Sermon
Who Are the 7 Spirits of God in Revelation_ (No Ads)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome back to the Bible Stories. You may notice there
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are no ads on this video because YouTube has demonetized
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our channel. To support us. You can scan the first
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QR code to donate directly. Thank you for helping us
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keep these Bible Stories going. The seven Spirits of God
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are not seven different spirits. They are not seven angels
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standing in a row. They are one Spirit, the Holy
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Spirit himself, shown to us in the fullness of everything
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he is. In the language of the Bible, seven is
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the number of what is complete and whole. And so
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when John sees the seven Spirits of God before the
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throne of Heaven, he is seeing the one Spirit of
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God in his perfect fullness. Nothing is missing in him,
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nothing is partial. And this matters more than it may
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first seem, because if you have ever felt that God
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gave you only a small piece of himself, that other
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people got the strong, whole presence of God while you
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were handed something thin and far away, then this vision
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was written for you. What John saw was the spirit
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of God, lacking nothing, standing at the very center of heaven,
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and then moving out toward the whole earth to find
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people exactly like you. Before we can understand the seven spirits,
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we have to understand the man who first wrote those words,
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and where he was when he wrote them. His name
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was John. He was old by this point, one of
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the last still living, who had walked beside Jesus, who
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had leaned close to him at the table, who had
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watched him die and then watched him alive again, And
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now near the end of his long life. John was
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not in a comfortable house, surrounded by friends. He was
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a prisoner. He had been sent to a small rocky
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island in the sea called Patmoss, cut off from the
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churches he loved, cut off from the people he had
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spent his life teaching. Imagine the loneliness of that, an
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old man far from home, separated from everyone, with the
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sea on every side. If anyone had reason to feel
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that God had grown distant, that Heaven had gone quiet,
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it was John on that island. We do not always
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picture the men who wrote the Bible this way. We
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imagine them full of confidence, close to God, sure of
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every word. But John was a real person who had
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lost nearly everything. By the end, the friends of his
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youth were gone. The churches he had planted were far
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across the water, facing troubles he could not reach out
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and fix. His own freedom had been taken. And that
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is exactly the person to whom Heaven chose to show
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its deepest secret. John began to write down what he saw,
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and he addressed his words to seven churches that were
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struggling in their own ways. Some were tired, some were afraid,
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some had drifted and lost their first love. And write
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at the beginning of the letter, before the Visions, before
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the trumpets and the Throne, John gave them a greeting.
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He wrote, grace and peace to you from Him who
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is and who was, and who is to come, and
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from the seven spirits before his throne. Revelation, Chapter one,
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verse four read who is standing in that greeting the
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one who is and was and is to come, which
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is God the Father, And later in the same passage,
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Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness. And here right alongside them
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the seven spirits before the throne. This is placed shoulder
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to shoulder with the Father and the Son. From the
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very first page John is telling us that the seven
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spirits belong to God himself. This is wholly ground. So
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the question is no longer only what the seven spirits are.
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The question becomes who they are. And to answer that,
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John takes us up past the walls of his prison
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into the throne room of heaven. John says a door
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stood open in heaven, and a voice called him up.
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What he saw next is almost too bright to describe.
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He saw a throne and someone seated on it, shining
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like precious stone. He saw a rainbow around the throne.
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He saw elders in white and living creatures full of eyes.
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And he heard worship that never stops. And then in
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the middle of all that glory, John noticed something burning.
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He wrote, from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings,
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and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven
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lamps were blazing. These are the seven Spirits of God. Revelation,
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chapter four, verse five. Seven lamps blazing right in front
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of the throne of God. Now John's first readers would
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have felt something stir when they heard about seven lamps.
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They knew that back in the Temple in Jerusalem, in
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the Holy Place, there stood a golden lampstand with seven branches,
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and it was never supposed to go dark day and night.
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Its seven lights burned, keeping the presence of God visible
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in that room. For hundreds of years, that lampstand had
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quietly said one thing to God's people. God is here.
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God has not gone out. God is still shining. So
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when John sees not a lamp stand made of gold,
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but seven living lamps of fire blazing before the very
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throne of Heaven, he is seeing the true thing that
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the old lamp stand only pointed to the Spirit of God,
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complete and full burning at the center of everything, not
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a symbol carved by human hands, the living presence of
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God on fire in the highest place there is. Consider
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what fire meant to the people of the Bible. Fire
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gave light in the dark and warmth in the cold.
