Why is there the need of the sevenfold intensification of the one unique Holy Spirit? It is because at the time of the writing of the book of Revelation, the church had become degraded. On the day of Pentecost the church was initiated, and for the accomplishing of the proper church life there was the need of elders and deacons, as well as certain regulations. For example, the sisters practiced the headship in a living way by wearing a head covering. But not long after the church life was established, it became another religion. The Jews did the same thing with the commandments in the Old Testament given by God. They systematized everything and put it together to make a dead religion called Judaism.
The living Christ is against any kind of dead, systematized religion. When He came, He behaved in a way that denied, rejected, and renounced everything of religious Judaism. While they were keeping the regulations and forms, offering sacrifices on the altar, and worshipping God in the temple according to scriptural instructions, the Lord Jesus never joined them. Who was He? He was the very God whom they presumed to worship. But the very God was not in the temple anymore. While they were praying and worshipping in a formal and religious way, Jesus went into a common house in Bethany (John 12:1-10). At that time, where was God? Was He in the temple or in that common house? It is certain that He was in that common house. The religious people thought they had the proper worship according to their Scriptures, yet they did not know that they missed God. God had no intention of keeping all those religious regulations. He purposely did things to break their religious Sabbath. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that He did things again and again on the Sabbath day. He led His disciples to eat in the cornfield on the Sabbath day (Matt. 12:1), and the religious Sabbath patrol caught them. They caught a Sabbath breaker, and the Sabbath breaker was God incarnated as a man! God came to break the regulations of the Sabbath.
Do you think that God cares for religion? I can tell you that He does not. This is why when we come to the book of Revelation, there is the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Not long after its establishment, the church became a religion, with positions, regulations, and forms, having little that was living or real. In the first three chapters of Revelation, the churches, with the exception of the church in Philadelphia, had become degraded and had missed the reality of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. They worshipped an objective Christ, One who was sitting in the heavens. They had very little if any experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit indwelling them as a spiritual reality. They had degraded into religion. This is why in the book of Revelation it is difficult to find any kind of doctrine. There is no doctrine of justification, holiness, foot washing, head covering, or baptism. There are absolutely no forms or positions. There is no mention of elders or deacons. In this book there is nothing but the sevenfold Spirit. Christ as the life-giving Spirit today must be intensified! We do not need to talk so much about doctrine. We need the intensified Spirit. How poor it is to degrade into a religion and leave the Spirit!
In today’s Christianity, nearly everything is forms, regulations, doctrines, and positions. Even the singing has become formal. All of this must be cast into the lake of fire! We do not need all these formal, religious things. We need the living Christ! We need the sevenfold intensified Spirit. So many sisters cover their head in the meetings, but when they get home, they cover the head of their husband. There is no spirituality, just a form. The Lord hates this. With our headcovering we need the sevenfold intensified Spirit! Everything in the church life must have the sevenfold Spirit.
The leading ones in the churches in Revelation are not called elders, but angels. These angels are the shining stars in the Lord’s hand. There is no position; they are just the shining ones. But in today’s Christianity there are all kinds of positions. In the church life we do not need positions; we need the shining ones burning with the sevenfold Spirit. In the book of Revelation, the Lord denounces all forms. There is only the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
There is another change in Revelation. In Matthew 28:19, the Spirit is ranked third in the mentioning of the Triune God: “...baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” But in Revelation 1:4-5, the order is changed. “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness.” Here we see that the seven Spirits are listed second. I did not change the one Spirit to the seven Spirits, and I did not make the Spirit second instead of third. This is all mentioned by John in the book of Revelation.