of man. How could we expect, then, to understand adequately the mystery of the Triune God? We need to turn from the inadequacies of the Nicene Creed and of the traditional understanding of the Trinity and come back to the pure Word of God. In the light of God’s Word, we see that the Spirit we are enjoying today is not only the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit; this Spirit is not even limited to the Spirit of Jesus or the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit we are enjoying is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This Spirit is “the Spirit,” the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit of the Triune God. Because this Spirit is so rich, bountiful, and all-inclusive, He has the supply to meet our every need. For this reason, when Paul was suffering for the sake of the gospel, he enjoyed the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit.
Christians today may talk about the Spirit and even write books about the Spirit, but they say nothing concerning the compound Spirit or the seven Spirits. Instead, they hold on to the limited, traditional understanding of the Spirit of God expressed in the Nicene Creed. Those in the charismatic movement or in Pentecostalism claim to experience the Spirit. However, they also seem to neglect the life-giving Spirit, the compound Spirit, and the seven Spirits. If we would have a proper understanding of the Holy Spirit, we need to realize that the Spirit today is nothing less than the Triune God processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Some object to the word processed. They argue that it is not possible for God to be processed. But did God not pass through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection? If this is not a process, then what word should we use to describe it? As we use the word Trinity to convey the revelation of the Triune God in the Bible, we use the word process to convey the steps the Triune God has taken from Christ’s incarnation through His resurrection.
We are not satisfied simply to have a doctrinal understanding of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We must go on to experience the Spirit, the compound Spirit, and the seven Spirits of God. We need more and more experience of the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit who is the processed Triune God as everything to us. By such a Spirit Paul suffered for God’s economy and simultaneously enjoyed a bountiful supply to strengthen him in resurrection. Paul was an overcomer not because he had a strong will. He could be an overcomer because he experienced and enjoyed the all-inclusive Spirit with His bountiful supply dwelling in him to be everything to him. Paul realized in his experience that the Triune God was working Himself into his being. May we also experience and enjoy the Triune God supplying us and working Himself into us as the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit.