What is religion? Religion is to worship God, to do good, to help others, and to adjust and correct yourself—all without Christ. Anything that is good for God or man, yet without Christ, is religion. In the church life we must not do anything without Christ. We are just for Christ. Our worship to God must be with Christ. Our goodness must be Christ. Without Christ, everything is religious. We may dress nicely to attend “church” on Sunday morning, carrying our Bible in our hand, but all without Christ. This is just a religion. If a young man who was on drugs two weeks ago came into the service shouting his praise and love for Jesus, he would be told not to make noise like that in the Sunday morning service. But let us be fair. Which do you think God prefers? The dressed up religious one without Christ, or the crazy, praising, shouting, one? I can boldly tell you that God is pleased with such a new lover of His, shouting, Hallelujah! This is not something of religion; this is something of the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
So many today are concerned about right doctrine. But in Revelation, there is no doctrine, just the sevenfold Spirit. Whoever is only for doctrine will miss God’s presence. They are today’s scribes and Pharisees, so scriptural, but missing the living Christ. I do not mean that we do not need the Bible. I believe that I love the Bible as much as anyone. But I know that without the Spirit, the Bible is merely dead letters, only good for mental knowledge, which kills. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:6, “For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” All the Pharisees and scribes were killed by Bible knowledge. They sentenced Christ to death according to the Bible! (John 19:7). Satan is so subtle. He can use everything, even the Bible. There is only one thing that he cannot use, that is, Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Satan does not fear the Bible in letters, but he flees when he hears someone calling on the name of the living Christ.
Today we are not in the Acts nor the Epistles. We are living today in the book of Revelation, where there are no doctrines, forms, regulations, or positions. Rather there is the sevenfold Spirit as seven lamps of burning fire. “And out of the throne...there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5). The sevenfold Spirit is like seven lamps of fire burning us. In the last book of the Bible, the Spirit is not the Spirit of gentleness, but a burning fire! Many times while at home I felt I should be more moderate in my speaking. But in the meetings when I stand to speak, I simply cannot contain myself. I know how to speak so as not to offend anyone. I realize that the things I say are very offensive to many dear Christians. But I cannot help it. I am under the burning of the sevenfold Spirit. If I do not speak what the Spirit burdens me to speak, I have no peace for days. I must speak according to the burning of the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
This Spirit burns us to burn others. If we are not on fire, we are not qualified to be in the church life in a practical way. The whole church life is a burning fire. Everyone who is in the church ought to be on fire. On the one hand they are being burned, and on the other they are burning others.
The seven Spirits of God are not only burning, but also enlightening and searching. They search the inmost part of our heart, discerning our thoughts and motives with sharper perception than any X-ray. Such a Spirit searches us, enlightens us, and burns us.
This is not all. Revelation 5:6 tells us that the seven burning Spirits are the seven eyes of the Lamb: “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” Here is a Lamb standing with seven eyes, and these seven eyes of the Lamb are the seven Spirits of God. We all know that eyes are not only for seeing, but for observing. If I were to keep my eyes upon you, it would mean that I mean business with you. This is an intimate, dear visitation. The Lord Jesus today has seven eyes. When He looked at Peter while He was on earth, He only had two eyes. But today when Christ comes to see us, He has seven eyes. This means that today the Lord’s visitation is more serious and intensified. Yes, our Lord is the redeeming Lamb. But this Lamb has seven eyes, and His seven eyes are seven burning lamps. In one sense He is visiting us, and in another sense He is observing us and burning us. I do not believe that I am speaking mere knowledge. This is the reality of the sevenfold Spirit today.
Whenever anyone goes to a meeting of the church, they are under a special kind of observation. Just by going to one meeting, they begin to sense the living observation of the sevenfold Spirit. Before they went to the meeting, they said what they liked; but after going, Christ always seems to be there to regulate their speaking. In the evening some kind of inner voice within them urges them to go to the meeting. They really do not want to go, but they cannot help it. Then when they arrive at the meeting, they touch the living Christ again. Praise the Lord! It is not up to us; it is up to the visiting Christ. He is so gracious; yet He is rather terrifying. In the book of Revelation He has seven eyes! I have full assurance that today in the local churches the seven eyes of Jesus are here. The burning, searching, enlightening, and observing reality of Christ as the life-giving Spirit is in the local churches.
All seven epistles written in the first three chapters of Revelation begin by saying, “These things saith...,” and the Lord Himself is presented in a particular aspect as the speaking One. But at the end of each epistle it says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” This proves that what the Lord says is what the Spirit says. Instantly the Lord speaks to one church in particular, but constantly the Spirit speaks the same word to all the churches. Some say that the seven churches are independently different. But every epistle is not only to one particular church, but to all the churches. It is clear that these seven churches are only different in negative things. In all of the positive matters, they are the same. They all are golden shining lampstands. In their degradation they are different, but in nature, in essence, in purpose, and in ministry they are all the same.
Here in the book of Revelation we see the reality of the Spirit. Today is not the age of doctrine. Today is the age of the speaking Spirit. In all the other epistles, Peter speaks, John speaks, and Paul speaks. Only in the book of Revelation does it mention the Spirit speaking. “Yea, saith the Spirit” (Rev. 14:13). This is not any kind of doctrine or teaching, but the living reality of the speaking Spirit.
Originally it is the Spirit speaking to the churches; eventually it becomes the speaking of the Spirit and the Bride. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Rev. 22:17). Eventually the Spirit and the Bride have become one, so they speak as one. At the beginning of the book, the Spirit was the Spirit, and the churches were the churches. But at the end of the book, the Spirit and church have become one.
May the Lord have mercy upon us today. If we are still in the realm of doctrine, arguing about which doctrine is right and which is wrong, we have missed the mark. Today is a day of degradation. In this kind of situation, the Lord asks us to listen to the sevenfold intensified Spirit with the seven burning lamps and the seven eyes.