Coming into God’s presence in the manner we have described is the result of the working of His Cross and of your taking up your cross. You can go to church and revival meetings and certainly experience the presence of God. That is good. However, it is not God’s permanent goal for your relationship with Him. You cannot live on someone else’s relationship. If your minister or the revival evangelist came into God’s presence prior to the meeting, he is most likely transferring that glory to you. That is wonderful, however it is his/her experience with God that you are experiencing. Your neighbor may tell you about his/her relationship with his/her spouse. Although that may encourage you, it is not a replacement for your relationship with your spouse. Going to church and meetings to experience the glory of God is good, but if you are not experiencing Him on your own, you are missing what God wants you to have. You are trying to have a relationship with God by using someone else’s experience.
The veil to the Holy of Holies is one veil that we do not “kick down.” Of course, as we stated in the previous chapter, this veil was indeed torn from top to bottom when Jesus died on the Cross, indicating that God made the way for sinful mankind to come into His presence. “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Hebrews 10:19,20).
The Tabernacle is symbolic of Christ and of the invisible world.
The Holy of Holies represents His presence, and the fresh air of Heaven, a different world from the one you can see with your eyes. “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation” (Hebrews 9:11). “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another--” (Hebrews 9:24,25).
Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of the ministry Voice of the Martyrs, who spent much time in prison and solitary confinement for his faith, wrote some similar statements in his book, If Prison Walls Could Speak.[1]
Wurmbrand writes:
Christ said to His first disciples, "Come and see’ (John 1:39). We have passed from hearing to seeing. To Martha, the Lord said, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40). The Book of Revelation too, is a book about things that John actually saw. In the conditions of solitary confinement, which are similar to those of a hermit in the desert deprived of material things, the seeing becomes so real that you have difficulty convincing yourself that what you see is an event in the spirit and not in the material world.”
Then Wurbrand speaks about a Chinese legend. “It is said that a great painter once painted on a wall a beautiful landscape with a cave. When he had finished, he walked into the cave and disappeared, and was never heard of again.” He went on, “Whatever you create or evoke in the spirit can become a reality into which you can enter, and live, and disappear.” Wurbrand concludes, “Therefore we have been given the power to ascend in the spirit. Poverty, sickness, inner and outer tragedies, prisons, or chains cannot hinder this ascent. On the contrary, they assist it. Oh my brothers and sisters, why remain in ugly places? Evoke heaven and enter forever into what you have evoked. What will death matter then?
One of the first steps in God’s plan for our afflictions is for us to “Come up here,” as Jesus told John in Revelation chapter 4. He wants us to experience spiritual reality, His presence, to such a degree that the things of this world grow strangely dim.
If you do not feel like the things in this chapter relate to you, if you feel like you are out of fellowship with God and are not close to him, then I suggest that you peek inside the Holy of Holies with me in this chapter. Then return to the previous chapter on the Tabernacle and walk through it again. Align your life with the disciplines you have been reading about and you will find yourself in His presence. Faith will become more real than your feelings.
Through the veil is intimacy.
One can experience certain levels of God’s presence at various times. For instance, His presence can be experienced during corporate worship. But making contact with God in this setting of the Holy of Holies is pure intimacy.
There is something about the voice of God in these conditions that can only be experienced. I am not in any way suggesting that this position of intimacy is only for special people. I think that it is more about our positioning ourselves and making ourselves available for Him, and then making room for Him to have His way with us. He may show up in different ways to each individual and different ways at different times. You may sense His presence hours after you have walked through the Tabernacle, perhaps even after many hours or days of disappointment that you did not make contact. Just keep coming by faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). The goal is to live your life continually entering into the Holy of Holies as you naturally walk through the disciplines of the Tabernacle.
