Christ as the Son of Man is the High Priest walking among the golden lampstands (the local churches) to cherish the churches in His humanity and nourish them in His divinity; He trims the lamps, adds the oil, and He dresses the lamps of the lampstands to make them proper.
Lord Jesus, we open to You as our High Priest. Thank You for being the Son of Man walking among the local churches to see the situation in each church. Thank You for observing, watching, and caring for us. Have a way, Lord, to trim what is negative and natural among us. Remove anything that hinders the shining. Add more of Yourself as the oil to the lamps, even to all the saints, so that we may shine brighter with You as the light! Amen!
May the Lord grant us His grace and mercy for us to see Christ as the Son of Man walking in the midst of the golden lampstands.
May we have an exercised spirit to be the messengers today, the overcoming saints who hear what the Spirit is speaking to the churches and who see Christ in His heavenly ministry caring for the churches.
On the one hand, we need to be in spirit, for the revelation of Christ is in our spirit. On the other hand, we need to be on the genuine ground of oneness, for only when we’re in the proper local churches can we receive a vision of Christ.
This means that we should always be one, with no divisions among us, and the unique name we should gather should be the name of Jesus, no other name.
Also, we meet in the place of God’s habitation, the place of His choice, which is our spirit, with the application of the altar, which is the cross.
We allow the cross to cross us out and we meet in the name of Jesus. Also, we are fellow partakers in the tribulation, the kingdom, and the endurance in Jesus.
Just like the apostle John, we are fellow partakers in the tribulation in Jesus, knowing that it is through many tribulations that we enter into the kingdom of God.
We do not love our soul life but rather, we are willing to lay it down on behalf of the brothers. We are fellow partakers in the kingdom in Jesus, living the church life and pursuing Christ with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
And we care for the sinning brothers, asking in prayer and giving them life. We are fellow partakers in the endurance in Jesus, being aware of the wearing-out tactics of Satan and enduring with the endurance of Christ that we have enjoyed and experienced. Amen!
Christ as the Son of Man Takes Care of the Churches in His Humanity to Cherish Them
In Revelation 1:13 we see that Christ is the Son of Man clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle in order for Him to cherish the churches in His humanity and nourish them in His divinity. Oh, what a wonderful Christ we have!
When we’re in spirit, on the ground of oneness, and fellow partakers of the tribulation and kindom and endurance in Jesus, we see a vision of Christ as the Son of Man.
The fact that He is the Son of Man shows us His humanity, the golden girdle signifies His divinity, and breasts are a sign of love.
Christ is today the Son of Man in His resurrection and ascension, and He is walking among the local churches as the golden lampstands to take care of them.
He is the Son of man, taking care of the churches in His humanity to cherish them.
The fact that He is girded at the breasts signifies that He has done all the work, and now He cares for the churches in love.
In the Old Testament, the priests were girded at the loins for their ministry (Exo. 28:4), and in Daniel 10:5 Christ was girded at the loins with fine gold.
This is for strengthening for the work. But the Christ we see in Revelation 1 is girded at the breast; He has finished His divine work in producing the churches, and now by His love He is caring for the churches that He has produced by His love.
The golden girdle, furthermore, signifies Christ’s divinity as His divine energy; the fact that this golden girdle is at the breasts signifies that Christ’s golden energy is exercised and motivated by and with His love to nourish the churches.
Thank the Lord that today He is the Son of Man walking in the midst of the golden lampstands, the local churches, in order to take care of the churches in His humanity as the Son of Man, mainly to cherish them! He cherishes us in His humanity.
To cherish someone is to make them happy and comfortable; to nourish someone is to feed them by giving them something to eat.
Christ is the Son of man as our High Priest, and He is cherishing the churches in His humanity, and at the same time, He is nourishing the churches in His divinity. Praise the Lord for such a High Priest!
He cherishes us, making us happy and comfortable, and He also nourishes us, giving us something of Himself to be nourished with.