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Fire was also how God had shown himself again and
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again in the bush that burned without being consumed, in
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the pillar that led his people through the wilderness at night,
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in the flame that rested on the mountain. Fire was
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the sign that God was present and alive and near
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enough to be fed. Helt And now John sees the
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spirit of God as seven lamps of fire, never dimming,
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never dying down, burning steadily before the throne. This is
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a picture of a presence that does not flicker with
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our moods, and does not go out when we fail.
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The fire of God's spirit is constant on the days
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you feel close to Him and the days you feel
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nothing at all. Those lamps are still blazing exactly the
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same because they're burning never depended on you in the
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first place. And notice where those lamps are. They are
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in front of the throne. They are not off in
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some far corner of heaven, waiting to be needed. They
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are at the center, closest to the seat of God,
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part of the glory itself. If you have ever wondered
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whether the Spirit of God is near to the Father
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or somehow separate from him, this vision answers you The
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spirit blazes at the heart of heaven, inseparable from the
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one who sits on the throne. But this raises a
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fair question, one that troubles many people who read the
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Book of Revelation. Why seven, if this is the one
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holy spirit, why does John keep saying seven spirits? Does
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that mean there are actually seven of them? To answer that,
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we have to understand something. The Bible does again and
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again with that number. From the very beginning, the number
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seven carries a meaning in scripture. It is the number
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of things that are finished and whole. Think back to
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the first page of the Bible. God made the world
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in six days, and on the seventh he rested, not
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because he was tired, but because the work was complete.
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The seventh day was the sign that everything was finished
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and good. From that moment on, seven became the number
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of completeness woven all through the Bible. Seven days in
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the week, a sacrifice sprinkled seven times to show it
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was fully clean. Walls circled seven times before they fell
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again and again. When God wanted to show that something
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was whole, full, and lacking nothing, the number seven appeared.
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So when John wrights seven spirits of God, he is
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not counting heads. He is not telling us there are
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seven separate spirits any more than there were seven separate
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Gods resting on the seventh day. He is telling us
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that the one spirit of God is complete, full, whole,
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perfect in every part. The seven is a way of
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saying that in this spirit, nothing is missing. This matters
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because of how we are tempted to think about God's
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Spirit in our own lives. We imagine that we received
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a week version. We look at some point one whose
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faith seems strong and steady, and we think they must
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have gotten more of God, while we were given a
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smaller share, a flickering candle instead of a fire. But
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the vision John saw does not allow that thought to stand.
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The Spirit before the Throne is sevenfold, which is to say,
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he is total. There is no incomplete version of the
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Holy Spirit. When God gives his spirit, he does not
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ration him out in fragments. And where did John learn
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to see the Spirit of God in these full sevenfold terms.
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He did not invent it. He was reading it, as
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every faithful Jew did, from a promise made hundreds of
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years before he was born, in the words of the
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prophet Isaiah, long before John was born, long before the
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churches he wrote to existed. The prophet Isaiah looked ahead
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to a coming king. Israel was a nation in trouble,
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its future uncertain, its royal family looking like a tree
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that had been cut down to a stump. And Isaiah
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promised that from that dead looking stump from the family
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of Jesse, a fresh green shoot would grow a king
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would come. Then Isaiah described what would rest upon this king.
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He wrote, the spirit of the Lord will rest on him,
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the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of
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counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and
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fear of the Lord. Isiah chapter eleven, verse two. Listen
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to how full that description is. It begins with the
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spirit of the Lord himself, and then unfolds outward like
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light through a prism wisdom and understanding, counsel and might,
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knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This is one
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spirit described in the richness of everything. He brings wisdom
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to see what is true, understanding to know what it means,
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counsel to know the right path, and might to actually
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walk it, Knowledge of God, and a deep reverence that
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keeps the heart soft before him. This was the promise
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of the spirit resting in fullness on the coming King.
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And this is the well that John was drinking from
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when he wrote of the seven spirits of God. The
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same complete sevenfold spirit that Isiah promised would rest on
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the Messiah is the spirit John now sees blazing before
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the throne. Here is the quiet beauty of it. The
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Spirit of God is not only power, He is wisdom
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for the confused. He is understanding for those who feel
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that life makes no sense. He is counsel for the
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person standing at a crossroads with no idea which way
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to turn. He is might for the one who knows
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the right thing but feels far too weak to do it.
