Make me a Sanctuary

The time came when Israel began their journey of discovery and release from the land of Egypt the place of their captivity, into the glorious freedom of the Land of Promise that was given to them. This journey represents for us the release of God’s people from the bondage of corruption and mortality that constitutes mankind on the earth today. The Church has taught about "Salvation" and deliverance from sin that has never become a reality for most of the Church members. But the majority of the people have hypnotized themselves into believing that if they intellectually receive and believe the teachings, then they possess the reality. The evidence of a divine reality in the lives of God’s people has never inspired the masses of humanity to seek after our God, for he seems to them to be as impotent as the gods of the heathen.

In this study we are going to see why Christianity has failed to conquer the millions in the world around us who are seeking for an answer to their poverty, pain and suffering, because to them it would seem that such help is beyond the ability of our God to provide. If the Church in the world had the answer, it would have conquered the heathen nations by now not with guns and bullets, but with the LOVE and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in manifestation. There are a number of reasons why we have failed to inspire the world about the redemption that is in Christ, one of which is that the God that has been presented to the world is angry with everybody, and has relegated the heathen and unbelievers to an eternal torture in the flames of hell. No wonder the Muslims, Hindus’ and others reject our God as either equal to or worse than their own gods, so why would they want to bow to our God.

Even if they respond to the so called Gospel that is being preached today, there is little or nothing in that message that can have a positive effect upon their lives today. They will remain beggars and die of starvation just like the rest, but with a false understanding that an "Intellectual" belief in God will at least allow them to "Go to heaven when they die." If we as Christians were to be judged on the message we preach to the "lost," we would be charged as, "With-holding the TRUTH" that could have set them free." We never told them that GOD IS THEIR FATHER, and that there is nothing they need to do to establish a relationship with God, but through creation ALL MEN are the children of God. In Acts 17:24-28 the Apostle Paul declares to the philosophers of his day, "This is the GOD that you ignorantly worship that I want to reveal to you today, for he gives life and breath to all things. We live in God, and move in him, and we have our being in him because he is our Father, so we are all his children." In this our God is quite different to the god’s of the heathen, for we are his offspring.

Israel was brought forth from God as a special people, by means of a miracle birth through Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old when they were promised the long awaited son. It was obvious to both of them that this would not be a normal birth as we would understand it today. But the day came when God fulfilled his promise to Abraham through Sarah that he would give to him, "Seed" as the stars of heaven. The "Star Seed" was not the natural tribes of Israel who were many, but according to the Apostle Paul, it focused upon just ONE SEED, which is CHRIST. This Christ is called the "Son of Abraham," (Matt 1:1) and all his offspring are called the Children of God.

Israel had been formed into a nation in Egypt, but in the course of time they became slaves to Pharaoh, but God delivered them and set them free never to be enslaved by Egypt again. After this amazing release from the country of their imprisonment, their divine destiny began to unfold before them, as they found themselves on a wonderful journey of discovery. Their origin by a miracle birth to Sarah a woman 90 years old who in the natural could never have produced a child quickly faded from view to be replaced by the mortal concepts of a humanity that was earth bound. God had showed Abraham the "Stars" and told him that his SEED would be "As the Stars of Heaven." But instead of believing God he used a slave girl as a surrogate mother in order to produce the child, who was called Ishmael. God rejected this one, and said that Abraham and Sarah would have a child, but he waited another ten years. Then when Sarah was 90 she conceived and was delivered of a child when she was past age.

This child was called Isaac and according to Matt 1:1 he represented the Christ who is the divine "Seed." From Isaac came Jacob who was the father of the boys who became the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. The life and history of Israel is recorded in the Scriptures, and has been preserved for us as examples that we can use in our lives today. Beloved, we are like Israel in that we also are the product of the "SEED of GOD." Our true origin is from creation having come out of God in the beginning. Therefore we are spirit just as God is, in fact that spirit is God and we were intended to express that Spirit Life through our walk on this earth.

