The golden lampstand in the tabernacle is a mysterious sign of the mysterious Triune God in His expression: the gold shows how God the Father is the nature and element, the form shows how God the Son is the expression of God the Father, and the seven lamps show how God the Spirit is the expression and shining out of God the Father in God the Son.
This whole week we have been enjoying three main aspects related to the lampstand: the intrinsic significance of the golden lampstand, the subjective experience of the golden lampstand, and the organic maintenance of the golden lampstand.
We need to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to understand what is the intrinsic significance of the golden lampstand, which was designed by God Himself and portrays the goal of His eternal economy. The intrinsic significance of the golden lampstand is the highest peak of the divine revelation: the lampstand is a type of the Triune God in His nature, embodiment, and expression, and how the Triune God is reproduced to become the churches as the golden lampstands.
We need to subjectively experience the detailed aspects of the golden lampstand so that we can become the reproduction of the lampstand, the corporate expression of the Triune God. The subjective experience of the golden lampstand is the God-man living in many aspects, such as gaining more of God – more gold, more of the Spirit, more love, and more light, going through sufferings for the building up of the church, being blended with one another, bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of light, letting Christ grow in us as resurrection life to shine out of us as the divine light, being trimmed by dealing with the natural life, and gaining more of the Spirit by being shined on by Him and infused with Him.
Now that we have see what the intrinsic significance and the subjective experience of the golden lampstand is, we need to go on and enjoy the organic maintenance of the golden lampstand.
Christ takes care of the Churches in His Humanity by Cherishing them and Trimming the Wicks
How does Christ take care of the lampstands? As see in Rev. 1:13, Christ today is in His heavenly ministry as the High Priest shepherding the churches according to God – according to God’s nature, His desire, His way, and His preference. Christ is the Son of Man – in His humanity – and He is girded about at the breast (a sign of love) with a golden girdle (signifying His divinity).
Christ was girded at the loins when He was on earth accomplishing God’s purpose – He was strengthened for the divine work (see Exo. 28:4; Dan. 10:5) to produce the churches, but now He is in His heavenly ministry girded about at the breasts – He finished the work, now He cares for the churches which He produced in His love. Hallelujah, the churches have already been produced by Christ, and He now is the Son of Man girded about at the breast with a golden girdle, caring for the churches in His humanity!
The golden girdle signifies Christ’s divinity as His divine energy, and the breasts signify love; Christ’s divine energy is exercised and motivated by and with His love to nourish the churches. How wonderful! Christ takes care of the churches in His humanity – He is the Son of Man to cherish them (see Rev. 1:13). How does He care for the churches? As the High Priest, Christ dresses the lamps of the lampstands to make them proper, that is, He cherishes us so that we may be happy, pleasant, and comfortable (see Exo. 30:7; cf. Psa. 42:5, 11).
As the High Priest, Christ trims the wicks and adds the oil; He trims away any religion, worldliness, evil things, and lukewarmness, and He adds Himself as the golden oil so that the churches may shine bright. Christ’s service as the Son of Man in His heavenly ministry has the aim to make us His overcomers! As we eat the tree of life, partake of the hidden manna, and enjoy the heavenly feast, this nourishment becomes the divine element in us, of which the lampstand is composed, and we become intrinsic parts of the lampstand.
The overcomers become the lampstand, and the lampstand is composed of those who overcome. With the overcomers there’s no religion, lukewarmness, worldliness, or evil thing – only the Triune God is their constituent! As the Lord cares for us in His humanity, His presence provides an atmosphere of tenderness and warmth to cherish our being, giving us rest, comfort, healing, cleansing, and encouragement. When we meet with the saints in the local churches we can enjoy the cherishing atmosphere of the Lord’s presence to receive the nourishing supply of life (see Eph. 5:29; cf. 1 Tim. 4:6; Eph. 4:11).
As the High Priest, the Lord trims the wicks of the lamps of the lampstand, cutting off all the negative things that frustrate our shining (Exo. 25:38). Many times we don’t shine out with Christ as the resurrection life but give out “smoke”; the charred part of the wick, the snuff, signifies the things that are not according to God’s purpose and give out smoke….so they need to be cut off!
Our flesh, our natural man, our self, and our old creation need to be “snuffed” by the Lord. He trims away all the differences among the churches (the wrongdoings, shortages, failures, and defects) so that all the local churches may be the same in essence, in appearance, and in expression.
