The mending ministry of John, a mending ministry of life, is not a superficial fix here and there in our Christian life and work. Rather, it is a mending ministry that fixes us, completes us, adds to us, perfects us, attunes us, and makes us built-up members in the Body of Christ.
The goal of the mending ministry of life is to constitute us with Christ and make us one with Him so that we would be in complete oneness as the genuine testimony of Jesus. The burden and the goal of the mending ministry of life is the testimony of Jesus.
God desires to be expressed in an enlarged way, and for this He became a man and then became the life-giving Spirit, and in this age He is the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit to come into us, be our life, and carry out the mending ministry in us to produce us as His overcomers, the testimony of Jesus.
In the book of Revelation we see eight main aspects of the church as the testimony of Jesus: the seven golden lampstands, the great multitude, the woman with the manchild, the firstfruits of the harvest, the overcomers on the glassy sea, the bride, the bridal army, and the New Jerusalem.
This week we will be getting deeper into these eight aspects, and today specifically we will see how the church as the testimony of Jesus is the seven golden lampstands. These lampstands are divine in nature, shining in darkness, and identical with one another (see Rev. 1:1-2, 10-13; 2:1). The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is in us to produce us as the reproduction of Christ, the testimony of Jesus.
The church is one universally and many in its local expressions – and all these expressions are one, the same in life, nature, expression, and function! The way we can experience the golden lampstands as the testimony of Jesus is by being filled with the Spirit of Jesus through calling on the name of the Lord Jesus to bear His brands as brothers and fellow partakers in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance of Jesus!
God’s Desire and the Goal of the Mending Ministry: The Testimony of Jesus
God’s desire is to be expressed. The whole Bible shows us how God created man, called man, works on and with man, and works Himself into man so that man may be His corporate expression. He gained an individual expression in the Lord Jesus while He was on the earth, and now He desires that the many believers in Christ would be the testimony of Jesus.
As seen in Rev. 1:1 (see note 1), the whole Bible reveals Christ, and especially the book of Revelation as the conclusion, completion, and consummation of the whole Bible is “the revelation of Jesus Christ”. Also the Bible (and the book of Revelation) speaks of the testimony of Jesus, which is the church.
“Christ is the Witness of God (1:5), the testimony and the expression of God. The church is the testimony and the expression of Christ. As such, the church is the reproduction of the testimony and the expression of God in Christ.” (Rev. 1:2, note 1 part 2)
God’s desire and the goal of the mending ministry of John is the testimony of Jesus! In Genesis 1:26 we see that God created man in His image and likeness so that man would be His corporate expression and representative on earth, joining God in acquiring dominion over the earth.
In Exodus we see not only the history of the people of Israel on their way to the good land, but the tabernacle and the ark. The burden in Exodus is related to the ark of the testimony and the tabernacle of the testimony. Christ is the ark, and He is being enlarged in His people, the church, to make them the enlarged testimony of Jesus on the earth!
In Matt. 6 the Lord Jesus prayed for God’s kingdom to come ON EARTH – on earth, God desires to have a testimony. In Matt. 16 after the revelation of Christ as the Son of the living God we see that the Lord desires to have a built-up church, which will be opposed by Satan – yet Christ will make sure it is built up! In Matt. 24:14 we see that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the entire earth for a testimony – and then the end will come!
The Lord Jesus prayed in John 17 the deepest prayer, and His desire was that the believers would be one as the Triune God is one – so that there would be a testimony, the testimony of Jesus! We need to see that, just like John, we are here for the word of God (Christ Himself) and the testimony of Jesus (the church).
The Testimony of Jesus is the Golden Lampstands
photo credit: Stefan4m via Twitter – The church is the Testimony of Jesus
In the first three chapters of the book of Revelation we see the church as the testimony of Jesus being the seven golden lampstands. First of all, the church is only ONE in essence and substance; universally, the church is one. For its expression in the many localities on the earth, the church is in many localities as the golden lampstands.
These lampstands shine in the dark night, they are made of gold (they are golden), and they shine so that people may see Christ as the Son of Man walking in their midst! Today all the local churches on earth as the testimony of Jesus are the golden lampstands, the expression and shining out of the Triune God.
Throughout the Bible, the golden lampstand symbolizes the Triune God – gold signifies the nature of the Father, the shape is Christ as the embodiment of the Father, and the lamps shining is the Spirit, the realization of Christ (Exo. 25:31-40; Zech. 4:2-10).