We need to remember that even though we now have a "Body," we are still "Spirit," which is eternal not being subject to sickness pain or death. Spirit cannot be weak, or depressed or fail to accomplish whatever it has purposed to do. In the realm of spirit there is never any lack, for the invisible resources of God who is the "Substance of Everything," is available to it. When Jesus needed bread to feed the multitude, he did not need the help of a "Baker" to knead the flour and bake the bread. The bread that fed the multitude was drawn out of the eternal substance that fills the world, which is God and is available to all.

The Prophets in Israel’s time functioned in this way as in the case of Elisha, who needed the help of the widow woman who was destitute. After declaring her hopeless situation that prevented her from helping God’s servant, Elisha did not make contact with someone who has an over supply of oil to help her in her need. He simply told her to borrow as many bottles as she could find and use the little oil she had left, and begin to fill the bottles. The only limit to the flow of that oil was the number of bottles she had collected, or the oil would have been still flowing today. Beloved, did not Jesus tell us, "The things that I do YOU CAN DO ALSO and greater works even than these shall you do because I go to the Father?"

But like Israel we have convinced ourselves that we are mortal human beings who have no such power, so we relax in our unbelief and deny the Truth. Just as Israel was enslaved in Egypt, so have we been enslaved by an authority that has possessed our bodies and redirected them as the slaves of an alien power that is called the "FLESH." Israel was the product of a miracle birth produced by the hand of God, but they drifted into a situation where they were totally impotent to achieve the divine purposes of God. Israel began their spiritual decline at Mount Sinai when they refused to hear the voice of God. Then the day came when they refused to acknowledge God’s authority over them and asked for a KING so they could be like all the other nations. From that time their authority was invested in MEN who were mortal. David was the only King that Israel had whose heart was directed by God.

As time passed, the Children of Israel allowed the true knowledge of their divine origin to be completely lost to them, and to be replaced by a human concept called mortality. However, to retain their "Spiritually Superior" position in God, that they believed they had over the rest of mankind, they absorbed the teachings and legal requirements of their "Faith" intellectually. In this way they convinced themselves they were a superior people to the rest of humanity, even though they could not demonstrate their divine standing. After David died Israel was again overrun by their enemies, and they returned to their idolatry and heathen practices, until the Lord sent them into servitude once again but this time in Babylon.

Before we, as the "Church" in the world today, reach for our "High Spiritual Ground," in order to condemn Israel for their failure, let us consider that we have done precisely the same thing. Christians parading themselves before the world as the saints of God who believe they have a special relationship to God, but who in so many cases live and function in desperate need that they cannot meet. As Israel stood before the Red Sea after leaving Egypt, Moses, who had demonstrated the power of God to cause Pharaoh to release the nation of Israel, cried out in panic to the Lord to DO SOMETHING! God replied to Moses almost as a rebuke, "Why are you standing there asking me to do something. WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND?" Moses replied, "I have the ROD of God which is my support and stay that YOU gave me, enabling me to do what ever you needed me to do on the earth."

So I am hearing God say to Moses, "Use the ROD I gave you and hold it out over the sea." Immediately the sea parted, leaving a dry pathway for Israel to cross over bringing salvation to the Nation and death to their enemies. Is this not a picture of ourselves, who are forgetting our true identity as spirit, which is Christ dwelling IN US, but ignoring who we are while we live out of our mortal human capacity. America and Australia together with other nations signal the world that they are Christian nations, but we can go to war and kill people because we claim the right to do so in the name of God. But if the people, who we designate as heathen destroy our property or kill our people we tell the world that is terrorism. We can wipe out thousands of people in Japan at the close of the last world war using our intelligence to construct killing equipment, and still hold ourselves as an example of, "The life of Christ" on the earth. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have LIFE and have it more abundantly." The Throne upon which he sits to rule the nations is not a throne of judgment like we have erected for ourselves but it is a THRONE OF GRACE, from which he dispenses his mercy.

So even in the light of the spiritual failure of Israel who made and worshipped a golden calf even as God was delivering his Covenant to them, God says to them, "BUILD ME A SANCTUARY that I may dwell among them." Behold beloved, what manner of LOVE the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God. I want you to build me a Sanctuary because my desire has always been to dwell with my people. How do we know that God’s desire was to be in the midst of his people? Because Man was created to be the dwelling place of God, for he said, "I will dwell in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people."

