In Revelation 4 we see that the One who is on the throne is God, and the One who comes out of the throne is the Spirit. God the Father is on the throne, and God the Spirit is diffused from the throne. Inserted in chapter five is the Lamb standing as having just been slain. The seven eyes of this Lamb are the seven lamps of fire. Thus, we can say that the seven lamps of fire before the throne are the seven eyes of the Lamb, and the seven eyes of the Lamb are the seven Spirits. In other words, God the Father who is on the throne passes through God the Son—Christ who has been slain and resurrected—and is diffused. What goes out in this diffusion is not only the lamps of fire, which enlighten man, but also the seven Spirits who take care of man and are sent forth into all the earth. The seven Spirits can reach everywhere in all the earth.
The center of the universe is the throne. On this throne there is one God, and before this throne there are seven lamps, which are the seven eyes of God, the seven Spirits of God. These seven Spirits come out of God by shining and observing through Christ who was slain and resurrected. The shining and observing seven Spirits are sent forth into all the earth to observe everyone in every corner. Wherever the seven Spirits look, there is blessing and there is the shining of God’s lamps of fire, and wherever God’s lamps of fire shine, there is the burning of the fire of God. The fire of God is the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is God Himself. Wherever there are God’s lamps of fire, there is the presence of God, and wherever there are God’s lamps of fire, there is God Himself. Eventually, the result of the burning of the fire of God will be a group of people who are one hundred percent exactly the same as God.
Revelation 4:3a says, “And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone.” This means that the One who is sitting on the throne is like jasper in appearance. In the entire Bible, God’s image is seldom mentioned, but here it says that the One who is sitting on the throne has an image like a jasper stone. When the apostle John saw this vision, he seemed to declare that the One on the throne has the appearance, splendor, color, and radiance like that of a jasper stone. When God shines forth through Christ—the One who was slain and resurrected—He is the Spirit. He is also like eyes looking at man’s inner being, and these eyes are God’s lamps of fire. Wherever there is the shining of God’s lamps of fire, there is the burning of fire, and wherever there is the burning of fire, there is the filling of the Spirit. In Acts, when the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost, He was like tongues of fire (2:3). The Lord Jesus also said that He came to cast fire on the earth (Luke 12:49). That fire is the Spirit of God, God Himself. When the Lord Jesus came, He brought God to the earth so that man may receive God. God in the Lamb is the lamps of fire and the flames, and both the lamps and the flames are the eyes.
Our God is a consuming fire, but when He passed through Christ, He became lamps of fire and the eyes of the Lamb. After passing through Christ—the One who was slain—the consuming fire, which can burn man up, became the seven Spirits, the lamps of fire, and the seven eyes that enlighten and take care of us. The Holy Spirit’s working in us is first to take care of us by observing us. When He observes us, we sense that He is like light that shines upon us. This shining gives us the feeling that we are being burned—everything that should not be in us is burned away and burned up. On the other hand, this fire within us also acts as a motivating power that drives us from within. This experience fills us with the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit is Christ, and Christ is God. Thus, when we are filled with the Spirit, we are filled with the element of God, and this element, which is God Himself, is a consuming fire. The result of such burning is that we have the splendor of God, the appearance of God, and the radiance of God so that we become exactly the same as God.
In Revelation we see that when God’s work is completed, the New Jerusalem is produced. Moreover, we see also that the splendor, color, and radiance of the New Jerusalem are the same as that of God. Chapter four says that the God who is sitting on the throne is like a jasper stone (v. 3); chapter twenty-one goes on to say that the radiance and color of the New Jerusalem are also like a jasper stone (vv. 11, 18-19). Verse 11 reads, “Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.” This clearly indicates that the glory of the city is the glory of God, the light of the city is the light of God, the color of the city is the color of God, and the appearance of the city is the same as the appearance of God. The One who is sitting on the throne is like a jasper stone, and the expression of the holy city is also like a jasper stone. In the end the city and the One who is sitting on the throne are exactly the same, having no difference.
Revelation also reveals that the city itself is pure gold (v. 18). This refers to the content and inner life of the redeemed ones. The content and inner life of the redeemed ones is the nature of God, God Himself. We can say this because in the Bible gold denotes the nature of God. All those who have been redeemed have the life of God, the nature of God, and God Himself within them, but do they all have the jasper wall, the splendor of God, without? This is an exceedingly great matter. The city itself is pure gold because it has the nature of God, but the wall of the city is jasper as a result of transformation. God operates in this city to build its wall. Thus, the city being jasper is the issue of God’s operation and transformation.