John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood – and He made us into a kingdom, priests to His God and Father – to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.
So it is to be. Amen.
The Seven Spirits
While the I AM statement has equated Jesus with YHVH, this "seven spirits" reference is establishing Jesus as the one who has the fullness of the Spirit of God at work in the world.
Seven is a number that typically indicates fullness or completeness, which would be enough to make the assumption that John is signifying that here, but the seven spirits are actually referenced several times in the Tanakh, and John is weaving those references in here pretty clearly.
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
And He will delight in the fear of the LORD,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,
And faithfulness the belt about His waist.
~ Isaiah 11:1-5
The context of Isaiah 11 is the "shoot/branch" from the family of David who will be the anointed one (messiah) who brings an everlasting kingdom of peace. Isaiah lists seven spirits here, indicating that this messiah will have a full anointing from YHVH to bring this kingdom into fruition. However, Isaiah also indicates that this messiah will prefer to operate in one facet of the Spirit above the others: the fear of the LORD.
Now, the fear of the LORD is a deep topic that is often misunderstood, but at a minimum it means to show honor and reverance to Yahweh and to choose to conform to Yahweh's character. Pragmatically, it means that this messiah – though having full access to all the power of the Spirit of the LORD – delights to listen to the LORD and to defer to what Yahweh will say in any situation.
Contrary to the way power usually operates, this messiah does not do as he sees fit and delights in humility and service to the LORD.
As a result of this attitude, Isaiah predicts that this messiah will bring in the Kingdom of God and will judge all the earth with fairness: raising up the afflicted and breaking down the wicked.
This is not the only prophetic symbol of this ultimate messiah with the fulness of the Spirit.
"Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you--indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch. For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it", declares the LORD of hosts, "and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day."
~ Zechariah 3:8-9
This passage from Zechariah is part of a larger vision where Zechariah sees himself in the heavenly council. In this vision, a divine being is accusing "Joshua/The Branch" and is silenced mid-accusation. Instead, Joshua is raised up and given power and glory.