Chapter 5
Being Changed, Forevermore
*How do we become changed forevermore? To what do we owe ourselves in order to be changed from image to image and faith to faith? Leonard Ravenhill spoke, “You are changed in times of worship.” He was using the story of Jesus being anointed with the expensive perfume. The message was dealing with how when she (Mary) poured out her perfume, which is a symbol of worship, the aroma got on both Jesus and her. My question is: what kind of worship?
*I would like to start with an individual clause, and then we’ll dive into the realm of corporate worship. In Exodus 25, we have the illustration of the Tabernacle presented. Most people will read this and think of it as boring. All the numbers and sizes and details wear heavy upon the mind. Yet, it is this very thing that Paul was speaking of (the Old Testament) when he said, “For whatever things were written in earlier times were written for our learning,” Romans 15:4.
*This is to be read as something monumental to our faith. When we read of the Tabernacle and the Temple, we are to understand that it is an exact replica of the character and nature of God. It is also an express image of our salvation and walk. It can also be considered with the same words spoken about Aaron’s priesthood: it was a type and shadow of the reality in Heaven. Most Christians know that the Tabernacle had 3 areas. There was the outer court, inner court, and Holy of Holies.
*The outer court was used as a place of sacrifice and washing. There were many priests who would be bustling about to prepare the offerings, keep the fire going, tend to the washing, etc. I would liken this unto salvation. You have the giving of your sacrifice, atonement, the washing of the word, baptism, and the purifying with fire. A lot of people stay here, but within our church buildings, we have a lot more to stay within the inner court.
*This outer court could also be likened to our daily devotions, our prayers and supplications, Scripture reading, songs and dances, etc. The main point is that these are the outward things that we do as a sacrifice to the Lord. It is out in the open before all men. When we are talking about the inner court, we are talking about thing inner parts of man. Our worship within the inner court is our worship within the prayer closet or behind closed doors.
*The inner court (also known as the holy place) is blocked off to the outside world. There is no sunlight, and the only way to see is by a seven-candle lamp stand called a menorah. It takes a deeper seeing to be here. You receive some light from the menorah, which is the Church (Revelations 1:12-13; 20), and some light from God. Because you are not in direct sunlight, God must help guide you. Here we see, also, the showbread and the altar of incense.
*The showbread is our speaking/preaching. We offer up the showbread to each other to help feed the “priests” of God (see Revelation 1:6). The altar of incense describes our prayers. These prayers are deeper than salvation. They are more than praising God for saving us. This is entering into the level of worshiping and praying in the Spirit. In the inner court, there are fewer priests needed to fulfill all the duties. In this area, we come to an understanding of the vocabulary words such as discipleship, mentorship, and fellowship, etc.
*In the inner court, we see the entire function of church as we know it. All that is encompassed within the realm of modern Christendom is displayed here in the inner and outer courts. It is easy to see it both individually and corporately. For the Nazarenes, the outer court is salvation, or redemption, and the inner court is the second work of grace, sanctification. To the Pentecostals, the outer court is our salvation, and the inner court will be the filling of the Spirit. For the Baptists, the outer court is salvation; the inner court is when you decide to be devout.
*We can see it quite easily how this is also a description of our Sunday services. Of course, there is the baptismal, the altar call, and accountability in the outer court; there is preaching, corporate worship, and the gathering together in the inner court. This together gives us a basic outline, even though still incomplete, of our Christianity.
*There is, yet, still a deeper level. The third area within the Tabernacle was the Holiest place of all: the Holy of Holies. Here there is no light. There is neither sunlight nor artificial light to show your way. The only light that is given is by the very consuming presence of God. Where the other two places had priests daily, this place had only one man allowed to enter, and enter only once a year. This is such a holy place of God. The only time a man was allowed to enter was by the blood of a worthy sacrifice, and God forbid that sacrifice isn’t acceptable. The high priest would die. God would kill him. There was a veil that was, according to Josephus, 4 inches thick dividing the Holy of Holies from the inner court.
