Temple of God - Application

God gave specific instructions for the construction of both the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temple built by Solomon. Interestingly, the individual items in the Temple relate to our walk and calling in Christ.

As Born Again Believers, we are the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16; John 2:21 Psalm 139:14). We are the church of the Living God, who is our pillar and the foundation of all truth (1Timothy 3:15).

We start with the door of the Temple. We cannot enter God's Temple without first coming through the door of Jesus Christ (John 10:7, 9). He is our way, truth and life; and no one comes to God except through Jesus (John 14:6).

Next is the slaughter on the brazen altar (Exodus 39:39). An innocent, unblemished animal is sacrificed for sin, just as Jesus is our ultimate sacrifice (1 Peter 1:19).

With Christ's blood on our hands, we come to wash at the laver, which typifies washing in the water of God's Word (Ephesians 5:26). Once we are cleansed from our sins, we can enter the Holy Place.

We grow in our relationship with God in the Holy Place. We learn to pray at the altar of incense (Exodus 35:15; Revelation 8:4). We come to the candlestick, for light in this dark and dying world (2 Chronicles 4:7).

We also feast on God's Word, and with Jesus who is our bread of life (Exodus 25:30; John 6:25-59; Matthew 4:4). Jesus gave His life for us to open up our fellowship with God in all of His glory (1 John 5:20; Hebrews 9:3).

As we mature in our walk with God, we can enter into the Holy of Holies. This symbolizes our spirit and is the place of God's very presence in our life.

The clay tables of the Ten Commandments is housed in the Ark of the Covenant. This is covered by the Mercy Seat, giving us full access to God's mercy and grace, as well as His presence residing between the wings of the two cherubim (Exodus 25:17; Hebrews 9:5).

Prayer:

Father God, if we enter the Most Holy Places in your temple with any sin hidden or blatant in our life, we will "die" in Your presence (Leviticus 16:2-34).

Remind us about the stages of Your tabernacle and that we can only enter into Your presence through Jesus who is our door, our sacrifice, our cleanser, our bread of life and our high priest.

Thought for the Day:

It is only as we cleanse our sins by the blood of Jesus and dedicate our life to Him, regardless of our vocation, that we can survive in the presence of our holy God.

Consuming Union with Christ

 

God spews out of His mouth anyone who lives a lukewarm life (Revelation 3:16). Our union with God is so intimate that He consumes us into Himself.

Not only do we have a spiritual union with Jesus through salvation, sanctification and eventually glorification; but we also enjoy an even more intimate unity as we consume Him into our self.

Jesus calls us to eat His body and drink His blood (John 6:53-59). During communion, we symbolically drink the juice and eat the bread, which represents His body and blood (Romans 12:5).

Life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11, 14; Deuteronomy 12:23). We receive eternal life through the blood, which Jesus' shed on the cross (John 3:16).

There is one bread, Jesus, from which the whole body of Christ partakes (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). We are Christ's body and each of us is an essential part of it (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:4).

We commemorate His sacrifice through the ordinance of communion, but we also have spiritual communion with the Lord each moment of every day.

When we consume Jesus, we have eternal life, because He is an integral part of our very being (John 6:57; Colossians 3:4). Our intimacy with Christ sustains us individually and as His corporate Body - the visible expression of Jesus on the earth.

Jesus made it clear that His food is doing the will of our Father (John 4:34). Even at a young age, Jesus found satisfaction by living in the center of God's will (Luke 2:41-52). God's will is our food as well.

Prayer:
Father God, when we thirst for You, our Almighty God, Your living water quenches our thirst (Psalm 42:2). We hunger for Jesus, our bread of life, and You fill us until You satisfy our longing (Luke 6:21; John 6:35).

We ingest Christ's flesh, which He gave for the life of the world, and we live eternally (John 6:51). We drink the living water, and we are intimately united and completely satisfied (John 4:13-14). Teach us the reality of this intimate union with you.

Thought for the Day:
Completely satisfied through Christ in us, we never hunger or thirst for anything this world has to offer us. - Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20; Revelation 7:16

Many thanks to my brother-in-Christ and mentor, Dan Busey, for helping me to look at this revelation of a total intimate unity with Jesus.

