October 29, 2008

• Hebrews 10:19 by Pastor Don

  Before our study began someone made a comment that made me chuckle, they said, “Don’t be so open minded your brains fall out.”  Before our Friday Bible study we have a wonderful pot luck lunch, and lots of talking to each other.  It is such a blessing to belong to Living Word Chapel – good food, good fellowship, great teaching, and lots of fun.

  We then continued our Hebrews study.

  Hebrews 10:19  Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

  BOLDNESS.  In Temple worship there was the outer and the inner courts. There was the Holy and the Holiest of Holies.  It was on Yom Kippur that the priest would come once a year to the holiest place to make atonement for the sins of the nation.  The priest would practice a whole year before Yom Kippur  because making one mistake could cost him his life.  They studied the writings and rituals, how to wash, dress, cleanse themselves, and the proper manner to approach the Holiest of Holies.  The priest even had bells on the bottom of his robe and a rope around his ankle.  If the priest did not prepare himself well, the bells would stop ringing and people would know that the priest died, they would then pull him out by the rope.

  But we can boldly go to the Holiest of the Holies.  As the Body of Christ, where is the Holiest of Holies?  It is not the Church.  WE are the Temple of God, and our Spirits become sanctified when we accept Christ in our lives and we have the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.  We are in the presence of the Holy Spirit wherever we are – in the car, the garden, the backyard, the dining room, etc.  (Heather’s comment, this week in our Beth Moore Bible study, Beth mentioned that the first tabernacle was mobile – and God moved with the Israelites in the wilderness – we are God’s mobile tabernacles.)

  Psalm 91:1-2  He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.”

  The mind of man wants to attach ourselves to our surroundings, as if somehow our physical surroundings can contain the Holy Spirit. 

  The Spirit of God and the Kingdom of God are at hand, within us.  We are physical representatives of the Kingdom of God, churches and temples, In the book of Revelation we see that God will be dwelling with us. 

  Revelation 21:10-11  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,  having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

  The tabernacle and temple will descend out of Heaven from God. The temple and tabernacle we knew on earth is but a type and shadow of what exists in Heaven.  Notice that the light is like a precious stone.  John was describing to the best of his ability what he saw, but he could only compare to what we know.  The real is far grander.

  Revelation 21:12 Also she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

  Spiritual representation, of a physical. 

  Revelation 21:13-14 three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

  Notice that the tribes of Israel and the Apostles are mentioned – the Jews and the Gentiles are represented here.

  Revelation 21:19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,

  What are these precious stones?

  1 Peter 2:4-5  Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

  The biggest problem in the church is smart people, who are too stupid to believe the Bible as it is written.  Our intellect can often get in the way of the Truth of God.

  In the Old Testament, Jesus is represented as the chief cornerstone.  If you think it is an actual physical cornerstone you miss it.  The dwelling place of God is IN MAN.  The spiritual house of God is not manifested until Revelation 21. 

  Right now we, the stones, are being shaped by God.  Much is being cut away so that we will form a solid connection in the Temple.  So much of what we are is rubble that needs cutting away.  God needs to get us out of the way.  Our minds think that we can achieve this in our own power by trying to be right, but it is beyond our intellect. The only way we can achieve God’s perfect plan for us is by our Spirit man.

  We need to accept the fact that we are a “drag” until God works on us.

  Revelation 21:19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,

  We are the precious stones, the Jews and Gentiles under Messiah.  When the true stone is displayed under proper lighting it calls to you.  Pastor Don shared that once when he was visiting England he saw the crown Jewels. The beauty that they displayed took his breath away. 

  Pastor Don told us that life is short, that we should seek to see greatness in this earth wherever we can – be it museum masterpieces, great singers, artwork, talent of any kind, wonderful scenery, beautiful edifices.  To appreciate the greatness that God has placed in His creation here on earth. 

  Yet God counts us as more beautiful and precious than anything we can see or experience here on earth.

  Revelation 21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

  Transparent gold – John tried to describe what he saw in the Spirit.

  Revelation 21:22  But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

  God does not need a physical temple to reside in. The Glory comes inside of us and shines through us.

  Pastor Don then told us that we need to begin to realize exactly who we are in Christ – that many of us forget this.  I have a list of scriptures here if you want to remind yourself.

  Revelation 21:23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

  Because God and Jesus illuminate it, we can trust that there will be NO DARKNESS there.

  In order to arrive at the Spiritual, we need to be transformed.  Man must separate himself from his physical nature or else he can be flesh dominated.  If we are stuck in the physical by a stronghold we need the Holy Spirit to help us restore true physical wholeness – so that we can be physically and mentally healthy and spiritually free. 

  We want to have our physical reactions determined by the Spirit, not by the physical or the mind, will, and emotions of a person.  Sometimes a thought that is not from God drops into our mind, and if we attach our emotions to that thought, we end up running away with that thought that is not Godly. 

  Pastor Don shared that one time he was driving down the road and the thought dropped into his mind to drive into a tree.  Nothing was wrong in his life, his ministry was powerful, there was no source for that thought in his current life.  He realized that thought was not his own, did not attach his emotions to it, and drove safely to his destination. 

  We are seeking an ongoing connection with the Spiritual, but often we end up missing the mark, and do not separate the physical from the spiritual.  The Israelites made that mistake when they mistook the Ark for God, thinking that if they brought the Ark into battle they would win the war – but the Ark was not God and God was not in that action.  They ended up losing the ark for a time to the Philistines.

  In the Body of Christ, so called spirit led people are not always spirit led.

  Hebrews 10:19  Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,

  God is looking to come into your inner being, we are the Holiest, and God is looking to dwell within us.  We get to God through the veil, but that is not our flesh.  God wants to come into our holiest of holies and stir up the gift that is in us. The veil is our physical eyes and our sins.

  Revelation 3:18  I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

  We need spiritual eyes to see through the veil and when we go through the veil we are not looking with eyes of the flesh. This is the state of the Laodicean church in these Last Days.  There is a struggle of faith to get things, but what we really need is to be in the center of the presence of the Lord, where there is healing and deliverance for us.  Seek Him first.

  Hebrews 10:19 (see above) we must get into the presence of God, to the deep place where God is.  It is not only at Church, but in private prayer in our car, at home, in the malls, wherever we are God is.  We have a yieldness problem, theologically or fleshly we may not yield our intellect or emotions enough to experience a touch of the Lord.  Some teachers try to convince us that the gifts of the Spirit are not for this day and age, that God doesn’t do these things anymore.  In their mind they have mental blinders, the flesh man is not dominated by the Spirit man. 

  Love is a choice and we must yield ourselves to God.  God loves us or He would have been done with us after the golden calf incident.  We can be blocked mentally or emotionally, or flesh concerned.  When our problem becomes an idol, it becomes a problem to get into relationship with God.  God wants relationship first, and then He will remove idols.  God is always present, but is not always active to our perception.

  I will continue this study tomorrow, my husband needs the computer.

  Praying your day is blessed. We were out of power for 12 hours from 6 last night until almost 7 this morning – so I haven’t been on the computer too much.  We even had snow flurries – and some in our area had over five inches of the white stuff.  Sigh.

  Heather

  • 2:52 pm
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