Semantics:

semantics (n.) “science of meaning in language,” 1893, from French sémantique (1883); see semantic (also see -ics). Replaced semasiology (1847), from German Semasiologie (1829), from Greek semasia “signification, meaning.”

Signify- Sign.
Signification in scripture ; using words to paint a picture. Or perhaps using people, places, things, events, etc., to convey understanding.

The book of Revelation is a work in semantics. I perceive that it is easy to run amok with it without the Lord’s help. For example, a church, or assembly, is portrayed as a lamp stand. But not the fuel or the flame. It is in the right hand of one who also walks in the midst of, in the case of the tabernacle and the book of Revelation, seven of them. It is said to individual lamp stand that it may be removed from it’s place. This gives rise to the question: which is greater, the lamp stand, it’s highest proper place, or the flame and oil that fuels it? One could go on and on digging into the implications, particularly when realizing the obvious association with the lamp stand in the tabernacle that Moses made, itself a pattern of things in the heavens. The very fulfilling of the Promise of the Father on the full day of Pentecost, was signified by the appearance of flames upon the disciples, and they spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance. This did not occur in some upper room, as is commonly taught. It happened on the day the feast of Pentecost was once for all fulfilled, in the outer court of the temple, in a small group of Galileans, who immediately were moved of the Spirit to speak in myriad languages of various peoples, the wonderful works of God. So the signification points to the Spirit teaching, and in this case, in the language and understanding of the hearers. That, in essence, is the signification of the place and purpose of a lamp stand. In the old testament, the Fig, the Vine and the Olive are significations. The Father, Son and Spirit. So olive oil used to fuel a lamp stand is a signification of the Olive tree speaking. The scriptures are full of significations. A lamp stand was given a place, to give voice to the Lord. Not to carry out works of it’s own invention.

The permanence of the arrangement between the lamp stand and the Lord is called into question in the whole of the scriptures. In Revelations, a church’s “place” is clearly conditional. In the OT, the pitching of the tabernacle outside of, and away from the camp, is noteworthy. The often portrayed condition of the tabernacle pitched in the midst of the camps of people was very short lived. The Lord actually told Moses that if He, the Lord, were to dwell much longer among the people, He would end up destroying them. Paul later would write that if we go to Him, we go to Him without the camp. Joshua who would stay with the tabernacle, underwent no change of relationship with the LORD, as did the camp. Joshua, to my mind, is the very picture of the present time, where it is essential to choose between dwelling with the LORD, or the camp. If you dwell with the LORD and tabernacle with Him today, you are not alone, but neither are you dwelling in the camp. If a candle stick is removed from his place, you are faced with the choice Joshua had to make. Similarly in Samuel’s time, the lamp went out in the temple, but not in Samuel. When Israel broke off following the Lord, they were not rejecting Samuel’s council. They were rejecting it’s source.

It is a time of separation. The churches have left the gospel for the most part. They are become the same hapless, helpless self help group and dog chasing it’s tail, that the rest of humanity is become. They were given a simple enough task. Perhaps too simple. They were duped into the diversity and inclusion scam. Duped by the one who does not savor the things of God, but of man. Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God. NO flesh. To repent and believe the gospel is to turn to Christ, in whom no distinction of flesh means anything. These distinctions are not equally important, they are equally meaningless. What do they perceive it means, to walk 100% in the Spirit, and have no confidence in the flesh? It is not the Lord who is failing. It is the assemblies. There is nothing approaching failure in Christ, who has overcome the world. So choose life. Choose dwell with the Lord. This is facilitated by the Spirit of Christ in you. Candle sticks may come and go. They have conditions that must be met. When an assembly fails in that regard, the individual has a choice to make.
Revelations opens with the understanding that the Lord is coming with, and in them who made the right choice. It signifies that company as “clouds”. It is the harvest spanning the ages. The clouds of heaven, I assure you, are not water vapor.

Hebrews 12:22-25 (KJV) 22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel. 25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more [shall not] we [escape], if we turn away from him that [speaketh] from heaven:

I am not railing on “churches”, but magnifying their proper place. And if that place is compromised, no individual in them is obligated to suffer their fate. Having been shown what he was shown in the various assemblies, John was told to “Come up here”. A door was opened, a veil lifted, and a place was revealed that is spoken of in the book of Ephesians, among other places:

[Eph 4:4-16 KJV] [There is] one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who [is] above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we [henceforth] be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, [and] cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, [even] Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

The above verses explain what Jesus gave to us in resurrection. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. He is The Prophet who was to come into the world, he is The Evangelist, sent to the ends of the earth to proclaim the acceptable day of the Lord, He is the Chief Shepherd, And in Him dwells all the fullness of The Teacher, the Spirit of Truth. This is what, to every one in Him, a measure of is given. It is the Lord Himself. And if this measure in in anyone, then it is true, that “As He is in the world, so are we”. What He gives us is Himself. Everything that He is, and everything that makes Him what He is, in a measure that is capable of producing the fullness. Not an organization. An organism.

Semantics and symbols are wonderful. But the substance of what they signify is the end of the matter. That is what we were called to, and what we were equipped to obtain.

This writing is meant to encourage that the goal has not shifted. The reward to the over comer has not faded or become obscure. The fate of the individual is not married to the crowd.