SEVEN LAMPS SHINING
The other aspect is that of the seven Spirits. The Spirit of God today is the seven lamps, shining on us in an intensified way. Many of us have experienced this intensified shining, far stronger than a simple prick of the conscience, condemning a wrong thought or wrong motive. What did not bother us in the past we can no longer do. If we open our mouth to tell a joke, the seven Spirits shine and our sentence is cut off in midair. If we begin to make some critical comments about a certain sister, the seven Spirits shine and our words fail. Even when we are off just a little, the Spirit is there as the light shining.
These seven Spirits are also the seven eyes (Rev. 5:6), watching and transfusing you with God. When we look at others, we infuse what is in us into them. As the seven Spirits shine, the seven eyes transmit God into us. It is by this means that the element of God in us is increased.
We are men of clay, but day by day the gold in us increases. This gold is living and flowing, as we can see from Zechariah 4:12, where we are told that the two golden pipes empty the gold (oil is not in the original) out of themselves. The gold is not a solid mass, but in a liquid state so that it can flow out. God is this gold which is flowing out of us. Formerly what flowed out of us was the bitter water of gossip, criticism, and foolish talking. Now out of us flows gold! The clay is decreasing, as we are more and more transformed.
ACCORDING TO SPIRIT
For the gold in you to increase you must learn to walk according to spirit (Gal. 5:25). Again and again during the day you must turn to the spirit. “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). If a problem arises with your spouse, or if a brother complains that your work is not satisfactory, do not reply in haste. A quick answer will open the door to Satan. Instead of replying, pray! Set your mind on the spirit. Call on the Lord. Then the words that come forth from your mouth will come from the spirit rather than from Satan. The Lord will be your wisdom, and gold will flow out instead of bitter water. You will sense from the Spirit of the Lord what you should say; in your speaking, He will be speaking.
Our greatest problem, as those whose spirits have been quickened, is that we do not live according to spirit. We live according to our mind, or our knowledge, or what the Bible teaches. To live according to spirit, we must pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17). All day long we must maintain a spirit of prayer. In every situation which arises, we should pause before answering or reacting. If we take a moment to renew our touch with the Lord, then we have the opportunity to respond to the situation in spirit instead of in our natural way.
Ephesians 6:18 reminds us of the importance of prayer. “By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit, and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” We need to have “all prayer… praying at every time in spirit…watching…in all perseverance.” This is the way to preserve ourselves in the spirit.
As we thus become one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), He will become our living. We shall become men of gold, and the whole church will be a golden lampstand, expressing the Triune God. We shall live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25) and have our mind set on the spirit. By the mingling of these two spirits, we can be watchful to keep ourselves in the spirit of prayer. Then what we live out will be “no longer I…but Christ” (Gal. 2:20). To us to live will be Christ (Phil. 1:21). This is the normal way for us to live. It is by this means that the church will become a golden lampstand.
(Life Messages, Vol. 2 (#42-75), Chapter 34, by Witness Lee)
