Aug 16
The Dark Night and the Outer Court
First, my goal in these next postings is not to give you a detailed application of the Tabernacle or Tabernacle of Moses plank by plank, column by column, or skin by skin and cloth by cloth, but to give you an idea of the simple grandeur in God’s plan, purpose and ultimate desire for you being displayed in everything He does – truly all of creation speaks of Him.
There are many levels of application of the Tabernacle. There is the application of it to the “City” Abraham looked for, the metaphor to the Garden of Eden and Heaven, the application to the stages the Hebrew Children would go through before they accept the Messiah, the application of it to the stages the Church would go through before the Messiah returns and many, many other applications as well. Again, my goal is to help you learn its application to the stages of purification or sanctification you will go through before True Spirituality will be reached, because each room requires a higher level of purity before one enters the next room.
The tabernacle of Moses was the Tabernacle of the Wilderness. It is here God was longing to remove the sin and carnal nature of the Hebrew children. This had to be washed clean before they could enter the promises of God for them. It is here they hardened their hearts. It is here that they wanted to go back to Egypt.
HOW TO DELAY YOUR DESTINY
In reading the rest of these “Dark Night” postings Please, Please, Please remember this – before each new level of spirituality in God comes, there is always the desire to run back to the sin you are comfortable with. We struggle with old issues, we feel like God sees us as a failure and to prove it we give into the very things we have historically failed at. And so as we see ourselves, we become. When this happens, it is a sure sign that we are not allowing the Purpose of the wilderness to have its intended impact on us.
Usually, we are not that in touch with our motives and trigger points of failure that will later be uncovered. In fact many times we feel we are justified in returning to the sin because of how God is treating us. It make no difference whether it is porn, drugs, lies, stealing, sex, etc. all are a sign we have not let the Tabernacle of the Wilderness have its complete work in us.
Far too often we think the pain of the cross is an injustice, this can’t be God, and we jump down thinking we have escaped the injustice. Again, this does not mean you do not have to go through this, but now you will have to go through it again. You will only find out that you may delay your destiny, but you will never escape the Cross.
In the Outer Court you will want to return to the lust of the flesh. In the Holy Place you will want to return back to the intellect, passion, or will power that gave you prominence – this is the Lust of the Eye. In the Holy of Holies, one will want to return to their own ideas, doctrines, and theology – the things they think God likes because we like them – this is the Pride of Life.
THE OUTER COURT
If you can picture yourself standing outside the Tabernacle, seeing it for the very first time. The first sight you behold has you prepare to walk into the 5,000 square cubit Tabernacle is the beautiful, white linen curtain, wafting in the breeze, that surrounds the entire structure. Five is the number of Grace and 5,000 is the number of Grace multiplied. The white of the curtains represent the purity of the believer in the sight of God as well as the attraction others will have toward God as they see what God has done in our life. This is the first level of drawing the Father uses to attract those outside His body to Him. This is the primary catalyst God used to draw us – at some point we thought, “My life will be better if I go in there.” This is where we admit we need help and this is where we recognize we now can receive that help.
MAKING THE COMMITMENT
Once we make the commitment to enter the Outer Court of God, to come into His Kingdom, the process of becoming Spiritual begins. None of the Tabernacle furnishings may be passed by. You must stop at each one and each one requires an action and the result of that action mush be applied to every aspect of our life, before the next piece of furniture can make its own particular impact on us.
The Outer Court or the Court of the Gentiles was for the cleansing of the flesh or carnal nature. If we overlook one spot, cherish one blemish, or think one wrinkle is unimportant – we will find ourselves back here, only a little more broken, a little less confident, having discovered contrition at levels we never dreamed about.
Sadly, the world is littered with fallen men and women who rushed past the furniture they were facing trying to take a short cut to Holiness and to intimacy with God.
In the Outer Court we see that no one escapes, what we will find is a Seven Step process of purification if they want to come closer to God – even the priests have to make the same journey as you – so you keep walking for a very short distance.
SUCCESS, DETOUR, OR FAILURE
How you navigate the Outer Court is vital to the success of your spiritual journey. It will not only determine the ease of the rest of your journey, it will also determine how you handle the required application of each piece of furniture to your life. It will set the depth of the application and that depth will set the manner in which you will overcome or succumb to temptation.
Here, in this place you will chart the success or failure of your spiritual quest. Strange, it would happen here, right at the start when you seem least capable. Why would this be so important to the success of your journey? – Because, it is here your heart shows more than your knowledge and your heart is what God is after.
SEVEN STOPS
There are seven stops one must make on this journey, a journey that will take the rest of your life. Each stop will have dramatic impact on your life and on the lives of others as they come near you. The depth that it touches you will be the depth it touches them. The shallow will always produce the shallow, just as deep leads to deep.
