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Posts Tagged ‘Outer Court’

The Outer Court Is Gone

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on June 15, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Revelation 11:1-2

The outer court in this last-day church that we are looking at in Revelation 11:1-2 IS GONE. It is going to be gone. It will be “given unto the Gentiles” and they will “tread (it down) under foot forty and two months” – for three and a half years. There must be a reason, of course. The outer court is indefensible. God cannot defend the outer court. Why?

Let me explain to you what the outer court is. God told Moses to build a Tabernacle with a gate. This gate led into a big yard which was 100 cubits by 50 cubits. This yard had a fence around it and was called the outer court. In this place there was sometimes a lot of confusion with animals being killed and sacrificed, animals fighting for their lives, and men holding the animals, roping them onto the horns of the altar. Sometimes there was shouting and struggling in the outer court and a lot of blood. They would kill the animal and take out the guts and dung and wrap it into the skin of the animal and take that outside the camp to burn. It was not a nice smelling, beautiful place like a temple should be. The outer court was where all the preparation was made.

Let us now apply this to the gospel. The outer court church, therefore, is where the believer is being prepared to go into Christ. Some churches have camped in the outer court and have no intention of going any further because their doctrines say they have got it all. God is a God of progress. There was no way that God was going to give you everything at one time, and perfect you, in the outer court. When you accept Jesus Christ, you are fresh from sin, A FRESH SINNER. You come right into God and God washes you with the Blood of Jesus, but when He washes you with His Blood, He also has to LEAVE A SPACE for you to apply what He has given you, and for you to MAINTAIN the Christian, godly cleanliness which He gave.

Many brethren, after they accept Jesus as their Saviour, relax and do any old thing and feel that Jesus Christ will take care of it. One sister told me that she would divorce her husband and then go to God and pray about it. You cannot deliberately sin and go and pray about it. That is called presumptuous sin, and there is very little leeway for you to repent. You have to go down in sackcloth and ashes and repent of that sort of behavior before you can go any further in God.

The majority of the church is in the outer court. When we talk about church, when we talk about Christianity, the majority of Christians are in the outer court. There are two works of grace in the outer court. First, accepting Jesus’ Blood that was shed and giving our hearts to God. The second work of grace is beginning to clean up that which we have had from the world, which God came in to clean. He calls it baptism. At baptism, we have to die a death. Only salvation (accepting Jesus) is a free gift. You were as dirty, as wretched, as awful as a human being could be, in sin, and Jesus came and He applied the Blood and INSTANTANEOUSLY your sins were forgiven, but your NATURE was not completely changed. It has been arrested. The Blood of Jesus Christ is a tool given to you to clean up your mind, your emotions, your will, and your desires.

Some Christians let their emotions loose in a freedom that is not Christian. Even married people sometimes do not understand that they cannot behave any old way with their partners. They need to restrain and control and train their emotions and their desires and their will. The mind is not the mind of Christ. It is still the human mind. You have the tool to work it out and make it the mind of Christ. Consecration and sanctification are part of this cleaning.

The believer in the outer court is expected of God to prepare himself or herself for going into the holy place – to prepare himself or herself for going through the door, going into Christ, becoming a part of Christ’s body and a part of Christ’s function in the earth. Then you are really set to go places with God. However, if you have a doctrine that you must not receive the fullness of baptism (some say water baptism is not necessary), then you cut yourself off. Not being obedient to righteousness gives you nothing. You say that there is no baptism, and therefore you cuss, drink, commit any sin, and feel that you are all right because you have no covenant with God. Baptism is a covenant that the believer makes with God and it is permanent.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pg. 2-5)

Thought for today: Let us prepare ourselves in sanctification and consecration in order for us to go into Christ.

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Baptism into Christ

Posted in Growing in God, tagged , , , , on February 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-13

The baptism into Christ is described in 1 Corinthians 12:13a. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” This is the final baptism. Baptism in water is the beginning of baptism which finally ends in baptism INTO CHRIST. Christ, therefore, is a place in the Spirit, a Body, a mystic Body, into which we are incorporated by the power of God and the movement of the Holy Spirit. We cannot be baptized into Christ by man but by the Holy Ghost. Man baptizes you in water. Jesus Christ baptizes you into the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost baptizes you into Christ. In Christ is our final destination. That is the destination of every child of God. When CHRIST IS IN YOU, wherever you go, Christ has to go. If you go someplace Christ does not like, Christ will still have to be there in you, because you are carrying Him. When YOU ARE IN CHRIST, you go where Christ wants you to go. When the bull is eaten by the high priest, the bull has no say. He does not tell the priest where to go.

SANCTIFICATION is the work of the Holy Ghost. This work never ceases until we come into perfection to be like Jesus Christ. “Sanctus spiritus” means the “Holy Spirit.” “SANCTification” means “bringing us into the Holy Spirit.” This is the work in the Outer Court, done by the second work of grace, as the second seal is broken. There are three parts to this whole work – baptism, sanctification, and consecration. CONSECRATION is the putting aside, for the purpose of God, that which has been sanctified and cleansed for God and God alone. We are not to be used by the world. Many Christians allow themselves to be used by the world.

