Omega Message – July 2011
Martin Klusoň
(Message given August 3, 2004 at the Sonlight Gospel Convention in the Czech Republic.)
Father, we ask You to reveal unto us Your mind. I ask You to lift us up from the level where we are at to a higher level so that we would be able to see Your purpose. Lord, You are the God who doesn’t know time. Lord, You are not limited by time and Your thoughts are not moved by time. So I ask that You would lift us outside of time. I ask You, Lord, that we would be able to get out of the moment we find ourselves in. Lord, that we would be able to get our minds off the last half-hour as well as the future half-hour. Lord, that we would be able to look at our lives differently than as if it was a plan for the year to come. Hallelujah. And so, Lord, we present this time to You. We give You all rights and all liberty. May Your name be exalted above all names and in the name of Jesus Christ we bind every spirit that would come to slow us down from hearing You. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Every builder, before he starts to build, makes a plan. Maybe to some of you this phrase sounds familiar. It is a quotation from The Pattern. Amen.
It is important to realize that God has His purpose. If we, as people, have a purpose and we submit all we do to that purpose, then in the same way, God does everything according to His purpose; He also rates everything by His purpose. The importance of things is measured by how they fulfill His purpose. Whole theologies, whole generations missed God’s purpose. They were trying to explain God’s laws and God’s commandments outside of the purpose of God and they were never able to come to the right interpretation.
If I build a house and give my bricklayers a part of the work plan, but they don’t understand what it is supposed to be used for, then they can make a mistake and work in a totally different direction. That’s why it is important for us to know God’s purpose and God’s destination. Amen? Amen.
God has put into His Word several pictures, several plans. It is the same way when I build a house, I have several pictures on several levels.
First of all, I have the whole purpose in my mind. I have a purpose that I want the house to serve. There are several things I want the house to fulfill, and I have an idea in my mind of what I expect. When I talk to different people, I have to use different ways to pass my ideas on to them.
When I talk to my wife’s father, who draws the house for us, then I have to tell him how many meters wide it is to be. I have to say where I want my gas to be placed. I have to say where the oven is going to stand, what size the heating is going to be, and anything else. When I talk to the people from the power company, I have to tell them how many kilowatts I am going to be taking per month or year. I have to draw them a plan for how my electricity is going to be set up, where it is going to be switched on, and where the fuses are. When I talk to my wife, I have to tell her how many sinks there are going to be and what color each room is going to be. But I am still talking about one house and all of the information leads to one purpose – I want to live there.
I should be able to explain each thing that is being built in my house. I should be able to explain what purpose it is going to serve and how it is going to fulfill the initial purpose. Hallelujah.
One of the pictures God has given us is a picture of the tabernacle.
Which one of you has ever put together puzzles? Amen? I don’t know what method you have, but I always tried to find all four corners first. I always found the four corner pieces and then out of all those little puzzle pieces I chose the edges. I made a little frame out of them and I knew that all of the little pieces had to fall into that frame. No little puzzle piece can be outside of that frame.
So everything that is happening has to fall into God’s framework, into His purpose.
God has given us a picture of the tabernacle. What do we know about the tabernacle? We know the tabernacle has the Outer Court, we know it has the Holy Place, we know it has the Holy of Holies. We know it has pieces of furniture and we know what those pieces of furniture mean. We know that the boards, as well as some of the pillars, are made out of wood and covered with gold, and we know that some of the pillars are made out of bronze. Amen? What is it good for? What is all this knowledge good for? God is revealing to us His purpose. Where is this purpose found? This purpose is found in the Holy of Holies.
Why did God give us the tabernacle? Who knows why God gave us the tabernacle? So that He could meet with man. Amen. God said, “Build a tabernacle so that I could meet with man.” (Ex 25) It means that God had to find a way where He could meet with man. God’s purpose is to meet with man. God’s purpose is not for us to have traditions and routines, to have furniture, sacrifices and bread, but God’s purpose is that He could meet with us. If the priest had gone through the whole tabernacle and at the end he had not met with God, then the whole thing would have been for nothing. Amen? It wouldn’t have had any meaning. So when the priest was going through the tabernacle, there was a great expectation, whether or not he did everything right and whether or not he “qualified” for God to come. There was a great expectation to know whether or not the sacrifice was good, whether or not the smell was pleasant unto God so that He would come down. And God came down and met with Israel. Amen?
We are trying to walk the same way. We are trying to walk very carefully in order for us to be able to (at the end of our walk) meet with God. Amen.
God has His purpose from the very beginning. Let us look into Genesis. If we talk about the beginning, then it is necessary to read Genesis. We are in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 26.
Ge 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have domin- ion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
And let us look into Genesis chapter 5 and verse 1,
Ge 5:1 “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.”
God said, “I am going to make man in My image and after My likeness.” We have to understand that God’s Word is perfect. God had to squeeze Himself in between the covers of the Bible. God doesn’t waste words and God doesn’t make mistakes. God doesn’t care about poeticism or what looks good. So when God says that He had a purpose to make us after His likeness and in His image, then these are two things which have a different meaning. Then in verse 27 of the 1st chapter it is written that God made us in His image. It means that He is revealing to us that He didn’t fulfill a part of His purpose at that moment.
