The Tabernacle

“Now the Priests stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, & all Israel was passing over on dry ground..” Joshua 3:17

The Priests carried the presence of God into a raging river;
because it was harvest time (Jos 3:15).
The raging river was stopped
& revealed was dry, desert ground.
Such are the set seasons in a leaders/apostles life.
God’s provision for the Priest,
for the Apostle
was dry, desert ground.
This was God’s provision.
In the dry, desert ground the people moved.
They passed over on this ground.
Desert ground is nomadic ground.
It is not the ground of settlers, farmers & dwellers.
It belongs to the mover, the explorer.
In the journey for Israel, it was the one place
God’s presence was most clear, distinct & near.
The dry desert land is the terrain of passing over.
It is the terrain where the presence of God is carried into
and rests.
For such it did that unprecedented day
when Israel finally entered the Promised Land.
This was the chosen doorway
set by God
& marked by the presence of God.
Dry, desert ground.
Their feet were dry when they touched the Promised Land.
And so “make straight paths for your feet,
so what is lame may not be dislocated
but rather be healed.” (Heb 12:13)

For just a few fleeing moments, too few they were, I sat immersed in a dimension of the presence of the Lord my soul longed for, but never tasted of in this way.

Until now.

Amidst 80 or so others, I sat high on a Scottish Loch affectionately known as Loch Insh. I was in the highlands of Scotland. And here since the 6th century, worship to God had been uttered from mouths of a northern gentile people.

What God had revealed of himself in a little Irish town called Bangor in the 5th century, was now washing upon the shores of Scotland & soon Western barbaric Europe.

Infact the presence of God that was so longed for, yearned for & sought for with every part of the mind, soul & body, was rewarded; & for 400years a well was opened where ’springs of living water flowed’ in unprecedented levels. It was from this ancient well, that I sat, arrested by the presence of God.

The atmosphere was so clear in this set apart place. The space between heaven & earth was wonderfully thin & so easily connected with. It was almost immediate. I did not struggle to breath as I had in other encounters with the presence of God, but instead quite the opposite! With such ease & lightness, I sucked in great ‘chunks’ of his presence…only sensing with my mind in that moment a very small portion of all I was experiencing.

In fact like a slow release time bomb, I have since become increasingly aware of so much more that was part of those fleeting moments that day at Loch Insh. I can only describe that what was imparted to my body, mind & spirit, has over these days since awoken within me emerging with such wonder.

I tasted that day, the gorgeous, life impacting inheritance left by a people who wanted for nothing else but the presence of God, & were rewarded. It was such a concentrated zone, but where concentrated often means intense & strong, this was clear, filling, light & wonderfully sweet.

What an inheritance to leave the generations that would follow after them!

The Bible describes the presence of God in two ways. There is the general, ever present, filling the earth presence of God. Romans 1:20 testifies that God’s presence “has been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

But God also chose to place his presence in a specific way & location. In the Old Testament it was the Tabernacle & Temple he chose as his dwelling place. In the New Testament he chose the human body of a believer. In both cases, He chose a specific place to dwell.

In Matthew 6:10 Jesus shows his disciples how to pray. He exorts them to pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What is in heaven? God, his kingdom, his will; says this verse. What makes up his kingdom? Hebrews 8: 2 declares, “There He (Jesus) ministers in the holy place, the true Tabernacle of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands.”

Part of what makes up God’s Kingdom is a “Tabernacle of worship”, a holy place built by the Lord where he dwells in praises of his people.

So when we pray as instructed by Jesus, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, we are praying also for a place on earth where the King of Glory may dwell.

Tabernacles, like his presence, are expressed in two ways, within us & within a geographical location. To reject this idea is perhaps agreeing with Replacement Theology, which suggests we replace everything concerning Israel with ourselves, including rejecting the Old Testament. Jesus did not come to do away with the Law but fulfill it. There is a difference between doing away with something & fulfilling it!

As I experienced the beauty of his holiness that day at Loch Insh, I continued my journey in knowing God & learning what it means for me & my body to become such a place where His beauty might rest & dwell.

The principles & lessons learnt in administering geographical spaces for over some 5 years now in many different countries of the world, have helped me appreciate & grow an understanding of what it means for the King of Glory to consider dwelling within me.

I have needed both ways of Tabernacle, so may I suggest is a growing world of seekers & lovers of Jesus! Perhaps then, we shall also, as many saints who have gone before us, leave a beautiful inheritance for our children & children’s children!

I watched Tom cruises new movie Valkyrie on the flight home from London.

During our time in Germany I was again confronted with and reminded of the fact that God isn’t finished with the German Royalty. As we sat with some of them for many hours on this trip I felt the prompting of God that He was up to something here. My hunch is that it has to do with providing an alternative Godly leadership example within Germany, or at least a Godly reference point for other leaders to come to.

