God says,
“And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.”
Exodus 33:11
Joshua, son of Nun, used to linger in the presence of God at the Tabernacle in the wilderness.
There is a Tabernacle Blessing
The presence of God is the Tabernacle blessing. In Joshua’s day you could be in His presence but His presence could not yet be in you. For most, the infilling of the Holy Spirit was yet thousands of years in the future.
I want to speak to you today about the Tabernacle blessing. This blessing is “love of the Spirit” or what I term, “Divine Love.” What I have realized is that people experience this type of love at different times and in various ways yet they do not understand what it really is. Most, because they have no theological framework in which to understand it, either do not recognize it for what it is, or dismiss it because they don’t understand it. Unfortunately, in some cases, believers call it of the devil because this experience is beyond the bounds of their current theology.
Divine love, which is simply the nature of God expressed through the Body of Christ is a sacrament. Google defines sacrament as,
“A religious ceremony or act of the Christian Church that is regarded as an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual divine grace,…”
However, God is love, therefore revealing God through our entire being to the world is literally our best and highest calling on earth.
To receive and give Divine Love is a natural ability that all human beings possess. God created us with the capacity to fully mesh with Him allowing His nature to transparently move through us. Divine love is, in fact, the “first love” of the garden of Eden.
Everyone responds to Divine love for God created us for it. It is like finally coming home after being away for longer than we can imagine. It is where we find peace the passes all understanding and where our shattered psyches become whole again.
The Tabernacle Blessing is everywhere
The experience of the Tabernacle Blessing, “Divine love,” is everywhere in little fragments if you know what to look for. It is a strong spiritual bond that sometimes happens instantaneously with someone when you meet. It varies in intensity from simple brotherly love to a connection so intense that you cannot tell where you begin and the other person ends. In fact, with extremely strong connections you spiritually know and feel what the other person feels no matter how far apart you are. It is an intersection of your spirits orchestrated by the Holy Spirit in order to bring unity to His body. An example of this is,
“And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”
1 Samuel 18:1
Absolute love
Divine love engenders total trust. When you feel the love of God flowing from another brother or sister all your defense mechanisms simply melt and you are an open book. You feel total acceptance of them and they feel total acceptance of you. It is as if you are one person and you treat them with the same care that you treat yourself.
What I articulate is a move of the Holy Spirit that, in general, has not yet begun. Tabernacle theology allows God’s people to recognize and embrace the “Tabernacle Blessing.” Most people’s present theology is incapable of holding this new wine. Old, inelastic wine skins burst because they cannot expand when the wine begins to ferment. Our present theology is very rigid because many believe they have the things of God figured out. When new revelation comes challenging their doctrinal viewpoints, instead of expanding their understanding of God’s word to encompass His truth, they simply reject it. The theology of Tabernacles anticipates and accepts that God is giving us, as it were, new wine. As this new wine expands our understanding of His word will also expand.
The Theology of the Tabernacle Blessing
I’ve designed Tabernacles Theology to become “obsolete”. Tabernacles theology represents a “scaffolding” meant to be discarded as the Spirit of Truth perfects us. For, when the perfection of the saints comes, that which is partial is done away with. The fact is, the amount of truth that we will come to know through God’s Spirit is much more than our natural minds can ever hold. What we have now is actually a tiny fraction of what God will reveal to us. Therefore, anything we believe right now is a very rough approximation of the truth and not a static, culmination of it.
Absolute trust in God
Eventually, we will move beyond having to have a wine skin at all. In that day, we will simply move as His Spirit leads us without question, without even needing our natural minds to understand anything at all. We will come to implicitly trust whatever God says. This is the type of absolute faith that allowed Jesus to walk on water. When God told him to go to his disciples he just started walking. As he came to the shore of the lake he kept on walking. The Spirit of God was leading him and he had complete and utter confidence that if His father said go that direction, even if it meant walking on the water, that was exactly what God wanted him to do.
Imagine living in such absolute trust that we don’t check the scriptures for a “witness” for everything we do. Envision knowing God so intimately His word resides in our hearts. Visualize living by every word proceeding out of His mouth minute my minute every day of our lives. This, in fact, is the way all Tabernacle Christians will live. This is also why we are the church of Philadelphia.
Do not seek to encompass God, because that is impossible and no theology can do that. Rather, seek to yield to our Potter’s hands as He molds and shapes all of us. We don’t know what we shall be, but we know our Master’s finished product will be perfect.
