THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS
By the Lord’s mercy, we have seen that in the book of Revelation there is the sevenfold Spirit for the testimony of Jesus. "The testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 1:2, 9; 20:4) is an all-inclusive expression. This all-inclusive term is not so easy to define. The testimony of Jesus is the testimony of the Son coming with the Father by the Spirit to live on this earth for thirty-three and a half years and to die on the cross to clear up the universe, to release the divine life, and to resurrect from the dead to become a life-giving Spirit; the life-giving Spirit comes as the Son with the Father compounded with divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, including all the divine attributes and all the human virtues. Such a compound testimony is the testimony of Jesus. This testimony has a symbol—the golden lampstand. The golden lampstand is the testimony of Jesus.
THE EMBODIMENT OF THE TRIUNE GOD
As the testimony of Jesus, the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God. In the golden lampstand there are three main factors. First, the entire lampstand is gold. It is not only golden, but gold itself. In typology in the Bible, gold always signifies God the Father’s divine nature. Furthermore, the golden lampstand is not a lump of gold, but a piece of gold in a definite form and a purposeful shape. This signifies the embodiment of the Godhead, the embodiment of the Father’s nature, and this embodiment is the Son, Christ (Col. 2:9). Christ is the embodiment of God. The third factor is the seven lamps, which are shining for God’s expression. These seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God. Thus, with the lampstand are the nature, the embodiment, and the expression. Based upon these items, we can say that the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God.
Revelation 4:5 tells us that the seven lamps are the seven Spirits. Since the seven lamps are the seven Spirits, the essence and the shape of the lampstand must also be something of the Triune God. Thus, the golden essence signifies God the Father, and the shape, the form, the appearance, of the lampstand signifies God the Son. In the lampstand we see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, so the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God. God the Father is embodied in the Son, and the Son is expressed through the Spirit—this is the testimony of Jesus.
According to Revelation 1, the golden lampstands are the churches (vv. 11-12). Every local church is a golden lampstand, and the golden lampstand is the embodiment of the Triune God as the testimony of Jesus. Thus, the local churches are the multiplied embodiment of the Triune God. This definition is too high, too profound. The Apostle Paul did not say anything about this high, deep, and profound aspect of the church. In Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, the church is revealed as the Body of Christ (1:22-23), the new man (2:15), the kingdom of God, the household of God (2:19), the temple, the dwelling place of God (2:21-22), the fullness of the unlimited God (3:19), the bride (5:25-27), and the warrior (6:10-20). But Paul never told us that the churches are the lampstands.
(The Divine Economy, Chapter 14, by Witness Lee)