*When Leonard Ravenhill spoke about worship that changes you, he spoke of entering into this place. Put the first two areas off to the side, though they are not to be forgotten. This one place is where we see ourselves being changed “from glory to glory.” We read in verse 22 of Exodus 25 that it is there in the Holy of Holies that God will meet with us. It is only there that we will have opportunity to hear from Him.
*What does this kind of worship look like? Is it even worship? If not, what do we need to call it? I hesitate to call this mode of living as worship because we have a skewed idea of what worship is. When the word worship comes up, most people think music. They think songs and dancing. Even if they don’t think music, they at least think prayer. That isn’t worship. That is only one aspect, and it very much resembles the inner court mentality.
*We know from the book of Hebrews that our Savior Jesus Christ entered into that Holiest place by His own blood, and that God beckons us to come to the throne of grace with boldness. He beckons us to come as well. What does this look like? What does it mean to enter in to the Holy of Holies? How do we even enter in?
*“There above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.” The NIV doesn’t do a very good job in translating this verse. The King James says He will have communion with us. The Amplified Bible says He will intimately speak with us. He isn’t just meeting with us for any old reason. This is something deep that can’t be uttered with language.
*What is communion? I love the translation that the KJV has. We all know the practice. You gulp down some grape juice and scarf down a wafer, but what does it really mean? What is being resembled? Turn with me to John 6:25.
*“When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, ‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’
*“Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’
*“Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: believe in the one he has sent.’
*“So they asked him, ‘What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’
*“Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’
*“ ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘from now on give us this bread.’
*“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my father’s will is that every one who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.’”
*Jesus continues to proclaim that He is the bread of life, and unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood, you cannot be His disciple. Let us turn our attention to Matthew 27. Jesus, when having communion with his apostles, broke bread and told them, “This is my body broken for you.” He then gave them wine and said, “This is my blood poured out for you.” In Matthew 27:51-52, we read that at the death of Jesus, the veil of the Temple was rent in two, and graves opened up to let “many holy people who had died” raise from the dead and walk again amongst the living.
*What do all these Scriptures mean? These are what we turn to when we think of communion. Jesus broke bread and gave the wine saying, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Yet, there has to be some sort of an application. We can read in Leviticus “the life is in the blood.” Alas! Here we have the answer to the blood. It is by His blood that we have the power and ability to walk a resurrection life.
*We need not to strain anymore. We need not to attempt to be holy. We simply plead that blood, and trust in that blood, and take communion to drink His blood with faith that He alone is able to save to the uttermost. If He does not deliver me from sin, then I shall forever be trapped. If He does not sustain me as I walk with Him, then I shall fall to the ground. To live is to live for Christ. To die is to die for Christ. Whether we live or die it matters not, for we do both in Christ.
*Yet, what about the body? Why do we eat His flesh? What purpose does this bring us? What fulfillment do we have in eating His flesh? Take a closer look at Matthew 27:51. The veil was torn in two. There is now access, by that body which was broken, to the Holiest place of all. He abolished the priest draft and made us a kingdom of priests. He did away with the Aaronic High Priest and gave us a sacrifice that will always be acceptable.
*Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and assertion is the complete symbolism of communion. Not only is this to describe baptism, but also communion. We take His bread because it is the very access to the Holy of Holies. It is by that bread that we hear His instructions for us. It is by that bread that we are brought out of the camp, and into a one-on-one encounter with the Living God. We take the wine because the life is in the blood. We have no hope outside of taking this blood. To reduce communion to a mere “remembering” of what Jesus has done for us is to deny all spiritual assistance that Christ has given us in His body and blood.