How can I apply this teaching to my life?
Set aside an entire day for your Lord. In the morning, after you’ve eaten breakfast, pray and ask God what He wants you to do. Whatever God says to your heart or your mind, during prayer, do what He says immediately. Unless what He says has dire consequences, simply do it. No matter how strange it may seem do your best to obey His voice.
After you have completed the task or tasks God gives you to do, analyze what worked and what didn’t. Don’t be overly critical of yourself. Realize that you are just experimenting so that you can learn how to be led by His Holy Spirit. Keep a diary if you wish. As you do this more and more you will become accustomed to knowing your Father’s voice and it will build trust and confidence with Him.
Well the first interesting thing I haven’t noticed before is your opening Scripture of Moses speaking ‘face to face as a friend’ to the Lord…really until now people have only ever espoused that you cannot do that, that Moses when getting the commandments even then didn’t look upon God, just by being in God’s presence turned his hair white!…so yes this is interesting Scripture in that respect. But ya know David has always stood out to me as someone walking with the Lord, and actually a very good example of being human (imperfect) yet still having that full relationship with God, because he didn’t let his pride get in the way of admitting his shortcomings. I love reading the ‘relationship between the lines’ of David with God and I strongly suspect that his experiences with God were the same as the Tabernacle Blessing you talk about. Definitely a lesson in honesty is the best policy!
“Divine love engenders total trust. When you feel the love of God flowing from another brother or sister all your defense mechanisms simply melt and you are an open book. You feel total acceptance of them and they feel total acceptance of you. It is as if you are one person and you treat them we the same care that you treat yourself.”
This really stood out to me, and isn’t it just a truth! My life has served me that I have so many defence mechanisms I cant keep track of them all!! there is that ‘inner circle’ ya generally let no one into, don’t trust people in general, because in general they are untrustworthy. So your armoured up better than any warrior or centurion for war!
Then what happens is someone will bob along, they will write/speak things that speaks to you so very intimately, deeply and richly that you cant help but be drawn to them, has me think of like a fly to light! (not that I am saying we are flies lol) then its like you instantly have all this armour removed and just blab your biggest longest secrets even, without a care in the world doing that….these are the moments I take note of, these are things I look out for, because it is so against my ‘character’ to act or behave in such a way, there must be rhyme or reason for it.
Dear Kingdomshiers,
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I particularly liked your statement,
“I love reading the ‘relationship between the lines’ of David with God and I strongly suspect that his experiences with God were the same as the Tabernacle Blessing you talk about.”
Through the Holy Spirit scriptures really com alive and we receive so much more than reading them with only our natural minds.
The “trust” issue is so big with almost everyone. Once you come to “trust” someone you open up and can be who your really are. One time I experienced the Tabernacle Blessing with a person and they sat down with me a told me everything they could think of about themselves. The good, the bad, and the ugly. They told me they felt let by God’s spirit to do that. It was like a confessional. However, because of the love of God I sat there and listened, to whatever they said, with complete acceptance, compassion, without an once of judgement. That kind of trust, borne of trust, is something that can overcome almost anything and can knit us together like nothing else.
Most of us are deeply scared. Yet those areas that hurt the most are never seen because they are so sensitive we will not trust anyone to go near them. However, if we are ever to become whole these are the areas that need to be dealt with. Divine love allows us to open up in such a way to members of the body of Christ that God unites us with so that true healing can take place.
What people don’t generally understands bout 1 Corinthians 13 is that Paul is talking about an experience that is “given” to us rather than a doctrine that we must try, in and of ourselves, to live. It is an experience that is the result of Jesus’s words in John 15:9-12
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you”
This is, if you can receive it, what allows a nation to be born in a day: love.
God bless,
Michael
Wow…,you verbalized in this essay (for a THIRD direct confirmation!) – a very clear, intense conversation I had with God a few days ago…(I shared it on your site on Feb 11 in comments underneath the “Whole Lotta Translation” essay)….God is faithful…God speaking through His Word as it is written on our hearts….
Dear Connections,
The love that God is bringing from Heaven to Earth is not just spiritual but is a union between God and man/women. God loves us through each other. People that are asking for God’s love to shine through them are asking to physically as well as spiritual demonstrate this union.
Almost all normative Christianity is opposed to this.
Blessings,
Michael