The Tabernacle

  The last 5 days I have been in a ‘walkabout’ with the Lord. It’s been a set apart, intentional time with Him. On day 3, suddenly for the first time in 3 months, the wind sprung up. During this day, the following picture I saw. Isaiah 5:26 is echoing in our day.. “He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, And will whistle to them from the end of the earth, surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.”

“I saw dry wheat fields surrounded & littered with eucalyptus gum trees.
I saw people who looked like ghosts – white & pale.
They suddenly stepped out from behind the gum trees.
As I saw these people,
lots of them
I realized they were Australian Aboriginals painted with white paint on their faces & hands.
There were as many of them as trees & the boundary fence line was stacked with trees.
They stepped out & simply stood there.
They stepped out as if their name had been called.
Suddenly balls of fires from the heavens
shot down
hitting them in the chest.
After impact, I saw them immediately transformed.
They were hugely tall
like Afro-American basketball players.
They assumed the position of a dance as in a Corroboree.
They were wearing what is worn at such an event.
Their chant echoed
strongly across the plains.
I saw what seemed like sudden chaos in the heavens
As stars shot in all directions
clouds moved rapidly across the skies
coming together with a thunder clap & bolts of lightning.
A strong wind blew violently
& I saw ones in other nations who were at work in fields,
homes
buildings
suddenly stop & turn as if hearing all this.
Right across the nations,
one by one they stopped,
looked,
listened.
Then one almighty lightning hit across the entire earth’s sky;
so that at one time
all could see it
together.
Upon seeing it, they dropped what they held their hands & walked towards the east.
Suddenly they fell one by one
on their faces
lying prostrate on the ground.
A deep holiness consumed them.
They were so in awe of the beauty of His holiness,
they almost dare not breathe.
Under their bodies they felt the movement & vibrations of the earth that comes when a Corroboree dance is in action.
Their bodies vibrated with the rhythm & beat of the stamping of feet.
This vibration filled their inner being
& they rose
& walked
with a new song
& dance.
They exalted & hailed the coming of the KING.
They saw each other & joined hands
all around the world,
linking together the entire circumference of the earth’s globe.
Dancing, singing praise to the King of Kings.
Their song echoed in the universe
& in the depths of the earth’s crust.
Strong was their link to each other.
Long & loud was their song.”

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God & keep His commandments.” 1 John 5:2

This morning as I was getting up, the Lord grabbed my attention as my eyes glossed this verse. I stopped & read it again. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God..”

We live in a time of history where one spiritual gift has been elevated into leadership of the people of God, the gift of pastor/teacher. With it comes a focus that is naturally upon people.

I was speaking on the phone to a friend in Australia the other night. This lady is an amazing woman & mother who has been lavishly gifted with a pastoral heart. As I shared some of what I was sensing prophetically, a response came out of this huge pastoral heart of hers. Empathy, compassion, care leaked through the phone line & flooded all over me. I was impacted.

Her heart was all about me – the person & for other people.

As I chewed on this verse over breakfast & the morning’s activities, I pondered.. when we love God, this is how we know we love the children of God. What a radical thought, that as we love God, we know we love His children.

Loving God is in a very real sense loving His children.

Just as others love our own children, we experience a dimension of that love & acceptance also as parents.

How many times have I been blessed as someone loved God, showing me what that looked like, like my Dad when he was alive, or tasted the fruit in a person who loves God. His perfume, fills them & is ‘smelt’ by others. As they ‘taste’ of Him, (Psalm 34:8) that flavor spreads.

Loving God is our greatest pastoral focus. Perhaps this is why it is the first & greatest commandment.

“This is a time & way not walked before;

I, Jesus, have invited you, “ Come walk with me,”

into the cloud of my Father’s presence, I go.

Transfigured. 

A generation needs to hear who I AM,

from my Father.”

“A voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved; listen to Him!” 

And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.” Luke 9:35-36

It is 2 days before Christmas. I awoke aware of all the things still yet to do, make & get for Christmas.

