"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; To seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him the greatest human achievement." -Augustine of Hippo
Has God ever used movies to speak to you symbolically? He does that with me all the time! Actually, I always ask Holy Spirit to guide me when choosing a movie to watch and many times I ask Him to interpret whatever movie I am …
Psalm 42:5 “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His Countenance.” Ever heard of a “cast down” sheep or of a “cast” sheep? I …
I felt a urgency in my spirit to share the following word with you. It is something God has been talking to me about the last couple of weeks and I feel it is also such a word “in season” for most of us. Read at own risk though ;)…this might just be a word for you too and if this is the case, I pray that it wont leave you unchanged!
In Genesis 22 we read the story of God telling Abraham “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
Okey….so let’s do a reality check:
Is it just me or is this a TALL ORDER! Especially if you already feel like you have one foot in the grave and God promised that He will “make you a father of many nations.” You might feel like asking God some serious questions!!! Not even to mention that the life of your beloved son is at stake here.
But not Abraham… Gen.22:3 said that Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and off they went!! As a theologian rightly commented on this verse: “The prompt obedience grounded in faith characterised this patriarch throughout his life.”
So the reason for me writing about this? Well, recently as I was reading this story again, I felt God highlight the following part to me: “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’”.
The repitition of the name indicates urgency. Why would God feel the need to URGENTLY stop Abraham from what he was about to do? The Bible sais that God looks at the heart of man (I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind….Jer.17:10, Prov.16:2, Ps.44:21, 1 Sam.16:7)
God saw Abrahams heart and He saw that Abraham was about to follow through with His command, no questions asked. Abraham never said “but God…”. Clearly, the one most important thing, Person in Abraham’s life was GOD. Not his promise from God which he has been waiting for for so long, not his son whom he loved, not the people and what they would think if he performed this command, not his heart broken wife, not his age and that time is ticking by, no nothing. Just God. Full stop. If God said, then so it shall be. I love this!!!
Maybe in your journey with God, you have been standing fervently on promises He has given you, calling them in and praying for them. This is good. We need to persevere and hold God to His Word. But just maybe you might have become so carried away that you have forgotten about the God of these promises. I used to have this prayer I prayed to Him (it is very personal to me but I feel He releases me to share this with you) in which I would say: “I love You God, not for what You have done, are doing or still going to do. I love You just for Who you are.” I am embarrassed to admit that recently God had to remind me of this prayer, and I realised how long ago this was my hearts cry. NOTHING AND NOBODY SHOULD BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN GOD TO YOU. Test yourself…What do you consider most important in your life and are these things/people possibly more important than God to you? Would you be able to sacrifice them if God asked you to?
Today God may be saying this to you too: “I know your works, your labour, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have laboured for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” Rev.2:2-4
If this touches your heart and sounds familiar, then repent and make an effort to get back to your First Love again! He is the MOST important Person in your life. There is none like Him! Many times when we are busy worshipping God just for Who He is, He is busy fulfilling His promises to us. But you see, the focus is not the promises and a happy life. The focus is God, Intimacy with the King. I feel on my heart to tell you as you are reading right now: You have NO IDEA how much God loves you. You were made for Him. You flourish in His Presence. Your promises and prayers get answered and fulfilled in His Presence. Like a chicken on her eggs 😉 . If the eggs move away from the heat and presence of the hen, she cannot brood on them and they will not hatch. But the focus is God! Not the promises. May God restore your First Love, may He come knock you off your feet. And then…
“By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Gen.22:16-18
Now that’s a great question! I am glad you asked! 😉 When I had to decide on a name for this blog, there was a few ideas but nothing really “stuck”. During my “quiet time” with Jesus one fine Monday morning (why is it called …
You already might have guessed: I’m so excited about this topic!! During the time that I was writing this post, I had the radio playing in the back ground on my favourite christian radio station. A short teaching of Angus Buchan was broadcasted and Angus’ …
God has been pressing on my heart for a while now, to write about “tabernacle”/”tent of meeting”. Just hearing those words in my spirit, makes me extremely excited and gives me goosebumps!! :).
A few years ago God started speaking to me about “the tent of meeting”, about “coming into the secret place with God”. Now this “tabernacle of meeting” that I am referring to, is not the tabernacle which God commanded to be built in a central location within the Israelite camp with specific instructions, but rather it refers to a temporary structure where the people could consult the Lord until the more durable tabernacle was completed.
Why, you ask, do I get excited about this specific “tabernacle of meeting”? Well, because (unlike the tabernacle in the centre of the Israelite camp) nowhere in the Bible do I find a scripture verse where God specifically gave Moses the command to erect this tent. This is something he chose to do, a place where he and the rest of the Israelites could “meet with God”. To me this shows that Moses had a relationship with God. It is the difference between “have to” and “want to”. Moses had a special relationship with God, a friendship. Let’s see what the Bible sais about this:
Okey, so my prayer for you as you read the following few verses, is that the Holy Spirit will interpret it to you. Because this is what we aim for…to worship in Spirit and in Truth! (John4:23,24)
Exodus 33:7-11 “Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshipped, each man in his tent door. So the Lord spoke
to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”
In future posts, you will often find me refer to the Hebrew or Greek explanation of words. This is because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek. I find it extremely interesting to read up on the different words in the specific scripture verses in order to roughly understand scripture verses according to the context they were written in.
Reading about the “tabernacle of meeting”, I searched the Hebrew meaning of these words and the actual words in that verse is “tabernacle of the congregation”. Here are the meanings of the words….
Tabernacle: Tent, covering, home.
Congregation: Appointment, appointed time, appointed place, meeting, sacred season, set feast.
WOW!! I don’t know about you, but I’m already almost at the point of jumping out of my skin! 🙂 Isn’t that awesome!! When I read these words, they remind me so much of spending time with Jesus. This is what my/our/your quiet time with God should look like…. An appointment, an appointed time (to intentionally make time for Him), an appointed place (a place that is set apart, where it can only be you and God. What many refer to as your “prayer closet” whether it is a actual closet 😉 or a room or in your garden, whatever works for you, but a place “set apart”), a meeting (this is the expectancy with which you enter into your quiet time with Him – to meet with Him), a sacred season, a set feast (exactly what it is! It is sacred, set apart,a feast with the King.)
My question to you is: Do you have a appointed time and place for a daily meeting with God?
Right there where you are sitting right now, ask Holy Spirit to help you make time for daily meetings with God. Even if its a half hour out of your busy schedule. Do yourself a favour, you will not be disappointed! And I stand in agreement with you, this is my prayer to whoever reads this blog. More of You, Jesus!!
In the next few parts of this topic on “Tabernacle of Meeting” we will discuss this more in detail. Don’t miss out!!