The Tabernacle of Moses was but a "Shadow" and a physical expression of God’s true dwelling place that was created in Gen 1:26. Moses was told to build a sanctuary according to the pattern that he was given on the mountain at Sinai. That pattern was based upon the first man that God created in Gen 1:26-27, and he was CHRIST his only begotten son. However, he was a corporate man for out of him came all of mankind. So Moses built the Tabernacle according to God’s plan. It had an outer court, and a Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place where God dwelt, which corresponded to the human concept man had developed of himself. Man believes he is Body, Soul and Spirit, but in creation he was ONE, and that ONE is spirit which is Christ and Christ is God. The truth is that we must yet return to our true state of ONENESS, with the spirit and soul being united as in the beginning and the body under the divine control of Christ WHO IS LORD, becoming spirit in manifestation instead of flesh and blood. Then we will be ONE SPIRIT just as Jesus Christ became SPIRIT in the resurrection.

When Moses built the Tabernacle if you asked anyone in Israel where they could find God they would point to the tabernacle and tell you that God is behind the Veil in the Most Holy Place. So at least they could locate God, but today most Christians will simply say he is up in the sky, where they consider "Heaven" to be. It is interesting to know that Israel never saw God even though they knew that he dwelt in their midst. But most Christians today have never seen God either, and neither do they know where he dwells. Paul declares that Israel’s history is recorded for us as examples and principles from which to learn from their failures. Moses built a literal sanctuary for the Lord based upon the pattern of that proto-type man God created.

That should have been sufficient for all mankind to know that God never planned to dwell in some far off place where man could not access his presence. The Psalmist could declare, Psalm 139:4 "For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou are there, if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." How foolish to believe that our God would hide himself from his children.

God is asking us today, to "Make him a sanctuary." After 4000 years of human history stretching from Adam to the birthing of Jesus Christ on the earth, man had forgotten who he was and why he is here. It was Paul the Apostle who told the people of his day in Acts 17:24 "The God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he gives life, and breath to all. For in him we live and move and have our being." This request by God for us to make him a sanctuary, is to satisfy his desire to "Dwell among his people." In creation God created MAN to be his dwelling place, so he would live IN his people and would never be separated from them. In Genesis 2 we find the divine activity is carried on by the MAN created in Gen 1:26.

This M-A-N is now called the LORD GOD which is a compound name. The word LORD is a translation of JEHOVAH, ADONAI, YESHUA, or YEHOSHUA that comes through to us as JESUS. The "GOD" part of the name is the translation of the Hebrew word ELOHIYM, which indicated to us that GOD AND MAN had from creation become O-N-E. This has to be so, for GOD is the only source of LIFE in all of creation. If ever God left us for one second we would all be D-E-A-D, but his promise is that he would never leave or forsake us and he has kept his word. The false concept of MAN in present day theology is that we are simply a mortal human being who is a sinner by divine decree from the beginning, but this is a LIE. Man was created IN THE BEGINNING in the likeness and image of God . According to Psalm 8:4-5, MAN was created "Just a little lower than Elohiym (GOD) and crowned with Glory and Honor." It is imperative that we understand this. or our whole concept of ourselves will be wrong. Man is not a SINNER trying to get back into the Garden of Eden and into the presence of God, for we have never left the Father except as a concept of the carnal mind.

"Make me a sanctuary that I may dwell with you." This is what your heavenly Father is asking of you today. So we need to know what this involves so we can please him for this is the desire of every true son. In Exodus 25 we have the details set out for us, and while Israel built a LITERAL TABERNACLE for the Lord, we are to build a SPIRITUAL SANCTUARY that is not made with hands. So we are told to MAKE AN OFFERING UNTO THE LORD. In the case of Israel that would have involved the slaughter of some animal or bird, but for us it has to be something that God has given to us, that we can give back to him. The only thing we can give to God is OUR BODY. If we offer our body to God then he has our talents our gifts whatever they may be and all that we are.

