Faith

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MISSING THE MARK:
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Sometimes, you can do some really dumb things that are not pleasing to God, your heavenly Father. Things you’re not aware of at the time. You don’t intend to mess up, but you do so because these unpleasing things are a part of the sin nature you were born with. Like Paul said, ‘there’s a war in my members. The things I want to do, I don’t do. And the things I don’t want to do, those are the things I end up doing” (Romans 7:15-25). I know how he felt, don‘t you?

I was made even more aware of this recently by the Holy Spirit when I was asked to go and be a part of something that I really didn’t care to do. Instead of just simply saying, “I don’t care to at this time,” I made excuse. God had dealt with me a few years back about, “no more excuses.” I thought I had been more conscious and had made progress in not giving excuse only to discover by the Holy Spirit that I still had a long ways to go yet.

We’re instructed from God’s Word to let our ‘yes be yes, and our no be no.’ If we add anything else to it then we end up making excuse which is nothing more than a thin-skinned lie. In Eph.4:25, God has told us to “put away lying” since we’re born again children of His, and speak the truth to every person because we‘re all members of one another. That means, “no more excuses.”

When I realized what I had done I felt instant sorrow in my heart because I knew the excuse I made had grieved the Holy Spirit. It had caused hurt to my Father’s heart. I know it was a useless thing to do but this made me so upset with myself because I knew better. At the same time, it also made me even more aware of how utterly helpless I am in my own strength to subdue my flesh and bring it into subjection to my spirit. It made me more aware of my total dependence upon God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to help me gain victory in this particular war. I’m more aware than ever of my total dependence on God’s Word and the blood of Jesus to overcome through His power working in me as I release it by faith.

My true heart’s desire is to please my heavenly Father, not hurt Him and cause Him grief. When I was shown the excuse I’d made and that I had not been truthful with this person, I so wanted to rip out of me this evil heart. I cried out to have the heart of Jesus operating more fully in me, while throwing myself at His feet and crying out for mercy and forgiveness. Crying out for purity and holiness. Not only did I have to repent and ask for forgiveness, but I had to receive my forgiveness by faith. Plus, I had to forgive myself for messing up---for missing the mark.

God is faithful and just to forgive us when we confess our sin and repent. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness with the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:9). Praise the Lord! Peace settles back in around your heart with the realization that you are learning and you are growing in Jesus because the Holy Spirit is patiently teaching you through His love. Not condemnation (Romans 8:1). You’re learning by the Holy Spirit teaching you how to allow Jesus to live His victorious life through you.

I’m continually learning to do as Paul said in Phil.3:14-15, “to put those things (the past mess-up’s) behind me so they won’t be a hindrance and I determine to press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” How about you? You may be wondering what all of this has to do with the ‘most holy place’ well, read on and it will begin to make sense to you.

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THE TABERNACLE:
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In the book of Exodus when Moses was on Mount Siani with God, he was given the blue print for building the Tabernacle of God. He received explicit details in how to make a dwelling place for God so that He could come among His people. In it’s construction, the Tabernacle
(or Temple) has an outer court, an inner court and the holy of holies. It’s also referred to as that most holy place where dwelled the presence of God behind a veil. Aaron, who served as priest, ministered unto the Lord. He would go into the holy of holies once a year to make atonement with the blood of animals for the sins of the Israelite people.

Just as the literal Tabernacle was made up of three parts, so is the human being a tri-part being made up of spirit, soul and body. The body representing the outer court. The soul representing the inner court, and the spirit representing the holy of holies. Since Jesus came as the Word made flesh and went to the cross, God now dwells in human tabernacles by His Holy Spirit “Know ye not that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?” The blood has been applied to our hearts and the Holy Spirit has made us alive unto God once again. Where is His dwelling place in the human tabernacle? The spirit---the holy of holies.

Aaron, as priest, is a figure of Jesus as our High Priest, who makes intercession at the right hand of God, the Father for us. Jesus came to earth as an intercessor because God looked and could find no man to be an intercessor to stand in the gap for His people. Therefore, He sent His own Arm (Jesus) to bring salvation to His people, and righteousness sustained Him (Isaiah 59:16). As blood-washed, born again children of God, we’ve all been called to carry on the ministry of Jesus here in the earth. Romans 5:19 says, “To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation.”

We pick up our part and co-labor with Jesus in His ministry of intercession (Heb,7:25). When Jesus ascended to the Father to sit on His right hand, He was still an intercessor and He continues to make intercession for all people today. He never stopped being an intercessor. Our highest honor and privilege as Christian’s is to be a co-laborer with Jesus in His ministry of intercession. We co-labor with Him. He does not co-labor with us by us presenting our agenda’s to Him and asking Him to bless it. We, as His children, are to be in obedience to Him. He is not in obedience to us.

Revelation 1:6 says, “And has made us kings and priests unto God, and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” We are a kingdom of priests who minister unto the Lord through our High Priest, Jesus Christ (Heb.3:1). And 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people (God’s own); that you should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” I say it again, there is no higher calling than this. Every miracle Jesus did in His earthly ministry flowed out of His ministry of prophetic intercession before the Father. In this same respect, it will not work any different for us than it did for Jesus.