In the next post – The first Transitional stop to Transformation
Blessings,
John Paul
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Some how as I was reading this I heard the Echoes of Watchman Nee’s book “Sit Walk Stand” in relation to the furniture.
Recently upon communciation with a beleiver, They were telling me how wonderful and how great that sin had felt and how sin was really exciting and fun. They described to me all they had done before ‘finding Christ’ in a way that was nostalgic and very peculair. I found myself wondering if they had even experienced Gods total transformation, so that their thinking would see just how wicked and unexciting the life they formerly had was. I was aghast to learn that they were not the only ones, and that many people reminisce of their ’sinful’ days as days full of excitement and adventure. I wonder what they view God as, and I think they have missed the whole point of the joys of spending intimate times with God. Their view of intimacy is in connection with ‘doing’ church, worship time, prayer, etc, rather than ‘being’ in his love relationship.
I realize that after talking with them, now that I have read this blog, they just may very well be the people you are referring to who try to skirt and hurray ‘past the furntiture’ instead of using each piece as they go.
I find that tremendously sad in one hand, and to be honest, revolting in another. ugh.
I think i would like to enjoy every piece of God’s tabernackle along the way, because I certainly don’t want to look back on life 40 years from now and say ‘wow sin was great!!” i would rather say ‘God was so wondrous and exciting’
What a journey we are on. I am continually tempted to try and figure out where I am in the process, but I don’t think that is where my focus should be. Is there benefit in knowing where I am, or would only prove to be a stumbling block of comparing myself to others?
Dear John Paul,
Although I have not posted here for a while, as I have had a great work happening of my soul being cleansed and enlightend through yours and the Lords words. I ask to you to please send the next steps in transformation as soon as you can. My soul is in dire need. I do read and pray and give thanks and try so hard to be a good christian. The temptations I have had I am trying to stand strong against. The feeding of my soul that I request from you is because of the great gift that the Lord has bestowed upon you to bring us closer to Him. I know you are incredibly busy so I am feeling a bit selfish asking, sorry. I will ponder and pray until you are moved by The Lord to respond. Thank you so very much for your service to and for The Lord. Bless you
Thank you for these insightful postings; they help me understand so much better what I’ve been experiencing. I truly appreciate the application of the Temple and all it’s symbology. Food for my soul, thank you!
It occurred to me God’s plan is we are “Bones of His bones & flesh of His flesh”. Paul knew this when he wrote about the outer court in Roms 12:1-2. A Lot of times we don’t realize God wants to hold hands with us to fulfill His purpose “His way”. Paul wrote about the brazen altar.
Jesus exemplified the cross perfectly throughout His entire life, & was eventually given the honor of suffering on it which He now preaches it to us every waking moment. Actually the Lord showed me He is seeking intimacy with us… how?
I think it matters very much to the heart of God when we know we are also living sacrifices to God so we are “one” as Jesus prayed the Levitical prayer in the garden.
When we repent of sins, we offer our sinful nature as a burnt sacrifice. When we dedicate ourselves to God, we are offering our innermost life as an offering to God. When we fast, we are offering our flesh as a burnt offering to God. Like Jesus we become like Him, a sacrifice… “Bones of His bones & Flesh of His flesh”. And that’s part of the brazen altar of the outer court.
And sacrifices rises up to God as a sweet smelling savor. We partake of His sufferings, He gives us His joy & we also abide in Him. We do indeed partake of the divine nature. We are an unleaven bread (He is Bread of Life), the temple of God, the word in flesh, the body of Christ, an drink offering etc… the bible says it so. Could this be the “oneness with God” Jesus prayed the Levitical prayer for in the garden that causes the world to know the Father sent Him? John 17:21 Herein lies God’s perspective of oneness which is far beyond ours. Spiritual ripples will cause the world to know Jesus is send based on this one revelation according to Jesus’ prayer and the church needs it.
Jesus is still identifying with us Matt 25:35-36, in return for the same we should idenitfy with Him. This is the good pleasure of His will in His redemption. The church is the pillar & ground of the truth.
Finally, after years of hearing about the tabernacle, I get to hear the real deal…Seems like I’ve just come out of another closet…Although, this one seems to be a bit bigger than the ones before…hmmm
But then again, knowing me, I would rush through all the furniture…I’d most probably jump the things like hurdles just to get to the core of His heart, to the bliss of His presence, then I would rest, forever and ever…
Little do I know…Little do I know…
God Bless!
“How you navigate the outer court is vital to the success of your journey.”
I have to agree with this…it includes understanding His judgments which many fail to comprehend, but is one of the pillars of our walk with God we must not ignore if we are to remain standing…The consequences of disobedience is what Adam, Israel & the church was being told, is being tell, & will be told loud & clear. Rev 16:4-6 has the key to grasp many of God’s judgments…interestingly it justifies God in the Old Testament &…i am still learning them by the way in the near future. Jesus bore “righteous” judgment on the cross. God is the only wise God.
