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Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: (Exodus 12:3) |
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There are many types, or symbols, or illustrations, however you wish to refer to them, in the Old Testament. They give concrete expression to the spiritual realities of the new covenant. |
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We have identified four major types: |
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The seven feasts of the Lord. |
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The seven furnishings of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. |
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The seven days of creation. |
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The seven stages of the journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. |
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Each of these four great types tells us something about God's plan of redemption. God's plan of redemption begins when we are in the moral image of Satan and have Satan's spirit working in us. God's plan of redemption concludes when we are in the image of Jesus Christ, in spirit, soul, and body and living in untroubled rest in God through Christ. |
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God's plan of redemption can be viewed in seven steps. These seven steps are not seven rungs on a ladder but as seven facets of one diamond. The diamond is Christ and so when you have Christ you have all of God's redemption. But it is in the working out that we encounter the seven stages of development. |
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Okay so far? Review if you need to. |
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The first feast of the Lord is Passover. The first furnishing of the Tabernacle was the Altar of Burnt Offering. The first of the days of creation was the giving of light. The first stage of Israel's journey was the exodus from Egypt. |
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Do you see how we did that? |
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Taken together we have a picture of redemption. We begin the plan of redemption when we accept the blood of God's passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, as the covering that protects us when God judges the demon gods of the world. |
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We begin the plan of redemption when we come to the Altar of Burnt Offering. We bow our knee at the cross of Jesus Christ and confess we cannot save ourselves. God will meet man only at Calvary. If we are too proud to humble ourselves and come to Calvary we cannot even begin the journey of redemption. |
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We begin the plan of redemption when God speaks light into our soul and we see the Lamb of God hanging on the cross of Calvary. If we accept the Spirit's gentle invitation we move into the plan of redemption and the light is separated from the darkness in us. |
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We begin the plan of redemption when we leave Egypt, the spirit of this present world. We must make up our mind once and for all that this world is not our home and we desire to enter the Kingdom of God. |
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Since we now are going to march through the remaining six stages of redemption, make sure you understand what we have written thus far. Go back over it until you see what we are getting at. |
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To be continued. |
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Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. (Exodus 30:18) |
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The second feast of the Lord is Unleavened Bread. The second furnishing of the Tabernacle was the Laver. The second day of creation was the dividing of the waters by means of the firmament of heaven. The second stage of Israel's journey was the crossing of the Red Sea. |
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When we accept Christ we must put away the leaven of malice and wickedness in which we lived while part of the world spirit. Another figure is that of circumcision. For us to be part of God's Israel we must be willing for God to cut away the fleshly impulses of our heart. We must experience a circumcision of the heart if we are to enter God's covenant. |
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The Laver speaks of our death and resurrection in water baptism and also of the washing of our personality by the Word of God. When we go down into the water of baptism we are entering the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. |
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As we read the Scriptures the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. Then we are to confess our sin so that God may forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is a continuing program by which we wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb. |
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The dividing of the waters portrays what happens to us when we receive Christ. Heaven in the form of Jesus Christ enters our personality. Heaven divides between our spiritual life and the carnal, animal life of our soul and flesh. The unsaved person is one chaotic mass in terms of the Divine redemption. The individual who receives Christ enters the separating of the carnal and the spiritual, thus making him or her, for a season, a divided personality. |
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This is why Christian people often act in foolish ways when compared with a disciplined worldly person. We sometimes find more competence in professional people who are unconverted than we do in Christian professionals. |
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When you tear down a machine in order to rebuild it you lose the use of the machine for a season. So it is that we Christians are being taken apart that we may be reassembled in time to come. And so we often behave in a silly, undisciplined manner. |
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Christians are usually decent people but we must remember that a division has taken place in our personality. We must be careful we do not fall into a gap of lawlessness in which we are under neither the Law of Moses nor the law of the Spirit of Life. |
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A baptism of fire is near for us Christians. When it happens to you, hold on. God is ready to bring you to a higher position in the program of redemption. |
