If you can picture this - you have just made the decision to enter the white Tabernacle, which is the Earthly Kingdom of God, the Priest slowly pulls the curtain back, and you walk into its first chamber. This is the Outer Court, called that because there are two much more mysterious chambers, yet to be entered, but they are so much smaller than the court where you stand.

Anyone can enter this court, there is so much room and grace, but not every one will go on to the following, much smaller, covered, mysterious rooms that lie 210 cubits or 360 feet - 60 feet longer than a football field - across the court yard from you.

THE BLOOD
Once you enter the Kingdom, you are immediately confronted with the first piece of furniture, the Brazen Alter. It is the largest piece in the Tabernacle, it has the hardest task to accomplish. By the blood soaked ground around it, you know this is the place of sacrifice and the removing of sin. The sight is made even more difficult by the heat, the smoke, and the stench of burning hair and flesh.

THE SACRIFICE
To the untrained eye, the Brazen Alter, or the Cross-was not a beautiful sight, it was a place of death and despair, but to those with eyes to see, it is where everlasting life began - from that death. You have now learned just what the Bible teaches, that the Life of the flesh is in the blood and so in taking the blood, the flesh dies – dust to dust, ashes to ashes. It is the blood that paves the way for every thing else in the Tabernacle to work on our behalf. All the furniture in the Tabernacle has been sprinkled with it.

THE FIRE
As you keep looking, you cannot help but see the fire that blazes from the center of the Altar. That fire is to never go out and burn continually. It is this fire that must remain in our hearts for the next six stops in order to get where we are desperate to go.

So it is here, right from the start, the flesh or carnal nature is dealt with and the sanctification of your flesh is the result. Flesh for flesh, bone for bone, body for body – it is done. How well you accept this sacrifice on your behalf determines if you are allowed to enter the mysterious rooms ahead.

WAS I DUPED?
At this point you may wonder, “Was I duped.” But, a small voice whispers, “What is it that you are after? This is the place where everything changes, where you set the tone for the rest of your life. It will be worth it, your life will change, don’t give up, the sacrifice has already been made for you. To activate the blood shed for you, all you have to do is truly repent, after all it is not the blood of sheep, cattle, or doves, but the blood of Jesus that lies there on that ground.” To accept that sin is covered by anything other than blood is to go the way of Cain, who thought plant life could cover his sin. It is hard to accept that someone died so you could live.

You do not fully know whether to turn back or keep going. However, you are somewhat comforted by the fact that this is the only place where blood is shed in the Tabernacle and as you look you see no other blood anywhere on the ground ahead, so you take deep breaths and take the next step.

ROOMS OF MYSTERY
Once again you hear that whisper of a voice saying, “You must go on to the rooms of mystery.” Someone else reminds you, “If you overlook one spot, cherish one blemish, or think one wrinkle is unimportant – you will find yourself back here, at the Alter, only a little more broken, a little less confident, a little more contrite.” Alters are not bad they are just difficult to handle, that’s why they have horns.

You now know, to go further requires a no-nonsense frame of mind. To get across that courtyard and into those rooms of mystery will not be an instant door opening, curtain pulling entrance. The distance is significant and there is a reason. You see, once you make the commitment to come into His Kingdom, the process of becoming deeply spiritual is just beginning, it is not instant. Some things like killing the flesh just take time, even after you have cleaned up your act.

But, before you make the journey across the courtyard you must make one more stop, the second stop, at the Brazen Laver of water. Here you will see yourself as you are, which is not the most pleasant of sights.

Blessings,
John Paul

First, my goal in these next postings is not to give you a detailed application of the Tabernacle or Tabernacle of Moses plank by plank, column by column, or skin by skin and cloth by cloth, but to give you an idea of the simple grandeur in God’s plan, purpose and ultimate desire for you being displayed in everything He does – truly all of creation speaks of Him.

There are many levels of application of the Tabernacle. There is the application of it to the “City” Abraham looked for, the metaphor to the Garden of Eden and Heaven, the application to the stages the Hebrew Children would go through before they accept the Messiah, the application of it to the stages the Church would go through before the Messiah returns and many, many other applications as well. Again, my goal is to help you learn its application to the stages of purification or sanctification you will go through before True Spirituality will be reached, because each room requires a higher level of purity before one enters the next room.

