Furthermore, the believers can overcome by listening to the speaking of the Spirit (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Revelation 2:7 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” At the beginning of each of the seven epistles recorded in chapters 2 and 3, it is the Lord who speaks (2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14), but at the end of all seven epistles, it is the Spirit who is speaking to the churches. This not only indicates that the Spirit is the Lord and the Lord is the Spirit, but it also emphasizes the vital importance of the Spirit in the darkness of the church’s degradation, as indicated by the sevenfold intensified Spirit in 1:4.
In Revelation 2 and 3 Christ is the speaking Spirit. If the speaker were only Christ and not the speaking Spirit, He would not be able to speak words into our spirit, and His speaking would not be as subjective and touching. In these chapters the speaker is not the objective Christ but the subjective Spirit. If we are open to Him in our spirit as we read these epistles, the Spirit will immediately speak something of Christ into us. Once we hear His speaking, something indelible is wrought into us, and nothing can take it away. Our Christ today is the speaking Spirit. We can be overcomers by listening to the speaking of the Spirit.
In the church life we can be the overcomers either as the man-child (12:5) or as the firstfruits (14:1-4). Revelation 12:5 says, “She brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.” In the Bible, woman signifies the weaker one, and man signifies the stronger one (1 Pet. 3:7). Hence, the man-child in Revelation 12:5 signifies the stronger part of God’s people. The man-child shepherding all the nations with an iron rod indicates that the man-child consists of the overcomers, as spoken of in 2:26-27. Moreover, brought forth signifies resurrection, as in Acts 13:33-34. The man-child is composed of the overcoming saints who have died and been resurrected. This is proven by the words unto death in Revelation 12:11. The man-child brought forth in verse 5 is composed of the brothers in verse 10; they were opposed and accused by the enemy of God, and “they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death” (v. 11).
The man-child in Revelation 12 is composed of the overcomers who have died and been resurrected, but the firstfruits in chapter 14 are composed of the living overcomers, who live until the Lord’s coming again and who are raptured to the throne of God in the third heaven before the great tribulation. Verse 1 says, “I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.” The last part of verse 4 provides an explanation: “These were purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.” These living overcomers will be the first-ripe ones in God’s field. Hence, they will be reaped before the harvest as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. The harvest will be reaped later, in verses 14 through 16. This means that the overcomers will be raptured to the heavens before the harvest, just as the firstfruits of the good land were reaped and brought into the temple of God before the harvest (Lev. 23:10-11; Exo. 23:19). The first overcomers, the firstfruits, will be raptured before the great tribulation, and the harvest, composed of the majority of the believers, will be raptured at the end of the great tribulation.