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The new Christian must go through the Red Sea, so to speak. Jesus Christ is holding back the waters of death so you may pass through safely. When the water closes, Satan, who is trying to follow you, will drown so to speak. What comes up on the other side is the beginning of a new personality. |
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To be continued. |
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And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. (Genesis 1:9) |
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The third feast of the Lord is firstfruits. The third furnishing of the Tabernacle was the Table of Showbread. The third of the days of creation was the appearing of vegetation. The third stage of Israel's journey was the arrival of the Jews on the east bank of the Red Sea and the beginning of the march through the wilderness. |
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The feast of firstfruits notifies us that we have been born again. Our new inner nature has been raised to the right hand of God in Christ. The fruits of righteous behavior begin to appear on the face of our "land." |
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The Table of Showbread (Bread of the Presence) signifies the new Life of Christ that is in our personality. It is the Substance of the Divine Nature. Through the Virtue of it we are able to overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. |
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On the third day of creation the waters were gathered together to one place and the dry land appeared. This made possible the appearance of vegetation. Again, this is a portrayal of the born-again experience. The fruit God is looking for in mankind, which is the moral image of Jesus Christ, is seen in our life for the first time. This marks the beginning of our transformation into the image of Christ. |
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Israel now stood on the east bank of the Red Sea, ready to begin the march through the wilderness. Egypt, the known, was behind them. Their destination was Canaan, the land of promise, the place of milk and honey, the area that did not have to be irrigated from the Nile but drank of the plentiful rain from the sky. |
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But between the Jews and the milk and honey lay a forbidding desert of sand and rock under a blazing sun. |
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So it is with us. Our goal is to be in the image of Christ and to be living in untroubled rest in the Father through Christ. But between us and the Glory of God Almighty at whose right hand are eternal pleasures lies a spiritual desert of sand and rock under a blazing sun. |
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Sometimes the Gospel is preached today as though we are going to fly to Paradise on flowery beds of ease, as the old hymn has it. But it may turn out that instead of moseying through flowery beds of ease we may find ourselves sailing through bloody seas. |
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But God will send us manna every day—grace for the day. |
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We have emerged from the death of the cross and now, in our reborn spiritual nature, are at the right hand of God, far above every other authority and power. Satan, the world, our flesh, our self-will, will seek continually to tear us down from our exalted position, to take from us our crown of life and righteousness. |
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If we are not diligent these forces of darkness may succeed! |
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But if we will keep our eyes on Jesus we will arrive finally at the fullness of God. There is no power that can take us out of Jesus' hand. |
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To be continued. |
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And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:1-3) |
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The fourth feast of the Lord is Pentecost. The fourth furnishing of the Tabernacle was the solid-gold Lampstand. The fourth of the days of creation was the creation of the sun, moon, and stars. The fourth stage of Israel's journey was the giving of the Law. |
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After we believe, repent, are baptized in water, and are born again of the Substance of Christ, we are to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostal outpouring began two thousand years ago and continues every time a believer looks up to God in order to be filled with God's Spirit. |
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The Holy Spirit is God in the Church. He gives and directs the gifts and ministries and also guides and empowers us as we become righteous, holy, and obedient to God in character. |
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No growth in Christ's image is possible apart from the enablement of the Spirit and no ministry is to be conducted apart from the direct supervision and enablement of the Spirit. The reason the churches have accomplished so little of eternal value over the Church Era is that the ministry has been conducted by the will of man rather than the will of the Spirit. |
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The solid-gold Lampstand portrays Christ—Head and Body. This is the Servant of the Lord who will return when Christ comes to maturity in the members of His Body. |
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The fact that the Lampstand is solid-gold tells us that no part of the eternal testimony of God comes from the flesh of man. God alone can bear a true witness of His Person, will, way, and eternal purposes in Christ. |
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The fourth day of creation takes us to the heavens. There shines the sun (Christ), the moon (the Bride of the Lamb), and the stars (the victorious saints of all ages). The light of Christ, of the Bride, and of the victorious saints comes from the Spirit of God. The term Christ means the One anointed with the Spirit of God. |
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Jewish tradition informs us that the Israelites came to Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day after the Passover. The term Pentecost is related in the Greek language to the number fifty. |
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To this day the Jews celebrate the giving of the Law on the annual celebration of Pentecost. |