The Lampstand stands for our testimony, and the Ark stands for God’s testimony. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). When you hear God speaking while you are in His presence, it is different and unique, and is usually something prophetic. I do not mean that His voice is telling you of coming events in history (which He may do), but it is prophetic in that it tells of things that you do not yet see, but nevertheless are facts. For instance, if He tells you, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19), and you are still experiencing lack in your life, that is prophetic.
How did you enter?
The Old Testament gives many examples of how dangerous it would be for a mere man to encounter the presence of God. The man would be destroyed. That is why God hid Himself in the Tabernacle, so that the people He loved would not die from His presence. Sin cannot stand in the presence of God. That is why it took Jesus removing your sin in order to rip the veil and make the connection between God and man possible. That is an historic fact. It is all by grace, not by any of your works. However, there is a protocol that you walked through. If you walked through the Tabernacle pattern, that pleases God and puts you into closer friendship with Him. If I have one child that is obedient and one that is rebellious, I still love the rebellious one, but I enjoy being with the obedient one.
I am not saying that you must walk the Tabernacle path that I have laid out here. There are many believers that dwell in His presence, in the Holy of Holies, that may have never heard of the Tabernacle. However, I suspect that they practice many of the disciplines we discussed in the Tabernacle path. We often sense His presence in corporate worship. God can also break through to you when He pleases. But the Tabernacle walk is our positioning ourselves for His presence; preparing ourselves as a bride adorns herself for her husband.
You prepared yourself for His presence by taking up your cross as we have described.
A lesson from Esther.
Esther prepared herself for an entire year before she entered the “new queen competition.” In Esther chapter two, it tells of many young women who were chosen to prepare themselves for an entire year. Queen Vashti had angered King Ahasuerus so he set up a competition to replace her. For one year the women who were in the competition for queen used oil of myrrh, perfumes and other preparations used for beautifying women. Esther 2:14 states that Esther would not go in to the king again unless the king delighted in her and called her by name. This should be our attitude when we approach King Jesus! When it was Esther’s turn to see the king, she did something interesting. She took the advice of one of the king’s main servants, Hegai, a eunuch and the custodian of the women. She took nothing in with her that Hegai did not advise. She figured that Hegai knew the king and what would please him.
“Now when the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the custodian of the women, advised. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all who saw her. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti” (Esther 2:15-17).
In the same way, we should take the advice of the Holy Spirit, and take only what He advises when we approach the Father.
One more thing about your entry.
All of the steps through the Tabernacle were part of taking up your cross. In doing that, you made yourself invulnerable to Satan. When you take up your cross, the only thing left is Jesus, and He defeated Satan. This is expressed in Psalm 91 and all of the benefits of being in the “Secret Place of the Most High.”
What is in the Holy of Holies?
I have heard the teaching that the first gate into the outer court is called “The way,” the veil into the Holy Place is called “The truth,” and the veil into the Holy of Holies is “The life.” “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). If this is true, then it is appropriate. The entire Tabernacle symbolizes a picture of Jesus, and the Holy of Holies is where God’s presence abides.
The Ark is the centerpiece of the Holy of Holies.
The Ark symbolizes the very presence of God, and as the Scriptures tell us, is the very place where the presence of God dwelt on Earth. Sometimes, as believers, we take for granted the presence of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, but in the Old Testament days, the Holy Spirit dared not expose Himself to mere man. Only the blood of Jesus made this possible. Nevertheless, God wanted to be near His people, and the Ark was the way He expressed that.
The Ark is covered by the Mercy Seat, which is sprinkled with blood. We needed mercy at the Bronze Altar, the Cross, in the very beginning. However, now in His presence there is a new dimension of realizing His mercy and the blood of Jesus in a way that only the Holy Spirit can show you. His mercy endures forever. It is almost impossible to write about, it must be experienced.
