“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

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14

It was not the Walmart coat she wore that made people turn their heads when she walked by. Nor was it the way she had fixed her hair that frosty morning. It wasn’t even the sky blue scarf she wore around her neck. Still, everyone saw it, everyone wanted it, yet no knew what they saw. Fran had something far more than human capabilities can produce. Fran had a brightness, a freshness, a certain magnetism, and people were drawn to it. Her face radiates an invisible light that eyes do not see. Moreover, those who think they know what it is that attracts them to her,  are not aware that they could see this particular light even with their eyes closed. Perhaps even more surprising is that Fran doesn’t see it either, but she is cloaked in Light.

VISIBLE - TANGIBLE LIGHT

Perhaps more important is that the light indwelling Fran is not only visible, it is tangible - you can feel it, it has density, mass, volume, and it is alive. It is living light. Over the millennia many have wanted this “living light.” They have tried to buy it, they have tried to manufacture it, they have tried to imitate it, and when they found they could accomplish any of that - they tried to kill it. Little did they know that this tangible, eternal light is free, yet it is more costly than diamonds, more precious than gold, and incomprehensible in its nature.

So is it with you. As you stand here, you are being filled, indwelt, and cloaked with this very unusual light. In a very strange and wonderful manner, you have returned to the source of Light you were intended to have from the beginning. The full absorption does not happen instantly, but as you stand in this final Room of Mystery, Eternal Light and temporal man join and become one again. Timelessness and time somehow mingle together and you become an everlasting life.

THE HEAVEN AND EARTH CONNECTION

Somehow, you remember, you have no shoes on your feet and you can feel the dust of the Earth between your toes and even sense it falling softly around each foot. It is as if God has called the Earth to bare witness to this moment, this is why your feet are bare; Heaven and Earth touch through you. You are a connector between Heaven and Earth. Therefore, when you feel God, the Earth feels Him through you. This is what both of you were created for. Earth to help man, man to steward Earth; both revealing the Glory of God. This is, in essence, why Matters of the Earth are important to man.

You are beginning to understand so much more, being a light of the world is far more real and weightier than you previously thought. You are not yet “one” with the light and so it is still uncomfortable for you to look very long at the Light from the Mercy Seat. A far deeper realization permeates every cell in your body that it is by Grace you are here and through Mercy that you are still alive.

SUBCELLULAR UNDERSTANDING

As the Light enters you, you are aware of strange things happening in your body. It is as if you are coming apart at a cellular level. But, how do you know that? You discover that your awareness has infinitely increased. There is no feeling of pain, only total awareness of how you were created, awareness of every cell in your body, even awareness of sub-cellular and sub-atomic particles that Science hasn’t discovered yet. This Light is far more than Light, it is the Substance of Creation and in its entrance into you it is regenerating you. You are reconceived! You understand how you were created, but that memory will eclipse your understanding once you return to a more Earthly environment. That memory is for another time yet ahead - it will return then.

DISORIENTATION FROM HEAVENLY EVENTS

In your reconstitution, things seem a little dizzy now. The Cherubim woven in the covering thirty feet above you seem alive. Have they changed? Are they really there? This Final Room of Mystery is so different! The covering seems so high, far higher than it did in the First Room of Mystery. Perhaps it is only the smallness of the room that makes it seem so high. It is still twenty cubits high (or thirty feet)? None-the-less, that still makes it twice as tall as it is wide. As you continue to look around in AWE, you notice that the amber colored vapor of smoke is even more brilliant in color. And it is so thick in this room, it swirls as if wings of angels were fanning it. You also notice that the vapor of smoke seems just as thick at the top of the room as it is at the bottom. You cannot help but think, “Truly this is an unearthly environment,” and you so are thankful you have your feet on the ground.

When the Light of the Creator has completed It’s current task within you, you will radiate light at levels you have never imagined. You will need to know the truth and reality of that at a spiritual level once you leave this Light and go back into the darkness that fills the earth and the gross darkness that fills the people. It is there you will find the “Dark Night of the Spirit.”

We have more to cover before we fully address that topic.

Blessings,

John Paul

“Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD my God, You are very great:

You are clothed with honor and majesty,

Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment,

Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain.”

