I recently wrote of the journey of purpose in a post entitled 'The Life of Purpose Journey.' We journeyed together into the tent of meeting, the tabernacle of the Old Testament using Psalm 23 as our guide.
You can have a look if you wish by going to http://graeme-lifeofpurpose.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/the-life-of-purpose-journey.html.
The mountain top, the promised land, our greatest desire was to join with the desire of David expressed in Psalm 27 where he said,
'One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple. For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.' [Psalms 27: 4 - 6]I am sure you will recognise that all is pointing to one person , the person of Jesus who is our dwelling place, our temple, our tabernacle in which we are concealed, our secret place, our rock, the One in whom we are lifted up, He is our offering and sacrifice. Truly He is worthy of our shout and song! He is our Everything.
The ultimate destination in our journey into the tent of meeting is the Holy of Holies and recently I have shared something that was opened to me by my dear brother, Samnang, and I have been meditating on these things and as I do I like to write. Usually I share my meditation in a Facebook post and so I feel to combine my thoughts written as five posts here in this blog. My purpose in writing is primarily personal but I do pray that my thoughts might prompt you to enter in to His presence and behold His beauty for yourself.
25th September
'Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no
one comes to the Father but through Me."' [John 14: 6]
'Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."' [John 20: 19]
'Jesus said to Simon Peter,
"Simon...do you love Me...?"' [John 21: 15]
Jesus said to him, "... You follow Me!"' [John 21: 22]
26th September
'Therefore let us be diligent to enter that
rest...' [Hebrews 4: 11]
A few weeks ago we walked together through the
tabernacle of the Old Testament using Psalm 23 as a guide. If you would like to
read of that I will add a link below.We said that the tabernacle is a shadow of Jesus
Christ and as we consider it (and there is much more) we see His beauty. But it is also true that the tabernacle is the Law,
and Law demands and expects effort. I read somewhere that of all the furniture in the tabernacle there was no chair. All the
tradition of the tabernacle involved effort, no time to sit. As I considered
that the Lord prompted me that what I had read is not, in fact, true, there is
a chair in the tabernacle and we are invited to sit.Do you know that for the people of Israel the
innermost place of the tabernacle was a no-go zone and was only ever entered
once a year on the ceremonial Day of Atonement when the high priest entered
into the Holy Place not without blood. This was where God dwelt and man could
not go. If he did he would surely die. But rejoice for a Man did die, and this Man entered
in to the Holy Place with His own blood, and on the way in He tore the heavy
veil that barred our way in two and He was accepted as the one sacrifice for
all time. If you don't believe me read the book of Hebrews and even a few
verses on from the verse above where it says, 'therefore, since we have a great
high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold fast...' [Hebrews 4: 14]There is a chair in the tabernacle and Jesus has
paved the way for you and I to sit on it. The only chair in the tabernacle is
the mercy seat, over the ark of the covenant, where the shekinah glory of God
dwelt and you are invited to sit, in fact God say be 'diligent to enter that
rest.' That chair is mentioned again in Hebrews 4: 16 where it says 'let us
draw near with confidence to the throne of grace...'Yesterday I posted a verse from John 20: 19 where
Jesus says that He is leaving His peace with us. He has left Himself in the
person of the Holy Spirit and He wants us to rest there and let no man take
that peace from us. Be diligent to rest there. He says to me, "rest, sit,
My peace I leave with you, let no man take it, be diligent to enter and remain
here."He is our Rest, and He wants us to diligently enter
into all that He is. He is our breakthrough.'One thing I have asked from the Lord...that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold His beauty
and to meditate in His temple. [Psalms 27: 4]Have a great day.
27th September
'Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon...do you love Me...?"'
[John 21: 15]
Yesterday I spoke of the only chair in the tabernacle, the mercy seat of
the presence of God and God is inviting us to sit, to 'be diligent to enter
that rest.'
His first step for us is to enter His rest, enter into His blessing of
John 20:19, rest in His peace; rest in Him our Prince of Peace.
Here is our second step. He asks us, 'Do you love Me?'
Now scholars tell you much about this story and focus much on the two
'loves', agape love and philo love and teach much about the relative use of the
two words. That is worthy study but just think on this with me.
In this verse Jesus asks of Peter, "Do you agape Me?" Agape
love is a love of great sacrifice. Irrespective of how Peter answered I believe
the important thing is the question. Yes, Peter answered truthfully by using
the 'love' he was capable of giving, philo love, friendship love but Jesus
asked for agape love, great, unconditional, sacrificing love!
Jesus says to us, "Do you agape Me?"