God created man. At the beginning, when the animals were created, Adam gave them names. He saw he was missing a partner, he was missing a helpmeet. I believe he had fellowship with the animals. I believe there was a measure in which he was able to share with them. Maybe some of you have a dog or some other animal and you know that, to a certain extent, you can have a kind of friendship with him/her. But it was as if Adam didn’t find it to the extent that would be equal to him, as if he didn’t find a level on which he would be able to share in fullness. Have you ever thought why God did it in such an order? God had enough of His Spirit and could have created Adam as well as Eve the same way, and then they could have named the animals together. But God wanted to show Adam the need that Adam had. And because Adam is made in God’s image, then it means that even God has the same need. Adam saw that there was no helpmeet for him equal to him; he saw he was missing something or somebody “who” would be able to respond to his love. It is the same way with God, why He wanted, from the beginning, to create somebody who would be equal to Him.
I think in the traditional church I would finish at this moment. Amen? I think they would come for me and say, “When you say that we are to be equal to God, it is a heresy from the beginning.” But I see nobody has come as of yet, so I am continuing. J
God has never thought of giving us divinity as He has it. We will never be equal to God in the sense of being creators of ourselves, or telling Him what He is to do. But God wants to make us so that we would be able to share with Him in His purpose on all levels. God wants to elevate us and call us His friends. Amen. As we have a need, even God has a need.
God has a great need to have people who are able or made able to walk with Him and talk with Him on the level where He is. That is the most important thing.
Hallelujah. This is a purpose all religions are missing, including traditional Christianity. Religion separates God from man. It says that God is somewhere up there, He is holy, exalted, and His mind cannot be comprehended. A man, then, is small, low, sinful, limited by time, and his mind is limited, too; and he was created to keep God’s laws. Amen?
But this is not true. God has decided, because of His need, to come down to man and lift him higher – to Himself. And because we were created in His image, everything we do, we do because God does it. We do it on a natural level. If we are able to breathe, then it is because God is able to breathe. If we have hands, then God also has hands. If we have a strong right arm, it is because God has a strong right arm. If we have legs, then it is because God has legs.
It is a picture in the natural so that we would understand the spiritual.
For example, would you like to have a partner who doesn’t have legs? Don’t misunderstand me now. If your purpose were to go for a walk with him, you would want to enable him to be able to walk with you. You would want him to have eyes so that he would be able see with you. You would want him to have a mind so that he would be able to share with you, so that you would be able to flow together. That’s why God has given us, on the natural level, the same “equipment” He has.
However, we can see that God had a double-leveled purpose, a purpose on two levels. If you want to ask what God looks like, then I could describe a man to you. I would say: A man is spirit, soul and body; he has eyes, he has a nose, hands, legs, he walks, breathes, thinks, blood is flowing through him. But God has a purpose that I could say in the FULL extent, “If you want to see God, look at me.” Amen? This is what Jesus told Philip when he asked Him and said, “Show us the Father!” (Jn 14:8-9) He replied, “I have been walking with you for three years and you have not understood it yet? If you want to see the Father, look at me. I love as the Father loves, I forgive as the Father forgives, I think as the Father thinks, I will save as the Father saves, I get angry as the Father gets angry.” Amen? Do you believe God gets angry? Amen? Jesus didn’t come to the temple and say, “Excuse me…, pardon me…, could you please take your money out of the temple…?” Jesus came with a whip, for He saw His Father being as such.
Jesus Christ is one of the designs. As I was talking about the house, He is one of the drafts of the house. The same way as the tabernacle is a drawing that has different dimension lines and numbers, Jesus (Christ) is a picture in which you can see colored windows and how the final work is going to look. God has a purpose to have sons at the end; He has a purpose to have people who will walk with Him – and it will not be only one man.
This is our framework for the puzzles. Amen? All the rest falls into this framework. So with all that is being preached, with all that is being spoken, we have to seek how it fulfills God’s purpose. Hallelujah.
Let us look at several pictures. Amen. I also want to say one thing that I have probably forgotten to mention and have in my mind right now. If you do a work, a project, then you first determine your objective. Is it so? You are not going to start building before you have the whole house laid out. Amen? You have the whole house in your mind first.
When my brother was building a house, he “created” a model by cutting it out of paper and said, “This is going to be my house.” This was the beginning of his building. And so, God, because we do things according to Him, thinks the same way. God looked at the end and said, “What do I have to do to fulfill my objective?” You know, it is a trivial thought. It is a trivial thought, however, we despise it in our lives. Do you know what I am talking about? I am saying, “Do not think about what you are going to do tomorrow. Do not think about where you are going to go and what you are going to do, how many children you are going to have and what kind of house you are going to build, until you have marked out the final purpose for your life.” Amen? We have been doing worse things with our lives than with our houses! We would not be such fools that we would build a house without knowing how it is to look at the end. We would not start building and say, “I am now going to build a wall here 10 meters long this way. And hmmm… It is not so bad that it is made out of bricks. I have seen at my neighbor’s house how he has it made out of stone, so I will try to build another 10 meter wall out of stone perpendicular to the one I made out of bricks.”