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One of the great errors of current Christian thinking is that Christians are under no law. This is not true. It indeed is a fact that we no longer are under the Law of Moses when we count ourselves crucified with Christ. |
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But if we would be free from the law of sin and death, which is the interaction between our flesh and the Law of Moses, we must obey the law of the Spirit of Life in Jesus Christ. The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ is a far stricter law than that given to Moses. |
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The Holy Spirit descended as a Dove on Jesus because there is no sin in Jesus. But the Holy Spirit descended on the early believers as tongues of fire. This is because there still is sin in us. It is the Holy Spirit who deals with the sin that is in us. |
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The Holy Spirit, working by the authority of the blood of Jesus, leads us in putting to death the deeds of our sinful flesh. We are baptized with the fire of Divine judgment. If we cooperate with the Spirit of God, following Him faithfully in every aspect of life, He will set us free from the law of sin and death working in the members of our body. |
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To be continued. |
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Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:24) |
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The fifth feast of the Lord is the Blowing of Trumpets. The fifth furnishing of the Tabernacle was the Altar of Incense. The fifth of the days of creation marked the beginning of animal life. The fifth stage of Israel's journey included the constructing of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and the organizing of Israel into an army. |
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A part of the Christian Church has been at Pentecost, so to speak, since the early part of this century. The Pentecostal movement has been expanding since the middle of the century and is now termed Charismatic. |
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But the Ark is never stationary for long. God now is moving ahead to the Blowing of Trumpets. |
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The Blowing of Trumpets is the coming of the Lord of Hosts to declare war against His enemy. It is the beginning of the end for Satan and His followers. |
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We notice an increase in war choruses, the waving of banners, the playing of tambourines in a militant manner. The Holy Spirit is pointing us toward war and judgment, the war and judgment that will attain their climax at Armageddon. |
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To the individual believer it means that Christ is ready to wage war against the sin in his nature. All worldliness, lust, and self-will must be brought forth, judged, and put to death. |
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The believer cannot do this alone. Christ will not do it alone. It is the sword of the Lord and of Gideon if there is to be total victory. |
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The number five is symbolic of entrance into the Kingdom. We find the Altar of Incense, the fifth furnishing of the Tabernacle, at the entrance to the Holy of Holies. After we move past the Lampstand (Pentecost) we are faced with the prospect of death to our self-will, a difficult death indeed! Death to self is more demanding on us than death to sin because it deals with what we are, whereas death to sin has to do with forces alien to us—the sin that has entered our personality, particularly our flesh. |
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The fifth day of creation produced the beginning of animal life—fish and birds. After we are filled with God's Spirit and move forward in the Lord, Christ begins to be formed in the depths of our personality (the fish). Also we become increasingly aware of life in the heavens (the birds). We are becoming a new humanity, a humanity that is thoroughly of man and thoroughly of God, just like our Lord. It is not enough to have a spiritual life in the heavens. We also must have integrity and strength in the inner part of our personality. |
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As we follow the Lord the great "whales" of solid character, courage, integrity, judgment, are created in our personality as well as an infinite variety of lesser "fish." We become a new humanity, solid in transformed human character and well acquainted with and a participant in life in the heavenlies. |
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The fifth stage in the journey of Israel was the construction of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and the forming of Israel into an army. During the last fifty years we have witnessed an unprecedented emphasis on the Body of Christ (the Tabernacle) and a call to war (the forming of the army of the Lord). |
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We used to sing "Sweet Hour of Prayer." Now it is "Summon Thy Power O God!" |
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This is just the beginning! |
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To be continued. |
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And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26) |
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The sixth feast of the Lord is the Day of Atonement. The sixth furnishing of the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant. The sixth of the days of creation emphasized the creation of man. The sixth stage of Israel's journey was the series of battles to subdue the land. |
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The Day of the Atonement (Yom Kippor) is the most solemn day of the Jewish year. The ten days from the Blowing of Trumpets to the Day of Atonement are known as The Days of Awe. This is because of the belief that God judges the world during this period. |
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It has been almost fifty years now that the Lord spoke to a certain Bible student and said, "The Day of Atonement portrays the judgment of the Church." |
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Having no knowledge either of the feasts of the Lord or the judgment of the Church the student was mystified but realized it was the Lord. The following forty-nine years have proven the truth of the message. |
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There is no question but that God is ready to judge His people in America and throughout the world. Wherever people are willing to confess their sins and turn away from them the Presence of God is experienced. |