Yet I was also aware that it is Tuesday, & Tuesday is one of the days I spend in intentional, set apart time in the Tabernacle with my Lord. So I yielded myself, my day, my time, the pressures, needs all to my Father. He called me into His space.

Immediately, He rested upon me. I cannot find other words to express what I experienced, other than I just laid down. Simply laid down & rested. As I rested there, sensing an unusual heaviness over this day, He begun to immerse me in His truth & love.

My tired, weary body begun to experience reviving. My spirit filled with light.

He reminded me again of His call upon me, to simply be with Him. The words of Beni Johnson echoed in my memory. “To me, the mystics are just normal people. They are normal people consumed by the presence of God. Mystics are no different than you & me. They are everyday people who have chosen to lay their lives down to seek after God. They do not limit God. Mystics seek after God with their whole hearts. They go before God & say, “God, you are all that I desire. No matter what it looks like, or what it costs me, I must have more of you.” The heart cry of the mystic is, “Take the world but give me you.” (The Happy Intercessor, p.167)

I became sharply aware of the contrast & ‘clash’ with what was happening all around me. While the shops thicken up with that last minute ‘rush’ & people bounce from one Christmas event to another, He invited me to simply be with Him. The ‘note’ of the world’s hum contrasting so strongly to His song over me.

My son came running into the Tabernacle not long after this, & grabbing my bible which sat next to me, He opened it up, lay down next to me & said, “Mummy, read this.” He had opened to Psalm 62.

“For God ALONE, my soul waits in stillness; from Him comes my salvation.”

Again it struck me. This was what the Father had called me to this day. “FOR GOD ALONE, my soul waits in stillness.”

“For God alone” I reflectively reiterated as if to remind myself.

Not long after my son’s visit, my phone rang with a prayer request from a pastor we have been getting know. Their daughter’s friend, a 10yr boy, Drew, was right now in emergency heart transplant surgery.

Again, the words of Beni Johnson echoed in my memory. “Mystics do not seek after fame, glory or worldly desires, but they have chosen instead to lay their entire lives down so that they can hear the heartbeat of Heaven.”

The greatest action we can do for ourselves & on behalf of others, such as Drew who fights for his life right now, is to seek for God alone, making our soul wait in stillness for His salvation. When we do this, we are able to hear the heartbeat of heaven.

And heaven’s heartbeat is exactly what this season is all about.

The other day I was in the Tabernacle just lingering there.
After a time, I left.
I left with no prophetic word, no great revelation from the Scriptures or experiences with my Father.
I left only knowing as I had other times before,
that I had simply been with the Lord, just sharing time & space with Him for Him.
I had simply gone to BE with Him.

In our Western world, life is so much about productivity.
Here in the USA, a key word it seems is ‘DUTY’.

But what of just being with Jesus for HIM?

What if being with Him was actually about Him!

Being with Him
not for what He gives
or for what He has promised over our lives,
or because it is our ‘duty’.

But because He is heart too!

He longs as we all do,
to be sought after because of who He is
not what He does
or will give.

This is the ‘one thing’ David sought for most -
“to dwell in the house of the Lord delighting in Him” (Psalm 27:4)
David, the man God said was ‘after His own heart’.

When Jesus came, the first thing He DID was BE.
Be a baby.

There is an ache today in the heart of the Father
for His children
His people
His bride
to simply BE with Him
doing nothing,
no intercession,
no ‘pushing into his heart for others’,
but simply hanging out with Him,
enjoying Him.

This is relationship.

Today I linger in the rather new & fairly empty Tabernacle space just set apart in our home in Denver. A week ago we moved into our own home after living with friends in their home for 2 months. This completes a big move from Australia to USA. A new season has begun.

This morning the Lord had me meditating on this scripture;
“And He humbled you & let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your Father’s know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deut 8:3)

The word manna means “What is it?” I have reflected time & time again as we have travelled this apostolic journey, how when we see something new, we do not recognize it & inevitably end up asking, “What is it?”

When God saves His people & brings them into His new for them, there is a journey that will be required. A journey that they have not known previously nor did their Father’s know. Such is the experience for every generation.

On every occasion when God has ushered us into a new season, there has been an experience of hunger. Hunger is in fact a sign of God having done something new.