Then on the way home I watched this film and here was Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg of the German royal families involved in the leadership of and being the one to attempt to carry out this assassination attempt on Hitler.

When Helen & I lived in Germany we would not watch Hollywood movies of World War 2 as these were always from the victors ie America’s perspective. Ie ‘Germans bad, Americans good’. God had asked us to go to these people and to live amongst them and to be involved in calling them up to their potential and calling in Jesus. A very big part of this is to walk in the freedom of God’s forgiveness for past sins. Especially the sins not performed by this generation or in many cases by their parents either but by even earlier generations. World war 2 ended more than 60 years ago now. Yet constantly in the newspapers Nazi stories and every new movie was still saying ‘Germans bad’, this message has well and truly gotten through, I can tell many stories of how and how destructive this has been.

It was so refreshing to see a movie that showed Germans who disapproved of Hitler’s actions attempting ‘in an almost impossible situation’ to do something about it. (The attempt cost all of them their lives). Ie the plot was ‘Some German’s good!’ What a refreshing change, the German people are people too.

Over 5 years Helen & I based out of Germany and I can personally testify that we met many wonderful German people. Also that many that we met had wonderful faith, surpassing the faith and Godliness that we have seen from other nationalities, Helen & I learnt much from them.

I want to strongly challenge the Hollywood endorsed all encompassing view of ‘Germans Bad’. Hitler was actually an Austrian, yes their fathers did atrocious things, yes this is true. But God has very big end time plans for Germany and it’s people, the Fatherland has a big role to play and the royalty of that country are still there and in place for a reason, let’s have a view bigger than we’ve been spoon fed by movies. I want to come in line with what God is doing and saying about these people and I can testify that these leader people have a big role to play, I encourage and welcome their input, and am glad to call many Germans close friends.

In a few weeks, it is Shavout (Feast of Weeks), known in the West as Pentecost. This was the time when in Acts 2, God chose to come & dwell in men.

God did something that day, He had never done before. He moved location.

Instead of chosing a tent (Tabernacle) or solid stone Temple to dwell in, He chose the body of mankind. This was His new Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19).

What a radical thing God did. Unprecedented. God moved in a new way & did a new thing! This was a stunning moment in time. This was a moment in time long prophesised & forecast.

In Biblical & Jewish tradition, the Priests were a chosen group of people who were seperated from the people, for the one purpose to draw near to God, to do the work of the Tabernacle & to then stand before the people to serve them (Numbers 16:9).

The Priests were made up of two groups, Priests & Levites. It was the role of the Levites to do the “service of the holy things, which they carried on their shoulders” (Numbers 7:9). This stunning moment in time at Shavout (Pentecost) was forecast here in the role of the Levites.

The holy things that were carried on their shoulders was the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was the presence of the Lord to the people of Israel. When the people of Israel saw the Ark of the Covenant on the shoulders of the Levites, they were seeing the presence of God carried in man.

God was giving us a prophetic echo of what would come.

It is said of us by the disciple Peter, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him..” (1 Peter 2:9)

The glory of God dwelling in man is a big deal to God.

When God pours himself into man, things happen. But always preceeding this, is a priesthood who will pay the price to seperate themselves from the stuff of men, draw near to God & to minister not only to people but to God.

It was for over 30 years day & night that the Priests offered sacrifices of praise in the Tabernacle of David before Solomon built the Temple.

It was for 7 weeks that the disciples of Jesus, met together day & night to worship God before God’s spirit came & dwelt in the new Temple, the bodies of men.

It was for 400 years that the celtic monks of Bangor Ireland, met together day & night to worship God, sporning a move of God in them, that saw Europe recieve Jesus for the first time.

And it was in 1906 for 15 years, in Azusa St, Los Angeles, people met together day & night to worship God, beginning a revival in the hearts of men that would birth the Pentecostal Missions movement.

Charles Perham and later William Seymour (leaders in this place) prophesied the return of the glory cloud coming in a greater outpouring 100 years after the revivial, 2006-2010. The saints of Azusa Street even declared that 2008 would be the year of preparation and 2009 the beginning of the outpouring.

And so here we are, but weeks away from Shavout. All over the world, God has been stirring his ‘priests’ day & night to worship Him.

Within us is the dwelling place of God. The Tabernacle is the womb of revival. We are that Tabernacle, that womb.

God always leaves His fingerprints, echoes. He is doing a new thing & it has been forecast just as it was in the Scriptures.

The presence of God is coming in a greater way. On whom will He rest & dwell on?

Where He rests & dwells, changes the world. History testifies to this!