Jesus as the Great "I AM"

The inerrant and infallible Word of God affirms, establishes and proves the divinity of Jesus Christ. The number of prophecies in the Bible that Jesus fulfilled defies chance. If you fill the state of Texas three feet high with silver dollars, fly over the state in a plane and randomly drop one silver dollar marked with an “X”, the chances of someone finding that marked coin is equal to the probability of one single person fulfilling the more than 300 Biblical prophecies that Jesus fulfills.

For example Psalm 45 is a Messianic passage speaking to Jesus as God (Hebrews 1:8; Psalm 45:6; Isaiah 9:6. God appeared in bodily form as Jesus (1 Timothy 3:16). Jesus has the form of God (Philippians 2:5-11). Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of the image of the invisible God (Hebrews 1:2-3; Colossians 1: 15). Jesus assigns Himself divine privileges (Mark 2:27-28, Luke 5:20, and John 11: 43-44). He is the Son of God (Psalm 2: 7,12). He is the Lord (Psalm 110:1).  Jesus is the Christ, the Word, and the Word is God (John 1:1,14, 18; 10:33; 20:28-31).

In the original language of the following verses, Jesus identifies Himself with God as the great “I Am” of the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). He declares, “I am the bread of life" (John 6:35); "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25); “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12); “I am the door (gate)” by which the sheep enter their pen for safety and provision (John 10:7, 9, 11); “I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11); “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6) and “I am the true vine (John 15:1).

To expound upon some of these, Jesus says He is the bread of life because bread is the symbol for the basic necessities of life. Jesus is saying that He is the source for all of our needs. We can cast our cares on Him, because he definitely cares for us (1 Peter 5:7; Psalm 55:22). Jesus is also the light of men, which shines in the darkness (Psalm 27:1; 119:105; Proverbs 6:23; Habakkuk 3:3-4; Psalm 44:30; Isaiah 49:6; Zechariah 14:5-7). Those lost in the darkness of sin do not understand this, because the Light is not in them (John 1:4-5; 11:9-10). 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). He keeps, feeds and leads the sheep. As sheep we are utterly helpless and dependent upon our Shepherd, who ultimately laid down His life, as the sacrificial Lamb, for us (John 10:16; 1 John 3:16; John 1:29,35).  In doing this, He also became our Resurrection and our Life (John 11:23-25). He imparts eternal life to us now, while we still live on this earth as His children. Then when we take our last breath of air on this earth, our very next breath will be in Heaven. If we believe in Him, we will live and not die for all eternity (John 11:25-26).

Jesus is our life, and He is also the only Way to Heaven. He is our Truth as well (John 14:6). Jesus is not one of many saviors, but the only Savior of the world. Jesus is God, who became flesh to sacrifice Himself in our place and to pay the debt of our sin (John 1:1,14). There are many concepts proclaimed as truth today. Most of them are satanic lies disguised as truth in order to deceive gullible people who choose not to believe in The Truth of the gospel for salvation.

Jesus is also the True Vine, we are His branches and God is the vinedresser (John 15:1-8). The nutrients for the branches come from the vine. Apart from Him, we cannot bear fruit; in fact, we can do nothing (John 15:5). God prunes away the unfruitful branches from the vine. Then, He prunes the fruitful branches, so that we will be able to produce even more fruit (Matthew 7:19). God chooses those who believe in Him and He appoints us to go and bear fruit that will last (John 15:16).

Jesus also referred to Himself as “I am” when He spoke to the Jews. "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58). Then latter, He declares to His disciples, "I tell you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM" (John 13:13:19). He also says, "Unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, John the Baptist stated that You are the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29, 32-36). You use all of these analogies to show us that You are the One Way to receive eternal life (John 3: 16-18). John recorded his gospel about You, so that we can believe that You are the Light of the world. We find life only by believing on Your name, because You are the Son of God, and the Savior of the World (John 4:42; John 20; 30-31).

Thought for the Day:

Jesus commissions His Saints to shine in the world as lights of His truth. He makes us a lighted city on a hill, which cannot be hidden. - Matthew 5:14