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Posts Tagged ‘Tabernacle of Moses’

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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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Scripture reading: Revelation 6:12-17

The sixth mystery or seal is the overshadowing when God covers His people as never before. They will be totally covered so that nothing will harm them or even touch them.

We must understand when we read in Revelation 6:17, “For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” that this “wrath” must take place between the end of the tribulation and the millennial beginning. With the opening of the sixth seal and the wars and the destruction in the earth, man will need a hiding place. This is where the OVERSHADOWING comes in. The sixth seal is the place of the overshadowing. The SIXTH mystery is the overshadowing. God will overshadow His people during this terrible time on the earth.

In the TABERNACLE, the symbolism which depicts the overshadowing are the two cherubims standing on each end of the mercy seat with their wings touching each other and their faces toward each other. Whenever the priest pleased God in his offering, there appeared the Shekinah glory between the cherubims. This appearance showed the glory of God when God was pleased with Israel. If we consider the vastness of the overshadowing, we will understand that this period of time must be the time when the wars and the destruction are coming on the earth. As we have explained, from the beginning of the opening of the sixth seal, there is going to be great destruction and great war and earthquakes and upheavals.

The cherubims on the Mercy Seat, which depict the overshadowing, are made of pure gold, beaten. Gold signifies total Divine Nature. No humanity is in this overshadowing. No other piece of furniture in the Tabernacle was made only out of pure gold. The table of shewbread was wood, covered with gold. Wood typifies humanity and gold typifies divinity. The candlestick, made of pure gold, had a wick (humanity) in order to function. The altar of incense, which was wood, was covered over with gold. The covering over of these things with gold means that the NATURE OF GOD IS SHOWN. The wood, which is humanity, is hidden.

The lid of the ark is called the Mercy Seat and on this Mercy Seat there are the two cherubims made of pure gold. No humanity is in them. Humanity cannot cover humanity. Man cannot deliver man.

Jeremiah 17:5, “…Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm…”

Psalm 91:1, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” “The secret place” of the Almighty is the mercy seat.

Psalm 91:2-4, “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”

The cherubims with apparent feathered wings – this is what is meant by God’s “feathers.” “Feathers” is only symbolic language which speaks of the power to fly. He will cover us with the very means which are used to fly – the power to rise from the earth. “Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.”

Verses 5-6, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”

Isaiah 26:20-21, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pages 133-135)

Thought for today: Let us find our overshadowing under the shadow of His wings, both today as well as when midnight approaches and the Bridegroom shall appear.

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Scripture reading: Revelation 6:9-11

“The fifth seal” in Revelation 6:9 was the fifth stage or the fifth station in the Tabernacle, where the offering was made for the soul. At the fifth seal, Paul would be there. At the fifth seal, the souls of the apostles and the different brethren who have gone on before would be saying, “How long?”

In verse 10 they were asking the question, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Then it says in verse 11a that “white robes were given unto every one of them.” That means that they had received THEIR BODIES. They had received their spiritual bodies. “WHITE ROBES,” a covering, means righteousness, holiness, TOTAL COVERING OF GOD. They had received their “white robes.”

Verse 11b, “…and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a LITTLE SEASON, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

This is a very, very deep saying. Thank God for the understanding which He has given to us pertaining to this particular Word. There are some brethren who are designated by God to be slain. Revelation 11:7 tells us about it. “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” A group of people will be killed as the martyrs under the altar were. These are the greatest batch of God’s people. They are called “The Elect.” They shall have gained the fullness of Christ and immortality, just as Jesus Christ did. They are the firstfruits.

Jesus said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I LAY DOWN MY LIFE, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again…” John 10:17-18. A set of people will come to that same place. They are called the two witnesses. These two witnesses will be dead for three and a half days, and then they will RESURRECT. Jesus Christ resurrected on the third day. These people will resurrect on the fourth day. They shall be resurrected, stand on their feet, and the judgment will begin.

Verse 11c, “their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” It is ORDAINED OF GOD that these people “should be killed.” This Word must be fulfilled to finish up the whole cycle of God’s operation. The Revelation is the end or the fulfillment of the things which God has been doing. Therefore, a lot of things that are happening in The Revelation are things that you have seen happening on a smaller scale, coming to their fullness.

Now we will speak about the killing of the saints and the RESURRECTION OF THE SAINTS. The killing of the saints will specifically be ordained of God because He wants them to be resurrected. When Jesus Christ resurrected, He did not show Himself to anybody but the brethren. These people, when they are resurrected, will show themselves to the world.

Jesus learned that Lazarus was sick and He deliberately waited until Lazarus died. Jesus raised him on the fourth day. It was a fourth day resurrection. John 11:4 records, “When Jesus heard that (Lazarus was sick), He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” Jesus had to manifest the very thing that we are looking at now, the resurrection of the sons of God after three days. This is why Lazarus was not raised until the fourth day. We find this fact in John 11:39. “Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead FOUR days.”  Therefore there will be a fourth day resurrection of the sons of God.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pages 123-125)

Thought for today: Let us press for the mark of attaining acceptance at the Golden Altar of Incense (the fifth station in the Tabernacle) in order to become part of the First Fruits Company.

