Paying the Price to Gain More God in His Divine Nature and being Blended Together

I never thought that the golden lampstand is related to the new revival the Lord wants to gain, but this week as we get into the crystallization-study of Exodus it is made clear to me that this is the case. The intrinsic significance of the golden lampstand is related to the highest peak of the divine revelation; the golden lampstand was designed by God Himself and portrays the goal of His eternal economy (Eph. 1:17; Zech. 4:1-6; Rev. 1:2, 9-12).

We need to pray that we may have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to understand the intrinsic significance of the golden lampstand; the golden lampstand is a type of the Triune God Himself and of the church as the reproduction of Christ.

The golden lampstand signifies the Triune God: the pure gold substance of which the lampstand is made signifies the Father in His divine nature, the form or shape of the lampstand signifies Christ the Son as the embodiment of the Father, and the seven lamps signify God the Spirit as the seven Spirits of God for the expression of the Father in the Son.

Furthermore, as seen in Revelation 1, the local churches today are the reproduction of Christ and the reprint of the Spirit. When we as believers in Christ regenerated with His golden nature exercise our spirit, live in spirit, walk according to the spirit, serve in spirit, and do everything in spirit, we are in reality a part of the golden lampstand for the corporate expression of the Triune God on earth.

Today we want to go on from seeing the intrinsic significance to having the subjective experience of the many details of the golden lampstand so that we can become the reproduction of the lampstand, the expression of the Triune God.

The subjective experience of the detailed aspects of the golden lampstand is the experience of the God-man living for a new revival, and it involves our participation and experience in the essence of the lampstand, the forming of the lampstand through beating, the expression of the lampstand, the reproduction of the lampstand, and all the utensils needed for the maintenance of the lampstand.

Paying the Price to Buy more Gold, more of God in His Divine Nature

The golden lampstand is made of pure gold: no acacia wood or any other element was in the lampstand, only pure gold; the pure gold signifies the eternal, incorruptible, divine nature of God (Exo. 25:31). The branches, calyxes, cups, flowers, and every part of the golden lampstand was of one lump of pure gold.

Through regeneration, we have received the divine nature, and now every day we need to pay the price to gain more gold, more of God in His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4; Rev. 3:18; Zech. 4:12-14; Matt. 25:8-9). We need to be sons of fresh golden oil, gold-men, those who are filled with the golden divine nature so that we may empty the gold from ourselves into the lampstand for it to shine brightly (see Zech. 4:12-14).

In order for us to gain more gold, more of God’s divine nature, we need to gain more of the Spirit (the nature of His person), more of His love (the nature of His being), and more of His light (the nature of His expression).

How can we gain more of the divine nature? It is by exercising our spirit to enjoy and receive more of the Spirit, because God is Spirit – Spirit is the nature of His person (John 4:24). We may not realize this, but our spirit is very crucial: it is not a small thing but a universally vast and spacious realm.

When the Bible says, The Lord be with your spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), or, The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit (Rom. 8:16), this spirit is not an individual spirit but a corporate spirit – “our spirit”, which includes the spirits of all the believers in Christ. Hallelujah, our spirit is universally spacious, and God dwells in our spirit; God is the God of our spirit – He dwells in our spirit!

Furthermore, to gain more of the divine nature we need to allow the Lord to constrain us with His love so that we may no longer live to ourselves but to Him who loved us and gave Himself up for us (2 Cor. 5:14-15). We need to be walled in by God’s love, impelled by His fervent love, and constrained by His love to the point that we no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died and has been raised.

To enjoy and receive more of the divine nature we need to be under a clear sky, an open heaven, with God’s throne above it, so that we may see God as light (Ezek. 1:22, 26). When we deal with any problem between us and the Lord, we have a clear sky and a heavenly atmosphere and condition with God’s ruling presence.

When we have any mixture in our Christian life, we are in darkness, but when our Christian life is purified through the divine nature, we have light (cf. Deut. 22:9). May we be free from any mixture and be purified through the divine nature as we exercise our spirit to enjoy God as Spirit, allow God’s love to constrain us, and have open heaven between us and the Lord to enjoy His shining!

Lord Jesus, we want to pay the price to gain more gold, more of God in His divine nature! Fill us with Your Spirit as golden oil every day so that we may be part of the golden lampstand expressing You! Lord, constrain us with Your love until we no longer live to ourselves but to the Lord, the One who died for us and has been raised. Amen, Lord, flow in as a tide of love, and take us beyond control in the love of God! Lord, we want to have a clear sky and an open heaven with Your throne above it, enjoying the heavenly atmosphere and condition of God’s ruling presence!

Participating in Christ’s Sufferings for the Church and being Blended Together

On the one hand, we need to gain more of the divine nature through experiencing what God is in His nature: Spirit, love, and light; on the other hand, this gold that we gain needs to be “beaten together” into the lampstand.

The golden lampstand was of beaten work, which indicates sufferings (Exo. 25:31). We need more gold, and we need to participate in Christ’s sufferings for the producing and building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Christ has also suffered in the flesh, and we need to arm ourselves with the same mind of suffering, taking Him as our pattern (1 Pet. 4:1). Our aspiration should be like the Apostle Paul’s, to know the Lord and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10).

Paul rejoiced to fill up on his part that which is lacking from the afflictions of Christ for the building up of the church (Col. 1:24), and he experienced the limitation of the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:6-7).

When Paul and Silas were in prison as a result of preaching the gospel in Phillipi (where they went under the leading of the Spirit of Jesus), while praying they were singing praises to God, mingling petitions with songs of praise, and the prisoners were listening to them, enjoying their singing (Wheast translation of Acts 16:25).

We need to not only gain more gold but allow the Spirit of Jesus to operate in us and lead us into the experience of the sufferings of Christ for the producing and building up of the church. We cannot participate in the experience of the sufferings of Christ for redemption, but we all should have a share in Christ’s sufferings for the producing and building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

The gold which we gain, the divine nature we accumulate through experiencing Christ, should be beaten together, built together into one entity. Being a spiritual person while remaining an individual who is not built up in the Body is meaningless; a big lump of gold is not a lampstand unless it is beaten together.

We need to not be spiritual as an end in itself but our experience and enjoyment of God must be beaten and built together with others for the producing and building up of the church, the lampstand.

The Lord wants to gain the building, and our experience and enjoyment of the divine nature needs to be built up and blended together with others’ experience and enjoyment into the golden lampstand. This means that we must be beaten together with others into one entity, that is, we must be blended together through the cross and by the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:24) so that together we may shine forth the light of God for His corporate testimony as the golden lampstand.

Lord Jesus, save us from being spiritual believers who are not built up with others. Lord, blend us together with the saints into one entity through the cross and by the Spirit so that we may shine forth the light of God for His corporate testimony on earth, the church as the golden lampstand. Lord, we want to gain more gold, more of the divine nature, and we want to be built up with the saints into God’s building, the golden lampstand. May our experiences of the divine nature be for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Revelation, msg. 31 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 4 (week 28), The Intrinsic Significance, Subjective Experience, and Organic Maintenance of the Golden Lampstand for a New Revival.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me, / As some strong tide it presseth on its way, / Seeking a channel in my self-bound soul, / Yearning to sweep all barriers away. (Hymns #431)
  # For the oil a price we pay, / Deal with self without delay, / Fill your vessels every day— / Buy in time! (Hymns #1304)
  # Early in the morning, / Meeting with the saints, / Gather the fresh manna, / Take in His rich grace! / Christ in all the saints, / Living, fresh and new. / Blending with each other, / Tasting morning dew! (Song on being blended)