Why does God need our body? The answer is, because God is spirit and therefore he is invisible to the people, so he needs a body to become visible and to manifest himself in the world. Jesus expressed this when he said in Hebrews 10:5, "Father, you did not want all the sacrifices Israel gave to you, but you gave me a BODY." That body was formed in the womb of Mary to become a true expression of the Living God. When he was born he was still the WORD that was created in the beginning as spirit, but the scripture says, "And the WORD BECAME FLESH, and we beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth." Jn 1:14 However, now we called him JESUS, because that is what the angel told Mary. In the eyes of the people he was considered to be simply a M-A-N, until Peter received revelation from God opening his spiritual eyes to see beyond the outer man into the reality of who he was. He looked into his eyes and said, "You are the CHRIST the Son of the Living God."

Your body and mine were formed in our mother’s womb being fashioned by the loving hands of our heavenly Father who formed it FOR HIMSELF. We have assumed that our body belongs to us and that we can do with it what ever we desire. Paul tells us, "Do you not know that your Body is the Temple of God and you have been bought with a price and YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN." 1Cor.6:19. Because of this Paul also directs us to, "Present YOUR BODIES as a LIVING SACRIFICE acceptable unto him which is your spiritual worship." Rom.12:1. All Israel’s sacrifices were dead at the point of sacrifice, but this is to be a LIVING SACRIFICE, to be made available to God through which he can express HIMSELF to the world. There is no other creature through which God can make himself known except the MAN that God created.

Out of such "Worship" we "Make a sanctuary for the Lord within us," because now our body belongs to him to do with it what ever is his desire. The sanctuary we are to "Build" is where he places his NAME that signifies his love, power, grace and mercy all of which is to be resident within us. So first our body becomes a sanctuary for the Lord, a place where he is at home to express himself in whatever way he desires. But at the same time this place within us also becomes a sanctuary for us, in a time of trouble. For the scripture says, "The name of the Lord is a strong and mighty tower, the righteous run into it and they are safe." The Psalmist also tells us, "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High God (in you) 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 will I trust."

This is the sanctuary of the Lord and this is his Holy Temple, where God dwells within us. Divine service is conducted in this sanctuary 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and 52 weeks in a year. This is where we worship God in reality and Truth and the "Table of the Lord" is set there with the bread and the wine, where we may sup with him and he with us, and live forever. Beloved until we build him a sanctuary we have no "Hiding Place" in the time of trouble, so we are left alone not because God has left us, but because we do not know exactly where he is. Our God neither slumbers nor does he sleep so he is available all the time. Our worship was never meant to be at a 10 o’clock on Sunday morning in a "Church Building," but that there should be a continuous flow of worship from our hearts at all times. Psalm 34:1-4. This sanctuary is the "Most Holy Place," where God said, "I will meet with you between the cherubim on the mercy seat." That is God’s invitation to us today.

Israel never was allowed into the Most Holy Place behind the veil in Moses Tabernacle, for they were never a spiritual people, and so to them the way into the holiest of all was not then made open. It was not until Jesus Christ came into the world and opened the way by which we could come boldly unto the throne of Grace and meet the Lord between the Cherubim. Christ opened for us a NEW and LIVING WAY, made available to us through his flesh, by his death, burial and resurrection. Now for us, as we follow the pathway Jesus Christ walked we will find the veil of flesh has been rent in us, and the way into the very presence of God is open. No MORTAL MAN can ever stand in the presence of God, for he was never a part of God’s creation. The MAN that came forth in creation was CHRIST who is SPIRIT and that spirit is GOD. Beloved you are that spirit right now, just the same as you were when you were created.

At the cross 2000 years ago the veil in the Temple was rent from the TOP to the bottom. The word "Top" means, "From Above" indicating that it was not a man that rent the veil but God himself. So from that time the veil has no longer kept man out of the Most Holy Place. But what does the veil represent for us today for this is important for us to know so we can understand why so few have any knowledge of what is beyond the Veil. Paul speaks of Moses coming down from the mountain after being in the presence of God and receiving the Covenant of Law, which Paul calls the "Ministration of Death," having to put a veil over his face, because they could not look intently upon his face that had been impregnated with the divine glory. But also Moses did not want Israel to see the glory departing for that Covenant of Law was not to remain but was designed to pass away to give place to a NEW COVENANT.