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Scripture reading: John 6:53-58

When Jesus spoke in John 6 about the need to eat His flesh and drink His Blood, some of His disciples misunderstood Him completely and left Him immediately, because they said that He was teaching them cannibalism! God is always teaching us SPIRITUAL THINGS and not carnal things; if He takes carnal things to give us natural understanding, then it means that that understanding must be translated in spiritual terms.

Jesus is saying that we should eat His flesh and drink His Blood. Feeding on Christ is the fourth stage in the Tabernacle of Moses or in the gospel, and it is the fourth seal. When we learn how to feed on Christ, we begin to understand the fourth seal. That seal is open and that trumpet is blowing. To understand this, we must first understand the three dimensions in which we feed on Christ.

1. Christ in the church,
2. Christ within, and
3. Christ in Jesus among us.

First, we feed on Christ from the Word. The Christ WITHOUT comes to us through the Word. We are told that the Word is life. John 1:1 and 2, “In the beginning was the Word (the Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” We are talking about God being with God. That is, the person we knew as the Word, manifesting in a man, Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is God. Verse 3, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” We find out here that the Word is a creative being, a creative person, this Word of God that we are dealing with. God translates Himself into Word form and issues forth this form to us and we capture it by faith. Verses 4 and 5, “In Him was life.” We spoke of the Word and now we say, “Him.” “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (could not overcome it).”

We read the Word from the pages of the book and lift it off the pages by our consciousness of who God is and we receive the Word by faith. Believing the Word brings life to us. It is not that life is in the book and when we shut the book we shut up God in the book. The Word is life and the Word is hovering around us waiting for us to accept it. When we do, it becomes Christ, a person, a being, inside of us. Christ without is manifested to us through hearing and reading the Word.

Another person can manifest Christ to us. Christ is in us, therefore, He is in other people also. Being in other people, He manifests to us and we must have Christ in us to be able to receive Christ from someone else. Sometimes you do not have Christ IN you, but you can receive Christ, because Christ is WITH you. There are two manifestations. In John 14:17c, Jesus, speaking about the Holy Spirit says, “For he dwelleth WITH you, and shall be IN you.” There is a Christ with us and a Christ in us. The Christ in me will recognize the Christ in another person. This is why criticizing people destroys you as well as the other person. Criticizing means that you are not looking at Christ in the other person.

Some people do not have Christ in them and when they speak, you must be able to discern that it is not Christ speaking. The Christ in you will respond to the Christ in others. When a message is delivered, the Christ in the speaker will touch the Christ in you; it will bring a quickening in you and you will believe that the Word is true. The truth of God has to be believed by those who want God and by those who reach out towards God.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pages 116-118)

Thought for today: Let us feed abundantly this day on the Word of life and see His creative power come forth in our midst.

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Scripture reading: John 17:20-23

The third stage in the Tabernacle, the third seal, is when THE PEOPLE OF GOD BECOME UNITED. Jesus prayed in John 17:21, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” In the countries, mostly in the East, where the people have been greatly persecuted, where darkness covers the land and the government and everything, where persecution is strong against the Christians, the Christians are more one than we in the West. This is the plan of God, to bring His people together into one.

We call this a UNION WITH CHRIST or the candlestick operation, wherein the oil is poured into the candlestick (lampstand) and then it is distributed through all the lamps. The seven lamps are on the same level and they all get the same amount of oil. This candlestick is made of pure gold, which is a type of the nature of Christ. The bowls of the candlestick were “made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower” the stages of fruit bearing. The whole candlestick is covered over by this symbolic artistry. “All it shall be one beaten work of pure gold,” Exodus 25:36b says. The people of God must know that it is fruit-bearing when we abide in the vine.

In John 15, Jesus tells us that unless we abide in the vine, we will be cast out as a branch that has no life. God is speaking to the church to remain in Him, to be attached to Him, and to draw life from Him. This is the message of the candlestick, union with Christ. Christ must have a people, through whom He works, in total obedience to Him. When He moves to the right or to the left, the heavenly hosts move. The people on the earth learn to move with the heavenly hosts. This brings oneness. If there is disobedience, then we cannot receive from God the power and the deliverance we need, because we are not moving with the heavenly hosts and with the angels of God. When God speaks a Word to His people to do anything, it means He has angels who are ready to be with them, for we are not alone. If we disobey in any way, we throw the whole business out of kilter, because God wants us to work with His angels. The work that we cannot do, they will do.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pages 113-114)

Thought for today: As we yield to do the will of God, all of the heavenly angels wait to move and work with us.

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