What Do You See?
Lot, living in Sodom, obviously chose unwisely. With all the land before him, he went straight for what seemed easy. Unfortunately, while at Sodom, his natural tendencies to “go with the flow” led him to gradually succumb to the ungodly “culture” of the city.
Thus, when two angels came to see if the terrible things the sodomites did were true, Lot acted according to the customs of the time. After welcoming the travelers into his home, a mob of sodomites demanded Lot hand them over. Keen to protect his guests, he offered his two virgin daughters to the crowd of men to do with as they willed. As if sealing the city’s fate, the men refused their virginity and demanded to have sex with his male visitors.
What we cannot imagine doing, seemed expedient to Lot
While we cannot imagine offering our own flesh to a perverted crowd of men, to Lot that seemed the lesser of two evils. Later, these same perspectives led his daughters to have sex with their father, birthing Moab and Ammon.
Therefore, ask yourself if this greater Sodom in which we live has colored our viewpoint too. Do we listen to demonic music, but give side hugs in church? Do we view R-rated movies, but dress conservatively while attending services. Furthermore, do you sin in your heart while judging the actions of other believers?
Do we even understand what purity is?
Is what we see as purity, in fact, purity? Or is the ideal of holy just a whitewashed sepulcher full of dead man’s bones? From where I sit, I believe our idea of pure is about as far from what God thinks is pure as Lot’s viewpoint on hospitality. Like Abraham’s nephew, we simply have no real frame of reference from which to judge Holy Intimacy.
For many, the chief concern about the Tabernacle Blessing is the intimacy shown among believers. People reason that, with so much liberty, people are bound to sin. Moreover, some want to assert that what I write about the spiritual fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles promotes licentiousness. Towards that end, I wish to address this question for all those who read various portions of my writings on Holy Intimacy.
Three steps to perfection
To begin with, most everyone who claims to be a Christian believes one must be saved by Christ. In other words, the “salvation experience” is fundamental to our belief system. Therefore unless you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot be saved.
However, fewer people agree that being “Spirit-filled” is mandatory. There are even are whole denominations who assert that speaking in other tongues is of the devil.
Still less, if anyone, believe that asking for and receiving the “Tabernacle Experience” is necessary for our maturation in Christ. This Spiritual fulfillment of the third major feast of Israel in the church age is almost unknown in Christendom.
Who, in their right mind, would ever refuse a kiss from God?
The truth is, though, that all three experiences are very necessary, if not to our salvation, to our perfection. When all three experiences are available, we must ask for and accept God’s gifts with thanksgiving and humility. Honestly, who in their right mind would refuse any gift offered by the Almighty?
So it is with Holy Intimacy. Love demands expression. As YHWH fills us with all the fullness of the Godhead, we become love. Therefore, we express love as God leads and love as He originally intended.
However, loving as God created us to means that we express love, and that is where many take exception to the Tabernacle Experience. Assuming that their religious belief system and cultures set the bar on what is appropriate, they judge everything, like Lot, by where they live.
We live in a sub-normal world
I would submit to you, that our viewpoint is not normal, but subnatural. Furthermore, I assert that what we view as supernatural, is actually the way God made things to be. Moreover, what we view as dangerous intimacy and an opportunity to sin is, in fact, supposed to be the norm between Spirit-filled believers.
Take, for instance, a Holy Kiss. What makes it holy? Why is it appropriate among believers while doing the same thing can be inappropriate among others? The answer to that question and to so many other concerns about Holy Intimacy is this:
“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”
Titus 1:15
Where there is no sin in the heart, there is no sin in the actions
That is to say, where there is no sin in the heart, there is no sin in the action. Therefore, a kiss given on the cheek, the lips, or even more intimately, is holy if the leading is of God. Conversely, even to gaze upon a woman or man with impure thoughts is defilement.
Those who only know salvation have difficulty understanding those who speak in other tongues. Non-Spirit-filled Christians lack the experience to know what speaking in tongues feels like. Thus when a Spirit-filled person speaks of being caught up in the Spirit, it is hard to imagine what that is like.
To fully experience God, you must experience Him through another person
In the same manner, people who only know salvation and Spirit baptism, but lack the Tabernacle Experience, find it difficult to imagine such purity of motive. Only knowing their carnal desires towards mates or potential mates, they fail to comprehend that God could kiss another saint through us without such carnal feelings. Therefore, when we say that kissing another believer is holy, even on the lips, they lack the frame of reference from which to understand it.
Unfortunately, a fearful and unbelieving clergy reinforces many people’s concerns by becoming the purity police. Demanding that people conform to their ideas of holiness instead of God’s, they continually watch for signs of too much intimacy. Spying a frontal hug they either scowl or admonish the brother or sister to avoid such appearances of evil. No matter what the circumstance, they forbid those of the opposite sex from being alone with each other so as to avoid the chance that they might sin.
Many judge others because they are full of sin
The truth is, many pastors harbor all manner of sexual lust and moral vice. Many men of the cloth, and women for that matter, burn with unfulfilled desires. Many of the most vocal people about avoiding sexual sin are simply preaching to themselves. Thus, when someone who is free in God to express His love comes around, they cannot imagine that they have pure motives because they don’t.
The Tabernacle Blessing does not add to or overthrow anything, it simply restores what sin robbed from mankind. Through God’s Holy Spirit we become “normal” again and function as the Spirit leads and guides us.
Purity is all about restored innocence
When small children bathe together in the same bathtub, whether boy or girl, no one thinks anything of it. Why? Because they are innocent. We instinctively know that there are no impure thoughts in their minds or hearts, thus there is no possibility of doing anything wrong.
In conclusion, naked and unashamed was where we all began and it is where we will all end up. In the restored Christian church, under the sole leadership and guidance of the Holy Ghost, we will love each other unreservedly. God offends the carnally minded with what He considers decent and in order.
The manifestation of the sons of God will bring such freedom to earth that men and women will become one in Him and each other. While sinful people equate oneness with sex, God means oneness on a whole other scale that our natural minds cannot comprehend. We will be truly free to love each other as His Spirit leads, but no one in all God’s holy mountain will harm or take advantage of anyone else. Amen.