Psalms 104:1-2

Perhaps it is the light, perhaps it is the vapor of smoke around you, perhaps it is simply pure adrenalin, or perhaps it is entirely something else you have yet to discover, but you now notice that you feel full of vibrant health here. There are no migraines, there is no cancer, not even the smallest defect in your skin can be seen here. All your cells are functioning at full, created capacity. It is as if the Kingdom of Heaven has come to Earth, and in one great sense it has. In this mysterious Holy of Holies none of the elements of the Fall of Man exist. There is no sin to contaminate your DNA let alone the room. The anti-creation effect of darkness cannot exist in the presence of the Holy Creator.

BEFORE THE FALL

The purpose of this room is not only to reveal the Glory of God to mankind, but also to reveal to mankind what it was like before the Fall. Humans were clothed in light back then. It was not uncomfortable for man to walk with God, God’s light was not blinding. Why? Man, made in the image of God was also cloaked in light. However man, after the Fall, wrote that God dwells in “unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16). Darkness finds it difficult to be in the presence of Light. That is one reason why the demons shrieked at the presence of Jesus.  It is painful for darkness to approach pure light. However, man before the Fall, made in the image and likeness of God, was covered with light and as such could walk with God without feeling out of place. Light walked with man who was clothed with light.

CLOTHED IN LIGHT

When sin, disobedience to God’s ways and word, entered Adam and Eve - the light left. Even today, light cannot dwell with darkness and darkness cannot dwell with light. When the covering of light lifted from Adam and Eve, they both saw each other’s outward, physical appearance for the first time and they “knew they were naked.” Their clothing of light was gone. Without the distinctive atmosphere of God’s presence, Adam and Eve were left cold, naked, and afraid. The protective covering of God’s glory was no longer there. Vulnerability to to a power which sought to over throw God confronted them. But, in this Holy Room, God is seeking to restore the presence of His light to you, to make you a light of the world.

LIGHT IS EVERYWHERE

The thickness of the air in this Final Room of Mystery seems to press against your face, it is as if the Light, the air, and the vapor of smoke all carried a weightiness. Strangely, it seems so light, and effortless as it enters your lungs. In the previous room, the Holy Place, light reflected from the two side walls, but in this room the light reflects from three golden walls, the two side walls and the wall directly in front of you. Light is everywhere. You now understand at a far deeper level why it is said that the Holy of Holies is the one place where the presence of God rested. Even if it was only His “footstool” this presence is life altering.

THE SMALLER ROOM

As your eyes are adjusting to the light, you can see the room is so much smaller than any room you have been in so far. It is exactly half the size of the room you just came from (ten cubits by ten cubits or about fifteen feet by fifteen feet). In the middle of the room stands what seems to be the only piece of furniture in here, but it is actually two pieces - the Ark of the Covenant or Testimony and the Mercy Seat. Everything in this room is covered with gold and the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy seat are no exception. The Brass of the Outercourt will not work in here.

HISTORY

This is the Room where God talked with Moses and gave Him divine instructions for the Hebrew Children. Only the Priest could enter here and that was just once a year - but here you are and you are alive, all because of the blood of the lamb covers you. Therefore, you as priest, as well as a prophet, and a King, can enter here. He has opened the Veil for you. He longs to commune with you. He wants to give you divine instructions to pray and communicate to His people.

RECOVERING THE LIGHT OF HIS PRESENCE

Jeremiah predicted that the Children of Israel would lose the Ark and no one would care. God is looking for a people to care again - not for the Ark as a piece of furniture, but for the Light of His presence. In that presence is the fullness of life as it was originally meant to be. The fullness of life that you were created to have.

Blessings,

John Paul

“In Your light we see light.” Psalms 36:9

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17

Light is strange, you can feel its presence, but you cannot grasp it. You can see it, but most of it is invisible to the naked eye. Some light you can turn off and on, but the light you released is 186,000 miles away before you can even start the process of turning it off - thus light is impossible to retrieve.

To complicate matters even more, the light that you are now walking into is a different type of light than you have ever seen, felt, experienced, or walked in before. This light preceded Creation. Under this light plants grew before there was even a sun, moon, or stars. What? Yes, plants were created on day three, the Sun was not created until day four. As such it is the substance from which all matter, visible and invisible was made.

PARTICLES OF GOD

The substance of this light comes from the very particles of God - who is light. As you breathe it in and absorb it you are literally experiencing light at a creative level and becoming one with that light through God’s Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). It is God revealing the fabric of Himself to you in a way you have never felt, known, or experienced before. This light is God’s Glory and from this light all His Glory exists. This light is the Creator of all things and here in this small room - right now - He is regenerating, recreating you.