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We need in our day, perhaps as never before, a tremendous conviction of sin to come upon the churches. Perhaps if we call on the Lord for rain in the time of latter rain we will have the outpouring of Glory and judgment that we are hoping for. The Glory of God is highly desirable. So is conviction of sin if our nation is to be saved from destruction. |
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But should we experience a marvelous revival of Divine Glory and conviction of sin, the final results will be disappointing if the outpouring of the Spirit is not followed by sound doctrine, the doctrine that Divine grace is an enablement of righteousness and not an alternative to righteousness. |
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It is taught today that we stand in grace such that we ought to do good but God sees us through Jesus and so we are without condemnation whether or not we sin. If you think about it, such a warped understanding of grace provides no real basis for repentance. |
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True, lasting revival must have a sound, scriptural foundation under it. We must come to understand that God does not see us through Jesus, God actually sees our sins. Godly behavior is not a "nice" thing we do when we feel like it or during seasons of refreshing. Godly behavior is the only valid evidence of salvation and is itself salvation. |
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The sixth furnishing of the Tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark, containing the memorial jar of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the Ten Commandments (which we have discussed previously), represents perfected Christian character. |
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On the sixth day of creation man was made in the image of God. |
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The sixth episode of the journey of Israel was preparations for invasion and the actual invasion of the land of promise. So it is with us that as we experience the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement we bring the Ark of God's Covenant, so to speak, against the worldliness, lust, and self-will in our personality, and in the Day of Christ will bring God's holy Person and ways against the demons of the world. |
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If you are a saved, Spirit-filled individual you may noticed that the Spirit of God is making you aware of the sin in your personality. You are to judge these behaviors as sin and resist them by the Spirit of God. In this manner you become reconciled to God's Person in actuality rather than just legally by ascribed righteousness. |
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To be continued. |
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Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. (Leviticus 23:34) |
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The seventh feast of the Lord is Tabernacles. The seventh furnishing of the Tabernacle was the solid-gold Mercy Seat. The seventh day of creation is God's rest. The seventh stage of Israel's journey was rest in the land of promise. |
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The three great symbols of Judaism are the Altar of blood sacrifice, the Lampstand, and the Booth. |
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The Altar of blood sacrifice tells us that God will meet man only through the blood of the cross of Jesus. |
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The Lampstand informs us that it is God's will that every saved individual think, speak, and act in God's Spirit. |
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The Booth portrays the eternal purpose of God—that man become the eternal dwelling place of God. We were brought into existence that God might have a living temple through which He can relate to His creation. Man is the eternal throne of God, the chariot of God. |
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Every human personality contains a throne room. When we come to Christ King Self is on that throne. But Christ, and God in Him, wants to sit on the throne of our life. |
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Much pain is required for most of us before we can get King Self off the throne. But it is of the essence of the Kingdom of God that God sit on the throne. There is only one legitimate will in the universe—God's will. |
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After God in Christ has been established firmly and eternally on the throne of our personality we are invited to sit with Them in Their throne. This is the rest of God, the goal of redemption. |
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The feast of Tabernacles portrays the rest of God. Man was created to enjoy God forever in the booth of his own person. When we open the door to the knocking Christ we sit down at the table and eat His flesh and drink His blood. This is how we marry the Lamb. This is how we are raised from the dead. |
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The Mercy Seat of the Tabernacle of the Congregation is the end of our quest. Jesus is not the way to Heaven but to the Father. To go to Heaven would satisfy no one. (It didn't satisfy Satan or his followers!) Only God Himself finally can satisfy the longing of each soul. Human fulfillment is possible only in the Person of God. |
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On the seventh day God rested. There were no evening and morning because the rest of God is eternal. |
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The people of God did not attain perfection when Joshua brought Israel into the land of Canaan. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. |
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The Jewish Sabbath is a portrayal of the eternal rest into which the Christian is called, the rest where we do not think our own thoughts, speak our own words, practice our own behavior. We are to think, speak, and act in the Person of God through His Spirit. This is how Jesus lives. This is how we are to live for eternity. This is the transcendent fulfillment of the Sabbath. |
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A mark has been set before you. The mark is that you be in Christ's image, body, soul, and spirit and abide forever in untroubled rest in God through Christ. |
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Is this what you truly want? |
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It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. |
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