The age has truly been changed. It is not just a matter of the word spoken by the Lord or the word written in the Bible, but the speaking of the sevenfold Spirit. The intensified Spirit speaks to the local churches. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” This word has been repeated seven times by the Lord (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
Today people speak so much about the universal church, but they look down upon the local churches. However, the Lord Jesus in Revelation speaks to the local churches. If He is speaking to the local churches, yet you are outside the local churches, you will completely miss this book. I do believe this is why this book is closed to so many. They only know the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls. They have never seen the sevenfold Spirit for the local churches, because they are not in the local churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to whom? Is it to the saints, the universal church, the church in the heavens, or the New Jerusalem? No, it is to the churches, to the local churches.
So we see that the sevenfold Spirit is for the local churches. So many Christians have not seen the sevenfold Spirit. But this is in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. The Spirit’s position has been changed from the third place to the second place, and He has been intensified. One Spirit has become the sevenfold Spirit, and this is for the purpose of the local churches. It is not for you or me individually or for the church in the heavens. It is for the local churches on earth. “To the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace...from the seven Spirits” (1:4). The sevenfold Spirit is not for any individual or for the so-called universal church but for the local churches on this earth.
Today we need the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. When the book of Revelation was written, the church had become degraded. The Lord became the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. The history of the church tells us that even in the last part of the first century while the apostle John was still alive, the church had degraded from the Spirit to religion. The church had fallen from the living Spirit to dead religion. It was in such a situation that the Lord wrote this book to the seven local churches, using the title of the sevenfold Spirit. Under the degradation of the church, what we need is not religion or doctrines but the intensified Spirit.
The sevenfold Spirit is also the seven lamps of burning fire. “Out of the throne come forth lightnings and voices and thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (4:5). Why did the Spirit become like seven burning lamps? It is because the degraded church had become so cold. All the churches were like refrigerators, so the sevenfold Spirit came down to set them afire. Today the churches do not need cold teachings; they need the burning Spirit. We do not need to be coldly taught; we need to be set on fire.
Some people say that we must have a sober mind. But I am afraid that what they mean is not a sober mind but a cold mind. We may be exceedingly sober in a sense, but in another sense so cold. Are you burnt and burning? I do not want to teach you; I want to burn you. We must be set on fire to be burnt and burning. In such a cold age we do not need cold teachings and cold doctrines; we need the burning fire. The intensified Spirit is the burning fire to burn us.
Some say that we must keep a good order. When we are so cold, everything is orderly; but if this building were on fire, everyone would shout, “Fire! Fire!” Everything would be upside down. Cold teaching keeps us so silent, but the burning fire burns us until we cannot be silent. Do we need burning or teaching? Hallelujah! We need the burning. We need to be revolutionized.
Christianity is too silent and too cold. That is why we need to be burnt and burning all the time. The sevenfold Spirit is the seven burning lamps to set us on fire. This is what the degraded church, the dead church, the cold church, needs.
One further point: The seven Spirits are the seven lamps for enlightening. When we are cold and dead, we are in darkness. Coldness, deadness, and darkness always go together. When we need the burning and enlivening, we also need the enlightening. Light brings in life and warmth. The sevenfold Spirit is the enlightening lamps of burning fire. When He burns, He enlightens and enlivens us as well. He enlightens and enlivens us by burning us. Today we need the burning as well as the enlightening and enlivening of the intensified Spirit so that we may be set on fire to see the local churches and the Lord’s purpose and so that we might be made living.