Hunger results from not having what you have had previously. Where do we go when we are hungry? What do we do with the ‘fasting’, the emptiness that comes when God moves us? We will grieve & need to grieve what was lost. But where do we go to “fill up”?

The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt. As God brought them out of that slavery, the Scriptures record that “He humbled them & let them hunger..” Transition & moving involves this. Whether the transition is moving countries as we have just done, or whether it is something like a job change, there is an element of humility & hunger.

What does God do with humility & hunger? He feeds His saved people on manna. It is so easy & natural to stay in a stage of rejection when God brings something new into our worlds. But that new is the very thing that will sustain us for this next season.

The ultimate purpose for why God does this, is so that we might know for ourselves that man does not live by the stuff of the natural world, the man made only, but by every word from the mouth of God.

The only way to move forward in the new that God at times thrusts us into is by His EVERY word. I don’t want to miss any word that comes from His mouth!

I was amazed this morning as I discovered that the Hebrew used in the phrase, “man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” means “a source, a gate, a spring; specifically from the dawn, from the rising of the sun in the east”.

The new Tabernacle space here faces east as did the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. The message is clear. The source for knowing, understanding & living with manna (what is it?) comes from the mouth of the Lord.

In the New Testament, it was expressed this way, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple & that God’s spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16) Therefore let us “look to Jesus, the founder & perfecter of our faith..” (Heb 12:2)

Today I was in the most precious place on earth. This place was a time. It was the time Father asks of me several times weekly to meet with Him. It is an appointed time. I call it affectionately, TT (Tabernacle Time).

This time the Lord took me to Isaiah 55. As I meditated on these words I was struck by the cleanness of the Word of God. There is something profound & supernatural that takes place when God’s Word contacts with our spirit. It engages us, bringing order & sense of clearing deep within.

Anyway, I was holted by the words, “and it shall make a name for the Lord” (55:13b).

When we ‘go out’ as Apostles, the Word of God says this will be marked by joy & peace (55:10). This joy & peace are not dependant on circumstances but on Him. Our joy & peace are in Him, not in things that are temporary. The fruit of this is that it ‘makes a name for the Lord’.

I want to make a name for the Lord, not myself or anything else. What a mind blowing thought that we can make a name for the Lord!

How we follow Him, makes a name for Him on the earth.

This is not the day of one man ministries, power churches or organisations that seek to glorify themselves. This is the day of the LORD & His name is what is to be exalted. The call of any Apostle is about this, making a name for the LORD!

Who are you making a name for?

 Since arriving here in Denver & living on the dry grassy plains of Colorado, I have learnt quickly a new respect for the wind that blows upon them. I have noticed how the wind on these plains can appear from nowhere bringing a change so suddenly & so extreme. These winds dominate this landscape & in doing so creates their very unique beautiful character.

The last few days I have been meditating on Matt 14:22-33 & specifically the ‘wind’ in this story. Jesus ‘makes’ his disciples get into a boat & go before Him. So they go & they end up being “tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against them” (14:23).

In Genesis 1 the Spirit of God hovers over the waters (1:2). This word for Spirit is the Hebrew word ‘Ruach’ meaning “wind, breathe, spirit.” A similiar picture now appears in Matthew 14. The wind is over the waters moving & the disciples do not understand what is happening.

You see when God calls you to ‘go before Him’, His wind, His breathe, His spirit is there & it will create something as well as confront something. In the Hebrew mind, this is a picture speaking of God confronting the kingdom of darkness thru the creation of faith in Him.

The wind was “contrary” (14:24). The wind of God will always be contrary to the world, for “the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, & he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:14)

The ultimate thing that His Spirit wants to create in us is faith in God. For the only way to ‘go before Him’ is in faith!

In the midst of this wind, Jesus appears & the disciples testify in fear, “It is a spirit!” The incredible wonder of the love & gentleness of God is demonstrated here as Jesus IMMEDIATELY speaks to them (14:27).

God never wants us to be in a vacuum of understanding for too long, especially when it relates to his ways. When the Holy Spirit moves, we feel & see His wind on us as individuals, families & communities, Jesus is there speaking. He wants us to know things & above all, beckon us onto more faith in Him.