ABSORBING AND RADIANCE

As you take the next few steps, before you can straighten up, you are being regenerated; life is flowing into you at unprecedented levels. When you leave this room you will radiate the light of God. To the measure you absorbed the light you will radiate the light. Those who hunger and thirst for Him will radiate the greatest amount of light. Hunger and thirst are two of the greatest light attractors. Those who are obedient and submissive will find they keep the light longer than others. To the degree you lose any of the afore mentioned, the light will dim. There are many dim lights in the world today; as a result one does not have to be a very bright light to be thought to be spiritually brilliant. Those whose light is dim are seen to have “darkened perceptions.”

THREE GOLD WALLS

You are now a few feet into the Holy Of Holies and you are still afraid to look up to the Mercy Seat where the Light radiates from. So you seize the moment to quickly glance around. The three walls before you are gold, only the Veil behind you is not. In the previous Room of Mystery, the Holy Place, only the two sidewalls were golden. Even with two walls of Gold, the Light was reflecting to the point of making your eyes uncomfortable, but here the Amberesque Light is blinding; at least it would be if it weren’t so healing. The Holiness of the light, and the pure gold all around you are overpowering. Golden, amberesque light is everywhere. There are no shadows in here - yes, it is the Holy of Holies. In His presence, all things are held together.

THE SOLUTION TO PROBLEMS

This living light has substance, it is life giving, and all problems melt away in His presence. There are no family problems, no financial problems, no health problems, in fact there are no problems - why? Because you have come face to face with the One who has all solutions, to every problem. God is not wondering what you should do next. He is never questioning why you did what you did - He is fully aware of why you did it. God is simply expressing to you that He knows what you need to do and anything you cannot do He is more than capable of doing. Every cell of your body feels His love. He is returning hope to you, soon that hope will turn into faith.

In the light of His love, you almost have enough courage to look toward the Ark of the Covenant. It too is covered with Gold.

Blessings,

John Paul

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” Revelation 21:23

Just as the sages have written, the Veil does not fully open. So you have decided to take the step past the Veil that has stopped just over half way up your body, far from the top of the Four Golden Posts. Yet, your hunger for more of God’s presence, in spite of the major case of nerves you are experiencing, nudges you forward.

Still bowing, your face toward the ground, the light that once seemed to seep from under the Veil, has become blinding and you have yet to look up to see any form there may be of the presence of God. There is an unearthly nature concerning the radiance of this light. It is so different than the light of the Lampstand and the Sunlight you felt in the Outercourt. The light seems to radiate from every direction, and that light encompasses everything. You now understand why there is no need for the Sun in Heaven.

SOOTHING LIGHT

Slowly taking the second and third steps your face is still toward the ground. You are deathly afraid to look up. But, there is something about the light that strengthens you. You actually feel it’s soothing presence on your skin, and it far surpasses the peaceful warmth you remember of the sun touching your skin on a cold, early spring day. This light is giving you life, and your entire body deeply feels it.

SOOTHING LIGHT

Divine elements are happening with lightening speed. Within moments you feel more than the light touching your skin, you feel it entering your body. Its very presence enters you with each breath. You can feel it flowing through you - it is so different than the air you breathe outside this room. This light is alive, it is actually living, and as it enters you and courses through you, you are being regenerated at a cellular level. You now know, at a profoundly different level, the reality that His light is the Life of the world.

DIVINE AWARENESS

You are becoming aware of your created composition at a sub-cellular level and you are having Divine understanding enter your thought processes. You understand without knowing how you understand. The Creator, your Creator, is letting you know how completely He knows you. He is allowing you to track your creation, and in so doing God is allowing to you to have simultaneous awareness or a sliver of His Omniscience. You are learning how He totally and completely keeps track of all created matter, visible and invisible, above the Earth, on the earth, and beneath the Earth - there is nothing He is not aware of. He is never caught by surprise.

It is so easy for you to know all that is going on inside of you. You have perfect awareness of every cell that is dividing, each sub cellular particle that moves, and every disease, or malady is instantly known. Anything that is not functioning according to His Laws of Creation stands out like florescent orange on a hunter’s hat. You sense the Divine synchronization inherent in God’s Creation.

SPEECHLESS

You are in Awe and that word is trite compared to all you are living through right now. You begin to comprehend that the High Priest entered here to present himself and the people to God and the trade would be that He saw the presence of God. But, this was far from an even trade. What one experiences and comes away with from this experience changes every perception, every fragment of spiritual understanding; it changes everything - literally everything. You are cognoscente of the Divine order, the Divine Nature of all that comes from Him, and all that exists comes from and through Him.