Here in Revelation we see that the Father as the substance is embodied in the Son, the Son as the embodiment is expressed through the Spirit, and the sevenfold intensified Spirit is fully realized and expressed as the churches, the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:10-12).
The golden lampstands are not something without life, inert, and dead, but they are a person – Jesus Christ reproduced and enlarged in humanity to be the testimony of Jesus! Right now, Christ as the life-giving Spirit is like liquid gold coming into us to be our life and life supply to constitute us and make us His enlargement and duplication as the golden lampstands.
The specific shape and aspect of the golden lampstands (as seen in Exo. 25:31, 35), with calyxes and buds, give us the impression of a growing tree, where the flames are the “fruit”. The divine thought is that the golden lampstand is actually a living and growing tree (with calyxes, almond buds, etc). The lampstand portrays the Triune God embodied in Christ as a living, golden tree of resurrection which grows, buds, and blossoms in us, with us, by us, and out of us as the fruit of the light!
When we were regenerated, the Triune God branched out in us and now through us He bears the fruit of the light, which is good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression (see Eph. 5:8-9)! Wow!
The one God-man, Christ, has become the life-giving Spirit to regenerate and live in and be expressed through the millions of God-men, living a God-man life in them for the testimony of Jesus on the earth!
How can we Experience the Golden Lampstands as the Testimony of Jesus?
When we see such a high revelation of the church as the testimony of Jesus, the golden lampstands, with so many rich implications, we may ask, How can we experience the golden lampstands as the testimony of Jesus?
God doesn’t want us only to see a revelation of the testimony of Jesus in the seven golden lampstands – He wants us to experience this in our daily life and church life. In order for us to experience the golden lampstands as the testimony of Jesus (Acts 9:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12), we need to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7) by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus continually (1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:12-13; Lam. 3:55-56)!
Don’t stop breathing spiritually: call on the name of the Lord to be filled with the golden nature of God, the Spirit of Jesus! We need to call on the name of the Lord wherever we are, and we need to call on Him as often as we breath! When we call on the name of the Lord, we will bear the brands of Jesus (Gal. 6:17) as brothers and fellow partakers in the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance in Jesus (Rev. 1:9-10).
Remember: the only Person who can be a Christian and an overcomer is the Spirit who is today our breath. The key to being a Christian, the key to being an overcomer, and the key to being the golden lampstands as the testimony of Jesus is calling on the name of the Lord to be filled with Him as the liquid gold and become the testimony of Jesus!
The more we call on the name of the Lord, the more we are filled with the Spirit, and Christ as a living Person will grow in us, increase in our being, shine out of us, bud in us, be reproduced in us, and He will be testified in us!
Lord Jesus, keep us calling on Your name today. Save us from not breathing You in all the time. May we breathe You in unceasingly. O Lord Jesus! Fill us with Your Spirit. Thank You for branching out in humanity to reach us, and now the Triune God embodied in Christ is realized as the Spirit to be our breath every day! Lord, grow in us. Shine in us and through us. Bear the fruit of the light in us. We are here for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. We are here for Christ and the church. May Christ be testified in us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Revelation (msg. 8), 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.
- Further reading:
# msg. 93 in, Life-Study of Exodus.
# Rev. 1:1-2 with footnotes in the Recovery Version.
# Read more about, Calling on the Name of the Lord via the BFA blog. - Hymns on this topic:
# Thus will the Church be purified / To be the lampstand of pure gold, / To match the testimony pure, / The life of Jesus fit to hold. / The local churches here on earth / The lampstands in this age should be; / The glorious new Jerusalem / The lampstand in eternity. (Hymns #822)
# Do you see them in the cities, / Meeting on the local ground? / They’re the local, golden lampstands, / Where the Lord His home has found. / ’Tis the local church, the church God has chosen, / Where all the saints dwell as one! / ’Tis the local church, the church God has chosen, / Where all the saints dwell as one! (Hymns #1257)
# O make Thy Church, dear Savior, / A lampstand of pure gold, / To bear before the nations / Thy light, that all behold; / O teach Thy wandering pilgrims / By this their path to trace, / Till, clouds and darkness ended, / They see Thee face to ace. (Hymns #803)
# Jesus! O what a name! / O Lord Jesus! Life-giving name! / Name victorious, name all-glorious, / Name exalted—O what a name! / Jesus! Strengthening name! / O Lord Jesus! Comforting name! / Name to breathe in prayer, calling everywhere, / “O Lord Jesus!” O what a name! (Hymns #1083)
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