The message in this story is the same as in the previous. It’s all about what GOD can do, not what we do. The feeding of 5000 men thru 5 loaves of bread & 2 fish, was because of what Jesus did, not the boy who had them. If God calls you, He is faithful & HE WILL DO IT. (1 Thess 5:24) He wants you to understand what the wind of His Spirit is doing.

Enjoy our video blog & the small glimpse of the beautiful surroundings of Colorado!

Blessings to you,

Mark & Helen

This word came as I worshipped the Lord with his people yesterday in Denver.

Now is the time of the Feast of Tabernacles – when the people of Israel are reminded of movement, especially when they journeyed thru the wilderness on the way to the promised land & dwelled in ‘tabernacles’ (tents). In the 1960′s, Vatican 2 defined the Church as ”The people of God on a journey.”

I submit this impression to you for your discernment.

“The ship is turning.

New songs to be written

New direction has been set for you by your heavenly Father.

Set your heart upon ME.

It is a new day.

I am doing a new thing.

The ship is turning.

I invite you to join ME.

Come with ME beloved.”

One of the challenging parts of moving seasons is going from everything to a vacuum.

This is especially so when moving to another country. Starting with nothing & not knowing how ‘systems’ work – how a people think, operate, do friendships, life. It is no small thing especially when the language is different. It is a humbling experience & a revealing one too.

But you don’t have to move overseas as we just have, to know this ‘vacuum’. It comes in many contexts; death of someone dear, loss of a job, loss of income, moving in God be it individually or corporately, end of a season – even if it’s the football season! Many are the vacuums life brings.

There is an art of going from everything to nothing.

In a ‘vacuum’ our flesh will drive us powerfully to ‘fill it’. There is something that can be very unnerving, unraveling about space, emptiness, vacuums.

How we handle it, will manifest something.

Faith or unbelief? Faith in self or faith in God?      

What do we do with the ‘vacuum?’ Who do we turn to when we find ourselves in it?

I know no other way but Him. Holding His hand, seeking His face.

The battle will always be to get established in God first. Always.

As we prepared to leave Australia for our move to Denver USA, many people asked us “What will you do when you arrive?” This for us was a no brainer. Establish ourselves in God first!

We arrived nearly a week ago in Denver. The home we are staying in temporarily has a Tabernacle space, it is affectionately called “Father’s Room”. It is here we now wait on him to receive His directions for the ways He wants to fill our vacuum.

The only way to move well is being established in Him!

Are you establish in Him? You will know how much, when you move into a vacumm!

2 ½ yrs ago, I arrived back in Australia my homeland, from Germany where we had been living & pioneering the vision of Tabernacle. I arrived with a dream birthing in my spirit.

The dream was 2 fold… to see in my homeland Mum’s & children especially, experience the presence of the Lord in set apart, Tabernacle spaces, & to see church in the tradition sense as we have known it this past century, establish set apart, Tabernacle spaces for people to seek the presence of the Lord as they desired.

This dream I held quietly in my spirit.

In 2 Sam 22:31 it says, “As for God, His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.” God gives us ‘God dreams’. When He gives us His dreams, they are His, not ours. Our task is then to find what is His way for those dreams to come into the natural realm. As for God, His way is perfect. We are exhorted to seek out & know His way for His will to be done on earth as it tis in heaven.

Over the years of walking with the Lord, we have learnt some ‘consistencies’ about His way. Over & over again He has asked of us this:
1. “Commit your way to the Lord” (Psalm 37:5a)
2. “Trust in Him, And HE shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5b)
3. “Rest in the Lord” (Psalm 37:7a)
4. “Wait patiently for HIM” (Psalm 37:7b)

This was His instruction to me again this morning as I awoke for the 3rd last time in my house of 21 years. Before I was fully awake, He took me to Psalm 37 & His way.

You see the thing about these 4 consistencies, is that it is all about Him & what He does, not so much about what we are & what we do. These 4 ‘ways’ are part of the experience of His presence. This is what we do literally in our Tabernacle space & then we carry that in our spirits as we enter in the ‘stuff’ of everyday living.