Yes, life on the other side, outside this Room of Mystery, will never be the same. You can’t help but think; “I thought this journey was about preparing me to stand before God, when it was actually preparing me to be a witness of His existence and the reality of His intricate, interactive, moment by moment, involvement in my life and the lives of all who will follow Him.”

You still have not been able to look up, but you are becoming stronger, as His presence, life, and light infuse you. You hear strange noises and you are compelled to look to see what is making all this sound. As you slowly stand upright, you are struck with an even deeper sense of majesty and Awe, it is ………… .

Blessings,

John Paul

For thus says the High and Lofty One

Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“I dwell in the high and holy place,

With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,

To revive the spirit of the humble,

And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Isaiah 57:15

Trembling, eyes wide open, and struck with Awe you watch as the Veil rises. The Cherubim seem to take flight and the four colors woven in the tapestry before you astonishingly becomes a beautiful swirl portraying Heavenly Royalty.

The smoke rising from the Censor hanging by your side almost seems unnoticeable. Prayer for others seems a little out of reach right now. Yet, prayer for yourself is easily grasped, after all if your sins aren’t covered then this is the last sight you will see on Earth. Waiting is hard, years go by, but in reality only seconds have lapsed.

THE VEIL STOPS

Before the veil fully opens it stops about halfway up the height of the Four Golden Posts. You wonder what to do, do you help lift it? Do you see if there is a snag? Or do you turn and walk away believing God changed His mind and no longer wants to meet with you? Do none of the aforementioned - just wait. You’ll do a lot of this with God. That is why it is written that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Before long you will understand, the Veil will not lift higher - you must humble yourself, and bow to enter this next Room of Mystery.

STANDING TALL

You entered the Outer Court yard standing and full of confidence. You entered the Holy Place, the first Room of Mystery, standing, charged with energy, and eager to fulfill God’s plan for your life. But, to enter this last Room of Mystery you will have to bow.

Before you leave this room you will have added contrition of heart to the humility of spirit you soon will exhibit.

You must now take the next step toward God - He has already taken the first step by lifting the Veil.

THE EXPECTATION OF MORE PAIN

Not quite knowing what to expect, some are scared of experiencing more pain in this room. And you, yourself know you cannot take that. You have a paradox of feelings - you want to run away, yet you want to run to Him. You are flooded with memories. In the Outer Court you remember the physical pain as the evil one tried to discourage you by afflicting you and those you love. In the Holy Place there was emotional, and intellectual pain as the evil one used verbal, and emotional tirades from others to dissuade you. Now you wonder what kind of pain will be experienced in this room? You really don’t know if you can take anymore.

THE JOURNEY OF THE CROSS

What you will find in the next room, the Holy of Holies is far different from anything you have experienced in this journey. You might want to think through this - In the Outer Court you began the journey of the Cross. Your beard was plucked, the Crown of Thorns was jammed down on your head, and your flesh was deeply cut by three hundred and fifty one pieces of steel that hit your back in the thirty-nine stripes you received. In other words, you took up the Cross to follow Jesus. You gave up your life in this world so you might gain life in this world and in the world to come.

In the Mystery of the Holy Place, your garments were gambled for, your friends deserted you, you were taunted and mocked by those around you, and the weight was so heavy you had trouble catching your breath. But, in the Room before you, you will experience pain of a different order. Not the pain caused by others, nor the physical pain of affliction - all that is past. In this room you will learn the pain of your own incapability as you are asked to fulfill a purpose from God, that without His enabling, you will certainly fail - and you will go through it for the sake of others.

TRUSTING GOD

It was in this room that Jesus felt the weight of the sin of the world. It was here He felt forsaken by the Father, it was here that He had to rely on a Father, that He thought had forsaken Him, and who seemed so far away, to resurrect Him from the dead. Jesus was absolutely incapable of resurrecting himself. Without the Spirit of His Father coming to raise Him up, Jesus would have had to stay in the confines of Sheol with all those who died before him and all those who would die after Him.

When Jesus said to the Father, “Into you hands I commit my spirit” He died. The only way He could be raised from the dead was to give up His spirit - only then could the Holy Spirit raise Him up.  Jesus had to give up His life essence - the very breath from God the Father that gives man life. Jesus had to trust the Father with His eternal life. Only then would He have the power to over come the authority of Satan and the stench of death found in Sheol. Only then could He, in His rising from Sheol, take all who believed with Him.

