The very idea of absorbing the elements or furniture of this Tabernacle may confound many notions of what healings and miracles are. Yet, it should not. We cannot heal anything, but we can be healed and used to heal as the Spirit of God flows through us. In an earlier post it was mentioned that from the events in the Bible called miracles and/or healings; healing were the removal of something (demons, bacteria, germs, virus, etc.) and miracles were the creation or regeneration of some organ, limb, or bone.

TO BE HEALED, TO HEAL
Therefore, to absorb, in this case the Showbread, is to absorb the healing power that flowed through Jesus. That power can heal you or flow through you to heal others. Jesus said, that power is the Holy Spirit. It is the very spirit of God and is represented in each of the seven pieces of furniture of the entire Tabernacle. It is this same Spirit that is now before you, searching you, as you stand in front of the seven branches of the Lampstand.

TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT
As it searches you, you are absorbing it’s light. This is the early form of ‘enlightenment.’ Absorption occurs only in proportion to the degree you allow the Light to reveal the cracks in you that need repaired. You might look at it in this manner, any crack in you will allow light to ‘leak out.’ As this enlightenment takes place you will not only walk in greater light but a greater light will radiate from you. In time, the light will grow and thicken.

Eventually this will become a public display of light. This very real enlightenment is why Jesus was able to say, you are the ‘Light of the World” (Matthew 5:14). To the depth you radiate it, that light cannot be hid from the world.

MANIFESTING WHAT YOU HAVE ABSORBED
This absorption or infilling of the Holy Spirit is the reason Jesus was able to manifest all the names and attributes of God to those who were watching Him (John 17:6). Here is another Spiritual Law, “You cannot manifest what you do not have.” These attributes or furniture are spiritual in their composition and that is what allows the Holy Spirit to give them to you or you might say, allows you to absorb them. Either way you view it, it is the Holy Spirit that is the impetus for the blessing of any Gift, He alone gives (1 Corinthians 12:11).

Therefore, it is vitally important for you to be infilled, or absorb every attribute of God represented in the furniture you have and will stand before, so that you, as part of the Body of Christ, might manifest the attributes or names of God to all you meet. Again, this does not make you God; it does mean He lives in you.

THE RAW NATURE OF CHANGE
It is the entrance of this light that gives understanding to the simple (Psalms 119:130). As the cracks and flaws in you are revealed, they are also being rubbed out. During this time, you may become somewhat raw to things and people around you. You may or may not notice this raw nature, but those around you certainly will. To them, this process may make it seem like you are getting worse, not better. Be of good cheer, this time frame does pass and they, along with you, will be glad as the results in your life become obvious.

Until that time comes, circumstances, situations, as well as emotions will seem very, very chaotic. Chaos is necessary for any change to occur. Chaos is disorienting. Therefore, for there to be reorientation there must be disorientation. In other words you will not leave in the same condition as you came.

This process propels ‘you’ to change your view of ‘you.’ This then aligns with the Law of Observation – you see yourself differently and therefore you become a different person. You become enlightened with the Light of His presence – the Light of Life.

Blessings,
John Paul

There is not a single element or piece of furniture in the Tabernacle that you “move on” from. Each piece of furniture is to become a part of you. Absorption is the deepest form of application; the ability to daily apply each object in the three rooms of the Tabernacle to your life is crucial to the deeper spiritual life.

DAILY HEALING

For example, when Jesus gave us the model prayer (Matthew 6) one of the phrases He gave was, “Give us this day our daily bread.” From my past posts, we know that this bread is several things; it is His body, it is the manna, it is the unleavened bread in the Passover, and it is the crumbs that fall from the table that bring healing to those who eat of it. The breaking of His body, and the stripes that broke or tore His body, provides for the healing we experience through Him.

Therefore, we are to do this every day. We are to daily apply the provision of His broken body to our lives that we might be healed every day. Healed from the smallest intrusion of infirmity and affliction that might slowly creep into us in any form, healed daily - body, soul and spirit. Not just healed when we discover that we have some form of illness or disease. We can be daily healed before the illness takes root.

What happens if we do not apply and absorb this spiritual reality? We become sickly, think strangely, and our faith erodes, as we wonder why we, or those we pray for, are not healed.

YOU DO NOT LEAVE, YOU ABSORB

I hope you now can see that you do not leave anything behind in these rooms, you absorb them, they become part of you, and in so doing your lifestyle changes – this is called Transformation.

Remember, all things in these rooms are one in God and therefore aspects of God Himself. When the very Spirit of God Himself, the Holy Spirit enters you, all aspects of God become part of your living spiritual being.

As a result, with repentance the Brazen Alter is always present to cover your sins, the Brazen Laver is always there to wash you, the Table of Showbread is always there to heal you, the Lampstand is always there to enlighten you, and every other article or piece of furniture that I have not covered yet is there to aid you in knowing God’s ways and being a witness to others of His existence.