Where do you think you would end up? Confusion! Chaos! No use! No purpose! Why then, if we laugh at this, do we deal with our lives in this way? We say to ourselves, “Well, now I will attend this school… I don’t know what I am going to do afterwards, but now I want to go to this school. And maybe I could… How about this girl? She is quite pretty. I am going to date her now. I don’t know what is coming afterwards, but I can dater some other girl later on… I don’t know what I am going to do over the weekend, maybe I could go for a trip or I could go to church.” And your life is going without any purpose. What are we expecting? What are we expecting of our life, which we have been dealing with in such a way? Amen? Can you say, “Amen”? Hallelujah.
The revelation God is giving us should change our lives. I believe this is the reason why we are here. For example, I strongly hope that you didn’t say to yourselves, “I will go to the conference,” but that you are here because you are pursuing a greater purpose. When I push the button of a TV set, I have to ask myself in which way it fulfills my purpose. When I look for a partner, if we should even be looking for a partner, I have to ask myself how he/she will fulfill that purpose. Amen? If I don’t understand which way my partner will contribute to the fulfillment of my destination, then I don’t need a partner. I should submit everything to that final destination. Every decision should be considered by that destination. I will take a map and say, “This is my destination,” and at every crossroad I ask myself, “Which one of the roads leads or doesn’t lead to that destination?”
This is one of the greatest revelations God has given us, especially to the young people. So let us first agree on the purpose and then let us look at which roads lead to it. The purpose is that God wants me to be a son of God, who will have the same mind as God does, who will have the same capacity of love, who will have the same desires, the same will, the same emotions. God wants the words I speak to be His words so that when He gets up, I get up, so that He could share His heart with me, so that I would be able to understand it and that I would be able to return it to Him, that I would be able to be moved by it and I would be able to act according to it. This is the plan of my life. Amen? This is my purpose, which I have in my mind. This is my house.
I will ask you now, in order for me to know whether I can continue, if those of you, who are able to liken and identify yourselves with this plan, can say, “Amen.” Amen? Hallelujah. So, I assume this is the reason why you are here at this conference. This is the reason. The fact that you are sitting here at this moment and not somewhere by the lake is because you believe that sitting here leads you to the fulfillment of that purpose.
You know, Joshua told the people, “Say if you want to follow the Lord.” And the people said, “Yes, we will.” He replied to them, “You witness against yourselves.” (Jos 24) So, you have said now that all you do, you do in order to fulfill the purpose to which you have raised your hand. At this moment, you have allowed the Holy Spirit to follow you and remind you of you vow and say, “The thing you are now doing or have decided to do is leading you away from the purpose which you have set for yourself.” Hallelujah. God has not only given us the destination, but He also reveals to us the way.
Let us first look at the tabernacle. Our destination is here. The destination in the tabernacle is to get to the Holy of Holies and in the Holy of Holies meet with God. The priest took the sacrifice and carried it from the beginning as far as the Holy of Holies. The steps which he had to go through are represented by different pieced of furniture.
The destination in the tabernacle is to get to the Holy of Holies and in the Holy of Holies meet with God. The priest took the sacrifice and carried it from the beginning as far as the Holy of Holies. The steps which he had to go through are represented by different pieces of furniture.
It doesn’t matter what we think about the way. We only determine where we want to get and if we said that we want to get to the Holy of Holies, then the way is given. You know, people say that there are many roads to one destination. There is a saying in the world which says that all roads lead to Rome. It is true except for one. Amen? Hallelujah. So if you want to get to the Holy of Holies, if I use this picture, I will tell you what you have to go through. And I ask you, do not resist and do not try to find another road, for if you want to take another road, then you will end up somewhere else. If you have made your decision that your purpose in life is to get into the Holy of Holies, then you don’t mind which road you will have to take or what circumstances that you must pass through, but what matters is that you will get to the destination. Amen? Amen.
So the road leads the following way: First of all, you have the fence of the Outer Court. It consists of pillars. The pillars are made out of bronze and placed in bronze sockets, which talks about judgment. There was linen stretched in between the pillars and, if I am not mistaken, the linen was held by silver hooks, which represents redemption. Amen. Is it so? Hangings in all their types represent the flesh. People are those who make up a dividing line. People are those who preach the gospel, the good news, to the unbelieving world. People define the tabernacle itself. White linen talks about righteousness. It talks about the whole purpose of God being covered with righteousness. And righteousness is connected by redemption. It means that the linen is held by the silver connectors. Amen? The purpose doesn’t have its own righteousness. It is God’s redemption which holds righteousness on the purpose of God.
Next, there is no gold found in the Outer Court. There is no gold there. It means that a man in the Outer Court is not meeting God’s character as of yet. Our entrance into salvation doesn’t mean that we come because we are good. We are not waiting to be good enough to enter into God’s purpose. The only thing we can see in the Outer Court is judgment to the left as well as to the right. Life. Death. If you don’t repent, you will perish in the eternal fire.
Mt 25:41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”
Jn 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Amen. So we are going through the tabernacle. There is no other possibility to get to the Holy of Holies than to go through salvation and the first place we find is death.
Brazen Altar
Do not try to find another road. There is none. A moment ago you said you didn’t care which road you would have to take – the main thing is to get to the destination. You have to pass by death. You have to die. God doesn’t want to take and use anything of what you consider to be precious. Amen? God doesn’t have the need.
