Question: The Seven Spirits Of God

[Trinity]

I never knew this, its been hindering my witnessing to cults lately, but im not going to go into that.

Who are they?

HELP!!!!!!!!!!

[Leonard]

Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Greetings Trinity!

(Hmmm. Almost sounds like I'm starting Matins Prayers........)

I haven't a clue, and I'm not sure they are to be understood in the way we like to interpret Scripture; what with all our Greek (pagan) philosophical catagories we want to cram this Oriental book into!

I will say that in the Scripture, the number 7 is often symbolic, and denote completeness.

With a blessing,

Leonard, a sinner

PS: I hope this is cogent, I received a very troubling letter from a very bosom friend, and have hardly been able to sleep for several days. I have been in much prayer for his soul. If you think about it , please pray for Greg. I assure you, he is a wonderful man, but stands much in need of prayer.

[whatsitmean]

Isa 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

Isa 11:2 And the

(1) spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,

(2) the spirit of wisdom

(3) and understanding,

(4) the spirit of counsel

(5) and might,

(6) the spirit of knowledge

(7) and of the fear of the LORD;

(Rev 1:4) John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

(Rev 3:1) And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

(Rev 4:5) And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

(Rev 5:6) And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

[Guest Genxpastor]

ooh...I wrestle with that question too. Revelation is a difficult book. Symbolism may be the key here. The sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit. Descriptions of God always use imagery. For example, in making of the Abraham Convenant you have a smoking firepot and torch.

We may be wrestling with this question for a while

[ginakay]

I don't know the answer either. But I do think that if we had everything about our amazing Lord figured out then we would be worshiping the wrong deity. Just looking at the world He created, including the microscopic world right up to the huge solar systems in the vast universe. You think you have something figured out and peel that layer back and find even more complexity beneath that!! So with the Lord. We will have all eternity to learn about Him and His ways and will not reach the total depth. The wonderful thing is that He chooses to reveal a lot of Himself both in His Word and in THE WORD. I believe He tells us some things we can grasp now and tells or hints of things that give us a taste of his complexity.

I am sure glad His word tells us that God is love.

[Matthitjah]

Grace to you,

They correspond to His very nature. The essence of His being.

Think of His qualities.

This is a good topic.

My brother Beau will know. God-man where are ya?

This interests me greatly. I am studying it right now.

Beau??????

Peace,

Dave

[Jedi4Yahweh]

The word "spirit" can also be interpreted as Angel or Messenger or Minister. So I understand it as the the Seven Angels of God over the 7 Churches in Rev. Or he could be referring to the Actual leaders or Ministers of the 7 Churches.

[Ovedya]

ooh...I wrestle with that question too. Revelation is a difficult book. Symbolism may be the key here. The sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit. Descriptions of God always use imagery. For example, in making of the Abraham Convenant you have a smoking firepot and torch.

We may be wrestling with this question for a while

You're on the right track.

The seven Spirits which are before the throne of grace are actually the sevenfold intensification of the one Spirit of God, for the consumation of God's eternal economy. Confused yet?

The number seven is significant in understanding what the seven Spirits are. First of all, however, it is important to understand that there is only one Holy Spirit. Therefore, either these seven spirits are merely ghosts with an indiscernable purpose, or they symbolically represent the one Spirit of God. Well, since Rev. 3:1 and 4:5 call these Spirits "The seven Spirits of God" then they cannot be just common spirits without a certain purpose. So we must take it that these seven Spirits have some greater significance.

The first mention of the seven Spirits are in Rev. 1:4, which tells us that Grace and peace come from Christ ("The One who is and who was and who is coming..."), and from the seven Spirits. Grace and peace only come from the Triune God. The Father is the source of Grace, the Son is the expression of Grace, and the Spirit is the dispenser of Grace (Rom. 1:7; Rev. 22:1; cf. 2 Cor. 13:14). This fact, plus the fact that the seven Spirits in Rev. 3:1 and 4:5 are ranked among the Triune God, it must be that this is a symbolic representation of the one Spirit of God.

Seven is the number of completion in God's operation. On the seventh day God rested from all of His work in creation. In God's new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), which is the church, the one new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10), the Spirit is operating to perfect us to be His Bride (Rev. 21:2, 9; 22:17; Isa. 61:10; John 3:29). For this the Spirit needs to be intensified, in order that He can operate within the church to overcome the present evil age (Eph. 2:2;Gal. 1:4).

We see here in Revelation the consumation of all of God's perfecting work within the church. The complete consumation of all of God's perfecting and building work in the church is the New Jerusalem, which is the divine and human incorporation of all of God's people with Himself, to become a Bride - a perfect counterpart to our wonderful Christ, who is the Bridegroom (John 3:29).

To read more on the New Jerusalem, check out the current study in the Study Group forum (Which I will be getting back to very soon).