I have observed over these many miles & seasons, that this is what it means to host the presence of the Lord & to abide IN HIM. The cost is our agendas, our timetables & our WAY. Those “who are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). We will be led by something. What we are led by, will distinguish who we are.

Again this morning, He drew me back to literally doing these 4 things as I continue the move to the USA, now just 10 days away (our 3rd country of pioneering since the birth of the vision of the Tabernacle).

Again I am aware of the enormity of our needs & pressures. Yet I am called back to His way in this context. I do not know where we will be living, what school my son will go to, how we will pay our bills month to month, who our friends will be, but I am knowing something of His way, & it is perfect.

On September 18, I leave my homeland knowing that His dreams that were carried quietly in my spirit & barely ever uttered outloud are now being fulfilled.

One of the Mother’s from Mum’s group that I & my son have attended, is now with her husband establishing a Tabernacle space on the ground floor of their home, with an external access for people to come & go as they please. They are just one of many setting out to do this in their homes.

The church we have been attending these past years, C3 (Christian City Church, Melbourne) is now viewing architects plans for a ‘Presence Place’ to be created in their building again with an external entrance for people to come & go as they please.

While we played a part in these developments, we did it in His way, & by human standards it was small & very hands off, because what He did was far more than we could do or will continue do in these future days.

Commit yourself to the Lord, trust Him & learn the discipline of resting & waiting on Him. His way is perfect!

In 3 1/2 weeks we move to live in the USA for a time. As I pack, organise & make the mulitude of decisions that comes with transition, much have been my ponderings on 3 nations – Australia, USA & UK.

As an Australian leaving my home country, it is natural for friends to think that our focus now is all about where we will live. But not so. It is I believe a shift in vantage point.

In a sense, we are all being confronted by a shift in vantage point.

I was struck several weeks ago by a report from the Australian Media stating that the Australian government is in process of readdressing its international military support as the USA declines in being the sole world leader. Australia’s attention turning to the immergence of China.

This is but one of several & increasing reports coming out of the Australian media reflecting the shift that has been made from a single world leader to a dual world leader that now includes China.

Since January 2008, when the Lord gave us a picture of 3 nations – Australia, USA & UK with jet streams frequenting between them, we have been drawn to watch for what is on God’s heart in these days for these 3.

God has plans for these 3 nations in this hour of the shifting of the guard.

God’s word says that “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, & has determined their preappointed times & the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord..” (Acts 17:26-27)

We know that God called us to encourage & exhort people to seek the Lord.

As it is true for nations, so it is for each of us as individuals. We have a preappointed time & boundaries of influence. What will we do with it?

I invite you in this critical hour, seek the Lord… for change is here & only He knows the path for which we are to walk in a way not gone before.

Vacillation is part of all our journey’s!

Vacillation is characterized as hesitancy, uncertainty, a fluctuating back & forth. It is not unlike a leaf slowly wavering up & down, back & forth, eventually moving from tree top to ground. It is a journey.

Such it is in the presence of the Lord.

I have seen in my own experience & in the larger corporate sense, this vacillation.

The vacillation point pivots on the awareness of his presence & my own.

We are so afraid of being diminished. What would happen to us if we were lost in him? And this fear only reveals our lack of knowing him, for he never wants to diminish us.

So in the immersion of his presence, suddenly the question arises again, “What about me?” And we vacillate between his presence & the absorption of our presence.

But there comes in the journey of knowing him & being familiar with his presence, a moment in time when the fear of being diminished, the question of the developing identity, “What about me?” finds a place. It is put to rest. It becomes no longer a question, nor even a topic.

The question rests IN HIM. As we become familiar with His presence, we become entwined IN HIM. The wonderings of us, become imbedded IN HIM. In Him is our place, our resting. In Him, the journey of vacillation reaches its destination & no longer do we shift ‘out’ of him, but abide in Him. We rest in the new focus of our adoration, HIM.