Christ is the best model of cherishing and nourishing; He is taking care of all the local churches by being the Son of Man with a long garment, which is the priestly robe (Exo. 28:33-35).
He is our great High Priest. He cares for us in love. He is not working or toiling; He has done all the work, and now He is cherishing us in His humanity.
The totality of Christ in His divinity has become a girdle, strengthening Him with a divine energy to care for us in love. Christ’s divine energy is exercised by and with His love to nourish the churches. May we open to His cherishing and nourishing.
May we both personally and corporately see a vision of Christ as the Son of Man walking among the golden lampstands and open to Him to allow Him to cherish us in His humanity and nourish us in His divinity so that we may be intensely living and intensely shining.
When we come to Him both personally and corporately, He makes us feel pleasant, happy, and comfortable; as we open to Him, He cherishes us in His humanity and nourishes us in His divinity to make sure the church is shining brightly as the testimony of Jesus.
Lord Jesus, grant us to be in our spirit, on the ground of oneness, and be fellow partakers in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus so that we may see You! Amen, Lord, may we see a vision of Christ as the Son of Man being the High Priest walking among the churches! May we realise that today Christ is our High Priest clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle. Hallelujah, Christ is walking among the local churches to observe the situation so that He may cherish the churches in His humanity and nourish them in His divinity! Amen, Lord, we open to Your cherishing and nourishing. We open to Your care in love. Thank You for being energised and motivated to care for us in love. How we love to be here, in the local churches, under the loving care and cherishing of the Son of Man, our great High Priest! Oh Lord, we open to Your cherishing in Your humanity and Your nourishing in Your divinity today!
Christ Cherishes us in Love and Cuts off all the Negative Things that Frustrate our Shining
What does it mean for Christ to cherish the churches in His humanity? How does He do it?
In Revelation chapters 1-3 we see how Christ walks among the local churches and He speaks to them; by His speaking, He presents who He is to the churches, He shines on their situation, He points out certain problems, and He gives the solution.
He both cherishes the churches in His humanity and nourishes them in His divinity.
In the aspect of cherishing, Christ dresses the lamps oft he lampstands to make them proper; He cherishes us so that we may be happy, pleasant, and comfortable.
Just as the priests in the Old Testament had to dress the lamps to make them proper, so Christ today does among the churches (Exo. 30:7).
An application of this can be seen in Psalm 42:5 and 11, where we see the salvation of His countenance becoming the salvation of our countenance.
When we look at Him, when we behold the Lord, we see His smiling face, and our very countenance is saved, for we are becoming happy as He is happy.
Before we can go to others to care for them in love, we need to be made happy and comfortable by the Lord, otherwise, we are miserable and others will not accept our care or visitation.
May we never contact anyone with a cheerless countenance.
Spurgeon once said that an individual who has no cheerfulness about him had better be an undertaker. Oh Lord!
Even as ministers of the Word of God, we may be those who do not have a cheerful countenance.
Our countenance needs to be saved. As we come to the Lord in His word and open to Him, He saves us inwardly, and He makes us feel happy, comfortable, and pleasant.
The Lord’s presence, when we come into His presence, provides an atmosphere of tenderness and warmth to cherish our being.
When we contact the Lord, we enjoy His tenderness, we feel warmed up, and our whole being is cherished.
The Lord’s presence gives us rest, comfort, healing, cleansing, and encouragement.
We can testify to this from our own experience; sometimes we touch the Lord personally or we may be in the meetings, and we open to the Lord, and He simply gives us comfort and rest, heals us and cleanses us, and we are so encouraged.
We can enjoy the cherishing atmosphere of the Lord’s presence in the church to receive the nourishing supply of life (Eph. 5:29; cf. 1 Tim. 4:6; Eph. 4:11).
As we come to the meetings of the church, we touch the presence of Christ as the Son of Man walking in the midst of the churches, and we are nourished with the rich supply of life.