Jesus had to give up everything in order to gain everything. It is now time, time for you to take the next step. Lean forward, bow down, take the step. The purpose for which God created you is waiting.

Blessings,

John Paul

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8

The Veil is lifting and you are in ‘transition’ and that transition is to result in you being ‘transformed’ in your body, soul and spirit. Transition by definition is a process, and processes are often slow, very slow. Transition is also littered with seeming gaps in our understanding as to why God does what He does as well as why He does it the way He does it.

TINY ROOMS

Your Journey through the spacious Outer court was arduous, but it resulted in the transformation of your flesh. The steps you have taken in the much smaller Holy Place has been more intense and mysterious, resulting in the transformation of your soul. The room you are entering, the second Room of Mystery is even smaller. At ten cubits by ten cubits (15′ X 15″) it is one half the size of the Holy Place. It is the most  mysterious room in the Tabernacle. Here your spirit will be revived and become ‘one’ with God as His Spirit begins to take every space that you will allow Him to have.

SPIRIT RULE

It is here that your spirit begins to rule your soul and your body. As the Veil in front of you lifts the Light of the Glory of God radiates from the Holy of Holies into the room in which you currently stand. You will discover that the importance of the ‘Torn’ Veil is enormous. However, until you understand the fullness of the ‘untorn Veil’ you cannot appreciate God tearing the Veil. I will write more on this ‘tearing’ later.

LEADING, FOLLOWING, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

You have heard it said that, “The greatest leaders are the greatest followers.” Here, in the Holy of Holies, you will learn the deeper meaning of this saying. You are entering into the most intense training period of your life, the “Dark Night of the Spirit.” You will learn how your spirit is to rule your soul and your body, by learning to follow the Spirit of God. You cannot become ‘one’ with the Spirit of God with out following where He goes and what He does. God’s Spirit will not follow you nor your agenda, so if you if you insist on going your own way, you will do so alone.

THE DARKNESS OF YOUR OWN AGENDAS

God’s Spirit is His Light, so wherever and whenever you go on your own, you will go in darkness. In that darkness are all manner of dark beings that use the darkness as a cloak. They are there to stop you from achieving God’s purpose in creating you. Here, in this tiny room, your purpose will begin to unfold.

Dark spiritual beings thrive on the pride found in your agenda. Here, in this Light is where Pride is the most lethal. After all it was in this very proximity to God’s Light that Satan allowed Pride to enter His heart. Pride can enter through the cracks in your life. Your journey thus far has been designed to get all but the smallest of cracks out of your life. It is in this room that the rest of the cracks will be addressed.

PROXMITY AND PRIDE

Proximity to God is no guard against pride, if it was Satan would not have fallen.

This is why it is imperative that you go into the last Room of Mystery when God’s presence is there. It is very good to see Light coming from under the Veil as it lifts - by it you know God’s presence is there and since there is “no darkness in Him,” nothing in there can hide from His light. In Him you will see and know at levels previously hidden from you. This too can cause Pride.

Perhaps the greatest issues the Priest had to face was not found on the outside of the Veil, but found once he entered this room. Would what he was to experience here cause pride to fill his heart? Perhaps the greater question is not was the High Priest clean before he went into the Holy of Holies, but how did he live his life once he came out?

“HE MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION”

Perhaps the gaps you face in waiting for God to invite you into this small chamber is more about your life on the other side of this experience than your life on this side of it.

SELAH

Blessings,

John Paul

“You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim.  Ex. 26:31

With trembling heart you stand inches away from a new understanding of Eternity, an entirely different perspective of infinity, and a fear of God that will be etched into your memory. Years from now you will recall the moment as if it were merely seconds ago.

THE TABERNACLE IS A MODEL OF GOD HIMSELF

Do not forget, God is revealing himself to you every moment of your time here. It is good not to get so caught up in the journey and the expected revelations that you lose sight of who the journey is about. Even before you enter the next Room of Mystery, the Holy of Holies, it is good to pause, and while you wait recite this truth to your self - In all things God is revealing Himself to me.

It cannot be said too often, this truth must sink into your spirit, not just your brain - God has been revealing Himself to you this entire journey. The entire Tabernacle is designed as a means of God revealing Himself to you. There is nothing you can see anywhere in here that does not reveal God’s name, heart, and way.