If you were, for example, a heavy metal singer who knew how to bring crowds to the concert, and you got saved, do you think you would come and say, “God, this is my gift. I am now going to be singing Christian metal and bring crowds to Christ?” God says, “Death! Death.” Amen? God is saying He is not interested if you have a big name. God is not interested! Hallelujah! Who do you think, in the generation of Pharaoh, was the greatest in the world? Pharaoh. Today it could probably be the American president or the boss of the United Nations, but at that time it was Pharaoh. He was considered to be the most powerful man in the world. Moses was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and we would think, “This is what we need to use.” However, God was not able to use him the way he was. He had to take him and pull him out. How old was he? Forty. He was an adult, a mature man. He had all the Egyptian education. He had access to all. He knew all. He had perfect rhetoric, he knew mathematics, politics. He was able to be in charge of building construction, in charge of nations. He was able to communicate. God pulled him out of it for forty years. He pulled him out to tend sheep. Death. Death. Death. God doesn’t need to have our own things mixed with God’s things. Until Moses confessed, “Why are you sending me? I don’t even know how to speak.” His vocabulary was reduced to “baaa.” Amen? God had to bring Moses down so that He could use him.
If you have thought that God is going to use you because you are great, that thought is wrong. The Brazen Altar is a place where death is found. We come there naked. Amen? We come naked, not having anything. The only thing we have is fear of death and God brings us by force and ties us to the Brazen Altar. The blood is flowing there. Hallelujah. That is where our name ends. No Prince of Egypt any more. Hallelujah. He was not the Prince of Egypt anymore but rather, he was the Midian shepherd. Amen? Hallelujah.
Brazen Laver
Then we go further through the tabernacle – if we want to get to the end – and we come to the baptisms. There is a Brazen Laver there. It represents three baptisms – baptism in water, baptism in the Spirit, and baptism into Christ.
Why are you baptized in water? Because you want get to the destination of the Holy of Holies. If you were baptized for any other reason, then you have not been baptized in water. Amen? When the apostles came they asked the disciples whether they accepted the Holy Spirit. The disciples said, “We don’t even know the Holy Spirit was given.” The apostles were asking, “How have you then been baptized? What have you been baptized into?” And they said, “We have been baptized by the baptism of John for forgiveness of sins.” And so the apostles preached to them, “Oh, it means that you are not baptized. We will reveal unto you the purpose of God and show you what leads to it. You will see it is necessary to have the Holy Spirit to lead you on.” And all who believed were baptized. (Acts 19:1-7) Amen? So, if you were baptized at some church into some church, then get re-baptized. You cannot get to the end if you don’t get baptized. Hallelujah.
Baptism in the Spirit
Baptism in the Spirit is another thing that leads us to our destination. It means that, if you want to make it and you are not baptized in the Spirit, you have to fall on your face and say, “God, I need the baptism in the Spirit.” You cannot say to yourself that you don’t need it or that maybe you do. You cannot say, “I am not totally sure.” You need to make sure that you have gone through the baptism in the Spirit. You have to make sure you are baptized in the Spirit, you have gifts, and you speak in tongues. It doesn’t matter what your opinion is. The only thing that matters is where you want to get. Hallelujah.
The next baptism is the baptism into Christ. If you don’t want to be baptized into Christ, then all the other baptisms are pointless and you don’t need them. Cold water doesn’t have any meaning. It is pointless. Amen? The Spirit of God will immediately lead you to be baptized into Christ. What is it to be baptized into Christ? What does it actually mean to be baptized? It is a religious term. You students of Greek, I ask you, which Greek word stands for baptism? It is <baptidzo> or <baptidzein> and it means “to immerse.” Full immersion. The same as when I take something and immerse it under the water so that there is nothing left up above the surface. It is not the iceberg where the majority is immersed, but a little bit is still above. While baptizing, it is important to immerse the baptized person totally under the water until the surface closes up above him and he cannot be seen any more. He is not. Amen? Dead. It means that it is necessary for him to enter into the water and die. He comes out of the water new, symbolically speaking, and is risen up with Christ. If we are baptized in the Spirit, the same <baptidzo> is applied there. It means we have to be fully immersed in the Spirit, where not even a little bit of us is out of the Spirit. We are talking here about the fact that not even a bit of us sticks out of Christ. Amen?
Sometimes we practice the Old Testament principle of tithes. We work, we do our own things and we give one-tenth to God. Some say that we are not to give only ten percent of money, but also ten percent of time. They say, “A day has 24 hours. Out of these 24, I sleep for 10 hours, so I have 14 hours remaining, and out of them I will give to God
1.4 hours. On Sunday, I have a meeting for three hours and so it will make up for Saturday.” Am I mistaken? But this is not immersion. God wants us to be fully immersed into Christ – fully under the headship of Christ. So, how much money do you give over to God? Everything. Amen? Amen. You come home with your paycheck and say, “God, here is the money. You tell me now what I am to do.” And God will say, “Buy yourself a T-shirt because you need it; give this amount to this brother so that he can buy himself a T-shirt, too; and put this into the bank and I will tell you in My time what to do with it.” Amen? When you go to God, you have to ask, “God, I would like to buy something, can I use Your money for it?” Amen? Is it so or am I exaggerating? Is it too radical?
