Learn Your Role as a Member of A Royal Priesthood. Let Jesus Himself be Your Guide As These Sacred Truths Are Revealed in Scripture…
Spending time in The Lord’s Temple daily is a very rewarding experience. What follows is a basic narrative of what transpires as you pray through the Temple with the Lord himself as your guide. He is the only one who can truly teach you the foundational elements of your faith. As He does, you will see your faith increase day by day.
Because of the strong influence of the world, our flesh, and the devil on our minds, we approach the tabernacle from outside each day. First, we see the eastern entrance to the Tabernacle’s outer court. As Christians, it reminds us of the narrow gateway to heaven… Jesus Christ. (Mat 7:14) We thank Him for that narrow gate….access to God.
As we enter the outer court the first thing we see is the Brazen Altar and the terrible cost of sin. Here the Lord will deepen your understanding of the blood sacrifice and how that sacrifice was completed through Jesus Christ. You will learn about the many benefits you receive through His shed blood. You will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the necessity of his suffering in the Courtyard of Pilate (your healing) and His crucifixion on the Cross on Calvary (your redemption from the curse of Adam).
As you meditate on the Scriptures and the many benefits of the blood of Christ you will not take your faith in Christ for granted any longer. As you declare His Word about those benefits out loud at the Brazen Altar you literally take possession of them for yourself. Your mind begins to be transformed in regard to your new identity in Christ. Priests used to the Laver to wash their hands and feet before entering the Holy Place. We use it to cleanse our conscience daily.
Next, allow the Lord to wash away your confusion about the privilege of repentance and the freedom of a clear conscience at the Laver. The law does not condemn a follower of Christ, it merely draws us to repentance, a clear conscience, and a contrite heart. These are keys to your faith and daily requirements for God’s kingdom to increase in you. Were you aware that God gives grace only to a humble man or woman, but he always resists a proud person?
The key at the Laver is meditating on the 10 Commandments. Ask the Lord for insight into His commandments, review the Scriptures that discuss the commandments both by Moses and as Jesus taught about them in the New Testament.
The candlestick was the only light in the Holy Place. We welcome the Holy Spirit as the one who illuminates our lives.
Fresh bread was displayed at the Table of Shewbread. We need the Lord to give us each day our daily bread, His Word.
There is a purpose in your life for each lighted lamp on that candlestick lampstand. Each flame represents one aspect of the Holy Spirit or the Seven Fold Spirit of God. Ask the Spirit of the Lord to bring illumination to your soul. The goal is to make your temple inhabitable for the Lord as He himself drives out the darkness in you with His wonderful light. This will take time. But that is why we visit the Lord’s temple daily. This is another great privilege you have as a believer in Jesus Christ, intimate fellowship with Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Did Jesus not tell us that He was going to be with the Father so that the Holy Spirit would come?
Oh the deep mysteries of the Word of God. Who can understand the Word? Only the one to whom it is revealed by the Lord. That is why He invites us to sup with Him at the Table of Showbread. Where He feeds us the bread of His presence, the Word of God. The book and its ink on paper come alive to you as the Lord allows you to eat of His body. Man does not live by bread alone but by every Rehma word that comes from the mouth of God. At the Table of Showbread you will get your daily bread. You will ingest insights and wisdom from the Logos Word, prepared fresh for your nourishment today.
The incense offered here represented the prayers of the temple priests. Today we lift up holy hands in priestly prayer and praise as well.
Now clear your throat because your next stop is the Altar of Incense. Here, the Spirit of God helps you speak out and declare praises to the one who saves us. Join with the voices of Angels and all those around the throne today. Declare the praises of God with tongues of men and of Angels. Let your voice be heard in the magnificent throne room of heaven!
And now for the greatest experience of all, come through that veil of separation into the Holy of Holies. Remember when Christ died, God did not do away with the Jewish Temple. He did not even rearrange the furniture in the Temple. He just tore the veil separating the priest from the Most Holy Place. He gave believers in Christ open access to the Holy of Holies where he sits on His throne, the Mercy Seat.
The mysterious Ark of the Covenant was the only thing in the Holy of Holies. God’s presence rested on the Mercy seat above the Ark. Through Christ we can boldly come before the throne of Grace with our petitions. The Tabernacle high priest offered up sacrifices to Jehovah. Christians are priests who also have the privilege of performing priestly duties in the Lord’s temple, our bodies.
Who can appreciate or comprehend the throne of God the Father? Who can live with Him on His Holy Hill? Only a person with clean hands and a pure heart, made perfect by Jesus’s death and resurrection. You have made the sacrifice of visiting each place in the Lord’s Temple. So now you have arrived in the Most Holy Place. Here Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. Here the Father dwells in all His Shekinah Glory. Who can speak of such mysteries? Let the Lord whisper to you about them as He did with your elder John in the Book of Revelation. Here you worship the Father and His provision of daily manna, true spiritual authority, and His unchangeable standards. All are fulfilled by Jesus Christ, his one and only son, and firstborn from the dead. Truly His mercies are new every morning.
Just like Old Testament priests ministered to the Lord daily according to the Tabernacle pattern God gave to Moses, we as New Testament Priests, have the privilege of ministering to the Lord through Jesus Christ daily. We perform our priestly function when we pray according to the Tabernacle pattern. We know that the Tabernacle is a type and pattern of the true Temple in Heaven and so is Jesus Christ. The temple pattern is an ordained pattern of worship that will never go away.
When you choose to be faithful to your priestly duties in His temple, your body, then letter by letter, the Lord Himself will write His laws on your heart and mind. This is the process of sanctification. It is how He becomes your God and you become His son or daughter. This transformation of your mind only happens fully as you spend time with Abba each day. There is no other way to fully experience the abundant life in Christ. There is no other way to receive the grace and love necessary for you to obey His commandments, to love God, and to love others as Christ has loved you.