The tabernacle of Moses was the Tabernacle of the Wilderness. It is here God was longing to remove the sin and carnal nature of the Hebrew children. This had to be washed clean before they could enter the promises of God for them. It is here they hardened their hearts. It is here that they wanted to go back to Egypt.

HOW TO DELAY YOUR DESTINY
In reading the rest of these “Dark Night” postings Please, Please, Please remember this – before each new level of spirituality in God comes, there is always the desire to run back to the sin you are comfortable with. We struggle with old issues, we feel like God sees us as a failure and to prove it we give into the very things we have historically failed at. And so as we see ourselves, we become. When this happens, it is a sure sign that we are not allowing the Purpose of the wilderness to have its intended impact on us.

Usually, we are not that in touch with our motives and trigger points of failure that will later be uncovered. In fact many times we feel we are justified in returning to the sin because of how God is treating us. It make no difference whether it is porn, drugs, lies, stealing, sex, etc. all are a sign we have not let the Tabernacle of the Wilderness have its complete work in us.

Far too often we think the pain of the cross is an injustice, this can’t be God, and we jump down thinking we have escaped the injustice. Again, this does not mean you do not have to go through this, but now you will have to go through it again. You will only find out that you may delay your destiny, but you will never escape the Cross.

In the Outer Court you will want to return to the lust of the flesh. In the Holy Place you will want to return back to the intellect, passion, or will power that gave you prominence – this is the Lust of the Eye. In the Holy of Holies, one will want to return to their own ideas, doctrines, and theology – the things they think God likes because we like them – this is the Pride of Life.

THE OUTER COURT
If you can picture yourself standing outside the Tabernacle, seeing it for the very first time. The first sight you behold has you prepare to walk into the 5,000 square cubit Tabernacle is the beautiful, white linen curtain, wafting in the breeze, that surrounds the entire structure. Five is the number of Grace and 5,000 is the number of Grace multiplied. The white of the curtains represent the purity of the believer in the sight of God as well as the attraction others will have toward God as they see what God has done in our life. This is the first level of drawing the Father uses to attract those outside His body to Him. This is the primary catalyst God used to draw us – at some point we thought, “My life will be better if I go in there.” This is where we admit we need help and this is where we recognize we now can receive that help.

MAKING THE COMMITMENT
Once we make the commitment to enter the Outer Court of God, to come into His Kingdom, the process of becoming Spiritual begins. None of the Tabernacle furnishings may be passed by. You must stop at each one and each one requires an action and the result of that action mush be applied to every aspect of our life, before the next piece of furniture can make its own particular impact on us.

The Outer Court or the Court of the Gentiles was for the cleansing of the flesh or carnal nature. If we overlook one spot, cherish one blemish, or think one wrinkle is unimportant – we will find ourselves back here, only a little more broken, a little less confident, having discovered contrition at levels we never dreamed about.

Sadly, the world is littered with fallen men and women who rushed past the furniture they were facing trying to take a short cut to Holiness and to intimacy with God.

In the Outer Court we see that no one escapes, what we will find is a Seven Step process of purification if they want to come closer to God – even the priests have to make the same journey as you – so you keep walking for a very short distance.

SUCCESS, DETOUR, OR FAILURE
How you navigate the Outer Court is vital to the success of your spiritual journey. It will not only determine the ease of the rest of your journey, it will also determine how you handle the required application of each piece of furniture to your life. It will set the depth of the application and that depth will set the manner in which you will overcome or succumb to temptation.

Here, in this place you will chart the success or failure of your spiritual quest. Strange, it would happen here, right at the start when you seem least capable. Why would this be so important to the success of your journey? – Because, it is here your heart shows more than your knowledge and your heart is what God is after.

SEVEN STOPS
There are seven stops one must make on this journey, a journey that will take the rest of your life. Each stop will have dramatic impact on your life and on the lives of others as they come near you. The depth that it touches you will be the depth it touches them. The shallow will always produce the shallow, just as deep leads to deep.

In the next post – The first Transitional stop to Transformation

Blessings,
John Paul