WHY WAS THE TABERNACLE GIVEN IN THE WILDERNESS?
Have you ever wondered why God didn’t wait until the Hebrew Children had established themselves in the Promised Land before He gave them the Tabernacle? I have and in my search I found this truth, “The Tabernacle was given in the Wilderness in order to help the Hebrew Children of God to transition from a mentality of bondage and slavery to an attitude of gracious rule and dominion of the Earth.” Perhaps this is what God is doing in your life as well? He is wanting to change the way you think, the way you view yourself, and perhaps the way you view everything that goes on around you, and He is using the Transition you are experiencing to do it.

The Garden of Eden was to be that for Adam and Eve, the Tabernacle was to be that for the Children of God, the Temple was to be that for Israel, and the Church should be that for you. Yes, I know the Church falls short of that many times, but that does not stop what it is supposed to be. All you’re meant to be is that which advances the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven.

WHAT ARE WE MISSING?
If the Bible is correct when it reads, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” then the question must be asked, “What is it that we are not hearing from the Word of God that allows our faith to be weak?” I pray and hope that what I am writing in this blog is some of that missing ingredient.

I’ll come back to the Lampstand in my next post. Thank you for your patience.

Blessings,
John Paul

“For You will light my lamp;
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.”
Psalms 18:28

“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world.
He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness,
but have the light of life.”
John 8:12

TRANSITIONING TOWARD THE SMOKE AND GLORY
It is important that you continue envisioning yourself walking through the smoky atmosphere of this, the first room of the covered Sanctuary. It is also important to remember that the Sanctuary is also know as the Tent of Meeting, because this is where you come to meet with God. This is where He helps you to change so that His nature become your nature, His mind becomes your mind, and His ways become your ways. This is Transformation and it takes Transition to make it happen. It is not an instant event. In the Kingdom of God, only salvation is instant. Everything else involves varying levels of Transition.

You will find that this smoke filled room holds many surprises. Even the smoke from the incense on the Table of Showbread, mingling with the smoke from the burning olive oil in the Lampstand, as well as the two of those mingling with the smoke from the Altar of incense speaks enormous quantities of Spiritual Truth.

The thickness of this smoke becomes a reminder of the dense cloud of God’s Spirit and Glory. This is the cloud that was so thick the day Solomon dedicated the Temple that the priest could not stand to minister.

Now that you have experienced the Table of Showbread, and by breaking and eating the Bread thereon received the healing of your soul and body – you are now ready to move on in your journey to the Golden Lampstand. Here, the inspection begins.

No matter what way you may look at the Lampstand, it is the Light that reveals the presence of the smoke (glory). The Glory of God will change you, but it is the light from the Lampstand that will reveal more of God to you. This Light will also reveal more of you - to you, and to the degree you allow - it will “enlighten” you. Many believe that “enlightenment” means you will ‘see’ or understand more, and it does. However, enlightenment has a second aspect and that is the aspect of “carrying” or “radiating” the light. Full enlightenment means light has so completely filled you that you overflow light on others.

Only those who serve the one true God, through Jesus Christ can be enlightened. All others are lesser lights, are dark, and come from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

ASORBING THE LIGHT
The reality is this; the longer you stand before the Light and allow the Light to reveal ways you are not aligned with the plans and purposes of God – the more light you will absorb. To absorb light is then to radiate light. This is the meaning of the verse at the very beginning of this post, “For You will Light my lamp” (Psalms 18:28). God will fill you with His light.

True enlightenment then has two aspects – to see by and to radiate to others. Therefore, the light shining on you is actually preparing you to influence others. Yes, light equals influence – the more light you carry or radiate, the greater the influence you have. On the other hand, the Apostle John wrote that God would, under certain conditions, remove a candlestick. That sad event would be tantamount to the removal of influence. This is not the removal of a gift, simply the removal of the influence one would gain from the gift.

THE LIGHT OF THE LAMPSTAND
Without the Lampstand, which is also called the Menorah, or Candlestick, there would be no light in this room. You would be groping around, knocking things over, dropping bread, spilling incense, and in general, chaos would ensue. In this absence of light you would not be able to administer the elements to yourself let alone others. Light is a good thing.

Isaiah wrote that when the Messiah comes those who sit in darkness will see a great light. Jesus acknowledged that He was the fulfillment of that prophecy. In the fullness if time; in other words, at the darkest point in the history of mankind – God sent His Son. The light came into the world and the World did not understand that they were in darkness nor did the World recognize that eternal, spiritual light was there standing in front of them. So they, without realizing what they had done, extinguished the Light.

The spiritual leaders of that era were so acclimated to living in spiritual darkness that they did not even know they were in darkness. We often have the same problem, we are so accustomed to sin, that we fail to accept the light that is trying to save us from our own choices. So the Lampstand came and they ignored it for a while, then became angry at it, and eventually killed the Light.

