Tabernacles: The Love of God
John says,
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
1 John 4:8
Love, therefore, is the very essence of who God is.
Paul states,
“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
2 Corinthians 4:4
And, in the book of Hebrews, we learn that Christ is indeed the exact image of God,
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:”
Hebrews 1:3
Therefore, the scriptures testify that Jesus is the express image of God’s person.
Finally, Paul says that we shall be like Jesus.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
1 John 3:2
Here is a truth,
“God is love. Jesus Christ is the express image of God. When Christ appear we shall be like Him. Therefore, we are love.”
The spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles is becoming one with God. Oneness, in turn, naturally leads to the revealing of His love through us. This love is the first love; the pure love originally given to us in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, God’s love is divine in origin and therefore holy in its expression.
Manifesting God
When we become one with God, His love flows through us. Our eyes become His eyes, our hands become His hands, and our voice becomes the voice of God; for we speak only that which our hearts hear. When people look at us, they see God looking back at them. When the hurting feel our touch they feel the very touch of God. We, as the body of Christ, become corporately what Jesus was individually at His first coming, Emanuel. In that day, as His body, we say, “If you have seen us you have seen the Father”
As we begin to become love, (as God is love) our actions, thoughts, and motives will begin to come into alignment with these scriptures,
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
And then we will come to know through experience what is spoken of in the epistle of Titus,
“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”
Titus 1:15
This is true of Divine love shown between His saints for if we are in total union with God any action we do is holy and pure; thus, we are at liberty to do anything the Holy Spirit leads us to do.
The question then becomes, “How does the love of God reveal itself among the brethren and what are the bounds and limits of its expression?”
We know from scripture that Christians in the early church used to greet each other with a holy kiss. This is mentioned 4 times in the New Testament but one example will suffice,
“Greet one another with an holy kiss.”
2 Corinthians 13:12
We also know that early Christians used to partake of love feasts as seen in the book of Jude,
“These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.” NIV
Jude 1:12
So, even by our standards today, the Christian church expressed the love of God in intimate ways that we do not currently practice.
As Tabernacles Christians step into the role of the sons of God they naturally start to do the things by the law of the Spirit of life, which supersedes and is greater than the law of sin and death. In the book of Romans 8:2 we learn,
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:2
Therefore, as we begin to operate under the law of the Spirit of Life we are no longer required to obey the law of sin and death. In other words, as we are lead by the Holy Spirit (which was in Jesus and now dwells in us) we are no longer subject to or constrained by the Law of Moses (i.e. the law characterized by sin and death).
When it comes to expressing the love of God (to each other and to the world) we are to simply obey the law of the Holy Spirit by doing whatever He says when He says to do it.
Also, we learn that Jesus said in the book of Matthew,
“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Matthew 4:4
No longer are we to gauge our behavior by the written Law of Moses, but rather we are to be led by the Holy Spirit as our heavenly Father sees fit. The lines that were previously drawn by our interpretation of the Mosaic Law are erased and we enter into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. We return to the first law (which was given in the Garden of Eden) and again live by direct revelation. It is written in the book of Genesis,
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Genesis 2:16,17
When we enter into the Tabernacle experience of divine love we find that the only line which really matters is the line that that Holy Spirit draws at the time He speaks. Furthermore, the line over which you cannot pass is different for each individual and for each circumstance. We no longer live and act by knowledge but live our lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
If God leads a person to give a holy kiss to a brother or sister it is, by definition, pure because its genesis is the goading of His Spirit. As long as you are lead by the Spirit of God, literally anything you do is correct, pure and holy.
The law of life is stronger than the law of sin and death simply because it is a law which is written upon our hearts. The law of love constrains us in a more secure way to avoid evil than any law written on stone tablets ever did. This law is not something we must obey, but a law that we are. We are not forced to do right because God says so but, instead, we cannot do wrong because the desire to do evil is simply not in us.
Does this mean that we can do anything we want now because we are not under the Law? No, this type of freedom presupposes that you are acting out of God’s love as led by His Holy Spirit. You cannot, for instance, simply commit sin contrary to the leading of the Holy Spirit and call it God because that violates the law of love. You cannot even greet one another with a holy kiss if God does not lead you to do so. Those around you will be instantly aware if you are acting out of ungodly desires because they too have the mind of Christ.
This is the maturing of God’s saints and, as such, I speak by faith to those who genuinely have a true heart be a servant to all. If you are truly led by the Spirit then there is no law that you must follow except the law of the Spirit of life.
In conclusion, when we come into the perfection of the saints all the chains that bind us will fall off and we will truly be free to do anything God leads us to do. We will find that what God will and will not do is far, far greater than anything we can currently imagine. This, in turn will cause many natural minded people to judge us and seek to prevent us from sharing this intense and heavenly love with the world. Nevertheless, God’s people will mature and prevail, and out Father will touch the lives of those around us in stunning and effective ways that we never imagined possible.
Finally let us all seek to realize the full meaning of this scripture,
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Romans 8:14