What about time? 24 hours. I will deduct 10 hours for sleep. Hmmm… I am afraid that’s not the way. J No. I will come and say, “God, I have 24 hours. What do you want me to do with them?” And God will say, “You will go to work for 9 hours.” You know, God has not given us the right to deal with time at our discretion. When He tells me to go to work for 9 hours, then I cannot go to work for neither 12 nor 8 hours. Amen? He says, “You will go to work for 9 hours, for 2 hours you are going to be doing this, 2 hours this, and now you will go to bed.” When God tells you to go to bed, you have to go to bed. Who believes that when God tells you to go to bed and you go to bed, it is fulfilling the purpose of God? This is the mind we have to have. You know, if we sit here, for example, until two o’clock in the morning talking all kinds of nonsense and feel good, then in the morning we will not be able to concentrate. So, we need to have a mind that will say, “God, I am doing everything to fulfill Your purpose.” If it is time to go to bed, let us go to bed. If it is time to stay awake, let us stay awake.
I have warned you a little bit at the beginning, but I don’t know whether it was sufficient. I don’t know whether we comprehend that we have lost our lives. If yes, then we comprehend it right. Hallelujah.
The baptism into Christ means that we partake of God’s move and are a part of God’s people. Can you get to the destination, to the Holy of Holies, and not be a part of God’s people? No. You cannot arrive unless you are a part of God’s people. Hallelujah. Can you get to the destination, to the Holy of Holies, and be a part of some other people? No. For if you are a part of other people, then the other people will lead you somewhere else.
You know, sometimes we think that we can cheat. We think that we can be as if we are a part of it, but at the same time not be a part of God’s people, not partaking in the things of God. “You know, I have a certain business to take care of now, I can’t. I have now bought new oxen, I have bought a new field, I have now gotten married…” (Lu 14:16-20) God says it can happen to us that if we are not a part of God’s people, then whether we want to or not, whatever we think about it, we will not get to the destination. Amen? Amen. If you still want to get to the destination, make sure you are with the right people of God and you do all to be a part of the right Word of God, of the right people of God. Lay aside your oxen, your field, your marriage. If your marriage, your possessions or your work holds you back or deprives you of being a part of God’s work, then you need to call upon God that He would find a solution for you. Hallelujah. Amen? Amen.
Golden Lampstand
Let us go on. We have already gone through the Outer Court and God is now saying to us to be one with Him. A candlestick. I don’t want to call it a candlestick, let us call it a lampstand, as it is closer to the original.
A Lampstand. It is a holder or a stand for little lamps. It consists of six arms and the seventh is the middle stand. Amen? Number 6 rep- resents man, number 1 represents God, and all together it makes 7. This means that man in cooperation with God produces light. Hallelujah. Where are you to put the light? Under the bed? No. On the table so it would be seen. So, if you want to get to the destination in the Holy of Holies, it is necessary for you, together with God, in unity with Him, to produce light and the light must be seen. The light is here to give light. God leads each one of us through it and each of us has to go through a state or place where he, because he is with God, gives out light that is seen.
You know, this is a word which speaks against a theology of “laymen and clergy,” a word which speaks against clergy and ordinary people. It is not correct to think that there would be people in the church who are chosen to work with God and give light, and that only some of them are chosen. Amen? But each one of you who raised up your hand here have to go through this place. There is no way around. Amen? So if you see that you have not gone through the place where you would work with Christ and give light and that light would be seen, then you need to repent and come before God. Amen? You need to come before God and say, “God, I can’t go around this piece of furniture, I have to fulfill it.” Don’t say to yourself, “I have a different character. I am not the one who is seen.” God is looking at it differently. It doesn’t necessarily mean you should be at the town square bringing crowds. But it is necessary that you would be seen from God’s perspective and give light by working with God and if you don’t know how to get to it, then this is the way. Matthew chapter 5, starting from verse 14:
Mt 5:14 “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”
15 “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.”
16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Everything that Jesus says about Himself you will find as a requirement for us. Maybe we could do some homework sometime and try to find out these sayings. Jesus says:
Jn 8:12 “ …I am the light of the world…”
And then He says:
Mt 5:14 “Ye are the light of the world…”
So everybody should be able to be the Lampstand, as we have said. Our good deeds should shine and give testimony about our Father being good. But be careful about one thing. The light is given out based on the cooperation of us with God – 6 + 1. God is not asking us to do deeds. He is waiting for us to work with Him so that the deeds, which will glorify the Father, will be seen. Hallelujah.
Do you know it is written that we cannot remain children, that everyone is to be an elder? (Eph 4:13-14; Nu 11:25-30;) Everyone is to get to the “measure” of an elder. Everyone is called to it and it is written about the elders that they are to have a good reputation, even outside. Amen? It means that there should be a testimony given about us that our light is known. Maybe they will persecute us for our righteousness and holiness, but we should confess together with Jesus that the world comes and has nothing in us. It cannot pull out any record against us. If you walked in the world, or even as Christians but outside of Christ, God is able to wipe away things, forget and forgive. But it is absolutely necessary for us to start walking as such that the world would have nothing in us: at school, at work, at home, before our parents, before our children, before our friends.
