REVELATION 1:4-5
Revelation 1:4 and 5 say, "Grace to you and peace from Him [the Triune God including the Father] who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ [the Son], the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth." The Father is the One who is and who was and who is coming. He was in the past, He is in the present, and He is coming in the future. The seven Spirits who are before God’s throne are the operating Spirit of God, God the Spirit. In person the Spirit is one, but in function He is seven. Some people have a three-way lamp, but the Spirit is a "seven-way lamp." God made His Spirit sevenfold intensified. The sevenfold intensified Spirit of God is needed for God’s move and work on the earth.
Jesus Christ as the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth, is God the Son. His being the faithful Witness refers to His earthly life of thirty-three and a half years. He was the Witness, the testimony, the expression of God. His being the Firstborn of the dead refers to His resurrection. Firstly, He lived on this earth as the faithful Witness. Then He resurrected from the dead to become the Firstborn of the dead for the church, the new creation. Today He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth in His ascension. He is ruling over the earth. He was living on this earth as the faithful Witness; then He rose up from the dead as the Firstborn of the dead; and now He is ruling over the earth, the entire world, as the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Thus, Revelation 1:4 and 5 show us that the Father is the One who is and who was and who is coming; the Spirit is the One who is intensified sevenfold; and the Son is the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. From such a Triune God, grace and peace are imparted to the churches.
REVELATION 22:1-2
In Revelation 22:1 and 2 there is a river of water of life [the Spirit] proceeding out of the throne of God [the Triune God including the Father] and of the Lamb [the Son], and on the two sides of the river there is the tree of life [Christ the Son]. This is the wonderful picture presented at the end of the Bible. God’s throne is the center of the holy city. Out of the throne proceeds a river of water of life, and along the two sides of this river grows the tree of life. The one tree of life growing on the two sides of the river signifies that the tree of life is a vine spreading and proceeding along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. This is a marvelous sign in the book of Revelation, which is a book of signs.
The throne of God is the very center of the divine administration in the entire universe. Out of the throne proceeds the flow of the Spirit, the river of water of life. This is why the Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of life in Romans 8:2. The Spirit of life is the river of water of life. In this water of life, Christ grows as the very life supply. Thus, we see God the Father as the source in His administration, God the Spirit in His flow as the water of life, and God the Son growing in the water of life as the tree of life to supply the entire city. The water saturates and the tree supplies so that the entire city will live forever to express the Divine Trinity.
(Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