While you wait for God to lift the Veil, you look at the Cherubim overhead. As animate designs of Cherubim they are not moving here, but in Heaven they orbit around the Throne like the electron orbits around the nucleus of an Atom and they do it very, very fast.

WHAT WENT THROUGH THE PRIEST’S MIND?

What went through the priest mind as he looked at the designs of the four colors of Blue, Purple, Scarlet and the white Cherubim woven in the Veil? The other two curtains he had crossed were of the same four colors, but this one… this one was so different that those two. Why? What would He feel when the Veil began to lift?  Would he really die if there was one spot, one wrinkle, one blemish? What would happen if he just took a short peek around the Veil into the Holies of Holies. Is God actually there? What is He waiting for? The wait must have been agonizing.

THE VEIL’S TWO PURPOSES

It is clear that this Veil served as a barrier and had two functions; to keep God at a distance and to keep man from intimacy with Him. You see, sin the destroyer of creation must be distanced from the Creator - not because sin would harm or conquer God, but that God in His wrath would destroy the sinner.

SILVER AND REDEMPTION

Perhaps the Priest looked at the silver base of the Golden walls with their sockets that held each panel of the walls in place. Perhaps he saw the Gold of Heaven, the Dust of Earth and the only thing between the two was the Silver base. Is it any wonder that Silver is the color of redemption and represents what Jesus did in reconciling God and man. Amazing, it is here, in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary that it was prophesied what would happen more than fifteen hundred years before Jesus would fulfill it.

Did the priest wonder why silver? Did he know the silver base represented the Messiah, the hope of mankind? Did He understand that the basis for salvation would shift because the Messiah would be all in all, fulfilling all things, becoming all things, the very things he now stewarded within the confines of this cloth and skin boundaried Tabernacle?

GOD’S SPIRIT RESTED UPON THEM

Did the Priest notice the beauty and intricacy of the weavings? Did he understand that the spirit of God had rested on the men who were chosen to perform this task and in that “rest” God’s Spirit imparted the design, that even to this day no one is exactly sure what it looked like?

Before we become hasty in our passion to bring our wonderings to an end, it would be good to be just a little more patient, and consider a few more elements that should catch your attention. The reality is this, it is in the wonder of this moment that you are being prepared to meet the Creator of all things. The last vestiges of you are being removed. Times that are this weighty merit greater attention.

Blessings,

John Paul

“And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Luke 10:18

You are almost ready to get a glimpse of Eternity, which you will encounter in the Next Room of Mystery. I do have to add that one is never fully ready for that moment. However, you have gained important understanding of the Divine through these the last four Golden Pillars. The Pillars of Immutability, Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence are being embedded in your spirit even as you have been reading these posts. That understanding is revealed by - and can only be revealed by - the Holy Spirit of God. And in doing so, it fills you with a powerful faith.

THESE ATTRIBUTES ARE THERE FOR YOU

That faith is not only in who God is, but it is a level of faith that opens the door to a mature realization of the benefit that that knowledge is and will become to you in the future. His power, His presence, and His knowledge are available to you. The added wonder that these attributes are unchanging and they are there for you, they never diminish or fade, increase or decrease, and that means you can have a consistent confidence of spiritual invincibility.  In fact you do - if you keep looking towards Jesus. It’s called everlasting life. No matter what the evil one throws at you, you have the power to overcome and conquer it.

ASCRIBING DEITY TO SATAN

Sometimes, unwittingly, you may give Satan too much authority, and in a”backdoor” kind of way, actually ascribe deity to him. You may, in fear, run from him; you may tremble at the thought of his presence; you may feel every problem you experience is Satan attacking you. In fact you may feel so strongly about this that you inadvertently give Satan far more credit than he deserves and you seem to expose God as powerless to defend you, or at least uncaring in His seeming lack in defending you.

Few realize they do this and fewer still actually pause or stop to ask the deeper question, “Why is God allowing this?” God could stop it, but He’s not. So what is so important to God that He allows these things to happen?

It is very important to your faith and where God wants to take you from this point on that you think through this for a moment. Jesus’ account of seeing Satan fall from Heaven (Luke 10:18) is not just a statement to fill space in the Bible. The grasp of this statement is vitally important to actually living a quality of life that is so consumed with the attributes of the Deity of God that there is absolutely no twinge of Deity ascribed to the evil one. This distinction must be clear and permanently etched in your heart and mind.