On both sides and hovering over the Ark are huge angels protecting everything. There is no light in the Holy of Holies, except for the Light of God. It is called the Glory of God, kabowd (Hebrew); sometimes called Shekinah. The glory of God gave the only light. This is the light under which men would normally die. In this light there can be no hidden sin. Can you imagine that some people are still afraid of this light? Yes, if they do not know about or accept the wonderful work of Jesus on the Cross, and how He became sin for us. Today, people still hide from the light of God because they love their own sin (John 3:16-21). The light of God will destroy sin and will destroy your flesh, your old nature, as you dwell in it.
Also present inside the Holy of Holies was the Golden Censor carried by the High Priest from the Golden Altar, representing worship, praise and prayer.
In the wilderness, the Tabernacle was small and the floor was of desert sand. The Temple Solomon built was very large. It was fixed and not portable, and was made of very luxurious materials. The only thing that was the same in both temples was the Ark of the Covenant, sometimes called the Ark of Testimony. The Ark cannot be improved nor enlarged, it is the same. It is the testimony of God’s Son. He is the same forever.
These are the items found inside the Holy of Holies:
The Ark
The Mercy Seat
The Blood on the Mercy Seat
Cherubim angels
The Golden Censor from the Altar of Incense with your worship and the prayers of the saints
The Glory of God.
The three items in the Ark.
Inside of the Ark are the Tablets of Law, the Manna, and Aaron’s rod. Rather than look at these from the Old Testament point of view, I would like to make a transition here.
The Ark of God now resides in your heart!
It is important to see this picture and to understand the significance of it. God promised Israel, through the prophet Jeremiah, that He would make a new covenant with them. The main feature of this new covenant was that the Law of God would be put inside of the hearts of the people.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
We know from Hebrews 10:16 and related verses, that God was speaking of the days when the blood of Jesus would cleanse our sins so that the Holy Spirit could dwell in mere man again. It is no longer an external thing. We are God’s Temple. Meditate on that. “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). There will also be a day when natural Israel will experience this New Covenant.
The Law is in the Ark - Fruit for character.
If the law is in your heart, then that does away with any form of performance and legalism. When you are attempting to live according to the fruit of the Spirit and are finding it difficult, remember, God’s law is written in your heart. When you allow your true nature to express itself, it will express God’s character, which is the Law.
Manna is in the Ark- Fruit for the provisions for your natural life.
Manna literally means, “What is it?” Recall the idea of manna in the Book of Exodus chapter 16, and in Numbers chapter 11. The Israelites had just left more than 400 years of slavery in Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea, and now they were in the hot desert without food and water. God fed them supernaturally by allowing manna to fall out of Heaven six days a week. On the seventh day they were to use what was stored up on day six. However if they attempted to store the manna in any other way, it would become rotten and unusable.
The manna was called “The Bread of Heaven.” Somehow it supplied all of their nourishment in the desert for forty years. Jesus is called the Bread of Heaven in John chapter 6. He now lives in you through the Holy Spirit, and one of those benefits is that you have the principle of manna living inside of you. What is that principle? It is the precept that all of your needs are supplied through the indwelling Christ! You have something that people in the world without Jesus do not have. You have supernatural provisions. Not only that, you have the very principle of supernatural provisions dwelling in your heart. That manna will work for you provided you keep your relationship to the Tabernacle, to Jesus, proper.
The manna represents the Word of God, it is Jesus Himself.
The Kingdom of God operates by the Word of God planted in a human heart as a seed (Mark 4:11). In John chapter 6, Jesus said that He is the real manna from Heaven, and that if a person ate of that manna, he would never be hungry. More than that, He also stated that if anyone would eat of Him, as manna, as the Bread of Life, that person would live forever and never die (John 6:48-58)! John chapter 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Word, Jesus is the Bread of Life, Jesus is our manna, and Jesus is our provider through the Word in our heart.