New questions, new conversations, new experiences are then had in His presence. Jesus said, “Abide IN ME & I abide IN YOU.” (John 15) There is no danger of being lost IN Him. There is only the wonder, joy & freedom of being more aware of His presence than our own!

God invites us to an adventure, not predictability.

In actual fact, adventure involves unpredictability, unknowns; otherwise it is not an adventure. In the vastness of uncertainty, things get unsettled. It is then that we know what we really believe. Our behavior is an echo of our belief.

This week the Media declared ‘The Chinese Century has begun.” (ABC News) They also posed the question, “Will China save us?”

G8 is now G14. Communism is booming in capitalist Japan. And the nations scramble, groping for a secure position of expectedness.

These are the “times of the Gentiles” said Jesus (Luke 21:24). He likened them to the days of Noah & Jonah (Matt 24:37, Genesis 6), where the heavens & earth would shake, men’s hearts would fail them from fear, distress in the nations with perplexity & all the while people would continue eating & drinking, marrying & giving in marriage.

Yet in this time of the Gentiles, we have turned a corner in history. The adventure has a pitch of unfamiliarity to it today.

So what & who do we believe for the unfolding adventure? Magnifying & adventure walk together. We were created to magnify because when we magnify, we worship. What we worship, will direct us.

So come magnify the Lord with me…

“Behold, the nations are as a drop in the bucket,
And are counted as the small dust on the scales..
All Nations before Him are as nothing,
And they are counted by Him less than nothing & vanity..

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.
Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when He will also blow on them, and they will wither and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number, He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His power; not one is missing.

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run & not be weary, they shall walk & not faint.” Isaiah 40:15-31

It was Sunday morning & we were preparing the house for an open inspection (as we are selling it) before we headed off to church. I was rushing through the lounge room trying to find my beautiful 3 1/2 yr son’s jacket as we headed out the door. As I did, the lyrics of a song playing, arrested me. I was so profoundly impacted that I actually was bought to a screaming holt in the middle of the room.

The lyrics echoed again. “This is such a holy time.”

I looked out the window at the rolling green hills sparsely covered by grazing cows & felt the twang of pain that this would soon no longer be my home.

Then the words echoed again. “This is such a holy time.” And I knew the fear of God in that moment.

Holiness & sacrifice are related. Holiness is something that belongs to God, something set apart for God. Sacrifice to the way to holiness – to belonging to God.

In fact in the Old Testament when God gave the 10 commandments to the people of Israel defining them as His people & a holy nation, He immediately reminded them again that they were “not to make anything to be with Me – gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.” (Exodus 20:23).

Nothing is to be with God. It is not a case of God AND….

After stating this, He then gave them instructions for the building of an altar. It is to be made of earth, it is for Him, & its purpose is for the sacrifice of offerings. (Exodus 20:24).

I have observed in my own journey that at EVERY stage when God has called me to move with Him, it has always involved sacrifice & in this sacrifice, I have had to define & determine again who’s God!

Sacrifice is about who is God.

You see before you can enter a new season in Him, He must know who’s God.

Because nothing is to be with God.

He is jealous for you because He loves you. It’s about Him having more of you. He is jealous for his dwelling place, His Tabernacle, YOU.

The altar was always the first thing encountered at the entry of the Tabernacle & temple. It is the place where something we love & cherish was given up for something we love & cherish more.

It’s about the fear of God. And the fear of God comes through such holy times. The time of sacrifice is a holy time.

When God calls us to move with Him, when He calls a season change, it will it seems, inevitably involve sacrifice.

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken & contrite heart – these o God, you will not despise.” (Psa 51:17) The Hebrew word used here for ‘broken’ means to “bring to the birth, crush, hurt, destroy, tear.” (“shabar”)

How true this is! For when God calls us to a new thing or a new season, He is in affect calling forth the birth of something new. This is what sacrifices to God are.

Ultimately, He, is the very thing that is being birthed in us.

For the journey, the sacrifice, the call, the task, it’s not about these. It’s about Him & Him being known as God in us & to us.

Sacrifice is about who is God & this is such a holy time.

Jesus said, “You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” (Matt 16:4)

Discernment is one of the most critical gifts to have when God changes the seasons.