*This is a holy thing. It is because of the spiritual implications and assistance that Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth telling them that to misuse and abuse the breaking of bread will inevitably result in sickness and even death. The inward spiritual condition of sin against the Lord, even in communion, will result in the outward manifestation of sickness, disease, and possibly even death. The spiritual tumors will only remain so long before they are made manifest in bodily tumors. Taking of His bread and wine is a holy thing, and we are invited to share in this amazing grace.
*We haven’t yet gotten to the place of understanding what the Holy of Holies resembles. What does it teach us of God? If we are to have communion with Him there, then what are we to learn before rushing the stage? We can see communion is a holy thing, and God wishes to have communion with us in this holiest of places. If communion is the pouring out of Himself and the body of our Lord being broken for us, then what does that tell us for ourselves? He requires the same thing for us. In taking communion with Him, we must also partake in the breaking of our bodies and the pouring out of our blood.
*Once again it all points back to the cross in our own lives. We must put to death the flesh, and pour out our own lives to take up His life. This is an ultimate requirement that unless is fulfilled, we will never see the glory of God. Keep in mind, as well, that I’m still speaking on an individual basis.
*What about corporately? What do we need to think when it comes to a corporate Body? How do we take communion with all the saints and with God? It is simple… you live together. Your entire mode of being should be established upon this: communion with the saints. It is in our communion with each other that we have communion with God. How can we pour ourselves out if we do not do it for one another?
*This is the grand requirement, but it is so unlike us. Our very buildings are designed with pews that face the front so that we never see each other at all during the service. How can we call that worship? Where is the Body embracing and edifying the Body? Where are the saints purifying and washing each other with the word? How can we perform our priestly functions, even in the outer court, when we’re all separate and don’t see each other?
*Our whole institution is based upon a “get your Sunday fix” mentality. God is jealous for more than that. We can’t even approach the Holiest place until we are willing to look into the faces of each other and work together. This isn’t a way of programming and establishing events. It is to embrace one another in the most intimate way: in that of communion with each other. When was the last time you drank and ate at the communion table as a representation of your relationship with your fellow saints? Have you ever had the privilege to eat and drink with the saints as a testimony to one another of the lifestyle you walk in daily with them?
*We eat and drink with each other, but we eat and drink unto God. Our service is to one another, but it is ultimately unto God. When we take of the communion cup and bread, we need to understand both the implications that it gives to the saints (one to the other), and the implications it has between God and us. We take communion as an act of faith in God to both save us to the uttermost, and also to sustain us, so that we might live with one another as God has intended: men and women who pour themselves out and break themselves open for the betterment and sanctification of their fellow brothers and sisters.
*We still have yet to even enter the Holy of Holies. All of this must be looked at with open minds and repentant hearts before we begin our steps through that veil into the dark room to perceive the light of God. What was within this place? What was the function of the priest when he came in to the Holy of Holies?
*Inside was the ark, with the Testimony (10 Commandments) inside, and the mercy seat on top of it. The priest was to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat as an offering of atonement for all of Israel. Our Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled this priestly duty for us once and for all. So why must we come?
*We come to the mercy seat because it is only there that we can be changed from faith to faith and glory to glory. Nowhere else is there a hope of being “changed forevermore” into the likeness of God. What is it about this place that represents God in His fullness?
*The representation of God is entirely in the make-up of the Ark, Testimony, and Mercy Seat. The Ark of the Covenant was made of 100% pure gold. There was not one part of this piece of furniture that had some other material. Gold has always been a representation, or a metaphor, of Deity. The Ark was made of gold, both within and without. He is not satisfied with the mere outward appearance. He is pure gold through and through. There were 4 rings that 4 poles were slid into when carrying the Ark. These 4 poles were wood that had gold overlaying them. The wood to be used was acacia wood. Acacia wood is a wood that is found in the desert, and is brittle, of no worth, and good for nothing.
*We are the poles. We are only of wood, but we are overlaid with gold. This gold represents the very majesty and glory of God Himself. It is not easy to overlay wood with gold. It is a process that takes much time. First the gold must be purified, and then it must be hammered out. The gold is beaten very thin. The question that comes to mind is this: are we willing to undergo a beating like that?