FOUR QUESTIONS

Before you enter the next Room of Mystery you must be able to answer the following four questions: “Is Satan Omniscient?” Is Satan Omnipotent?” Is Satan Omnipresent?” Is Satan Immutable?” Before you nonchalantly say a hardy NO! You must also be able to answer “Why?’ Remember, the distinction must be clear and permanently etched in the very fabric of who you are before you pass the Veil just on the other side of these Golden Pillars. I’ll give you a hint as to the answer to each.

• IS SATAN OMNISCIENT?

Is Satan Omniscient? No, because if he was all knowing he would know the future, and in so knowing, he would have known that if he tried to overthrow God he would lose. And Jesus said He saw Satan fall from Heaven, which means he lost the battle with God. So you know he is not Omniscient.

• IS SATAN OMNIPOTENT?

Is Satan Omnipotent? No, because if he was all powerful there would be no power great enough to kick him out of Heaven. Thus the one who kicked him out would by definition be greater. That “One” is God and inherent in that fact is that reality that Satan is not Omnipotent.

• IS SATAN OMNIPRESENT?

Is Satan Omnipresent? No, because to be Omnipresent is to be everywhere. How can you get kicked out of some place if you are always there? By definition, to be kicked out of some place means you are no longer there and in so knowing we logically conclude Satan is not Omnipresent.

• IS SATAN IMMUTABLE?

Is Satan Immutable? No, because of the above points of truth. In each case Satan changed and therefore it is impossible for him to be Immutable.

Only God has all the attributes of Deity and He is on your side. You have a purpose for which He created you. Satan is trying to stop that purpose. God has already overcome Him - and He will help you do what He created you to do … if you will allow Him greater access to you.

Oh my! Something is happening to the Veil. I’d better go.

Blessings,

John Paul

“For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.” 2Cor. 13:4

Standing here, trying to understand the last Golden Pillar that triumphantly stands before you is a little like trying to tell your child to be quiet when he/she is about to meet the President of the United States for the first time. Your child is excited, but does not understand the implications of the event and in the anxiety of the moment the child squirms, fidgets, and talks and loudly. Perhaps that is what you are feeling right now. I can almost hear you saying, “Come on, let’s get on with it!” I remind you that patience is a virtue of God and you might want to try emulating it.   Smile

THE FOURTH PILLAR

You have one final Golden Pillar of Deity to understand, one final concept between you and the Divine, one final basis from which to gain the faith that God’s Kingdom is eternal in every way and it is worth praying for. The last Golden Pillar upon which Deity is based is the Pillar of Omnipotence.

THE POWER OF CREATING

Omnipotence is more than power, more than authority, and certainly more than preexistence. It is the ability to create that which has never existed in any form. To make something from nothing - literally from nothing.  I am not talking about inventing something, or changing the molecular structure, both of which started with something. I am talking about creating that, which is visible, and invisible; to create that which has free will and as such has a choice whether to love, serve, and obey that which created it. That is true Omnipotence.

RESTRAINT

Perhaps true Omnipotence could be taken one step further, and that might just be that the purest test of Omnipotence is to have the ability to limit your Omnipotence. What is meant by that? Think about this - Jesus - Jesus is the only reason you are not already dead and if not by now, you certainly would be in the Holy of Holies - the next Room of Mystery. God restrained Himself from following His plan of destroying all of those who sin by offering Himself fully as man to cover and forgive your sin. You might remember the very first piece of Tabernacle furniture you encountered on this Journey of Transition through the Three Dark Nights was the Brazen Altar - where sins are forgiven.

Restraint is an attribute of God that few consider. When God, as the Creator of all things you could wipe out all He hates, and make no mistake about it, God hates sin, it takes true power to restrain oneself.

THE CREATOR’S POWER OVER THAT WHICH HE CREATED

Yes, Omnipotence is not just about power to restrain oneself. Right on the tail of restraint is another aspect of Omnipotence that we seldom think about. You see, as the only creator, God knows the infinitesimally smallest thing about you - after all He made it. Inherent in that knowledge is how to take you apart and/or overpower you and He would not have to lift a finger to do it - He would simply think it and it would happen.

SUBTLE POWER

Another aspect of Omnipotence is that of subtle power. As mentioned above, subtle power is the ability to not even move a finger to cause anything to happen - just think it and at the speed of thought it is done. It makes one hope He does not think the wrong thought - and of course He won’t.