In the story of Samson, he transgressed and transgressed again until he broke the covenant. His hair was the symbol of covenant, the handwriting of God upon him. Just like our baptism is the handwriting of God upon us, so was the hair upon Samson. When his hair was cut off, the covenant was broken between him and God and he was made to grind corn like an ox. The Philistines blinded him and made him grind corn for them. The man of God was the means by which all their lusts were being fed. This is what God is saying about transgression. Too many of us do not understand that we were bought with a price and are to be set aside for God’s use and God’s use alone. We are not to be drudged; we are to be put aside specifically for the work of God in all things. This is what is meant by CONSECRATION.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 110-111)

Thought for today: Let us walk each day in the Sanctification and Consecration of our baptisms.

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Food for the Bride

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , on December 31, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 6:48-58

Have you ever thought about who the Holy Place congregation is? (We are talking about types and shadows as we see them in the Tabernacle of Moses: Outer Court, Holy Place, and Holy of Holies.) Let me tell you: the Holy Place congregation are people who have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That does not mean that if you have not received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you cannot be in the Holy Place congregation, because that generally is where you go to get it. But the Holy Place people are the people who walk in the Spirit or are being taught to walk in the Spirit. I want you to notice that it is Holy Place and Holy Spirit. You cannot be holy without the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that makes the church holy, for by nature we are not holy.

Let us go on a little step further. We say that there is a Holy Place congregation. This Holy Place congregation is ministered to by a special Spirit, by a special ministry. That is, that if God has not ordained men to the ministry of the Holy Place, they cannot minister to Holy Place people. Do you understand that? We have been listening to people who are not ministering to us. We have been getting food from tables that are not our table.

How would you like to be getting an Outer Court feeding while you are pressing on in the Holy Place seeking to become like Jesus Christ? You need something stronger. You need stronger food. The men and the women who participate in strenuous sports like running, jumping, etc., have to be fed special food in order to give them the energy to do what they are doing, or else they will be losers. Sometimes the difference between the winner and the loser is the food they eat. This is what God is saying to us: there is a food for the bride in the holy place and God calls it the wedding feast.

If you are expecting to come forth at midnight in the nature of Jesus Christ – why are you found eating food out in the potluck area? We call it potlock, but it really is luck, potluck. You may get it or you may not. Somebody may drop a little Halloween in the pot, and when you go out there it is all sweets, all candies. It is the same in what people are feeding on in the spiritual areas. They are feeding on nice things. They say, “Come, let’s sing a beautiful song and let’s dance.” They sing and dance and have a good time. They are entertained. But God is saying that there is a bride that must have special food, because she must come forth at midnight and bring forth a son; she needs strength for midnight.

At midnight the mighty men are going to fail. At midnight many who think they are the bride will find they have no oil in their vessels. They will have to go out into the darkness to get oil when it is going to be rough business.

(Excerpt from Warfare in the Holy Place, an audio message #1984-11-04)

Thought for today: Feed on the right food and walk in obedience to God so that you are not found lacking when the Bridegroom comes for His bride.

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Is God Walking in You Today?

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on December 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: II Corinthians 6:16

Have you ever thought why God had Moses build a Tabernacle and Solomon a Temple? Could the natural structures have a spiritual meaning? Once we understand God’s word it will bring life to our souls. Let us look into the word so that we can comprehend what God is saying.

Every builder who contrives to construct an edifice first makes a plan to suit the requirements of that which suits the purpose for which he builds. God, the greatest master builder of all, made three distinct plans or patterns of that which He builds in earth.

  1. Moses’ Tabernacle in the Wilderness:  The First Temple – Exodus 25:1-9
  2. Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem:  The Second Temple – I Chronicles 22:9-11 3
  3. Jesus Christ the Man:  The Beginning of the Third Temple – Matthew 24:2

There were some marked differences between Solomon’s Temple and the Tabernacle of Moses in the type of materials used in construction. Skins of animals, which represent the will of flesh, and wood, which represents humanity, though covered with gold (divinity) were used in Moses’ tabernacle. In Solomon’s temple, stones were used for the walls, which, unlike skins, were not produced by the will of the flesh, but by process of God’s own operation. The individual stones were inlaid with golden mortar poured into a pattern of holes drilled into them (more like our cement blocks) and plastered on the outside with pure gold, thus covering the nakedness of their presence in the temple by His own divinity, and at the same time filling them inside also with divine life. God’s promise to man is that He would walk in them and talk in them.

II Corinthians 6:16, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

The work was no more to be just an outward covering up of the nature of man under the nature of God, but even as the GOLDEN MORTAR permeated the inside of the stones, so the Living God would work on the inside of man.

All brass objects, which symbolize judgment and justice against sin, were peculiar to the Outer Court, for the Outer Court is the place where God deals with sin.