SPIRITUAL LAW: THE UNCREATED AND THE CREATED
However, here is a very important spiritual law to remember: first, the uncreated is always greater than the created. Second, the spiritual is always greater than the temporal. Third, therefore that which came from Uncreated Spirit is greater than that which is temporal and physical. As a result, the temporal cannot kill, harm, or change in any manner, that which is Spirit. While Jesus was fully man and He freely offered His life – it is the Eternal, uncreated, Spirit within Him that could never be killed. It is that Spirit that raised Him from the dead.

Why am I writing this? Because it is important that you not make the same mistake the spiritual leaders of Jesus’ time did when the Light came to them. Right now, as you read this you are facing the Lampstand, it is inspecting you. It is revealing that which you have denied, overlooked, and hidden. It is not doing so to condemn, but to prepare. God is calling you deeper – to the next room - He is not sending you away. That which would have condemned you was covered when you first came to the Brazen Alter in the Outer Courtyard.

IN HIS LIGHT WE SEE LIGHT
Here, standing in His light, you will see light (Psalms 36:9). You are being exposed to a form of light, you might say it is like an ultraviolet light that purifies. This light is contained in one of the seven colors of the Rainbow that are contained in the seven lights of this Lampstand. So this Lampstand is also the rainbow or covenant. By the time you stand here, the covenant of the Rainbow has been applied to you – He will not destroy you.

Still, you may not want to know what the light may reveal – yet, once you submit and embrace the Light, the things that once over came you, you will now over come. Your life is about to radically change - for the good.

DO NOT RUN AWAY NOW
This examination of the Light is the point where so many run from God. The light is so revealing that they are afraid the Lord will reject them when He sees their flaws. So they run away from God before He can supposedly reject them.

In reality, the opposite is true. Here, God is closer to you than ever before. If He wooed you to Him while you were steeped in sin, why would He reject you now? It is about this overwhelming feeling of despair that Isaiah wrote, “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench;” (Isaiah 42:3) He is about to bring Justice against the evil one, on your behalf.

There are many mysteries to the Lampstand in this room. I’ll write more about them in my next post.

Blessings,
John Paul

Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up
to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the
God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
Isaiah 2:3

The Sanctuary you are now in teaches you about the ‘Ways of God” so in a sense you are able to search God out. However, in this room God also searches you inside and out. Remember, this room prepares you for the Holy of Holies. It is here, while you are searching out just who God is and how you might know Him; that in His grace and mercy, He is painstakingly removing the blemishes, wrinkles, and flaws that He knows are in you. Much like the agitation of the washing machine, He removes these things through that which He allows you to go through.

CLEANSING AND HEALING
So, He cleanses you and heals you spirit, soul, and body as part of the preparation process. Up to now in this room, you have found that the Table of Showbread is for your healing, now you are about to be inspected by the light of the Lampstand, which is also Jesus, the “Light of the World.” In this inspection, many things will be revealed to you about you. Some of them you will know, some of them you won’t want to know, and some you will deny you have. Yet, soon you will be humbled enough to accept that He loves you spots, speckles, wrinkles, and all.

THE LIGHT OF WASHING
Here, in the light of this washing room, God will remove everything you allow Him to cleanse. Things that you thought didn’t matter, things that you loved more than Him, all the things that kept you from taking on His nature. God longs to remove anything that keeps you from walking in alignment with Him. Jesus did not want to lose this alignment and told His disciples that He would have to leave, “because the ruler of this world is coming” and he had no part in Him (Jesus) or another translations says, “nothing in common” with him. In this Holy Room of Mystery, God desires to take you as well to a place where you have nothing in common with the evil one. That is what this inspection is all about and He will use the Light from the Lampstand to accomplish it.

THE TOUR OF GOD
Remember, the rooms you are in right now are not just places to worship God – though that is a good idea. In these rooms you are on a tour of God Himself. You are also on a tour of Heaven, designed in the pattern of God. Therefore the Lampstand is not only representative of Jesus it also represents the Lampstand that stood before the Throne of God and as that Lampstand it is a picture of the seven attributes of the Holy Spirit (Rev. 4).

THE INSPECTION OF GOD
That aspect of light and Spirit is what will search you in seven different ways – desiring to build and strengthen those seven attributes in you. Those attributes will allow you to stand before God in the next room. Those attributes will empower you at levels you cannot now anticipate.