God made four seasons in nature. Our lives, our families, our nations, our time in history has seasons also. God is a seasonal God.

We are invited to not only know how to discern the weather but the times we live in, be it individually or collectively. God wants us to know what the season is. The word for discern used here in Matt 16 is ‘diakrino’. It means to “separately thoroughly, to withdraw from, to differ, to judge”. This is how we are to transition with seasons.

God wants us to know how to move! He is not a ‘fixed term’ God. Nor are our lives! We are the people of God on a journey! (Vatican 2’s definition for the Church)

The journey has seasons & God wants us to know how to separate thoroughly from one season to the next. He wants us to know how to do this well & by his Spirit. God chose a cloud, fire, tent & ultimately the human body to be His dwelling places – Tabernacles. All these are temporary & moving. Even the huge Temple made of stone turned out to be temporary. So the invitation is, if the cloud moves, then so do we!

But how do we discern?
Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak to you, they are spirit & they are life.” (John 6;63). Jesus words are spirit & life. The knowing & discerning of the seasons & what to do, comes in the words He speaks to us. His words, his utterance to us will be of spirit & life.

Where does Jesus get his words from?
The amazing thing that Jesus claimed was that none of his words were of himself, he only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5;19). So here is Jesus, fully God & fully man, speaking & moving only as He SEES His Father do.

How’s your seeing these days? What are you looking at or to?

Do you see the face of Father or just the face of the sky? Do you know what the face of the Father is like?

Jesus declared, “..The Father loves the Son, & shows Him all things that He himself does..” (John 5:20) This is not just for Jesus, the Son of God, but also for us. We are the Tabernacle of God where “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you..” (Romans 8:11).

Yet we are not only the space where God houses himself, we are also sons of God. For as we are “led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). As a son of God we are loved passionately & totally; & we are shown things by the Father who leads in Spirit (John 4:24). He is for you!

Do you want to see the things the Father wants to show you?

Discernment comes from hearing the words of God not by what search results you get on Google. The words of God are spirit & life, they will require of you a leap of faith, not a leap of understanding or knowledge gained from your world of experience & reference.

God’s words come from His face. From His face we can know the life & spirit of & for the season.

“The Lord bless you & keep you. (It is He who does the keeping of you!!!)
The Lord make His face shine upon you & be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up His face upon you, & give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Jesus said, “He who receives you receives Me, and He who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”(Matt 10:40)

Begs the question… who are you receiving?

I was driving back from the supermarket this morning, when the Lord whispered to me, “What you receive is what you get.” I pondered on these words as the rain continued to fall steadily like it hasn’t in many years.

The Lord continued his ‘chatting’ to me. “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.” (Matt 10:41)

I had long been mulling over this verse.

The Lord then said to me, “The level you are prepared to receive is the level you will get.” I knew this to be so true.

I had experienced this as we travel among the nations & noted that those who received us as righteous people, received a righteous man’s reward, but the contrast of those who received us in the name of a prophet was markedly different! What they received was at times mind boggling, breath taking and wonderfully exciting…. Not because of us, no! not at all; but because of THEIR faith in HIM.

You see, when you receive a believer, you receive God. Jesus declared this in the previous verse, “He who receives you receives Me, and He who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

We are the living breathing tabernacle (tent) of God. I am constantly stunned at how much HE wants to dwell with us & how persistent He has been since the creation of the world to find a place/space for His presence to live with us.

When we receive a believer, we also receive to whatever level we choose, the giftings & calling God has established in them. This challenges our commitment to honor one another.

Pastor Bill Johnson of Bethel Church made the comment, “In an absence of a culture of honor, you can live with spiritual wealth and die in poverty. Familiarity can keep us from the richness on people’s lives. God invites us to honor who people are and not stumble over who they are not.”

What you are prepared to receive, you will get. This is true of God especially. How much of Him do you want? You choose. You will have to leave behind your earth bound thinking & experiences (Isa 43:18), for God is Spirit (John 4:24) & what HE offers is a whole new thing, a whole new dimension (Isa 43:19).

What are you prepared to receive?

This you will get.

“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)