Paul cooperated with the Lord in this when he encouraged the believers to be of the same opinion, have the same mind, speak the same thing, walk in the same steps, think the same thing, and think the one thing – the subjective knowledge and experience of Christ (see 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 12:18; Phil. 2:2).
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Son of Man walking among the local churches to cherish the churches and trim the wicks so that they would shine brighter! Lord, thank You for Your loving tender care which makes us happy, pleasant, and comfortable to open to You and have anything natural trimmed away. Lord, have a way to cut off all the negative things that frustrate our shining: trim away anything of the flesh, the natural man, the self, the old creation, and all the differences between the churches, so that the churches may be the golden lampstands, the same in essence, appearance, and expression!
Christ takes care of the Churches in His Divinity to Nourish the Churches
In His humanity, Christ as the Son of Man takes care of the churches by cherishing them to feel comfortable and pleasant, by dressing the lamps, and by trimming the wicks (anything negative and any differences among the churches). In His divinity – signified by the golden girdle on His breasts – Christ takes care of the churches with His divine love to nourish the churches (Rev. 1:13).
He doesn’t only “cut off” the natural man and anything negative, but He adds the oil: He adds more of Himself as the golden oil, the Spirit, to our being. Christ nourishes us with Himself as the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry of three stages so that we may grow and mature in the divine life to be His overcomers to accomplish His eternal economy!
Hallelujah, our Christ is the all-inclusive One who passed through three main stages: incarnation, inclusion, and intensification, and now He imparts what He is and what He has accomplished into us so that we may grow in the divine life unto maturity and be produced as His overcomers.
As He walks among the churches, Christ gets to know the condition of each church, and He speaks as the Spirit to trim the lamps and fill the lampstands with fresh oil, the fresh supply of the Spirit. He is the walking Christ and the speaking Spirit (Rev. 2:1, 7) – He walks in the midst of the lampstands to get to know the condition of each local church, and He speaks a particular word to each church as the Spirit in order to both trim away anything negative and add the fresh supply of the Spirit for the producing of the overcomers in the churches.
The best way for us to cooperate with the Lord’s organic maintenance of the golden lampstand is to be in the local churches where we can enjoy His care and participate in His move.
Praise the Lord, today He is the High Priest with humanity – feeling with us in our weaknesses, sympathizing with us, cherishing us in His humanity, and trimming anything negative from our being – and with divinity – adding the fresh supply of the golden oil, the Spirit, for us to shine brighter – to cherish and nourish the churches as the golden lampstand so that they would shine brighter for God’s expression!
Lord, thank You for Your loving care of all the churches to nourish them and supply them with the Spirit for them to shine brighter as the golden lampstands on the earth. Lord, keep us open to Your trimming of anything negative in our being and to Your supply of the Spirit as the golden oil, so that we may shine brighter! Oh Lord, You know the condition and situation of each church as the walking Christ: cause us to hear what the Spirit says to the churches and be trimmed and supplied for the golden lampstand!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and The Vital Groups, msg. 11 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 4 (week 28), The Intrinsic Significance, Subjective Experience, and Organic Maintenance of the Golden Lampstand for a New Revival.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# O Lord, do cherish us, as on Thyself we feed; / Warm us so tenderly and meet our every need. / Our hardness soften, Lord, till we are Yours indeed; / Oh, cherish us, dear Lord, we pray. (Hymns #1135)
# In the midst of seven lampstands, now the Son of Man we see; / Eyes ablaze and feet a’burning, He’s for God’s recovery. / God’s intention He’s accomplishing—a corporate entity; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
# Soon the local churches / Shall the Bride become, / Bringing in that city— / New Jerusalem. / Then the many lampstands / Shall one lampstand be; / Triune God expressing, / Universally. (Hymns #1259)
About aGodMan
I thank the Lord that today in His recovery He is the High Priest in His humanity. Hebrews 4 says that we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin (v. 15). Our Christ is the same as we are. He has been tempted in everything like us, so He can easily be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses. This means that He always sympathizes with our weaknesses in His humanity. He is the High Priest in His humanity taking care of us by cherishing us all the time. (Witness Lee, The Vital Groups, pp. 105-107)