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THE OUTER COURT:
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With everything there must be a starting place and to move into the Temple (Kingdom) of God, it all begins with the new birth. “For by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves, lest any man should boast; it is the gift of God” (Eph.2:8). Through the new birth and being made the righteousness of God, you enter into the ‘outer court’ of the Temple. “For He has made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”
(II Cor.5:21).

You’re a new baby in Christ now, wandering around the Temple grounds and looking over things from the outer court. This is the place where you’re on the milk of God’s Word as new born babies and needing this kind of nourishment. And at this point you’re still a carnal Christian being ruled by the desires of the flesh. New born babies are only concerned with themselves and their comforts and they often cry, “I want what I want when I want it, and I want it right now!” This is the place of being self-absorbed and self-centered.

It is here in the outer court that you tend to lean to your own understanding and rely on human wisdom instead of God’s wisdom. You want the reigns to control and reason out all matters in your life. You have been cleansed of past sins and you have relationship with God now. That is, you are His righteousness but you’re still far from Him. In the outer court there is no intimate fellowship with God, your heavenly Father. There is only relationship through the blood of Jesus and the new birth experience. It is here that your main concern is for your own needs and prayer can become mechanical and be religious repetitions.

Here, you have no sense of accountability and no real sense of destiny for your life. For the time being you’re content to have made it to the outer court of the Temple of God. But there does come the time on down the road when you begin to have a sense of destiny and accountability. You know there is more and you’re no longer satisfied to stay in this shallow place of religiosity and unfulfillment. You’ve become dissatisfied where you are now and not only do you want to be cleansed but you want to be changed. You desire to be pure and holy. When you get to this point, you’re a candidate to move up to the next level of faith---the inner court.

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THE INNER COURT:
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I’ll come back to the outer court in a few moments, but first, I want to look at the inner court of the Temple. And this is not an in-depth study on the Tabernacle but more of an observation of certain stages of our Christian growth as it relates to us as being tri-part beings going after the fullness of God. And this kind of fullness can only be known by coming to that place to soak in His presence. Meanwhile, don’t be surprised when after you have moved into the inner court, the holy place, that you find yourself in a state of uncomfortableness. You may very well find yourself in a state of conflict where the war between spirit and soul rages. Just as the outer court is the realm of the flesh, the inner court is the realm of the soul. It is a place where both flesh and spirit dwells.


It is here that you begin to truly sense the presence of the Lord Jesus. You learn a sense of His nearness to you. The Spirit bears witness with your spirit more clearly. This is a place where the Holy Spirit begins to permeate everything you are, everything you think and everything you do. It is here that you begin learning to let go of the reigns of control and to follow His leading in obedience. It is here that you begin learning humility by accepting His help to do those things you can‘t do alone. This is the place where Jesus heals you and delivers you and reveals Himself to you more than when you were in the outer court. The Holy Spirit delights in revealing Jesus more fully to you. God delights in His children and it’s His great pleasure to answer prayer.

He once said to me, “You’re My delight, and the joy of My heart. I delight in all of My children. They are all a joy to My heart.” I had told Jesus that He was a joy to me and that I had so enjoyed spending time with Him on this particular day. What He told me was so precious that I began to cry for the sense of being wrapped up securely in His love. But I was also crying for others and I said, “Oh, Jesus, there are so many of your children that need to know how you feel about them. Many of them do know, but many of them don’t.” He responded and said, “Tell them.”And so I have.

This is what God, the Father did when Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan by John and the heavens opened after the Holy Sprit, as a dove, had descended upon Him. God said, “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.” One translated version makes it clear that God was saying, His Son was His delight. As God’s sons and daughter’s, through the new birth experience, we are also the delight of our Father.

Do we please Him perfectly as Jesus did? No, we don’t, but because of the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all sin, God has accepted us as His own. He gets rid of the dirty bath water when He cleanses us but He keeps the babies (that's us). Our way is to throw out the baby with the dirty bath water. Thats because we’re not seeing that baby’s potential and destiny beneath all the dirt the way God see’s it. We must have His eyes even more in these last days we‘re in now as well as in the days just ahead of us.

In the inner court, as you begin to see Jesus more clearly and behold Him in the beauty of His holiness and glory, your desires will begin to change. The things you desired before and thought were so important, when they’re brought into the light of the glorious truth of Jesus---those desires will fade away and you will begin to want only His desires. Those selfish desires have now become unimportant in comparison to His. You now long for and desire to come into that most holy place with your heavenly Father. You desire to please Him and bring joy to His heart.

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HIS SWEET PRESENCE:
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Once you’ve moved to the inner court and you begin to spend time in His presence, you will experience some glorious moments with your Lord Jesus. You will discover His love for you in ways you never understood before. His presence is so wonderfully sweet and fulfilling, you could just stay here forever. Your Father does not want you to get so comfortable here in the inner court that you don’t keep seeking Him to go any further in moving into the holy of holies. Yes, you’re seeking the Lord to a degree, but you must continue to press into Him for more or you will end up remaining in the inner court. God doesn’t want you to settle for less than the very best of all He has in store for those who diligently seek to come into that most holy place with him.