Table of Shewbread
Let us go on. We have not gotten to the end yet. The next experience you have to go through, if you want to get to the Holy of Holies, is the Table of Shewbread.
The Table of Shewbread speaks about feeding on several levels. It talks about us feeding on Christ on several levels. It talks about the Word of God – the Bible. It talks about the Word of God which comes from the brethren. It talks about the Word of God which comes through Christ Himself. Hallelujah. It means that if we want to make it, we cannot miss any of these three things. We cannot put our Bible on the shelf. If we don’t have time to find hours and hours for reading the scriptures, then we have to ask God to show us another way. Maybe we will be listening to the tapes in the car or at home or someplace else. We need to feed on the Word of God. In Romans 10:13 it is written:
Ro 10:13“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
14 “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
We cannot be saved if we don’t call upon the name of God. We cannot call upon His name unless we believe. We cannot believe unless we have heard. Amen? We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It is necessary to get washed, to wash our minds by the Word of God.
So, this is one of the things God is laying in our path that we have to go through, where we have to sit down and feed. We have ministries which sacrifice a great deal of their lives in order to translate and present to us the Word of God. I would like to thank Brother George for his video ministry, I would like to thank Sister Milena for her work on issuing the magazines, and I would like to thank others like them. A hundred percent thanks goes to Vita for recording and copying tapes. I want to thank them for sacrificing their time so we could read it, listen to it, or see it on television. And what we do with the Word will affect where we will get (in the tabernacle). Do you believe it? It is necessary to put the tape into a tape recorder, take our brochure on the tram, and if it can’t be done otherwise, then to the bathroom. Amen? Use every moment to feed on the Word of God. Hallelujah.
The next thing breaking of bread talks about is giving ourselves one for another. As Christ broke His body for us, the same way we are to lay down our bodies for the others. You cannot get to the Holy of Holies if you don’t go through laying down your body for the brethren. And if you stumble over the spirit of indifference and disinterest, over the spirit of self-centeredness or selfishness, or over the spirit of isolation, then, if you want to get to the end, you cannot say, “This is me.” Hallelujah. This is another thing we have to go through on our way. But, I am not at the destination yet. The Golden Altar is waiting for us now.
Golden Altar of Incense
The Golden Altar speaks about us having to sacrifice our souls. After all we have gone through, it will finally be shown how seriously we have taken it. You know, the things up until the Golden Altar can be very much pretended. If you take false fire, you can carry it through the whole tabernacle up unto the Golden Altar. (Le 10:1-2) Amen? At the Golden Altar, it will be seen. The Golden Altar will verify the genuineness of your walk. Amen? For you will sacrifice your souls. It is written, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” (Mt 7:16, 20)
If I am born again, if I get immersed in water, if I from time to time, bring some vision or speak in some tongues, if I go to the meetings, have a Bible in my bag, have five CDs with preaching at home, and when you need help, I occasionally help you, but my soul is not being changed, I have anger in me, and my mind, my desires, my emotions, my will are not becoming God’s emotions, God’s will, God’s purposes, and God’s mind, then there is no possible way for me to enter into the Holy of Holies. It will all blow up and turn against me. Let us not think that when we “get” there, it is all over with. If we get to the wedding but don’t have the right clothes, then we will be thrown out. (Mt 22:11- 14) Amen? It would be the same as when Nadab and Abihu went in with strange fire. They lighted the fire, went through the Outer Court, lighted the lamps on the Lampstand, changed bread and said to themselves, “Perfect, it works, there is no problem.” Until they came to the Golden Altar. At the Golden Altar. At the Golden Altar everything suddenly blew up against them. This is where we sacrifice our souls and then go through to the Holy of Holies.
Holy of Holies (Ark of the Covenant & the Mercy Seat)
In the Holy of Holies we talk about God covering us. We talk here about Psalm 91 because we have learned to enter into God’s covering. Do you know what God says? “Do not turn neither to the left, nor to the right. Go straight on the path.” Do you know why? For the next verse says, “At my left side one thousand perished and at my right side ten thousand.” Amen? That’s why God is telling you, “Do not turn, neither to the left, nor to the right.” Amen? “For there is a thousand at the left and ten thousand at the right who turned and perished.” Hallelujah. It is necessary for us to learn to walk with God so that He could hide us in His secret place. It is written:
Ps 91:1 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
Amen? This is the covering of the two cherubims in the Holy of Holies. Then we meet the seventh piece of furniture when the Shekinah glory comes, where the man is no longer and he meets with God Himself.
We know that the whole tabernacle measures 300 cubits at the perimeter. 300 cubits indicates to us from the beginning what the purpose of God is. It is Gideon’s army which was getting smaller and smaller the same way the whole humanity is getting smaller with every experience. Most of humanity is outside of salvation, most of Christianity is outside of the Holy Place, and most of those who went through to the Holy Place are outside of the Holy of Holies. For there are many places where people camped out and said, “I am not going on.” So, our decision to get to the end determines which things we have to go through. I hope you understand why we have been preaching about the tabernacle, why we have been preaching about these individual things here.
