I.　The golden lampstand typifies the church as God's duplication, repro-duction, and continuation, revealing that:

A.　God is our life—John 1:4; 10:10; 14:6; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Col. 3:4.

B.　We are the living of God—John 14:19; 15:1, 5; Phil. 2:13.

C.　God lives within us—Eph. 4:6; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:9-11.

D.　For us to live is God—Phil. 1:19-21a.

II.　The intrinsic significance of the golden lampstand is the highest peak of the divine revelation:

A.　The golden lampstand signifies the Triune God:

1.　The pure gold substance signifies God the Father in His divine nature— Exo. 25:31.

2.　The stand signifies God the Son as the embodiment of God the Father— 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; 2:9.

3.　The lamps signify God the Spirit as the seven Spirits of God for the expression of the Father in the Son—Exo. 25:37; Rev. 4:5.

B.　The golden lampstands signify the local churches as the reproduction of Christ and the reprint of the Spirit:

1.　The lampstand in Exodus 25 signifies Christ as the embodiment of God—vv. 31-40.

2.　The lampstand in Zechariah 4 signifies the sevenfold intensified, life-giving Spirit as the reality of Christ—vv. 2, 6, 10; Rev. 5:6.

3.　The lampstands in Revelation 1 are the reprint, the reproduction, of this Spirit-Christ—vv. 11-12, 20.

C.　The consummate lampstand is the New Jerusalem—a gold mountain as a stand with Christ as the lamp and God as the light within Him—21:18, 23; 22:5.

III.　The subjective experience of the golden lampstand is the God-man living:

A.　The lampstand is of pure gold, signifying the eternal, incorruptible, divine nature of God—Exo. 25:31:

1.　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.

2.　Mixture in our Christian life brings in darkness, but when our Christian life is purified through the divine nature, we have light—cf. Deut. 22:9.

B.　The lampstand is of beaten work, signifying sufferings—Exo. 25:31:

1.　To be beaten is to participate in Christ's sufferings for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ—1 Pet. 4:1; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24; Acts 16:6-7.

2.　We must be beaten together with others into one entity, blended together through the cross and by the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:24), to shine forth the light of God for His corporate testimony.

C.　The lampstand's having cups shaped like almond blossoms with calyxes and blossoming buds signifies that the Triune God is a living, golden tree, growing, budding, and blossoming in resurrection—Exo. 25:31; Num. 17:8:

1.　If we would shine forth the light of life, we must be in resurrection, not in our natural life—Phil. 3:10; S. S. 2:8-9, 14; cf. Psa. 73:16-17.

2.　Christ as the resurrection life is growing, branching, budding, and blossoming in us, by us, and with us to shine the light—Col. 2:19; John 1:4.

D.　The seven lamps of the lampstand are the seven Spirits of God as the seven eyes of Jehovah (Zech. 4:10), the seven eyes of the redeeming Lamb (Rev. 5:6), and the seven eyes of the building stone (Zech. 3:9) for the full expression of the Triune God:

1.　Within us we have two lamps—the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God within our spirit—Prov. 20:27; Rev. 4:5; 1 Cor. 6:17.

2.　In order for us to be transformed, we must fully open to the Lord in prayer to allow the lamp of Jehovah with the seven lamps of fire to search all the chambers of our soul, shining on and enlightening our inward parts to supply them with life—2:11a; Eph. 6:18; Psa. 139:23-24.

IV.　The organic maintenance of the golden lampstand is Christ's shep-herding in His heavenly ministry through the vital groups in the church life—Rev. 1:13; John 10:11, 14; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4; Heb. 13:20; 10:24-25:

A.　Christ takes care of the churches in His humanity as the Son of Man to cherish them—Rev. 1:13a:

1.　He dresses the lamps of the lampstands to make them proper, cherishing us with His presence—Exo. 30:7; cf. Psa. 42:5, 11; Eph. 5:29.

2.　He trims the wicks of the lamps of the lampstand, cutting off all the negative things which frustrate our shining—Exo. 30:7; 25:37-38; 27:20-21; Lev. 24:1-4:

a.　The charred part of the wick, the snuff, signifies things that are not according to God's purpose which need to be cut off, such as our flesh, our natural man, our self, and our old creation.

b.　He trims away all the differences among the churches (the wrong-doings, shortages, failures, and defects) so that they may be the same in essence, appearance, and expression—cf. 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 12:18; Phil. 2:2.

B.　Christ takes care of the churches in His divinity with His divine love, signified by the golden girdle on His breasts, to nourish the churches—Rev. 1:13b:

1.　He nourishes us with Himself as the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry of three stages so that we may grow and mature in the divine life to be His overcomers to accomplish His eternal economy.

2.　As the walking Christ, He gets to know the condition of each church, and as the speaking Spirit, He trims and fills the lampstands with fresh oil, the supply of the Spirit—2:1, 7.

3.　To participate in His move and to enjoy His care we must be in the churches.