Paul continues saying, "If that ministration of God which was taken away was glorious, how much more glorious must the spiritual administration of Grace be, involving the New Covenant that was brought to us by Jesus Christ." But Paul sees the veil applying first of all to Israel, who were told by the Prophet Isaiah 6:9 which says, "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:" The Apostle says that for Israel the "Veil" is still active today especially with regards to the Old Testament, but IN CHRIST the veil is removed. According to Matt.27:51, it was through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross that caused the rending of the veil in the Temple, which was not speaking about the Temple in Jerusalem, but the TEMPLE OF OUR BODY. It is the veil which is over our minds that needs to be rent so we can access the presence of our God in the Most Holy Place.

We come to realize that the veil that has hidden the presence of God from us was not something that God made, for he always wanted to dwell with his people and not be separated from him. It was the CARNAL MIND that kept us out of the presence of God, for it is an enemy of God and cannot receive the things that are of God. This mind kept telling us that we have been separated from God because of our sin, and so we are not worthy to come into his presence. But we had been convinced that God lived up in the sky and so could not possibly be dwelling IN US. It is the CARNAL MIND that has kept us out of the divine presence and so until that "Mind" has been renewed by the Holy Spirit we will not be able to come boldly into the Most Holy Place that is within us.

The death of Jesus Christ on the cross brought an end to our humanity that was controlled by the carnal mind, convincing us that we are mortal human beings. His death was our death for he died AS US and not simply FOR US. In that death the whole concept of our "Adamic Identity" was destroyed, releasing our body from the authority of the canal mind to bring it under the authority of the Christ. The reality of this true identity is expressed in the words of Jesus when he said, "I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE." This is what Jesus Christ spoke about when he told the people, "The Kingdom of God is IN YOU." The Kingdom of God is the authority of the King which is Christ, ruling and reigning in righteousness in us. It is therefore no longer the "I" of our mortal being that is living, but it is Christ now living and expressing what he is through us.

Israel made a Sanctuary which was portable and so God could remain with his people where ever they traveled across the wilderness. This has always been God’s intention, but very few seem to understand the purposes of God in his desire to dwell with his people. In creation, God needed to provide himself with a dwelling place where he could dwell and from which he could bring to pass what he has purposed to do on the earth. Therefore it is essential that we respond to God’s desire that we build a sanctuary from which God can function. The man God created in the beginning was CHRIST, who is in fact God’s dwelling place, for God and man had been inseparably joined together.

The man was never intended to be some facsimile of God but a manifestation of his true being, for God and Man had become ONE. Christ Jesus was the true manifestation of Man according to the will and purpose of God in creation, so when he came to the earth he was a perfect demonstration of what was in his heart of God when he said, "Let us make MAN," for HE WAS THAT MAN. Now as we look into his face we see the reflection of his person and glory within ourselves, for that is what we are. Is it not strange therefore that Christians are still looking for that man to appear on the earth in this 21st Century. However, Many Christians believe that it is only Jesus Christ who has ever fulfilled this desire of God, but they forget that all mankind came out of that ONE SON, according to Ehp.2:10.

Jesus Christ declared while he was on the earth that WE could do anything that he could do, because he returned to the Father, and then he added that we would even do greater things than what he did. This statement is TRUE because there is no difference between Jesus Christ and us today. Jesus Christ did not have an earthly Father but then neither did YOU, for you were created out of God in the beginning as spirit, and that spirit is CHRIST. Jesus was very clear in telling us that there is ONLY ONE FATHER and that one is GOD. Matt 23:9. The Father of Jesus Christ was the Most High God, and he is our Father also. Jesus told us plainly that HE did not do any of the miracles, but they were done by his heavenly Father who dwelt in him. This is exactly the same for us today, for God has never asked us to do a miracle but the Father IN US he will do the miracle and we are simply the BODY, which is exactly the same as in the case of Jesus Christ. He laid his hands on those who Father told him to, because he was the BODY. He spoke the words that Father told him to say and again Father did the miracle. That is still the same principle for the ministry in the world today.