RAW POWER

Yet in consideration of the entirety of the above, there is still the aspect of Omnipotence that is spectacular and full of grandeur. That aspect is the expression of His power. Oh how we humans love that panoramic display of raw power. It is what you long to have. It draws the lost to Him, it overcomes the most hostile of spirits, it demolishes that which stands in His way. It is what heals the sick, raises the dead, cleanses the leper, and casts out every demon.

Raw power, it made Kings tremble when God’s people marched into their land. It would do so today - if only … . Well, that is why I write what I write. We have been so culturally anesthetized that we think the life we live is worthy of such endowment. Sadly, if God gave us that level of power today He would end up judging us tomorrow for the pride and arrogance we carried from the adulation of the people who so admire us they would do anything we asked just to be near us. It seems that long gone are the days when men of God tore their garments when the people thought too highly of them. But, that is another topic.

THE BREADTH OF OMNIPOTENCE

Like it or not, at the early and immature stages of our walk with God, it is the raw power of God that creates faith in our heart. Faith that we win, faith that the evil one will not overwhelm us, faith that in His power, God has created another home for us to forever reside in. As we mature, we do not lose that faith in His raw power, but our faith broadens to become more, far more than that. And when it does, we will truly become Romans eight - children of God - not just theoretical children of God. I fear that today we treat God’s power as theory or some level just shy of fact. That too is another topic - but it drives me to keep writing these posts. Some day, one day, we will cast off these cultural restraints and God will reveal His Deity at levels we cannot currently appreciate. It will take a passion, a self-discipline, and perseverance greater than most have to day to witness it.

Omnipotence? I am alive today because of it.

Blessings,

John Paul

Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the morning,

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there Your hand shall lead me,

And Your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”

Even the night shall be light about me;

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,

But the night shines as the day;

The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

Psa. 139:7-12

Standing before these four Golden Pillars is a planned “pause” by the Lord. Here we reassess our humanity in light of His deity. We see our smallness in light of His greatness, our weakness in light of His Strength, and our temporal nature in light of His Eternal nature. All this is meant to help us grasp the mere fringe of His Deity. The Gold covering of these four Pillars is meant to remind us of the perfect purity of each of His Eternal attributes. Two Pillars of which we have processed, and there are two others to understand.

THE THIRD PILLAR

The Third Pillar of God’s Deity is His Omnipresence. Meaning there is not a place inside or outside of creation where He is not present. Think of it this way, if God were to be some place that He has never been four things would be known about His Deity.

• First, there is something outside or beyond Him. If there is something outside of Him then that something is grander and greater than He. In other words that something has no boundary and God has boundary. Thus that which is unbounded is greater.

• Second, by the fact that He is someplace He has not been then you would know that God must be still learning. To be someplace you have not been is to, by definition, learn that which you have not seen or known before. Thus God would not be Omniscient nor Immutable because to change location is in itself change and to see what you have not seen is to learn.

• Third, God would not be Eternal. Why? Because to be Eternal is to exist tomorrow, today, and yesterday simultaneously. If God does not exist in all of these three at the same moment then He is bound by time and that would make time outside of God and thus make time pre-existent to God. That would give God a boundary where He is not and in so doing make time greater than God.

• Fourth, to be Omnipresent must mean that one must be boundariless - I know there is no such word as “boundariless” I made it up (smile). But, it works! God must pre-exist everything that exists or has ever existed - visible and invisible.

THERE IS NO PLACE THAT GOD IS NOT

The Psalmist understood that there is no place that God is not. There is only a difference in the measure of His presence. God Himself determines that measure, which is in one accord with His self-existent ways.

In His Omnipresence, He is present with you and present with all your generations before you and after you - all at the same time. Remember all of time is simultaneous to God. Therefore God could be present with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and with Elijah and Moses at the same moment. Did you ever wonder how God brought them to the mount?

If God is not Omnipresent then He would have had to leave Jesus with Peter, James, and John to go back in time to retrieve Moses and Elijah in order to bring them to the mountain. That would make God a time traveler, but not make Him Deity.

And so we now discover how God can be the God of the living and not the dead yet simultaneously be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ ? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Matthew 22:32

In addition, that would have also told us a few things about God’s Omnipotence - which we will discuss in another post.

Why is this important to you? Because, God is always there. He is watching you, aiding you, protecting you, and preparing you to be a habitation of the most high. You are never, never forgotten, and you are never, never alone.

Blessings,

John Paul