One of the biggest fears that God has delivered me from is the fear of not having natural provisions for my family. I can tell you from the Scriptures and from experience (since 1979) that the Word of God planted in my heart has always provided for me supernaturally! Normally, great trials and persecution accompanied that provision. The very source of your provisions dwells inside of you, in your personal Holy of Holies. It is not an outside source, nor is it subject to the whim of Satan or people in the world. It is only subject to you keeping a right relationship with that source. That source cannot fail. Jesus eagerly wants to be your provider. One of the definitions of Lord is “bread provider.” Step out on His Word and allow Him to be your Lord.
Aaron’s rod is in the Ark - fruit for ministry in your life.
Numbers 17 tells of a time when the Israelites were in the desert after leaving Egypt. Many in the congregation had complained against the authority and ministry and the anointing of Moses and Aaron. The Lord first sent a plague that was stopped when Aaron took a censor of fire from the Tabernacle Altar and ran through the congregation with an atonement-making act. The plague stopped; however, God wanted to make a point to the Israelites and show who truly represented Him, and on whom His anointing rested.
The Lord then commanded that one almond rod, broken and independent from any roots, should be taken by each of the twelve tribes. The name of the tribe would be written on the respective rods and then placed into the Holy of Holies. Whichever rod budded, and that had to be supernaturally, would indicate on which tribe God’s anointing would rest for ministry.
“Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.’ Thus did Moses; just as the LORD had commanded him, so he did. So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Surely we die, we perish, we all perish!’” (Numbers 17:8-12).
While we have just described the "new rod of Aaron," there was also an "old rod." In Exodus chapters 7 and 8, God commanded Moses to tell Aaron to stretch out his rod to cause the plagues that came upon Egypt, Pharaoh and Egypt's gods. I believe that this judgment was more on Egypt's gods, or in other words the gods of this world, than it was on the people. People just receive judgments because they will not separate from the gods of this world. I believe we have both anointings the new and the old. If, as it says in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the gods of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers, than we have the "rod" to use on those gods so that those people can have their eyes opened, see God, and be saved. The rod here is our prayer, our praying the Word of God, our taking authority over these gods who blind!
We are all ministers. In the Old Testament only the Levites answered the call for service in the Tabernacle. Not so with us. We are all priests unto the Lord, and to all people. A priest is a bridge between God and man, and visa versa. The problem is, too many people today misunderstand this idea. Too many ordinary people, business people, and housewives do not consider themselves priests and ministers, and too many professional paid workers in church feel that they are in some special and exclusive service for the Lord. Your pastor should be preparing you for the ministry, rather than just trying to do everything himself and becoming burned out and ineffective.
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
When you come into the Holy of Holies, you are equipped to be a real intercessor. You are sharing in the High Priestly ministry of Jesus and praying for others effectively. Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you.”
Towards the end of the Book of Revelation, after all the overcoming takes place, chapter 20 shows your spiritual authority when you have overcome.
“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:1-3).
Perhaps you know some people who have been deceived by Satan but who could be released with your overcoming!
Sweat or fruit? Too many believers, both full-time pastors and others, feel that they need to perform and grab hold of some ministry. They feel that they need to work hard to fulfill God’s call and to even compete with others, make a name for themselves, and use church politics for promotion. While hard work is admirable, and sometimes ordained, you need to understand that the only ministry that really counts is that which comes as fruit. Aaron could not do anything to cause his rod to bear buds and almonds. That fruit came out of the darkness of the Holy of Holies and out of resurrection life. It speaks of resurrection. It speaks of God’s sovereign selection and His work, not our sweat and blood. The idea of the almond tree budding is seen in Jeremiah chapter one as a sign of God being ready to perform His Word, even when circumstances seem impossible.
Only God has our ministry for us, and we only realize what it is when we are in right relationship to the Tabernacle, or in other words, to Jesus. It does not matter how lowly you feel, how insignificant you feel, if you continue to maintain your relationship to Jesus, He will put you into a fruit bearing ministry that can be accomplished best only by you. It will fulfill you and your desires more than you can imagine. While it may include hard work, or even sacrifice, perhaps even personal danger, it will totally satisfy you. Your need for significance is God given, and He is the only one who can satisfy it.