The "making" of a sanctuary for the Lord is not physical, but a spiritual experience, in which we set apart a dwelling place for the Lord. The scriptures declare in Exodus 15:17, "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance in the place O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary which thy hands have established." So what is the "Mountain of God’s inheritance where the FATHER has established his sanctuary? WE are the holy mountain of his inheritance, but it is not simply this mortal body that is involved here, but the Christ that dwells in us. Paul reminded us that we have an INNER MAN that is eternal, dwelling in this mortal body, and that one is CHRIST. This is what constitutes us as the "Mountain of God’s Inheritance." When this Christ dwelling in us is recognized and identified as our true identity we allow him to possess our bodies in reality, and our whole being becomes, "The mountain of God’s Inheritance." So we understand that we do not actually "BUILD" the sanctuary but we recognize that our body in sanctified and therefore it is already set apart to fulfill its divine destiny.

Man today considers he has three parts, and they are Spirit, Soul and Body, all of which are represented in the Tabernacle of Moses, but only as a shadow of a true reality. The body represents the "Outer court" which is open to all and subject to sickness pain and death, while the Soul represents the "Holy Place" that was only open to the Priests of the tribe of Levi. The Most Holy Place behind the veil represents the inner man of our true identity, and this is the dwelling place of the Living God.

Jesus Christ expressed the true reality of the Christian life when he said, "I AND MY FATHER ARE O-N-E." The "I" he spoke of was not Jesus but his true identityTherefore, only as we recognize and become conscious of this Christ as our true identity, can we access the presence of the living God dwelling within us. In this way we can begin to understand the difference between these parts of our being and how they function. According to man’s carnal mind our being is divided into these three parts, Spirit, Soul and Body. However, in truth there is ONLY ONE PART TO OUR WHOLE BEING AND THAT IS CHRIST.

When Paul told is in 1 Cor. 6:19 that our body is the TEMPLE of God, the word "Temple" refers only to the MOST HOLY PLACE. Soul and spirit were never separated because they are spirit, and spirit cannot be divided for there is only ONE spirit, and that is God. The life of most people is lived today in the realm of the outer court through the flesh and blood body that is controlled by the "Carnal" or natural mind. Under these conditions the body functions as a "Body of Sin," because the "Members" of the body are under alien control to do the will of the Flesh. As a result our body becomes the target of every form of sickness and disease for the one who controls the body has no power to protect it from such an invasion.

Then we come to the "Holy Place" that represents for us the MIND of Man who is living out of his mortality. There is no true reality within the Holy Place, for it is filled with "Types and Shadows" that can only be a CONCEPT of the reality. A "Concept" can never become the reality but many Christians have retained the concept as if it were the reality. There is the golden Lamp Stand filled with the oil of the spirit that is a Type and a Shadow of the light of God that illuminates the temple of the Lord, and also represents the testimony of Christ on the earth. But Jesus Christ said in Matt 5:14, "You are the light of the world." So the Light in the Holy Place is only a type and a shadow of a greater reality revealed IN US, just as it was in Jesus Christ.

For most people concepts have replaced the reality, because our mind reasons that if we know the facts we therefore have the reality. What a shock to eventually realize that we never did have the reality but were content simply to play with the "Shadows." A "Shadow" is formed by some solid object standing between US and the light, so that we see the shadow but ignore that which has produced it. The Golden Altar on which the incense was burned which speaks of our praise and worship, again is only a TYPE of the reality of a worship that rises unto the Lord from the ALTAR within the Most Holy Place of the Temple of our body. But Christians hold the picture of the type and the shadow of Praise and worship as being something you DO that is external to you. Most worship is controlled from the Platform by a song leader or a leader of worship which is based upon the evidence of the shadow but not the Reality. That is how Israel worshipped the Lord, but for us the reality is that "Worship" must begin in the spirit within us, for Jesus told the woman at the well, "They that worship God MUST worship him IN SPIRIT and in Truth."

Most people discover truth in the beginning of their spiritual journey through the Types and Shadows such as in the Holy place, but so many never graduate to embrace the reality that those types represent. However, today Father is requiring us to go beyond where Israel went with all its sacrifices and offerings that God did not desire, to embrace the reality of what all those things pointed to. We have "Communion" in most Churches and people believe that if they take the wafer or piece of bread and drink the red juice in the little cup they have eternal life. Again, that is a Type and a Shadow that belongs to the Holy Place but as a concept we have taken it for the reality. However, Jesus tells us clearly in John 6 that if we do not eat his flesh and drink his blood we have no life in us.