The Holy Place consists of wooden boards which are covered with gold. The wooden boards speak about carnality, about man, about humanity. Gold speaks about godliness. If we are baptized into Christ, and we enter into the Holy Place, humanity doesn’t have any place in the Body of Christ. One board is 1.5 cubits wide. In the Body of Christ, one board is one and a half cubits wide. What meaning does one-and-a-half have in the scriptures? None. When I put two boards together, it makes three. What meaning does the number three have? Fullness. The fullness of God. Therefore, none of the boards have any meaning by themselves – if somebody thinks that he has to care only about himself so that he himself could run to the Holy of Holies by himself.
Each board has to be anchored in a silver socket. Silver means redemption. For us to be anchored we must be anchored in redemption by both feet. Two feet talks about two witnesses. One witness is the Word and the other witness is the Spirit. In order for the boards not to swing, they are held by five bars. Five bars talks about the five-fold ministry: apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher. The bars are made out of wood and covered with gold, which means that the five-fold ministry must have God’s character. Each board has a golden ring. The golden rings actually hold the bars and the bars hold the boards.
It means that we are the ones who accept the five-fold ministry and the five-fold ministry holds us so that we will stand in a row. If we want to make it, if we want to get to the end, God has given us directions. This is the only way, the only order of the Body of Christ, the only order of the church. If you hold any other ministry than God’s ministry, then it is not God’s order. If you have any other order in the Body of Christ than God’s order, you are not in the Holy of Holies. Amen? If we are not holding apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and shepherds, if we have another gospel, if we are making our own teachings, then we are wandering somewhere in the Outer Court. Amen? Hallelujah.
This is the way. We have not gone into details with the individual pieces of furniture. However, I still want to say a few things. I would like to read from the 6th chapter of Hebrews, verses 18 and 19.
He 6:18 “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”
What is our hope? Or what is the hope? There is something we don’t have at the moment, but we hope to receive it. Amen? Therefore, what is faith? “Faith is the substance of things hoped for…” (He 12:1) Amen? If we have hope and we hope for something, then it is through faith, which is a substance of the hope, that we hold on to those thing we hope for. We hear the Word and it is our hope. Through faith we hold on to that Word so that it would become reality.
In verse 19, it is written:
He 6:19 “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”
Amen? Our hope is an anchor, an anchor which is thrown into the Holy of Holies behind the veil. This anchor, our hope, is anchored in the Holy of Holies, and we are holding on to the rope by faith. Whatever is happening with us, whatever storm comes, whether it seems to us at that moment that we are doing better or worse, we always have our hope, which is firmly anchored in the Holy of Holies behind the veil. You know, when a boat is anchored, it can be moved a few meters to the left or to the right, but nothing will take it far from the place where it is held. And that is our hope. Amen? What is going to happen when we have hope but don’t have faith? In other words, when the Word is being preached, but we don’t add faith to it, what is going to happen?
He 4:1 “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
2 “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
The word preached did not profit them. It was unto them for nothing. No benefit. They didn’t get anywhere, they didn’t enter into rest. Even though they came out of Egypt, even though they heard the same Word, they went through the same sea, they were baptized into Moses, even though the Word of hope was preached to them, they didn’t enter for their unbelief. Do you remember the story of Joshua and Caleb?
It is faith which gets hold of our hope and takes us through that we could go through. When Jesus died on the cross, He did one thing – the veil was broken. What does it mean? It means that at that moment we were able to see into the Holy of Holies. It means that wherever you find yourself, you see the destination. You see the ark in the Holy of Holies. The destination is not unknown to us any more, we have seen Christ resurrected, we have seen the Kingdom of God in the earth. The destination has been opened unto us and we can see it. And it is important that you would, the same way as the “Gideonites,” drink water and looked around.
You know, sometimes when I drive fast on the expressway, I look and don’t take my eyes off the road. When I, for example, need to change a tape or turn on the heat, I watch the road and do it by heart. It means that when you walk on your path, whether you are at work, at school, or whether you dig in your garden, you need to dig, but not take your eyes off the Holy of Holies, off that purpose, off that destination. You understand that I speak spiritually. Let us continually keep this perspective.
I will write for you into the following table several other things so that you would have an overview. These are different Biblical pictures talking about the same thing, i.e. about the road and getting into the fullness.
Ga 4:1 “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;”You know, we are confused that we, as Christians, are given a lot of promises and a lot of competencies and people are saying, “Is it now? Was it given to us or is it going to be given to us?” It was given to us and we have it all. It has already happened. But in the 4th chapter of Galatians, in verses 1 through 7 it is written:
2 “But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.”
3 “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:”
4 “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,”
5 “To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
6 “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”
7 “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
At the beginning, we, as babies, inherited our inheritance. We inherited all; we inherited all power. But it is not of any good to us, we don’t differ from the servants until the time appointed by the Father when we become the sons and begin to deal with our inheritance. Amen? What is another picture that speaks about the same? Christ.
Hallelujah. Christ speaks the same language. When it says in the Bible “in Christ,” then it means in the Holy of Holies. Christ is in the Holy of Holies and our destination is that we would all be “in Christ.” If you wanted to see how the destination looks, then read the 1st chapter of Revelation. And if you thought it talks only about Jesus, then notice that he has a voice as of many waters. Amen? Christ is both a head and a body together.