Ministry just takes place supernaturally. Things take place that you could have not planned nor even thought of. It is a God thing! You have spiritual authority in your appointed realm of influence. Fruit is appearing.
The two churches in Revelation that successfully overcame both received authority symbolized by a crown. “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write… (Revelation 3:7a).
“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown” (Revelation 3:11).
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write” “…Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:8a &10b). Remember that Smyrna represents the martyrs or those who continue in their sufferings. Their fruit is powerful but the hands of others will experience it.
Spiritual Capital.
If you have capital in this world, in the natural, that capital will earn interest or dividends for you without a lot of work. You must tend to your capital, but it does not require a lot of “sweat.” Real estate will produce rent or agricultural crops, cash will produce interest from the bank, and stocks will produce dividends.
There is also spiritual capital. The fruit of character, fruit for provisions and fruit for ministry work is like spiritual capital. Our capital account or fruit account may be increased in several ways. Overcoming is the most powerful way. Spiritual fruit, or spiritual capital, is one of the primary objectives of overcoming. This is one of the primary ways that God gives us the anointing, the authority, and the power to accomplish His will on earth. I believe that God uses the gifts of the Spirit to accomplish His purposes, but I also believe that ministry as the result of overcoming is powerful and has a permanent effect that the gifts of the Spirit may not, in some cases, have.
As we overcome afflictions and enter into worship, we find ourselves in His presence more and more. Worship brings us into His glory so that He is blessed and so that He may bless us with His presence. We have always had the capital in our hearts, but we only realize it when His light shines on it in these conditions.
Is God a capitalist?
Before Adam rebelled, he had the capitalist principle in his heart. You might say that Adam contained “spiritual capital.” He was in charge of a garden that worked for him in much the same way that stocks and money in the bank work for you as capital. However after he rebelled, God told Adam that he lost that capital. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). I am not proposing that Adam was lazy, nor that God wants us to cease to work and expect others to feed us. No to that! However, you do contain manna in your heart, and that manna, when prepared properly, will supply your needs. God warned them to not store up the manna. Why? I believe it was because God counted it as “spiritual capital” and it was not to be abused as natural capital, kind of like a saving account. Also, God wanted them, and us, to trust Him daily for our provisions. If you are from a culture that does not understand the term capital, then follow the explanation that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 6.
Jesus spoke of two opposites to explain spiritual capital.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19).
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). “Added” is like a dividend being paid on a stock that you own. Dividends come from capital. The manna in your heart, if properly cared for will be your capital. Jesus is your Manna!
Seeking the Kingdom of God is seeking to live on the Word. It is taking care of the poor, and sending or taking the Gospel where God leads you. It is overcoming curses in your life by the blood of the Lamb, the word of your testimony, and not loving your life (soul) to the death.
Our contentment. His presence will be enough for anything!
Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians from a Roman jail. I want to briefly use his example of how God can give us contentment while we are in the process of overcoming. In Philippians 2:8, Paul spoke of Jesus’ blood and His Cross. In Philippians 3:8, Paul speaks of his cross, or not loving his life to the death. In Philippians 4:12, he spoke the word of his testimony and said, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
During the overcoming process, God may take you through times of being in need (abased) and times of having plenty (abound). But He will teach you to be content with each set of circumstances, as long as you are in right relationship to the Tabernacle, to Jesus.
Finally.
Determine that you will practice the presence of God on a daily basis. It is the main ingredient for victory in this life and the next. Now go ahead and walk through all of the points we have covered in the Tabernacle, starting in the outer court, going into the Holy Place, and finally into the Holy of Holies. Most likely you are in His presence. You may or may not actually feel the manifest presence of God. You must rely on faith in His Word; feelings will follow.
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[1] If Prison Walls Could Speak - Richard Wurmbrand - Living Sacrifice Book Company, Bartlesville, OK - 1972- quotes from pages 28-33.