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He is knowledge of God for the soul that is
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starving to actually know Him and not just know about him.
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Everything the human heart lacks, this spirit carries in fullness.
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Nothing about God's Spirit is thin. It is worth slowing
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down here because Isiah did not describe the spirit in
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vague words. He named real things, and those things speak
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directly to the places where we hurt if you look closely.
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The description comes in pairs, and each pair meets a
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different kind of need. The first pair is wisdom and understanding.
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Wisdom is the ability to see what is truly good
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and true, and understanding is the ability to grasp what
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it means for your life. Think of how often we
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lack both. We stand in the middle of a decision
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and cannot tell what is right, and even when we
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know what is right, we cannot see why it matters
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or where it leads. Into that fog. The spirit brings light.
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He does not simply hand us rules. He gives the
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kind of seeing that lets a tired soul finally make
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sense of things. Many people believe they need more information,
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when what they really need is the spirit of understanding
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to make plain what has been confusing them for years.
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The second pair is counsel and might. Counsel is knowing
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the right path, and might is the strength to actually
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walk it. This pair speaks to a very common kind
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of pain, the gap between knowing and doing. You know
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you should forgive, and you cannot find the strength. You
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know you should let go of the fear, and it
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clings to you anyway. You know the direction you should take,
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but your legs feel too weak to move. The spirit
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of God is counsel and might together, which means he
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does not only point at the path and leave you
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standing there. He gives the strength to take the first step,
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and the next one and the one after that. He
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is the guide who also carries you when the road climbs.
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The third pair is knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
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Knowledge here is knowing God himself, not merely knowing facts
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about him, and the fear of the Lord is the
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deep reverence that keeps the heart soft and humble before him.
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This is the pair that so many hungry believers ache for,
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without being able to name it. They have read the verses,
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they have sat through the studies, and still they feel
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they do not really know God, that he is a
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subject they have learned, rather than a person they have met.
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The Spirit of God is the very one who brings
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us into that knowing. He warms the cold heart, He
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turns doctrine into nearness. He takes a God who felt
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like a distant idea and makes him a present father.
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Put those three pairs together and you begin to see
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why the fullness matters so much. The Spirit is light
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for the confused, strength for the weak, and nearness for
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the lonely, all at once, all complete. This is not
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a spirit who helps a little. This is the whole
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help of God offered to the whole need of a
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human life. But John's vision does not stop at the throne.
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If it did, we might imagine the Spirit as glorious
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but distant, a fire burning far above us in a
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heaven we cannot reach. The next thing John saw takes
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this full and complete spirit and sends him somewhere. It
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sends him toward us. After John saw the throne and
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the burning lamps, a new figure entered the vision. All
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of heaven was waiting for someone worthy to open a
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sealed scroll, and no one could be found, and John
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began to weep. Then one of the elders told him
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to stop weeping, because the lion of the tribe of
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Judah had triumph. John turned to look for a lion,
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but that is not what he saw, he wrote. Then
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I saw a lamb, looking as if it had been slain,
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standing at the center of the throne. The lamb had
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seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits
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of God sent out into all the earth. Revelation, chapter five,
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verse six. A lamb standing yet, looking as though it
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had been killed. This is Jesus, the one who was
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slain and is alive. And on this lamb are seven eyes.
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And John tells us plainly what those eyes are. They
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are the seven spirits of God, the same spirit we
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have been following. And now something new is said about him.
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He is sent out into all the earth. Think about
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what eyes do eyes see? And these are not ordinary eyes,
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but seven, the number of fullness. The lamb sees everything everywhere,
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completely there is no dark corner of the earth. His
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sight does not reach, no forgotten room, no hidden life,
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no person too small or too far away to be seen.
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And these seeing eyes are the Spirit of God sent
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out over the whole world. This carries an echo from
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another prophet, zek Yah, who long before had seen a
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vision of God's eyes ranging back and forth across the
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whole earth, watching over his people. John is telling us
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the same truth in fuller light. The complete spirit of
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God is not locked inside the throne room. He goes out,
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He covers the ground. He is present in all the
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earth at once, seeing, knowing, and reaching. So put the
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whole picture together. Now, the seven lamps before the throne
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showed us the Spirit in his fullness, blazing at the
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center of heaven. The seven eyes of the Lamb show
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us that same full spirit sent out to the ends
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of the earth. The Spirit of God is both perfectly
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complete and perfectly present. He is not so high that
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he cannot reach you, and he is not so scattered
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that he arrives to you weakened wherever you are. The
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whole spirit of God can be for an old man
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alone on a prison island. This was everything John was
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cut off from every church, every friend, every familiar face,
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and Heaven showed him that the Spirit of God ranges
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through all the earth, which means Patmos was not outside
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his sight. There is no island and far enough to
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be beyond him. There is a reason the Spirit is
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shown to us as eyes, and it is worth sitting
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with because it changes how being seen by God feels.