*Even though the gold is God, it must be purified and beaten out. In our lives, we must undergo excruciating amounts of trials to purify and to hammer out this gold so that not one part of these poles might be displaying wood. The gold needs to cover the entire rod. Every area of our lives will be beaten hard so that the gold might cover all aspects of our lives, and we could say as Paul said, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
*The Testimony is inside of the Ark. This is a representation that God does not allow even the slightest trace of sin within the Holiest place. The mercy seat rests upon it all, even over the 10 commandments. Thank God for this mercy seat that is over the commandments. It is not humanly possible to enter this place, but because of the mercy seat that ensures both mercy and justice, we have access even in our imperfections. What a statement it is to see mercy over the commandments. It is not to say that God will allow sin to not be dealt with, but to say that He welcomes and bids us come. As it is said, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
*Here is our Lord. The mercy seat, which is also one piece of gold, has the cherubim on top of it. He will meet with us there, between the two cherubim. It is interesting to note that the two cherubim are on opposite sides of the mercy seat, and their wings touch. There isn’t room between the cherubim. What could God be saying?
*The answer to this conundrum is found by the mere statement that the cherubim are facing one another. Their eyes are upon one another, their faces are upon one another, but their heads are looking down toward the mercy seat. These two cherubim are the key to understanding what the whole point of the Holy of Holies is, and where indeed God will meet with us.
*I feel a chill and a bit of the reality of the seriousness of this message. God wants the face-to-face, eye-to-eye communion. When we worship Him, which is to say when we live before Him, it is to be by constantly looking upon His face. Yet, the cherubim were facing one another.
*It is in the beholding of each other’s faces that we meet with God. The angels were looking into one another’s faces, and the Spirit of the Lord was between them, and it was the Spirit of God that linked them. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” This is the pounding out of the gold on the wood: to look into one another’s faces and behold the glory of God. It is in our communion with each other that we meet with God in the Holy of Holies.
*This lifestyle surpasses both the outer court and inner court. Even though both are necessary, they cannot bring you to a place of authenticity. To dwell in the inner court, even though you have passed that of the salvation stage, and even though you have entered into the realm of the Spirit and moving by the Spirit, you have missed the mark. You have hindered the working of God, because the word of God cannot come. Where do you meet with Him if you neglect the Holiest place? It is only in that place that He will meet and commune with us. To neglect that inner most place is to neglect the Lord Himself.
*Strangely, this very thing brings us full circle to the first chapter, which in turn circles again through to chapters 1-4. By our communing with Him, we are brought to an understanding of the eternal mindset, the theocratic kingdom, the principalities and the powers of the air, the cosmic setting, the need for absolute surrender, the anointing and sending forth of God from this place of communion, and the tearing down of false religions within the Body. This is all-inclusive. To miss this one thing is to miss the whole picture. Just as to miss any thing that has been stated thus far is to miss the whole picture.
*What is the purpose of this kind of lifestyle with the saints when relating to eternity? As it is in heaven, so was the earthly Tabernacle made. We will be required to fellowship with the saints in heaven in this same way: by communing with them.
*How does this relate to the cosmic setting? To misunderstand this is to misunderstand the cosmic drama. If we continue in only going to the Holy place instead of the Holiest place, we will find ourselves not able to understand the whole picture, and the proof of it will be the lack of the words of God (Amos 8:11). Our misunderstanding of the immensity of the fall, and our lack of comprehending the comic setting of it all, that the entire universe, both seen and unseen, have fallen, and therefore the work of grace in our lives is a work of grace for all of creation, is to misunderstand and lack the comprehension of all things.