I’ve found myself here at this place before. This place where it was so wonderful to have fellowship with Jesus right there in the inner court. I could enjoy Him and His love to a great degree without having to move any further. I could settle here because I was already going in and out of that most holy place as a visitor. I had not come into it to “live.” To come into that “abiding place with Jesus” where I had settled down to live. Some of you find yourselves at this place also. But don’t stop. Don’t get stuck here because there is so much more to receive so keep pressing on.

Then one day, I discover something has changed and I can’t sense that sweet presence of Jesus. When this happened, I felt as if I had been abandoned by a lover and I didn’t know where He had gone (read the Song of Solomon). My heart felt desparate to find Him. I had such a yearning and desire to be with Jesus that I felt like Mary must have when she came to the empty tomb and couldn‘t find the Lord. My heart had such a feeling of incompleteness and my inner cry was for the return of the Lord’s glorious intimate presence. I had such a feeling of loss. Had the Lord Jesus left me? No. He promised in His Word that He would never leave us, nor forsake us. He was as close to me as He ever was. I was being allowed to experience this for God’s purpose and which was for my good.

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FOLLOW AFTER HIS HEART:
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I had the sense that the Lord had withdrawn His conscious presence so I would become desperate enough to seek Him more. So that I would run after Him with all my heart. Have you ever been to this place? That while in the inner court you felt Jesus had suddenly left you? In that place where the Lord withdrew His conscious presence to get you to run after Him because He wanted you to capture His heart? Not only does God want our hearts, but also He wants us to capture His. Sometimes, when you find yourself here in this place, instead of running after Jesus, you allow yourself to become distracted with other things.

Of course, Satan is always around to help you find “busy” things to get involved with that seem good but really they are a plot to get you side-tracked from the Lord’s high calling. I’ve been here in this place too, but all is not lost because the Holy Spirit will begin wooing you again. He will begin by getting you untangled from all the “busyness” that isn’t producing the right kind of life and fruitfulness. He’ll show you that what you thought was good and from Him was merely Satan as an “angel of light” who had come to deceive you. So, what do you do? Repent and put your running shoes on and get back on track, going after Jesus! Follow your true heart that yearns only to capture His heart.

Many of God’s very own people are still looking to win God’s approval of them. The truth is, God can’t approve of you anymore than He does right now because of the blood of Jesus. Eph.1:6, we have been approved of and accepted in the beloved (Jesus). This is where Satan will draw us into so much “busyness” by joining the church choir, passing out tracks on the street corners, or running the nursery, being there every time the church doors open. And if that's not enough, Satan works on you through religious guilt, therefore you pray more, you read more, you learn more Scriptures, which is not all bad. But it’s futile “busy work” when you’re doing these things to get God to accept you and approve you. The good news is, He already has approved of you and has accepted you through the blood of Jesus.

God just wants you to forget the “busy work” and enter into a relationship of trust and rest in Him. By His Holy Spirit, as you yield to Him, He will lead you into your true work for the Lord that will bring glory to Him and fulfillment to you in all areas of your life. And because you now know that you no longer have to “work” to gain your Father’s approval, by His liberating grace, you are free. The light of His love and His Word has made you free and in the place of insecurity, you will walk in a solid inner strength and assurance you never had before. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and “the righteous are bold as lion’s” because they have confidence in the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

When it happened that I felt the Lord had moved far away from me--so far that I couldn’t feel Him near, it was like being disoriented. You momentarily experience what a child feels when they’re in the middle of a crowded store and suddenly, they can’t see “daddy.” Your heart freezes with panic as you begin to frantically search for Him. Then, the Lord showed Himself to me. He had stopped at the end of a sunlit path that led into a beautiful lush garden. The Lord’s Garden.

He was standing at it‘s entrance, eyes aflame and burning with love as He looked in my direction. In that still small voice, He softly began calling my name. As He did, He held out His hand to me in expectancy, beckoning me to join Him there in this garden of delight. This beautiful garden where everything is a reflection of Jesus Himself. The trees, the lovely flowers, the emerald green grass, the sparkling waterfall that is pure light--- all of it speaking of His character and nature, and He was calling me to come there and fellowship with Him. To share in its glory with Him.

As I heard His familiar voice calling my name, it sounded like music to my ears. Like a lilting melody that played across my heart and touched the very depths of my being. “Deep calls unto deep.” His immeasurable love and glory drew me like a magnet. The rich tones of the Lord’s voice made my heart leap inside me with the anticipation of intimate communion with Him in this beautiful garden of delight. Joy filled me through and through as I eagerly made my way to the Love of my life. The Lover of my soul. My Lord and Savior. My all. My Redeemer.


Plain As Day Ministries

Shirley Williams
1-9-03

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