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Long before John, the prophet Zechariah lived among a discouraged
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people who had come back from exile to a broken
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city and a half built temple. They felt small and forgotten,
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sure that God had moved on to bigger things than
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their little work, and Zechariah was given a vision of
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a golden lamp stand, much like the seven eyes and
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lamps John would later see, and he was told that
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these were the eyes of the Lord that ranged throughout
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the whole earth. The message to that tired people was clear.
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God had not looked away. His eyes were still on them,
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on their small city, on their unfinished work, watching not
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to condemn but to strengthen. That is the same truth
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John saw made complete. The seven eyes of the Lamb
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are the spirit of God sent into all the earth,
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which means the seeing of God is total, and here
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we must be careful, because the idea of being watched
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can frighten us. We imagine eyes that catch us, failing,
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eyes that keep a record of everything we would rather hide.
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But that is not the kind of seeing this is.
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These are the eyes of the lamb who was slain
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for us. They are the eyes of the one who
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gave his life to save the very people he sees.
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When his gaze finds you, it is not the cold
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stare of a judge counting your faults. It is the searching,
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tender attention of a shepherd looking for the sheep that
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wandered off. Think of what that means for the parts
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of your life. No one else knows the private fear
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you have never spoken, the quiet grief you carry to
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bed at night, the corner of your heart you are
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ashamed of. You may have convinced yourself that no one
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truly sees those places, that you are carrying them entirely alone.
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But the spirit of God ranges through all the earth,
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and there is no hidden room He does not enter.
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You are not unseen, You are not a person God
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overlooked while tending to more important matters. The full attention
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of Heaven can rest on one forgotten life because his
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eyes are everywhere at once, missing nothing and caring about
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everything they find. This is what lifts the whole vision
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out of the sky and sets it down in the
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middle of an ordinary life. A God who is only
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fullness might be glorious and still far away. A God
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who is only everywhere might be near and still cold.
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But the spirit John saw is both full and near,
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both complete and searching, blazing at the center of heaven
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and moving across the whole earth to find people who
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thought they had been left behind. Now we come to
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the truth that ties all of this together, and it
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is the most tender part of the whole vision. Remember
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Isiah's promise. The sevenfold Spirit, full of wisdom and understanding
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and counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord,
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was promised to rest on the coming King, on the Messiah.
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And when Jesus stepped into the Jordan River and came
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up out of the water, the spirit of God came
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down and rested on him, just as Isiah had said,
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the whole fullness of the Spirit rested on the Sun.
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Then look at what John saw in heaven. The seven
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spirits of God are the seven eyes of the lamb.
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The spirit belongs to Jesus. The risen lamb holds the
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full spirit of God and sends him out into all
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the earth. And why does he send him out not
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to inspect the world coldly, but to give This is
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the heart of the gospel hidden inside the vision. The
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lamb looks as though he were slain, because he was.
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Jesus gave his life, and through that death and his
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rising again, the very spirit that rested in fullness on
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the sinless sun is now poured out on ordinary, failing,
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tired people who could never earn him. The same spirit,
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not a lesser copy handed down to the second class,
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the full spirit of God given to those who belong
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to Christ. Jesus said it plainly on the last night
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before he died. He told his frightened disciples that he
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would not leave them as orphans, that he would ask
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the Father, and the Father would send them the helper,
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the spirit of Truth, to be with them forever. He
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was not promising them of fraction. He was promising them
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the presence of God himself to live inside them and
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never leave. So when we read of the seven spirits
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of God, we are not reading about a strange, heavenly
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mystery that has nothing to do with us. We are
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reading about the very spirit that God has given to
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his people through Jesus, the fire before the throne, the
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eyes that search all the earth, the fullness Isaiah promised.
