The Seven Spirits of God

As I sat on the second floor back porch of the house where I lived, I began a quest to read the Book of Revelation. I was a new believer and I had not read the entire Bible yet, especially the last book in the Bible which is the Book of Revelation. I was told by someone that it was a scary book and that it was full of symbolism and hard to understand. I decided to take on the challenge and read it anyway. I remember, I had heard the following scripture read at church at some point;

Revelation 1:3 KJV
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

I wanted to be blessed, and I loved to read so I set out to read the entire book of Revelation. It was such a wonderful experience that I will probably never, ever forget. The Holy Spirit ministered to me in a way like never before. I then realized one of the most important things that I could have ever learned in my life as a believer and that was if we stay with God, in the end, we win! We have the ultimate victory. At some point though, I noticed that there were a few scriptures that I thought contradicted some passages that I had previously read in the Bible. Notice how I said “I thought”. In my own mind I came up with this conclusion. The Lord did not tell me this. I quickly learned later that the Word of God never contradicts itself, it does have contrasts but it never contradicts.

One of those incidences was the scriptural mention of the “seven Spirits of God”. I noticed within the first five chapters of the book of Revelation that the seven Spirits of God were mentioned 4 times. Now, I had read another scripture (Ephesians 4:4), and I was also taught that there was only “one Spirit”, and now I am reading about seven Spirits (these were my thoughts, I was a spiritual babe at the time). I was a bit confused but I still trusted what I was reading to be the truth and I knew in my heart that even though I did not understand what I had read, that fact didn’t make the Word of God untrue. So I decided to let it be one of the many concepts in the Bible that I did not understand hoping that I would have a better understanding sometime in the future. Eventually the Holy Spirit revealed many precepts, principles, and concepts to me, but the revelation of “what” or “who” the seven Spirits of God were escaped my mental grasp and understanding.

One day I was reading one of the passages that mentioned the seven Spirits of God and I saw a cross reference in my Bible that led me to Isaiah chapter 11;

Isaiah 11:1-2 KJV
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

“Now” I said, I finally thought I had it. But, the Holy Spirit let me know I wasn’t totally on the right track. I knew in my spirit that I was missing something. So I counted and found only six. I knew by the Spirit that in the passage, the phrase “Spirit of the Lord” was not included with the six (which would make it seven). But, I knew that the six were an expansion of and part of the phrase “the Spirit of Lord”. I had also learned by the Spirit that I could not entirely trust cross references and commentaries.

Cross references and commentaries are good for Bible study purposes but, they are only a Bible study tool. They bring you to a point where (if you use them correctly) you can get true revelation. But, they should be treated as a “study help” only. They are not the final authority. I have several of them in my library. The Holy Spirit has shown me many things through the help of cross references and commentaries. But I still needed to understand that I could not solely rely on anything but the Word of God and revelation from the Spirit of God.

Sometimes we elevate what people say or write or even what “we” think in our own mind over what the Word of God has to say. The Word of God has the final authority. The Bible says the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth will show us the truth but we must trust in his leading. If I want to understand the Word, I must go to the one who is the inspiration for every word that is written in the Bible, the Holy Spirit.

The Lord told us he would bless us if we read and keep or do the words of the prophecy. How can we do the Word if we can’t understand it?

Proverbs 4:7 KJV
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

So, as I study the Word I expect to get revelation knowledge because I know he wants us to keep his Word. If I don’t understand, I’ll ask for it and he gives it all to me in his timing. He loves me and he wants me to know his Word. This has helped me in my quest to have a full and balanced understanding of God’s Word.

When we look at the Word, we see things that are very specific. When you get revelation knowledge and understanding of the Word, sometimes certain points seem minute or minuscule until you look at the big picture. But, the Lord keeps adding to your understanding a little bit at a time until you are able to totally grasp it (Isa. 28:9-11).

So, the cross reference that led me to Isaiah 11:2 wasn’t totally correct and I knew it. But as we will see later the cross reference wasn’t totally incorrect. Years later I eventually received a revelation of the seven Spirits of God which I am going to share with you prayerfully and reverently by the Holy Spirit. This revelation is not just good reading it is powerful truth that is needed by the body of Christ today in order for us to accomplish the work that he has called us to in these last days.