On the one hand, we are made comfortable, restful, and encouraged; on the other hand, as we open to the Lord in such an atmosphere of love and cherishing, we receive the nourishing supply of life.
The Lord Jesus as the Son of Man is cherishing the churches in His humanity; He does this by first making us happy and comfortable, and then by trimming anything that is negative.
Just as the priests in the Old Testament dressed the lamps by removing by cutting any charred wicks of the lamps so that the lampstand would shine brightly, so the Lord today trims the wicks of the lamps of the lampstand (Exo. 25:38).
He dresses the lamps to make them proper and shining. He trims the wicks of the lamps of the lampstand by cutting off all the negative things that frustrate our shining.
We may think we are shining, but we’re actually giving off smoke, for there are negative things in our being and among us that hinder our shining; we need the Lord as the High Priest to come in as the Son of Man to trim away by cutting anything negative that frustrates our shining.
With the lamps of the lampstand in the Old Testament there was the charred part of the wick, the snuff; this had to be trimmed by cutting so that the lamps would shine brightly (Lev. 24:4).
This charred part signifies things that are not according to God’s purpose and need to be cut off. Such things are our flesh, our natural man, our self, and our old creation.
The Lord Jesus is cutting off all these negative elements and things so that we may be intensely shining as the testimony of Jesus.
The lampstands are organic – they are living lampstands, and each church is a living lampstand, having much feeling.
When there are things which are negative, they hinder the shining, and there’s a need for the Son of Man to come in and trim them away.
Christ trims away all the differences among the churches – He trims the wrongdoings, the shortages, the failures, and the defects – so that the churches may be the same in essence, appearance, and expression (see 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 12:18; Phil. 2:2).
The churches should be the same in their essence and appearance, even in their expression, so the Lord as the Son of Man exposes and cuts off anything that hinders the shining and cause the churches to be different, any negative element.
In our experience, as we come to the Lord, as we come to the throne of grace, He as our High Priest is touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, and He takes care of us by cherishing us in His humanity and nourishing us in His divinity (Heb. 4:15-16).
May we open to Him and come to Him as we are, allowing Him to expose and cut off anything that hinders the shining.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Son of Man caring for the churches in Your humanity to cherish them. We open to You. Have a way to dress the lamps of the lampstands to make them proper. We open to Your cherishing; You make us happy, pleasant, and comfortable. The salvation of Your countenance becomes the salvation of our countenance. We love to be in Your presence, for Your presence provides an atmosphere of tenderness and warmth. Your presence cherishes our being and gives us rest and comfort, healing and encouragement. Oh, how wonderful it is to be in the cherishing atmosphere of the Lord’s presence in the church so that we may receive the nourishing supply of life! Amen, Lord, we love You and we open to Your cherishing. Have a way to cut off anything that is negative, anything that frustrates our shining. Have Your way, Lord, to cut off anything that is not according to Your purpose. Trim away all the differences among the churches so that the churches may be the same in essence, appearance, and expression! Amen, Lord, gain the glorious shining lampstands, the testimony of Jesus!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994- 1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 154-156, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 39 (msg. 3), Christ as the Son of Man Walking in the Midst of the Golden Lampstands – day 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ in love Himself has given / That the Church be sanctified, / Without blemish, spot, or wrinkle, / To become His glorious bride. / He does nourish her and cherish / As a man his body treats; / He and she become one body— / Thus the myst’ry very great. (Hymns #823 stanza 8)
– 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. / O Lord, do cherish us today, / Until our coldness flees away. / Oh, hold us close to Thee / And cherish tenderly; / O Lord, do cherish us today. (Hymns #1135 stanza 4 and chorus)
– His appearance, lo, how different / From the One John knew before. / Now He’s girt in golden raiment, / Not the robe which then He wore. / Girt about the breasts and serving, / He the priesthood fully bears; / Cherishing the lampstands dearly, / He for all the churches cares. (Hymns #1183 stanza 2)