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All of it is the spirit that comes to make
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a home in the heart of anyone who belongs to
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the Lamb. Before we come to the end. It helps
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to clear away a few misunderstandings that keep people from
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resting in this truth. Some people read seven spirits and
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conclude there must be seven separate beings, perhaps seven high
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angels serving God. But John never calls them angels, and
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he places them alongside the Father and the Son in
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his greeting, where no angel belongs. The seven is the
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number of fullness, not a head count. This is the
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one Holy Spirit, whole and complete. Others have quietly come
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to believe that the Holy Spirit is only a force,
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a kind of divine energy, with no heart like electricity
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flowing from God. But the spirit John saw is no
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cold power. He is the spirit of wisdom, of counsel,
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of the knowledge of God. Jesus called him the Helper
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and the comforter. Names you would only give to someone
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who can actually care. The Spirit is not an it.
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He is God present and personal, able to grieve, able
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to comfort, able to lead. And some fear that talking
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about the seven Spirits somehow crowds Heaven or breaks apart
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the oneness of God. It does not. The Father on
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the throne, the Lamb who was slain, and the Spirit
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blazing before the throne are one God shown to us
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in the richness of who he is. Revelation does not
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divide God. It lets us see more of Him. When
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these misunderstandings fall away, what is left is simple and steadying.
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The seven Spirits of God are the Holy Spirit, complete
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in every way, sent out to the whole earth, given
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freely to God's people through Jesus. That is who he is.
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So let this settle on your own life now, because
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it was always meant to. Maybe you feel the way
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John must have felt on that island, cut off, forgotten,
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too far from the life you once had. You wonder
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if the presence of God has quietly passed you by
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while you were left behind. Hear what the vision says.
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The Spirit of God is sent out into all the earth.
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There is no place that is too remote for him,
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there is no life so hidden that his eyes do
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not find it. The same spirit who blazes at the
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center of heaven reaches the smallest and loneliest corner of
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the world, and he can reach you where you are
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right now. Maybe you are not lonely so much as empty.
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You feel you have run out, out of strength, out
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of wisdom, out of the ability to keep going. You
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look at the fullness of God and it only reminds
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you of how little you have left. But this is
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exactly the spirit you have been reading about. He is
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the spirit of might for the weak, of counsel, for
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the lost, of wisdom, for the one who has none.
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God does not wait for you to fill up before
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he comes. He is the fullness that comes to the empty.
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He does not give himself in pieces, keeping the best
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part back what he gives. He gives whole. And maybe
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you are simply tired, tired of trying, tired of failing,
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tired of a faith that feels like performance. You are
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worn out from doing religion like a task you can
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never finish. Then listen again to how the vision began.
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It was a greeting of grace and peace offered before
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John saw a single frightening thing. Grace comes first. The
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Spirit of God was never a reward for the strong.
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He is the gift of a lamb who was slain
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for people who could not save themselves, poured out on
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the ones who come to him with empty hands. You
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do not have to climb up to the throne room
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to find him. Through Jesus, the whole spirit of God
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has already been sent out to find you. The fire
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that Isiah promised, the fullness John saw, the presence that
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never leaves. All of it is offered to the one
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who turns to crime and simply says yes, And once
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he comes, he stays, This is perhaps the greatest comfort
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of all. The lamps before the throne do not go dark,
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and the eyes that range through the earth do not close.
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The spirit given to God's people is not a visitor
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who drops in on our better days and disappears when
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we stumble. Jesus promised that the helper would be with
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us forever. So the wisdom is there for the next
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confusing season. The strength is there for the next uphill road.
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The nearness is there on the nights when God feels
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a thousand miles away, because his presence was never measured
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by how strongly we felt it. Long after the emotion fades,
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the fire is still burning. That is the kind of God.
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The Seven Spirits reveal a God who comes in fullness
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and then refuses to leave. So the next time you
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come across those strange words the Seven Spirits of God,
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do not let them feel distant or cold. Behind the
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vision is a promise as warm as any in Scripture.
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The complete, unbroken, wise, strong, all seeing Spirit of God
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is not far above you and not against you. He
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is the presence God gives to his children, so that
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no matter how alone or empty or tired you are,
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you can rise again knowing you were never left to
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walk this road by yourself. The Spirit before the Throne
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is the spirit sent into all the earth, and all
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the earth includes the very ground beneath your feet. If
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this video helped you grow deeper in God's Word, I
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want to personally invite you to be part of what
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we are building here. Every video on this channel takes
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many hours of study and careful rest search to make
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sure we bring you content that is faithful to scripture
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and worthy of your time. If you would like to
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