Excerpt from The Mystery of the Seven Stars

In the book of Revelation, the first of the visions given to John is interpreted by Jesus Himself as ‘the mystery of the seven stars and the seven lampstands’. ‘The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.’ Rev 1:20.

This first vision, involving the letters to the angels (messengers, overseers) of the seven churches, has enormous significance for us here and now.

It has been over thirty years since the Lord Jesus began to address the church in our generation, personally, in the very terms that are recorded in the seven letters. ‘Remember therefore [the heights] from where you have fallen.’ Rev 2:5 Amp. In our experience, He has been warning the ‘stars’, or overseers, and He has been adjusting the lampstands, the churches. We have been aware for some years that we have actually entered the eschatology of the book of Revelation, in the sense that its progressive stages of restoration, revelation and appropriation are to be outworked, literally, in the fullness of times.

This opening stanza of the book of Revelation also gives us the most integrated view of the administration that Christ expected would remain in place until the fullness of times. Of course, we know that the seven churches had fallen away from the pattern established by the New Testament apostles. Nevertheless, the star-lampstand letters make a clear statement, drawing on all the symbolic content of the Scriptures, as to how the risen Christ relates to His church, worldwide, and across the ages of the church.

This resolves one question for us. Where is Christ, since His ascension, and what is He doing and saying? Yes, we know that He is seated at the Father’s right hand, waiting for His enemies to be His footstool. Psa 110:1. But He is also walking in the midst of the seven lampstands (the whole church) with seven stars in His right hand. And like the high priest trimming the wicks of the lamps in the Old Testament tabernacle, He is clothed in this same priestly disposition, and addressing the conditions that are preventing the ‘light of the world’ from shining. John 8:12.

In this first chapter, we shall briefly recall the steps of revelation and repentance that we have experienced across the last three decades.