I want to address the excellent question Doug F. asked on the “Pray for our new President” blog. In attempting to answer I want all of you to know I am not a legal scholar (I’ll reserve that for our resident expert, Rick D), nor am I economically or politically savvy. My answer will be a summary of what the Bible has to say on this issue.

Here is Doug’s comment/question: “The Bible tells us to pray for and obey our rulers, unless they require us to disobey God, correct? The new President has quickly moved to increase abortions both here and abroad. The government requires us to pay taxes which in part help support the murder of numerous unborn babies. What should we do as Christians?”

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It was last year (okay, we’re only 13 days into the new one, but still…) that Linda B asked a question under the Q&A blog entry. Here it is: “Over the last few weeks, for different reasons, I have been thinking about the idea of the seven-fold spirit, or seven spirits of God (Rev 4:5). I think there might be a reference in Romans too, but I can’t find it. I’m just interested in what it means and would like to hear your comments.”

The reference to the seven spirits of God is found solely in Revelation. It is part of the ’seven series’ in that book (seven stars, seven golden lampstands, seven churches, seven lamps of fire, seven seals, seven horns, seven eyes, seven angels, etc). The reason John uses the number seven is it represents the idea of completion; “Of the numbers that carry symbolic meaning in biblical usage, seven is the most important. It is used to signify completeness or totality (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 774).

It is through this idea of completeness we are to understand the phrase ’seven Spirits’. When John sees the Lamb, an image of Christ, “having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth”, the seven spirits are the fullness of the divine Spirit (the Holy Spirit), going out into the world as the Spirit of Christ with complete power (“seven horns”) and complete knowledge and insight (“seven eyes”).

In other words, we’re not talking about seven separate spirits of God (as if the Trinity was now an Octanity - I think I just created a new word!), we’re talking about the one Holy Spirit of God but in terminology that (figuratively) represents His fullness and perfection. 

Hope this helps!

If you have any questions about something you have read in your devotions recently or if you have been struggling with some issue in your life you want some wisdom on, post your questions under the comment section.