What are “The Seven Spirits of God”
| By: Rev. Sam Harris; ©2001 |
| Revelation 5:6 speaks of a Lamb standing…with seven horns and seven eyes which are “the seven Spirits of God.” What, exactly, is that talking about? |
What are “The Seven Spirits of God”
Question:
In Revelation 5:6 are these words: “And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.” What are “the seven Spirits of God?”
Answer:
The important thrust of this passage is the first appearance of the Lamb in John’s vision of heaven. In Revelation, Jesus is called the Lamb approximately 29 times. This Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes. As you may recall, the number “seven” is the number of completeness used in the Bible.
The seven horns stand for omnipotence, which means having absolute power. In the Old Testament, a horn had two meanings. First, it stood for power. In 1 Kings 22:7, we read that Zedekiah, the prophet, made iron horns as a sign of promised victory over the Syrians. In the blessing of Moses, Deuteronomy 33:17, the horns of Joseph are like the horns of the wild ox which will push the people, all at once, to the end of the earth.
The horn, secondly, also stands for honor. With the birth of Samuel to Hannah, she sings a song of Thanksgiving (1 Sam. 2:1): “My heart exalts in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord….” The Psalmist writes (89:17): “For thou art the glory of their strength, and by Thy favor our horn is exalted.” Psalm 112:9—”He has given freely to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted in honor.” God lifts up the horn of His people in Psalm 148:14.
The Lamb also has seven eyes representing the Seven Spirits of God which aresent out all over the earth. A good cross-reference on this is found in Zechariah 4:10.
These seven eyes stands for the “all knowing and all seeing presence of God everywhere.” There is no place on earth that is not under the all seeing eye of God. His power, His perfect knowledge and His presence is everywhere on earth among us.
I heard Dr. Joseph Stowell speaking recently on Matthew 1:23, which reads, in part, “They shall call His name Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’.” “God with us” means literally that! He is with our men and women currently in Afghanistan, patients in ICU units in hospitals and their families in the waiting room, children in schools, those in prison, and everywhere else.
This passage is a tremendous picture of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. His is the fulfillment of all of the promises made to Israel; He is the Lion of Judah and the Root of David. He is the one whose sacrifice redeemed us from sin, and he still bears the marks of His sacrifice in heaven. As Paul said, death is swallowed up in victory! Jesus is the one with all power and all knowledge who will conquer all and whose all seeing eye no one can escape.
The 7 spirits before the throne are our teachers/councillors; the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of Wisdom, the spirit of Understanding, the spirit of Council, the spirit of Might, the spirit of fear of the Lord (reverence) -Is 11:2
wisdom, strength, power, thanks, praise, honor and glory are the 7 spirits of YHWH. As you read from Revalations ch.4 to Rev. ch.19 it moves from the 24 elders falling face down to worship God every time the 4 living creatures who stand around the throne ( of the one that is described 1st as “someone sitting in it”) day and night and never stop saying: ” Holy, holy, holy, is YHWH the almighty God, who is, who was, and is to come.” Then the elders say how HE is worthy to receive glory, honor and power because HE created all things there are. HE holds the scroll of the 7 seals in HIS hand but even though HE is unworthy like all in heaven and all below it, HE sould be worthy but HE’S not. The lamb is and all in heaven say how he is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor and praise but all the creatures in all creation say only to the lamb be praise, honor, glory and power forever and ever, not giving him wisdom, wealth and strength. The lamb took the scroll from the right hand of Him who sits on the throne ( notice still not calling him God or any other titles). The lamb open 6 seals, then 144000 who were chosen received the seal on their foreheads. Then a great multitude stood before the throne and the lamb cried out “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and the lamb. Here in Rev.7:11 everything changes, all who were in heaven around the throne fell face down and worshipped before the throne of God ( notice it doesn’t say He or some other nondescript thing but God for the 1st time) saying: ” Amen! Praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” Skip to Rev. 11:15 when the 7th Angel sounds his trumpet, loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become of our God and His Messiah and He will reign forever and ever .” and the throne 24 elders worshipped GOD, saying: “We give thanks to you YHWH the almighty God, the One who is and who was ( no longer is “the one who will be” present, meaning He has become) because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign…” Reception. ch19:4 -8 the 24 elders and the living creatures worshipped God, who was seated on the throne ( showing He is now complete with His 7 spirits) then in verse 6 sounds like great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and loud peals of thunder, shouting: ” Hallelujah! For our almighty God YHWH reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory! For the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linens bright and clean, was given her to wear.” As I hope you can see our God continues to transform from the indistinct character on the throne to the Almighty God of creation by being given his sprirts back by those who he poured it out for. I think that this was a beautiful gesture of the true love and devotion our Father has for us His children by showing us that yes the Messiah sacrificed for us but so did He and He trusted us with that sacrifice to show us how much he trusted us by giving His spirits to us to show We can always trust him with ours. I hope this helps some one find some truth they are looking for about our amazing loving Father in Heaven, maybe He bless you and yours with those spirits and may you bless him with yours.