The Lord Jesus as the High Priest cherishes the churches in His humanity and nourishes them in His divinity. He is right now walking among the local churches in order to know their situation, and in His priestly service He trims the charred wicks and adds the oil.
On the one hand, in His speaking to the churches the Lord exposed their problem (trimmed the charred wicks of the lamp), and on the other hand, He added the oil. The Lord is not walking among the churches merely to see what’s going on and then criticize the situation; rather, He wants to speak a specific word according to our need, and then He adds the oil for us to shine brighter!
Where can we see that the Lord adds the oil? Eating the tree of life (Rev. 2:7), eating of the hidden manna (Rev. 2:17), and feasting with the Lord (Rev. 3:20) are ways to be filled with the oil, filled and supplied with the Spirit.
In this process of trimming the dark things of religion, worldliness, evil, and lukewarmness, and adding the life-supply of the Spirit, there’s a metabolic process taking place in our being: we become precious stones for the building up of God’s dwelling place!
On the one hand, the negative and evil things are being trimmed away, and on the other hand, the positive things of God’s life are being added to our being to that we may be reconstituted with His life and become His overcomers.
This is the Lord’s aim in His heavenly service – He doesn’t care for us merely to help us out to live a good Christian life or to smooth things out in the family life and church life; the Lord’s aim in His heavenly service is to make us His overcomers. He trims the wicks and adds the oil in abundance so that we may be His overcomers.
It is actually the overcomers who compose the lampstand – they are the ones shining out for the Lord’s testimony!
The Triune God has been Intensified to Bring the Degraded Church Back to the Enjoyment of Himself
In the book of Revelation we see that the Triune God, who is now the Spirit, has been intensified sevenfold so that He may bring the degraded church back to the enjoyment of Himself! Time and time again the Lord calls the overcomers back to enjoying God as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the feast.
The Lord’s speaking to the seven churches doesn’t only trim the charred wicks but also adds the oil by calling the overcomers to come to the Lord and eat Him as the tree of life (Rev. 2:7), the hidden manna (Rev. 2:17), and the feast (Rev. 3:20).
We need to always remember and never forget: eating Christ as the tree of life is the primary matter in the church life. In the recovery of the proper church life today the enjoyment of God as life is the most important matter, and we should never allow the enemy to distract us from this one thing.
The Lord sees our situation and condition both corporately as the church and individually as saints, and He calls each one of us individually to come to Him and eat Him as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the feast.
Sometimes the Lord is outside our door, knocking and trying to get in; if we open to Him, He will come int to us, He will dine with us, and we will feast with Him.
May we be those who eat Christ as the tree of life every day, seek to eat the hidden manna often, and open the door of our heart to Him that we may feast on the riches of Christ as the good land together with Him!
By His Trimming and Supplying we are Organically Constituted as His Overcomers
As the Lord is serving us in His priestly ministry, a metabolic process is going on in our being. He as the High Priest is trimming away all the dark things of religion, worldliness, evil, and lukewarmness. On the positive side, He is adding the divine element of the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the heavenly feast.
On the one hand the negative things are being trimmed away and eliminated, and on the other hand the positive things are being added to our being.
If we are open to the Lord’s up-to-date speaking to the churches today, there will be a metabolic process taking place in our being in which anything old and natural and degraded will be discharged and replaced with the new, heavenly, and divine element. This is the process of transformation, with the result of producing us into precious stones for God’s building.
We simply need to let the Lord’s speaking trim away anything negative and add the divine element to us, and we will be metabolically transformed.
What is the goal of this metabolic process in this age, at the end of the age of the church? It is to produce us as the overcomers! Christ’s priestly service aims to make us His overcomers (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21).
He wants golden lampstands, bright shining testimony of Jesus on earth, and for this He is looking for those who would have an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
The Spirit’s speaking trims the religion, the worldliness, the evil things, and the lukewarmness, and adds the element of the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the heavenly feast to produce us as the overcomers the Lord needs in the churches today. It is the overcomers who shine, and it is the overcomers who constitute the lampstand!
Wow! I have never seen this until now: let me quote what brother Lee says on this,
…But when you eat of the tree of life, when you partake of the hidden manna, and when you enjoy the heavenly feast, this nourishment will become the divine element of which the lampstand is composed. Thus every local church will be a lampstand, and in every local church will be overcomers. These overcomers will make up the lampstand. With them religion, worldliness, evil, and lukewarmness will have been trimmed away. The heavenly element will have been supplied to you as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the heavenly feast. What you will have is the Triune God Himself. He will become your constituent. With such a golden constitution there will be the lampstand. A lampstand eventually is the overcomers in a local church. (The Mending Ministry of John, pp. 124-125)
At the end of the age of the church the Lord is calling the overcomers, those reconstituted with the element of the Triune God that they may shine in this dark age as the golden lampstands.
For this, the Lord Jesus is arranging the whole world situation so that people would be saved, come into the church life, and be produced as His overcomers. In His heavenly ministry, the Lord is exercising to supply God’s lovers and seekers with the heavenly riches so that “they may be kept at an overcoming level” (W. Lee)! Wow!
It’s not our seeking or our doing – it is Christ ministering and serving in His heavenly ministry that produces some who are maintained at an overcoming level (see Acts 5:31; Heb. 7:25; 8:2). Praise the Lord for His heavenly ministry!
Lord, keep us open to You. Give us an ear to hear what You are speaking today as the Spirit to the churches. Lord, keep us open to Your trimming. Trim away any dark and black thing of religion, worldliness, evil, and lukewarmness. We want to come forward to You, Lord, to enjoy You as the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the heavenly feast. By Your mercy, Lord, produce us as the overcomers You need to end this age and bring You back. Make us those who give You their best cooperation for this!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The Mending Ministry of John (ch. 16), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 5 / msg 5, Christ’s Heavenly Priesthood Ministered to the Churches for the Producing of the Overcomers.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Let every church just love Him more / His riches then He will outpour. / All other loves now lay aside; / Let’s take this Jesus, none beside. (Hymns #1184)
# Our lamps to shine forth must be trimmed / By calling on Thee every day. / In spirit we must exercise / To burn all the oldness away. / But there is a much deeper need: / Reality in us must grow, / Until it makes home in our hearts, / Till oil in our vessels o’erflows. (Hymns #1303)
# Overcome, overcome; / Lord, I pray to overcome, / By the Spirit sevenfold intensified; / Lord, I pray to overcome. (new song: Rain on me)
# “Seven Spirits” of our God— / Lo, the age has now been turned / To the Spirit with the Son. / For the churches He’s concerned. / Come, O seven Spirits, come, / Thy recovery work be done! / Burn and search us thoroughly, / All the churches are for Thee. / Burn us, search us, / All the churches are for Thee! (Hymns #1122)