You know in myself I am unable to give agape love. Truthfully I would
have to answer like Peter. But Jesus asked about agape love. How is this
possible? I suggest to you that the only way is to receive His love because His
love is agape love; His love is the absolute definition of agape love! We can
only love Him as we receive His love for us. 'We love, because He first loved
us.' [1 John 4: 19]
Yesterday step one was to receive His peace and sit, let no man, nothing
take it from you. Step two, receive His love, sit in it, receive it in peace.
How can we doubt His love? He proved it as He hung on Calvary for us. He
hung there taking what we deserved and He died the death that was ours. How can
we not 'see' His love for us? Come to the throne [Hebrews 4: 16] and find
grace, find His unmerited favour for us, find His love.
Rest in His love and then you can answer. 'Yes, Lord I love you because
I know and receive Your love for Me. You first loved me. You are Love, I
receive You. Thank You, Lord. Thank You.'
Have a great day.
28th September
'...but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not
without taking blood...but Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things
to come...through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having
obtained eternal redemption...how much more will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?' [Hebrews 9: 7, 11, 12, 14]
The last two days we have spoken of two steps. We have entered into the
Holy of Holies and our first step is Receive His Peace - "Peace be with
you." [John 20: 19] Our second step is Receive His Love - "Do you
agape Me?" [John 21: 15].
Before we get to the third step I feel prompted this morning to share
this. I sense that we perhaps 'feel' that we are not worthy to be here. I may
be wrong but I do know that there is an enemy who has no impact on the truth of
our worth but certainly tries to influence our belief in our worth.
'...let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we
may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.' [Hebrews 4: 16]
Draw near with confidence. In the tabernacle of old the high priest went
in to the Holy of Holies only once a year and he went 'not without blood.' The
blood of the sacrifice was offered for the sin of the high priest and the sin
of the people committed in ignorance.' [Hebrews 9: 7]
Today we draw near with confidence at any moment, at any time; in fact
David's desire was to dwell here [Psalms 27: 4], we draw near forgiven and
accepted because of the blood of our perfect, once-for-all, completely sin
removing sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who bore our sin in His own
body on the tree.
You are worthy to be here because God looks on you and sees not one
speck of sin. He sees only the blood of Jesus and in Him you are completely
forgiven and completely accepted. On this basis, despite our lives, we can come
boldly and not only 'obtain mercy' but also 'find grace.' Protection from the
bad things we deserve plus unmerited favour to receive the good things we don't
deserve!
Powerful blood!
What does it mean to have your 'conscience cleansed from dead works?' It
means that we are no longer conscious of sin, we no longer believe in
condemnation and we no longer have a guilty conscience because of the blood of
Jesus. Hallelujah!
Rest in Jesus blood, it avails for you.
Tomorrow, step three.
Have a great day.
29th September
'He said to him, "Follow Me!" Peter, turning around, saw the
disciple whom Jesus loved following them...So Peter seeing him said to Jesus,
"Lord, and what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If I want
him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!"' [John
21: 19, 21 - 22]
We have entered the Holy of Holies and we have three steps.
Step one; Receive His Peace, rest in it, let nothing take your Peace.
Step two; Receive His Love, realise, receive and live in His Love. His
love is passionate, unconditional and undying,
Step three is here: Follow Him. 'Don't be concerned about what others
are doing (as Peter looked at John), you just follow Me!' This is His word to
us. You know this could easily be interpreted as our 'doing' but I want to set
aside that thought immediately. Do you remember the 'WWJD.' bracelets? 'What
Would Jesus Do?'
Well, to follow Him is a WIJD, what is Jesus doing?
This speaks of our Partner, the One that Jesus has sent to us, the
indwelling Holy Spirit whose purpose is to reveal Jesus and to guide into all
truth. He reveals to us what Jesus is doing, We follow Jesus by responding to
Him. I have spoken much of Him in the past in these posts but His role is
revealed so clearly by Jesus Himself in John 16.
Listen...Jesus speaking, "But when He, the Spirit of truth comes,
He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own
initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose what is
to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to
you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of
Mine and will disclose it to you." [John 16: 13 - 15]
There is much I could say but let me share one last verse. Paul is
praying and he says 'that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory,may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of the revelation in the knowledge
of Him...so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the
surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.' [Ephesians 1: 17 -
19]
Two things...He is the Father of glory. Do you want glory in your life?
Yes! Glory comes as you receive wisdom. Jesus is Wisdom! As you receive Him you
receive wisdom for every moment. How? It is received 'in the knowledge of Him.'
Now, many people have 'knowledge' of Him but it says 'the revelation of the
knowledge of Him.' This is different...this is the work of our Partner. He
reveals Jesus as we open to Him and receive Him!
What is Jesus Doing? The Holy Spirit shows us, leads us, guides us,
reveals truth, discloses Jesus.
Follow Him!
Have a great day.
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