*This requires us to absolutely surrender, because unless we absolutely surrender, we will not be willing for this kind of a lifestyle. It is only a Body that has this kind of relationship one to another that will scare the principalities and powers. They have no reason to fear when we’re trying to do everything on our own. How difficult is it to either deceive or destroy one man? When we’re linked together by the Spirit of God in Holy Communion with Him and each other, neither deception nor egotism can remain within that Body. The devil will have no foothold. The most he could do is attack them physically and mentally, but what good is that to a band of believers who are walking face-to-face with God Himself?
*I end this by saying: this is the kind of Church that will grab the attention of the men and women of this world. These men and women have transcended to a place of ultimate authority. The wisdom of this world saying, “Have national pride,” and, “Designate cultural superiority,” have no hold upon these people. What a sight this would be! It would be like the Church in Antioch: total opposites coming together in unity. It isn’t something that comes cheap. There is the hammering process.
*Within the Church at Antioch, you had Paul and Barnabus, a man from Cyrene (an Island within the Mediterranean), man called Niger (usually given to someone of African descent), and a man whose name sounds as though it could be Roman. What a crowd! It is no wonder why Paul is able to make the statement “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, within Christ.” With this group of opposites coming together, and having communion with each other, and still being able to love one another, despite national and ethnical differences, God had an agent in which He could have the first apostolic sending.
*This is the image in which God wishes to restore. How many of us are willing to undergo such circumstances to be hammered out? How many of us are willing to undergo such circumstances as to give up house and car, friend and family, will and future, desire and reputation? Is it not safe to say that most of us would rather keep our contemporary culture of Christianity, even though it resembles nothing of the nature of God, or the intention of God from the beginning?
*I would like to take this paragraph to say that I am not against Sunday services, in themselves. If we meet together on Sunday, let it be from the intensity and passion of living and loving one another throughout the week. So often Sunday is all the “church” people get. Some have midweek Bible Studies, and even less have Sunday evening services. What happened to community?
*It says in Exodus 24:12, “Come up unto me into the mount, and be there.” Moses was told by God to go up this mountain, against gravity, against the flesh, against the world, against logic, and against self-preservation and be there. We have no understanding of what this actually means. Moses was told to be there. Don’t think that this is a means to an end. Don’t start wondering about how you’re going to get back down. Don’t consider what great thing I might have for you. Come up the mount, and be there. Maybe we can say, “Be there with me.”
*This is something that is so holy. We trivialize it in our minds. It is only going up a mount. It is only being there with God. But we don’t recognize that God is saying, “Come up and be there without food or water or change of clothes or new climbing shoes or equipment or help from another. Come up and be there for my sake. Don’t come expecting. Don’t come hoping. Come up simply out of a pure love for me.”
*I wish that I could be writing these things as one who knows from experience. I wish that I could be writing about the Holy of Holies and the true fellowship that God wishes for His Church to have from a close knit body of believers. I wish that I did have these things. The truth is that I don’t. How rare must one of these men be that God would place it on the heart of me, a mere unlearned child, to proclaim these things from my lack? How rare must it be for me to be chosen to speak these things and understand these things, but not from experience? I am not like Paul who could stand before the people of Mars Hill and proclaim, “The God who you worship out of ignorance, He I declare unto you.” I don’t know this from experience. I don’t proclaim unto you. All I can do is share what burdens the Lord has placed on my heart.
*Yet, if we can’t even come up the mount and be there for God, then how are we ever going to enter into the Holy of Holies and be there for each other? Even in our conversations with one another, we are considering tomorrow, or dinner, or some failure from earlier, or some other thing. We don’t know what it is to be fully present with each other, and it comes from this lack of not being fully present with God.
*Lord, I come to you as one who has been challenged. I pray that the readers would also repent and submit to what your Spirit would be speaking to them. But, Lord, deal with me… I’m one who would rather keep house and car, friend and family, will and future, desire and reputation. Send men and women my way who would be willing to live in a passionate and intense way. Grant me, and all who read this and repent with me, community in which we can live and move and have our being as communion with the saints. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit is saying, amen.