How do I therefore get into Christ? I get into Christ by being a part of the Body of Christ, when I am joined by joints with my brethren. Let us look in Ephesians 4:11:
Eph 4:11 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors (shepherds) and teachers.”
We have already talked about this here. And why that all?
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.”
Hallelujah. This is the way to gather together into Christ, into the full measure.
You can see that the individual pictures penetrate one another, one complements the other, and one interprets the other. Amen? Let us look at some other pictures.
The next picture is, for example, the bride. How do you become a bride? What does the Word say? What is all the talking about the wise and the foolish virgins for? Why did the bride get ready?
Why are we talking about the bride being a virgin? Amen? It is necessary for us to be “virgins,” that we would not fornicate. Not only in the body, but that we would not have a close fellowship with anyone else other than with our God. Amen? It is necessary for us to be clothed in white raiment – in righteousness, purity. It is necessary for us to be without spot and wrinkle – it means that God would cleanse us all through, cleanse us from all wickedness. It means that we are to be perfect as He is perfect. Amen? And I have forgotten something, we are to have oil in our souls. Not only in our spirit, but in our soul. Not only in the lamp, but also in the vessel. Think about what dress, oil, and virgin means.
We have been preaching all this for one and only one destination, for one and only one purpose. We are to be a tree which bears fruit and that fruit has one destination. I am the vine and my Father is the husbandman. In John chapter 15, it is written that God is expecting fruit to grow on us. Who wants fruit to grow on him? Amen? Then I will tell you how to get to it. If you feel that I am repeating myself, that it is my intention.
God says we are to abide in Him. John chapter 15 and verse 1 through 3:
Jn 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”
2 “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”
3 “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
Hallelujah. It means that Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, and the Father is the husbandman. We cannot bear fruit any other way than in Christ. The purpose of God is that we would bear fruit. So, what happens if we don’t bear fruit? The husbandman will come and say, “It doesn’t matter, at least you have leaves.” Amen? No? This gospel is too hard. Shall we change it a little bit? Does it mean that when a saved Christian doesn’t bear fruit, then it says about him that he will be cut out and thrown into the fire? Hmm? Let us therefore look, as we want to bear fruit, to verse 4:
Jn 15:4 “Abide in me, and I in you. (So if you want to bear fruit, abide in Christ.) As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.”
If you think that you can go outside of Christ and have peace, love, patience, holiness, be good, kind, then the Word says that it is not possible. People think that they can be good and they don’t need Christ. But the Bible says it is not possible. If we read on in John, it is written there that we are to bear fruit.
We bear fruit only by being joined to Christ.
The husbandman will come, he will look and if you don’t bear fruit, he will cut you out. But on the other hand, if you bear fruit, he will come and purge you, purge you that you would bear much fruit. Amen? When you bear fruit, then God will take care that you will bear more fruit. And when you bear more fruit, then God comes and purges you that your fruit would remain. (Jn 15:16) You have love in the fellowship, you have much love in the fellowship, but the peak is that your love would remain. Amen? Hallelujah. Remaining and purging.
As the next example, I will draw a soul, a soul filled with the Holy Spirit,
A changed soul
A changed soul, what leads to it? I am reminding you of well-known pictures. The Spirit of God comes and through our spirit, enlightens our soul until He changes it into the image of God. And again we can talk about oil in our souls. Amen? Hallelujah.
This is the purpose I wanted to present to you. There is no other purpose. What we have been preaching and doing here through all these years, the reason why we sing praises, why we have altar calls, repentance, prophecies, prophets, teachings, tabernacle…, it will all pass away. Only the purpose, the destination, remains for us. In Corinthians it is written that all gifts, all knowledge will pass away, hope will pass away, and only love will remain unto us. (I Co 13:8) Hallelujah.
The last thing I would like to add to the map is the time frame. God has His purpose from the beginning and the whole 6,000 years He has been working on His purpose. Everything He has done He submit- ted to this purpose. Amen? And if God has been working for 6,000 years, then there is nothing that can pull this purpose out of His hand. All the “steps” we have been talking about up until now, we can write as one big number – 6,000 years. Amen? The destination is the end of creation. It will be the seven thousandth year when the whole purpose of God, the whole building, foundations and windows and roof and garden join together and the house will be made out of them, the house for use. The whole work of Satan culminates at the same time because God finished His creation on the seventh day and rested. (Ge 1:24- 2:2) The last thing He finished was a man and the beasts. The same way the iniquity culminates in time, the manifestation of the sons of God culminates and it all is coming to the peak. Just ask the out-of- doors. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Ro 8:22-23) Amen? They are waiting for the time when the whole purpose of God comes to its peak and the sons of God wipe the iniquity out of man. First of all, out of themselves and then they will wipe it out of humanity and Satan will be cast down from the air. This is the message, for we believe that we are finding ourselves at the end of the ages. We are now at the end of the ages, and from the point of view of the 6,000 years, from the point of view of time, it is just now when the whole purpose of God will be fulfilled and will “click together.” We are before the entrance into the Holy of Holies because we want to be part of it all. We are being directed beyond the veil. If the Holy of Holies or Christ are our destination, then the road is given. May God bless you.
Sonlight Devotional 