Let us first look at the Tabernacle of Moses. God gave Moses a detailed plan of a tent he should build, which was portable, to go along with the Israelites as they journeyed from Egypt to Canaan. At once we see Egypt as the type of bondage, sin, and our old carnal Adamic nature, and Canaan as the type of the great promise of salvation and a life free from sin.

The outer fence was made of posts of wood covered with brass and set in sockets of brass. This signifies that humanity will be used of God as part of the means of shutting man into God. The fact that the posts were covered with brass and socketed in brass signifies that there is a compulsion in their position and ministry and that there is no latitude for vacillation or change. The whole fence was covered with linen cloth, with hooks and joinings of silver. Linen speaks of righteousness and silver of redemption, that is, their righteousness is held in place by the redemptive power of Christ. Another fact that is pertinent is that they were placed five cubits apart, which means that God Himself would place them in the Body and it would be a ministry. This fence was 100 cubits long and 50 cubits wide, thus making the perimeter 300 cubits, which was the number of Gideon’s overcomer company. This plan or pattern contains in symbolic language every iota of God’s word, from the Holy Spirit working in the life of the sinner outside of the tent, to bring him in through the gate, to the believer being installed into the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies with all the attributes of the risen Christ manifested in him.

This pattern therefore contains the very essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His love. This revelation has now come to the Church so that all of God’s people might participate and be made ready for that mountaintop experience into which we shall soon enter through tribulation or fire.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 1-3)

Thought for today: Let us sanctify our temple so that we might be a fit habitation for the Almighty God. The choice is ours; let us make the right decision this day and allow God the freedom to walk in us and through us.

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“Laying on of Hands”

Posted in Doctrine of God, tagged , , , on July 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 8:5-10

Let us look at the principle of “laying on of hands” today. For context, we are going to read Hebrews 6:1-2, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God. 2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”

“Laying on of hands.” What is that? I didn’t know that the laying on of hands was a foundation doctrine. You know, some people love to touch everybody. “Laying on of hands” is a basic foundation doctrine. WHY? Because that which is in me can be imparted to you by my laying hands on you, and contacting heaven OR hell.

I remember one day a man was preaching. He got so excited that he started shouting. Then he ran down and slapped his hand on my head. I didn’t get rid of the headache all day. It was difficult for me to shake that headache. I am not a person to have a headache but as the guy put his hand on my head, my head began to split; I had a headache all day. We had to go home and pray and fight to get away from the thing that that man put on me, because it was something on him. Believe me, brethren, you can be wide open. Amen.

I have seen a homosexual teacher teach children, and several of them grow up and become homosexuals. He never told them to; he just imparted it to them. You can lay hands physically; you can lay hands spiritually. I can lay hands on you without touching you. The Lord God Almighty is saying that the church must be aware of the power of imparting the things of God from one to another. God wants that same mind that is in Christ Jesus to be in you also (Philippians 2:5).

The centurion came to Jesus and said, “My servant is sick and is dying at home.” Jesus said, “I will come with you.” But he corrected Jesus. Did you hear me? He corrected Jesus. He said, “For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it” (Matthew 8:9). He understood Jesus more than the disciples. He said, “You don’t have to come to my house, just speak the word. Just speak the word and it is done.”

We speak carelessly sometimes. Lord, forgive us, have mercy upon us, as a church, as a body, as a people. We speak careless things at times. Is it the same mouth that you used to speak a careless joke, or a careless thought, that you expect to use to speak righteousness and power? When you are ready to speak, nothing but noise will come out of your mouth.

God is saying that there is a position; now, we are still in the Outer Court. We haven’t gone into the real deep things of God yet. The laying on of hands is a basic Outer Court doctrine that every son of God must learn and know. Lay your hands on your children and bless them. Oh, yes. If you curse them, they are cursed. If you bless them, they are blessed. If you put a curse upon one, the child will have to fight a long time to get rid of that which has been put upon him, maybe by his parents, maybe his friends or sometimes it could be by an acquaintance.

For instance, a curse can be put upon a child by calling him a certain name. I will give you a name, for instance, Damon. Do you know someone called Damon? It is another way of saying that you are a demon [Strong’s Concordance #G1142 – a dæmon or supernatural spirit (of a bad nature):—devil.] If you call a person Damon, you are calling him a demon. He has to fight hard to get away.

What I am saying is that the mouth that speaketh righteousness cannot just get up and speak sin. And there are mouths that speak sin that cannot just get up and speak righteousness. The reason it works is because we are working with a body of spirits, both good spirits and evil spirits. Anything you say, they hold you to it. Did you know that? Anything you say, they hold you to it. You just keep on repeating God, the words of God and good and wonderful things, and evil ones will keep away from you. God bless you.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2007, pg. 7-8)

Thought for today: The mouth that speaks righteousness cannot just get up and speak sin. And mouths that speak sin cannot just get up and speak righteousness.

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