Perhaps it is becoming clearer, the Godhead is “one” and everything in the Tabernacle represents God, therefore all things in the Tabernacle are “one.” God the Father, as well as the very Spirit of God, and Jesus who made Himself of no reputation so that you might have abundant life now, and everlasting life after the resurrection - these are all “one”. Don’t forget, Jesus was the Brazen Altar and Brazen Laver in the Outer Court. In fact He is also the Passover Lamb, as well as the Curtain, the Screen, and the Veil. He is every piece of fabric, and furniture in the Tabernacle and the Sanctuary within. The reason may be jumping out at you why no one can come to the Father except through Jesus. He is not only the door, but every other facet as well. What Jesus did to ‘fulfill’ the Law was so much more than is typically taught and that is why I am writing about it.

It seems every one who writes about the Tabernacle approaches it from the standpoint of how each piece of Furniture is represented in Jesus, and I do not want to minimize that truth. However, I have yet to read of the glory of what Jesus did and of the stunning way the Father reveals Himself throughout the whole of the tabernacle and therefore through Jesus. After all, Jesus did say that when you see Him you have seen the Father.

THE REVEALING OF THE LIGHT
 Remember, this first Room of Mystery, this Holy Place, is concerned with cleansing your soul and making you presentable to God. So it is about the soul and its sanctification (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The Lampstand is part of the revealing and as such will uncover imperfections that will keep you from the deepest place of intimacy with God the Father. Just as the priest was clean before he went into the Holy of Holies, you, as a royal priest (1 Peter 2:9) are being prepared for the next room, the Holy of Holies.

I write more on the Light of the Lampstand in my next post.

Blessings,
John Paul

“Put frankincense on each row to be an offering

made by fire to ADONAI in place of the bread

and as a reminder of it.”

Lev. 24:7 (CJB)

THE FRANKINCENSE
As you make your way across the room to the Table of Showbread you will notice another marvelous aspect of the Table of His Presence. It is another mystery. What you see is strange, instead of the unleavened Bread being fired, there are two smoking bowls sitting on top of the two stacks of Bread. Each is full of burning Frankincense and the smoke arising from them mingles with the smoke from the Altar of incense. You might take note that frankincense is also used in the Altar of Incense, but we deal with the why of that when you get there.

SPIRITUAL MEMORIAL
As the Scripture commands, the Frankincense is being burned to the Lord in place of or instead of the Showbread. Why? Because the unleavened bread represents the body and due to what Jesus did through the process of His crucifixion – you are not to be burned in the ‘Lake of Fire” and instead you are to be healed. Selah

The smoke, incense and aroma that arose from the burning Frankincense is to arise to the Lord as a memorial or reminder. The question is, a memorial to what, and why?

God does not need a reminder, but we need to be reminded that as God sees this smoke arise, He also sees our need for healing, Spirit, Soul, and Body. On one hand, this is to be a reminder that God will heal His people. On the other hand it is an everlasting memorial that God will heal you.

REMEMBERING HIM
The smoke of the burning frankincense is not only to place God in remembrance of you, but the Showbread is to be eaten by you in remembrance of Him (Jesus). This is precisely what Jesus was referring to when at the Last Supper He took the unleavened Showbread and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you. As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me.” This table and all that it represents is still that memorial – God will heal you for His great name’s sake, take the Bread in remembrance of Him. Once again,  “The Communion Effect” will greatly aid you in further understanding the power contained in the stripes that Jesus bore so you can be healed. You can get these messages on CD’s or download it for half the price.

HEALING OF THE SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY
There are some very interesting qualities to the resin of frankincense. It has been discovered that burning frankincense resin helps to alleviate anxiety and depression, which are matters of the soul that need healing. The University of Munich has also found that the anti-inflammatory properties of frankincense are a very effective treatment for joint pain and arthritis, which are matters of the body that need healing.

So we find that God has provided for all our needs, even our anxiety. Proverbs 12:25 reveals that anxiety in the heart of a man causes depression. Therefore, to relieve anxiety is to relieve depression. Herein in is His provision for casting your every care on Him.

Frankincense is also a natural insecticide. In ancient Egypt, the smoke of burning frankincense resin was used to repel mosquitoes, sand flies, fumigate wheat silos and repel wheat moths. These properties of frankincense are symbolic of the spiritual properties of the Holy Spirit that protects you from small demonic pests that seek to gradually erode, and destroy your life.

ACOUSTIC PROPERTIES

Perhaps one of the more unusual and interesting qualities of frankincense is this, researchers have found that burning frankincense indoors improves the acoustic properties of the room. Can you imagine, here you are standing in this room of mystery and find that God so wants to dialogue with you that He makes it easier for you to hear Him, and for you to speak to Him from this place. Think about this - for your sake God made the acoustical atmosphere better.

This great God you serve is not a God who is far away, nor a God who must be coerced into meeting with you. He is ever present, always waiting to hear you dialogue with Him. He is so intent on it that He makes it as easy as possible. This God, that you serve, is magnificent in every way!

Next, you will journey toward the Lampstand and the Light of His Spirit will inspect you.

Blessings,
John Paul