Holy Place

Thank You Jesus:

We have been studying the Tabernacle that God gave the Israelites when they were wandering in the wilderness after having come out of the terrible bondage to the Egyptians for over 400 years. He showed Moses the plans for the Tabernacle as a means of giving them a way to come into His presence to have their sins forgiven. The Tabernacle represented so many things in the Word of God for us today. It was an ever-present place where the Spirit of God dwelled so they could see that He was always present with them.

We have come through the gates with thanksgiving. We have entered the outer court and dealt with our sins at the Brazen Altar. We then came to the Brass Laver to wash ourselves clean through baptism and the washing of water with the Word of God. We discovered that the outer court represents our souls which consists of our minds, wills and emotions. The Holy of Holies is where the Spirit of God rules and reigns. There is no room for the fleshy here.

This month we will enter into the Holy Place which is hidden behind a door. Before we enter here, let me say this is where we must get serious with the Lord. This is the place where we deal with our minds, our wills and our emotions. This is the place where we learn to grow up and renew our minds to reflect our Lord’s nature rather than our old ways of thinking and catering to our flesh.

Before we enter the Tabernacle, I would like to point out something to each of us. The priests were the only ones who were allowed to go beyond the outer court. Even they went in and out on a daily basis. This is a very point. Those of us who have been born again have been made priests in the eyes of God (Revelation 1:6 and Revelation 5:10). Though we are talking about the Old Testament Tabernacle, we are living in this day and age under the New Testament covenant. None of us are able to live the perfect life before God. We all go in and out of the Holy Place because we live in a fallen world. So, it is necessary to see that we get stained out there and need to go back to repentance and washing with the Word to stay clean. We need to stay in His Word and listen to His Spirit each day in order to live. The Bible puts it very clearly in Deuteronomy 8:3 and Jesus used it when He was being tempted by satan: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

So, as we live in the world outside the gate of the Tabernacle, we need to realize that there are people today who will not understand us. They can’t see the Holy Place unless they are born again. We are not to lord it over them, but we are to pray for them and ask God for the salvation of their souls. This includes guards and wardens. They have a tough job. I always urge each of you to pray for them, no matter what they say or do. God would that none should perish and go to hell. As we enter the Holy Place, we see the golden candlestick on our left. This is the only light in the Holy Place. It was never allowed to go out. On our right we see the table of show bread, which we will study next month. Directly in front of us is the golden altar of incense.

All the pieces in the Holy Place are made of gold or wood overlaid with gold. There is no more brass in here. Brass represents judgment. Our sins were judged at the Brazen Altar and cleansed at the Brass Laver. Wood represents our human nature. Gold represents the pureness of our God. Gold overlaid over wood shows us that we are now seen in God’s eyes as forgiven children of our loving God. He doesn’t see the wood underneath any more because it is covered with the pureness of gold. In other words, He sees the inner person of the heart once we have accepted Him as our Savior. He sees the perfected spirit of each one of us through the blood that Jesus shed for us.

So now that we have entered the Holy Place, we will look at what the Golden Candlestick represented. The branches of the candlestick were shaped in almond flowers representing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It also represents the fruitfulness of our ministry here on earth. The branches were to be all of one piece attached to the stem. We are the branches and Jesus is the stem (John 15:1). We are to be one with Him in the Spirit, but separate branches each with our own ministry, testimony and calling while we are here on earth.

The lamps were to be filled with pure oil from beaten olives. It was never allowed to go out (Leviticus 24: 1-4). The lamp stand also represents the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is to be kept perpetually alive. It sheds light on the rest of the Holy Place, particularly the show bread, which is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit illumines the mind of mankind and gives revelation light to the Word of God.

While the outer court represents the body, the Holy Place represents the soul of man. The Holy of Holies represents the spirit of man. In the soul of man resides the mind, the will and emotions. The mind is represented by the golden candlestick. The table of show bread represents the will of man, and the altar of incense represents the emotions of man (These are great studies and we will get into them in the next couple of issues).

A picture of the lamp stand is shown in Revelation 1:12-13. Picture the lamp stand here as the stem being Jesus standing in the middle with all the seven churches burning with the light of the Glory of God. The seven churches represent the born again believers, all ablaze with the fire and light of the Glory of God illuminating God’s will on the Earth. We are to be the fruit-bearing witnesses here on Earth with the Glory of God shining in and through us to bring those we come in contact with into the kingdom of God.

The lamp stand was to be of beaten gold. The mind needs to be beaten with the Word of God, molded and shaped by the power of the Holy Spirit in each one of us. As Romans 12:2 states it: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Our minds all need to be renewed with the Word of God (the table of show bread) so we can prove what the will of God is in this day we live in.