So there is a reality that IS his BLOOD, and that IS his LIFE that he has made available to us today. Scripture declares that the "Life is in the blood," so to "Drink his blood" means that we must appropriate his very own life which is eternal, instead of living out of our mortal life which is called "Death" from the spiritual point of view. His flesh is the substance of what he is, and that is spirit. To eat his flesh is to embrace that substance of the Christ, which is spirit, instead of continuing to live out of our mortality, for spirit IS our true identity because we were created IN Christ Jesus in the beginning according to Eph 2:10. Unless we embrace our true Christ identity as spirit and function out of the same LIFE that Christ is, we will simple function out of our mortal life and not the eternal life that we received from God in creation.

Notice that in Moses Tabernacle it was only the priests of Levi who were allowed into the Holy Place. They constituted and earthly Priesthood who could only go as far as the Holy Place, but no further. That which was beyond the veil was out of bounds for Israel because the sacrifices and offerings they presented to God could not fit them to stand in the presence of the Living God. But in contrast to Israel’s sacrifices, Jesus Christ "By ONE Offering he has perfected FOREVER them that are sanctified." Heb 10:14.

So now we understand that in the Outer Court and in the Holy Place they never found God for that is not where he dwelt. Reality only begins in our lives when we press on THROUGH THE VEIL into the MOST HOLY PLACE where all the types and Shadows come together in one glorious revelation of the GOD of all Creation. The only furniture in there is the Ark of the Covenant which represents a PERSON and that is CHRIST. Then on the Day of Atonement the Golden Altar was also brought in representing a NEW WORSHIP that rises not from some song leader or Pastor on the platform, but rises from our Christ Consciousness, like the incense that is put on the living coals of fire that burns in the hearts of God’s people.

There is a liberty that God’s people are entering into today because of a WAY that has been opened to us THROUGH THE VEIL. Isaiah 25:7 "And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." The veil in the Tabernacle represents the veil of FLESH, which will not allow us to enter into the presence of the Living God. Flesh and blood CANNOT inherit the KINGDOM OF GOD, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. Flesh in the Bible does not simply refer to the meat on our bones, but refers to what we have become because the natural or Carnal Mind has been allowed to control our body, even though it belongs to God. Under the authority of our carnal mind our body becomes a Body of Sin, not because the body itself is wicked, but because it is not under the divine control of the Christ that dwells in us. He is the anointed one and he is the King.

Notice also that we can only receive the Kingdom of God by INHERITANCE. This means that it is ours only by being a Son of God who is our Father. Giving your heart to Jesus does not qualify anyone to be able to receive the Kingdom of God, but it is CHRIST himself who was created in the beginning as the ONLY Son that God ever created. The inheritance belongs to him, but includes all those who were created IN HIM in the beginning. (Eph. 2:10.) Every one of us has a direct relationship with God through Christ Jesus and so we are eligible for the inheritance, for we were created IN HIM that is, "IN Christ." The veil cast over our minds has prevented us from experiencing the reality of our true identity, which is Christ.

WE can never walk in this truth until we step through the veil and stand in the UNVEILED presence of the living God. It was not a mortal man who took the veil away and made it possible for us to stand in the presence of God, but Christ. At the Passover feast that Jesus kept with the disciples, he said, "Take and eat, this is MY BODY which is broken for YOU. Jesus had spoken before to the disciples, "If you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." What was he trying to say to the disciples? He was saying that if you do not partake of the substance of what I AM, which is spirit and allow my LIFE to express itself in you, then you will live as the walking dead on the earth. To live as a spirit and a soul that lives in a body, is to live out of your mortality with no true consciousness of your divine origin.

When we establish the Sanctuary of the Lord, our body no longer belongs to us but becomes a sacred vessel in which God lives and through which he expresses himself, and fulfills his desire. The Apostle Paul told the saints in Corinth, that their body is the Temple of God, but at the same time said that your body IS NOT YOUR OWN for it was purchased with a price. Our Body formed in our mother’s womb by the loving hands of our heavenly Father is designed to be the Sanctuary of the Lord. However, to simply know this intellectually will have no impact on us or the people of the world. Jesus offered his body on the cross as the evidence that he understood the reason why he was given a body by his heavenly Father. But the fulfillment of God’s will and purpose was for the "Body" to be broken in order to become that broken bread and the poured out wine to feed the multitudes.

