Dressing: Trim and Fill

The vision of Christ as the Son of Man walking amidst the seven golden lampstands to dress the lamps has been quite a revelation the past week. I was enlightened to see the need for the Lord to dress the lamps daily. In Exodus, the high priest dresses the lamps daily to make sure the lamps burn brightly. In dressing the lamps two things are involved. Negatively, to cut the blackened and charred wick that had burnt out. Positively, to fill the cup of the lamps with fresh oil. Cutting and filing are the two necessary steps in dressing the lamps. This simple vision was enlightening to me. Dressing the lamps has become my daily prayer these days. I have been praying to the Lord to dress me daily. For I am too conscious of the burnt and charred wick in me, my flesh, my natural man, my self, and the things of the world surrounding me, needs to be cut by my experiences of the cross of Christ. Then, I need the filling of the oil, the Holy Spirit day by day to supply the wick with fresh oil to continue the burning of the lamps to give forth shining light. What a revelation!

And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, And in the midst of the lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle. Rev. 1-12-13

And Aaron shall burn on it fragrant incense; every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it. Exo. 30:7

Then I answered and said to him, What are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left? And I answered a second time and said to him, What are the two olive branches that are by the side of the two golden spouts, which empty the gold from themselves? And he spoke to me, saying, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, sir. And he said, These are the two sons of oil, who stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Zech. 4:11-14

Christ takes care of the churches as the lampstands in His humanity as the Son of Man to cherish them. Christ as our High Priest takes care of the churches that He has established first in His humanity to cherish the churches, to make the churches happy, pleasant, and comfortable., He does this by dressing the lamps of the lampstand. The high priest in the Old Testament dressed the lamps of the lampstands every morning, Exo. 30:7. To dress the lamps is, to make them proper., Christ cares for the lampstands by trimming the wicks of, the lamps of the lampstand, just as the priest did according, to the type in the Old Testament, Exo. 25:38. When the wick, was burned out, it became charred and black, so the priest, had to come to cut off the black part of the wick. This is what, it means to snuff the wick so that the lamp may shine better., 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…, A church with charred wicks will not feel comfortable. 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; cf. Zech. 4:12-14. Excerpt from HWMR Knowing, Experiecning, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life, msg 8.

Along with the revelation, the Lord also gave me experiences of being dressed by the Lord. He as the Shephered helped me to deal with myself. I did not try to deal my flesh with my flesh, I simply opened to the Lord to work Himself in me and did whatever I could to cooperate with Him in His move. This dealing will, perhaps, be an ongoing process. I look to the Lord for His grace that I can indeed be thoroughly dealt with, step by step, layer by layer until I am fully dealt with. Besides, I also pray for more of His Holy Spirit filling day by day, to always have the sufficient "fuel" to burn and shine forth the Lord Jesus Christ. This same truth and experiences I have been enjoying, I also shared with all the saints in the church in Gurugram on the Lord's Day during the prophesying meeting. What a supply from the Lord even while sharing this experience!

Lord, dress me daily; trim me of myself and fill me with Yourself.