Thanks so much for this teaching John Paul. Just yesterday God spoke clearly to me and to others that the time has come to get back to the pure precepts of God so that He can get us ready to be His bride and to do His work. As I read this entry today I was blown away at how awesome God is to reveal His will and His way to us. I was just asking the group yesterday, “What can we do to practically do what we have heard?”, and right here in this blog is teaching that helps A LOT. This teaching is much needed, and I thank you again for sharing it with us.
I just watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for the first time and I can relate with Frodo’s difficulties; how the power of the ring grew as he came closer to loosing it to the fire. It seems the closer I am to releasing and submitting to the cross the more I want to keep the “ring.” What you have written, John Paul, is so true. Can’t hardly wait until your next post.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
the past 3 months have been a real ride, like him shooting the universe in the back of my head. I talk to family, fellow christians and non begin to grasp what Im saying, what hes showed me. this distance from my surroundings brings me closer to him, Romans 11:8 was right. please write me some encourageing words.
Dear MARILYN,
thanks for posting what you did. I recently watched the LOTR trilogy myself, and I found it evil and dark. I felt the energies of the books by tolkien, (and even cslewis) to have such dark energies that I never wanted to read them.
After watching them, I could not understand how beleivers could watch it, more or less even call it ‘christian’
However, when I read your posting, I was like “Ohh a light” and I sort of understood the analogy, I still personally would stay away from that stuff, But I can understand a new perspective on its analogy. So i thank you for sharing that, because that means more to me than I can express. It cleared up a ‘troublesome’ thing within my mind!
Is somebody out there who has a testimony that can help me! I am so frustrated to the point that I do not know what else to do, or how else to pray. nothing is working for me. I cried out to the Lord and still crying to PLEASE SPEAK TO ME, but he won’t. Some months ago the Lord spoke to me to leave the church where I use to go. At the time I thought I was out of my senses, how can the Lord say that, because He was the one that sent me there. But after much prayer and seeking Him he confirmed that it was so. I was taking drivers lessens, after trying 4 times the tests with out any sucess, I was about to try the fith time. He spoke in a vision that I should calcel everything. I cried, I plead, but He did not change, so I cancelled it.
I wonder if some is wrong with me, Why would God ask me to leave a church and have me sit at home, (though Praying,being in His presence, fasting, paying my tithes and so on)
Please I need a word who will help me cary on…
I
This sounds an aweful lot like the spirituality of St. John of the Cross , St. Theresa of Avila, St. Francis and all those who practice the monastic life. This is the kind of spirituality that I am drawn too because it produces life. Reading the lives of these saints one can get a more detailed understanding as to what John Paul has been talking about in these blogs in regards to the Dark Night of the Soul/Dark Night of the Spirit. John Michael Talbot, one of my favorite worshipers contemplative music encapsulates this process in the most mystical way, that you will never be the same. You can get an idea about his music and who he is by visiting: http://www.johnmichaeltalbot.com.
Blessings!
Enjoy the Contemplation
Shirley C
One beautiful thing about our loving Father is that He allows us to go through the entire tabernacle as imperfect vessels and then start the process all over again the next day. Let me explain First I come to the outer court, there I see the priest urging me on to bring the sacrifice. So I bring mine, yet its really Jesus I bring, for its my sin that held him there on that rugged cross. Yet He accepts me for He paid the price. Next I’m taken to the brazen alter and flayed. Each part of me is cut and placed on the burning flame. I come humbly with a repentant heart. My eyes ears nose, head feet etc…Then I take my thigh (covenant,) and the guts (Kishkas) and they are washed in the water of the word. Its like a re dedication to draw near to the lovely God every day. Finally the thigh and innards are also burnt on the alter. This in Hebrew is called the OLAH or draw near. Now I move deeper into the Holy Place were I encounter Him. His love is poured out more and more with each encounter so I can begin to die to the old. I’m really not capable of doing this until I really know Him and how he feels about me in the deep recesses of the heart. The table of show bread or Paneh Lechem in Hebrew the face of God drawing me closer by shining His light and illuminating my heart. The Candle la bra or Holy Spirit is comforting me as I die to self and sweet conviction of those things that hinder love. The incense is my communication, intercession and supplication with the loving God who desires to impart the same love in Jesus in me and to others. Now in this saturation of love in the beauty realm I’m whisked deeper past the vail of hatred, those ordinances of the law and religiosity that cannot please God and gently brought into his heart of mercy. For you see the 5 was also the number of pillars in the porch of mercy. Now I get to do the whole thing again the next day. Except hopefully the transition brings deeper revelation of His Love so I can let go of a little more. Yet He’ll still take me there. Don’t you just love Him
our generation cries out
its all wrong but its so right
its so dark someone turon off the lights
their looking up by looking within
time seems so slow, better buckle up.