Let’s compare our minds to that of the caterpillar and the butterfly. Our minds are to be transformed. That word means “metamorphosis”. That is the same word that is used to describe a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. The carnal mind is ugly in the site of God, much like a caterpillar is to us. The Word of God turns our minds into beautiful butterflies as we meditate on it and pray it over our circumstances. Then, the Word of God tells us in I Corinthians 2:16 that we have the mind of Christ dwelling in us if we are born again. Our spirits are the part of us that have been born again. Our spirits are now pure, clean and holy. The attributes of God now dwell in our born again spirits. That includes all the power, love, joy, peace and the fullness of God. We have the mind of Christ within us now. The problem is we can only draw on the power within God’s power within us as we get our minds renewed with the Word of God. Now there are many people who become born again and stay in the outer court. They stay in that condition never to enter into all that God has for them because they do not seek anything further. Some stay in the Holy Place. They have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, renewed their mind with the word of God and offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God, but they never venture to go into the presence of God. This requires laying down everything for Him. I, for one, want all that God has for me. How about you?

Our minds are roadblocks to the things of God, unless we choose by an act of our will to go on. The mind rejects what the Spirit of God is saying. It is an enemy against God’s Word and His will. That is why the mind must be beaten with the Word of God until it is renewed and molded to think like the mind of Christ that is in us. The carnal mind cannot enter into the Holy of Holies where God resides.

As we read and meditate on God’s Word, the Holy Spirit (Golden Candlestick) unites with that word and sheds light upon it to bring to pass those things that God has ordained for us. There are so many things He has for us. We see many promises in His Word, but they don’t manifest in our lives without the renewed mind and the power of the Holy Spirit.

We only believe what has been fed into our minds. If we feed our minds on the things of the world, we will think like the world. IF we feed our minds with the Word of God, we will think like God thinks. It is just that simple. We can’t believe beyond the knowledge we have in us.

We have all been given the same measure of faith. However, faith grows only by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Faith isn’t a feeling. Feelings are in the realm of the soul and the devil has access to our souls through the mind. So we must overcome the devil. As w renew our minds with the Word of God, we push the devil and his thoughts and ways out. Faith grows; and faith is in the realm of the Spirit of God. The devil has no access to that realm.

So, we are to exercise and use the Word to grow our faith. As faith grows, it is easier and easier to win the every day battles in our minds and the carnal mind shuts up. As we say what God’s Word says, we are taking the sword of the spirit (which is the Word of God) to our carnal minds, shutting it down and replacing it with the mind of Christ that is in us.

The Spirit of God within us tries to give us all the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. Every promise in the Bible is ours. However, our carnal minds reject His Word and cause us to miss out on what God wants to give us. That keeps us in the outer court…unable to see the true light and glory of God.

The Holy Spirit comes to us through the Word of God. He also speaks to us through other people. He speaks inwardly all the time, but our carnal minds shut Him out most of the time. He is a gentleman. He does not roar or holler at us. He speaks in a still, small voice inside our conscience.

The battlefield is in the mind. Things we have been taught must be beaten out of us and replaced with the Word of God. We have all suffered rejection in our lives. We have all suffered pain, feelings of unworthiness, inadequacy and insecurity. Do you know why? Because we have not learned what God’s word says about us.

God put within each one of us a desire to fill that empty place that has caused us to search for something to fulfill us. Until we are born again, that empty place remains. No matter how much money, things, or the positions we obtain in this world, that empty place is still there. There is a yearning inside each of us to know God. He put it there to draw us to Him.

When we are born again and accept Jesus into our hearts, that place is instantly filled. It is the most wonderful feeling. We have a peace that passes all understanding. Then as we seek to know God, He opens His Word up to us. Have you ever had a hard time understanding and believing the Word of God? That is because only when you make Him the Lord of your life by accepting what Jesus did for you on the cross, He will open His Word up to you. Before that, He keeps it shut. You cannot understand it or believe it without being born again.

If you don’t know Him and even if you do, I suggest you pray this prayer today and accept Him and His word into your life. Let the Holy Spirit come into your heart and make you a brand new creature in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17). Pray:

“Father, I come to You today and ask you to save me. I believe Jesus died and shed His blood for my sins on the cross so I could be born again and become one of Your children. I repent for all the sins I have committed, even in the last few days, and ask You to forgive me and help me to live for You. I choose this day to forgive those who have hurt me in the past and to start a brand new life in You. I thank You now that You have heard this prayer and that I am forgiven and a born again child of Yours. I pray this in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen!”

If you just prayed that prayer from your heart, you are now a born again child of the living God of the Universe. He is your Father and you are His son or daughter. He is the one who created us all and He now resides in your spirit. Please let me know if you have made this decision for the first time. I want to send you something to help you continue in His word. This is the most important decision you have ever made in your life. You are no longer a child of the devil on your way to eternal separation from God. You are now on your way to heaven. Eternal life has begun in you today. I know you can feel that inside you too. Isn’t that the greatest feeling ever??

So, let’s all renew our minds with God’s Word. The devil wants God’s Word to become unfruitful in us. But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is now inside each of us. As that Word unites with the Candlestick of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit will grow. The fruit of the Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22-23. We can have joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

We must also realize we are in a battle with the devil and his bunch. He will always be out there trying to uproot the Word that is planted in us. The Bible tells us that, “My people perish for the lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6) So, we must stay close to His Word and pray with His Spirit so we can discover the truths that are found in His Word. That is when we get the victories in our lives. Don’t let your candlestick go out.

God bless you until we meet again,
Mom