There must come a new revelation to God’s people today of our role in the manifestation of God on the earth. It is obvious that if all men will be drawn to the Christ on this earth, it will not be as a result of good preaching or great crusades that magnify man, but push God further into the darkness of obscurity. The only true manifestation of God this world has ever seen was Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God. But the theologians have so confused who he was and what he came to accomplish that his life has simply become a model of ethics and morals with no true spiritual revelation. The emphasis today is on the study of a book called "The Bible," filling Bible Schools with young people who love God but who are being led along the "Garden Path," believing that if you know the doctrines of the Bible, this is all that God requires of them in order to become a teacher of the people. This concept that is fostered by the religious world, keeps the people away from reality so they can concentrate on the "TREE OF KNOWLEDGE."

Today, the "Church" has anchored the sanctuary of the Lord in this world, just as Israel did after the death of David. But before he died, David established a new expression of the sanctuary of the Lord that would guide future generations in the manifestation of Christ on the earth. It was the Prophet Amos that brought the word of the Lord to Israel when he said, "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:" Amos 9:11 David was the man after God’s own heart who became the great King of Israel. He was the one who brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem after the Tabernacle of Moses had fallen into disuse. For twenty years Israel had ignored the Tabernacle of Moses and the presence of God among them was forgotten. This is a similar situation that we see in the world today, where so many Christians have no conscious recognition of the presence of God with them or that he has a dwelling place on the earth.

Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of an intimate personal knowledge of God, and because you have rejected such knowledge I will also reject you, that you shall not function as a priest to me, because you have forsaken the authority of your God, I will also not consider your children." When the children of Israel abandoned the manifestation of the presence of God in the Tabernacle, they literally abandoned God and so became their own god. We are living in a world where the reality of God has been replaced by an academic concept of God that cannot help us in any way. I am telling you the truth when I say that no one can know God apart from a personal relationship with him. It is "CHRIST IN YOU," that is the only hope of God being glorified on this earth. For the individual, there is no other God that we can know apart from the GOD THAT DWELLS IN US.

David the Psalmist said, "I will not give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids until I find out a place for the Lord. We will go into his tabernacles,(that are within us) and we will worship at his footstool. Arise O Lord into thy rest, Thou and the ARK OF THY STRENGTH. For the Lord has chosen Zion for we are the City of God that he has desired for his dwelling place. This is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for this is my desire." When we realize that we are God’s dwelling place, then we express our own desire, and that is, "One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after, that I myself may also dwell in the HOUSE OF THE LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his Temple."

In the Most Holy place was the Ark of God that symbolized the presence of God. It was a wooden box, that had been lined within and without with Gold. On the top was a golden mercy seat with a Cherubim at both ends, and that is where he told Israel that he would meet with them, between the Cherubim on the mercy seat. This designated place now is within God’s people and symbolizes God’s divine authority, wisdom and grace that is not just resident in us but this is the throne of the King from which he will rule the nations. There are too many Christians who carry verses in the Bible around with them thinking that in doing so they have the TRUTH. But Truth is not ink on paper but the living risen and glorified Christ the Son of the Living God.

It was Jesus Christ himself who told the people of his day, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life: and they are they which testify of me, but you will not come to me, the Christ, that you might have LIFE." The LIFE of God cannot be carried by some academic knowledge of the Bible, but remains only as an expression of Christ himself living and reigning in us. This is the day when the people of God are beginning to see that the focus of our lives and future is not to be on some ethereal "Heaven" with streets of Gold and mansions over the hilltops, but the establishment of the Kingdom of God ON THIS EARTH TODAY. Religion has substituted "Heaven" for the Kingdom deceiving many as Jesus Christ is presented just as a savior from sin, instead of the KING OF THE WHOLE EARTH. The Prophet Isaiah said, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be NO END upon the Throne of David, and upon his Kingdom, to order it and to establish it, with justice and with judgment from this time on, even for ever."

Des Walter