The seven spirits before the throne bear witness to the completeness of wisdom and glory that embraces temporal incompleteness with the timeless wholeness of hallowing glorification (Rev 1:4; 3:1; 4:5 and 5:6). Desert wisdom never forgot the Menorah, or sevenfold lamp that stood before the temple throne, symbol of the fullness of divine wisdom embracing heaven and earth. The sevenfold completeness of wisdom and glory is radiant with the wisdom and glory of the Cross, which is uncreated, unselfish love revealed by the slaughtered Lamb. Love’s hallowing glory inspires both the Spirit of prophecy and the prayer of the Spirit in the heart, both of which bear witness to the sevenfold completeness of wisdom and glory. The Spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10) inspires those who are ‘in the Spirit’ (Rev 1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10) with ‘words of the Spirit’ (Rev 14:13; 22:17), seven references in the Apocalypse to the Holy Spirit whose unifying completeness underlies the sevenfold embrace that wisdom completes as glorification. The prophet Zechariah beheld the Menorah or golden lamp-stand whose seven-branched flames shone as one light before the throne (Zech 4:1-14). The prophet is told that the seven spirits are like the seven eyes of the hallowing Spirit which range through the whole earth, beholding God on earth as they have always beheld God in heaven. The Menorah in the temple on earth is an icon of this sevenfold radiance of the Holy Spirit (Ex 25:31-40; 40:4, 24-25). The Lamb has seven eyes sharing wisdom’s vision of glory and seven horns empowering wisdom’s hallowing glorification (Rev 5:6), but beside the Menorah stand two olive trees (Zech 4:3), two glorified witnesses to completeness, prophecy and prayer.
The two witnesses, prophecy and prayer, both live in the Spirit, who is the inspirer of prophetic oracles and the inspired wisdom that receives the vision that transmits them. Desert wisdom does not contest the finality of the sacred canon but never closed heaven’s open door which sustained access to wholesome prophecy and hallowing prayer. The ear that listens to the Spirit is one in Spirit with the eye of the awakened heart, giving access, in the Spirit, both to the prophetic word and to unceasing prayer of the Spirit in the heart. It is to these two witnesses that elders point when they bear witness to living prophecy without idolising prophets and to prayer of the heart without idolising people of prayer, acknowledging it is the Spirit who prays in the heart. God’s God-centred glorification of God is what hallows saints, confirming the testimony of Jesus and the Spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10). Degenerative idolatry is healed by God’s God-centred glorification of God in all seven spiritual centres of hallowing glorification. Saints do not worship saints any more than angels worship angels, because the witness of Jesus is to God and the Spirit of prophecy glorifies God. Prophecy and prayer worship God with God’s own God-centred glorification of God.
God’s reign as throne is of one Spirit with his reign as crown, uniting throne-grounding deification in the wisdom and glory of glorification with crown-consummating deification as the word of wisdom hallowing saints through glorification. Prophecy bears witness to hallowing glorification so that prayer may receive this word and keep it in Spirit and in truth. Truly to receive is to turn and see, whilst truly to turn is to surrender to the Spirit’s transforming prayer in the heart, whilst to see in truth is to behold God at centre in the midst of all seven centres of spiritual vision. To turn and see empowers wisdom to endure temptation without being overcome by evil. But false prophecy spawns lies to deceive the heart by substituting the created for the uncreated in the midst. Deceptive idolatry actually does usurp God at centre in all seven centres of spiritual vision, although in truth it is delusory. God’s God-centred glorification of God nevertheless overcomes deceptions that lie to conceal the lies that subvert God’s vision of God. Demonic slander falsely accuses truth, defrauding truth by playing on fears of fraud, like scams that exploit fear of fraud in order to defraud. Scams unconsciously imitate demonic powers, who play on fears of fraud in order to defraud, as when relativism confuses truth with fake news, subverting truth with irrational nihilism. When deceit and delusion reign, false gods usurp God in all seven centres of divine-human being, depriving well being of goodness and timeless being of eternal truth. But when the prophetic word of wisdom and glory reigns, seven spirits of the Holy Spirit restore glory to God, so that God’s own God-centred glorification of God reigns freely without domination. These are the seven liberating spirits of wisdom inspiring hallowing glorification, embracing incompleteness with wisdom’s glorious vision of timeless completeness.