Hooray! This is better than the Magic School Bus. You have gone “inside” the issues and are sending back reports, which are helping so many of us to understand the process of years and years. Thank you for needing to document the process of His love in us. It may be the Dark Night but it also the Bright Light of His Intimacy through each stage. You have helped me see the similarity of the process but different subjects rooted out of me all the while the love has gotten stronger and stronger. Since the nature of this process involves isolation to a certain degree, there is no fellowship among the lepers to try to figure out what God is doing. You have given us a community of joyful lepers, helping us to hopefully discard our confusion and cling to our joy.
Bless, you.
when my will becomes yours and yours in mine,
when you begin to know the fullness of time,
up the ladder you will climb,
to get to know whats yours and mine.
Thanks John Paul… I’m right in the middle of this and needed some direction and encouragement. You’ve brought both.
God bless you, Charlana
Hey John Paul
As usual, another great, mind blowing, heavy revey(yes I just said that)insightful blog.
The “dark nights” for me, and I’m sure for everybody else, have been, and still are, very hard. And at different seasons in our lives, they become harder, and seemingly endless. But I realize their necessity.
I realize I must be on the right track, as being humbled, coupled with old issues that I thought were delt with, are at an all time high in my life. Plus, I don’t know what I even want anymore. All desires, EVERYTHING, has been stripped away.
Yet, in this dark time, I just came to realize, that for the first time in my life, perhaps EVER in my life, Im at peace. I’m “content”. This is a good thing for me. It’s a discipline I’ve never fostered. I’m contnet. I’m content not knowing. I’m content not hearing. I’m content not seeing. I’m content.
But what I do want is ALL OF HIM. All I want is to be with him, in his arms, no questions asked. Just resting,and allowing myself to be just held.
I’m sure direction, and risk are ahead for me, but I’m not concerned about that now. Sure, the lights have been turned off, but I’m ok, I’m safe, Im contnet.
Thanks again
Tiffany
Dear Catarina Prata,
At one time, God did the very same thing to me, he ordered me to leave the church. At first, I thought it was the devil! I rebuked it over and over, and God calmly asked me one morning “Why do you continue to rebuke me when I am leading you where I want you to go?”
ouch.
All i can say to you, is that God is calling MANY people away from churches, away from places where there is spiritaul witchcraft and religion (even when it DOESN’T seem like there is that stuff there) He pulls out his people when they are in situations that will get worse for their spirit life, and they dont’ even know it. Rest and trust that God is surely good and that what he is doing is taking you into a time of greater clarity. He reveals to each of us the different areas we need to bring in alignment with his energy and light.
Once, I hadn’t heard God in a long time, and the first communication I got was the booming voice echoing in my entire body seemingly yelling at me “WHO HAS BEWITCHED YOU!!” ahhh. holy terror! God …angry! but with mercy it was, and he showed me areas where I had unknowingly allowed religious spirits to affect me.
It sounds to me like he is going to reveal grace to you, that even if you ‘descend into the depths of hell, he is still there with you’ for God is going to bring you into a new place of hope, of faith, of life. But to get there, you have to go through some life building experiences, OUTSIDE of the church, or outside of where it is comfortable. Through your next stage, I beleive God will teach you similar things to what he taught me, that modality of prayer can move from ‘praying’ to ‘living as an active prayer’ and that fasting moves rather from an activity into a modal movement of ‘when needed by spirit calling’.
I warn you of one thing, in your time at Home, God may begin to reveal some ugly colors deep from within side you, colors and things that you thought weren’t there, but that normal church christianity had covered up and hidden from you, suddenly these things will bubble to the surface, not because you have left God, but because God will be doing deeper cleansing than you may realize is needed. At least, this is precisely what followed his instructions to leave church, when I was out in the caves as I like to call it, I felt like i was the filtheist sinner, God exposed the inner workings of my heart. ugh. grace needed to be in their as a dirt degreaser for my soul!!
In time, God sent me back into the church system for a season, but by pulling me out of church, I could see more clearly the workings of darkness in the midst of the lives of beleivers, when I was called to return to the church, I had greater clarity of vision and I was able to see clearly some situations that saved a marriage, and saved many situations from happening that would not have been life giving. But God was redirecting my heart to see more clearly so i could reach out in love and warn others when darkness was trying to lodge into their soul realms and sway them from the Papa’s Heart.
A Few things that may help you in your journey 1) The book and podcast “JESUS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING” by Paul Vieira (a great story of one persons journey out of the church system) 2) John Sheasby’s Ministry which teaches grace (has a book called “WHat right do I have?”) Their ministry teaches the power of grace and how we don’t need to tithe to recieve Gods blessings, giving is important but tithing is not how we move in Gods absolute abundance… we move in Gods absolute abundance because Jesus gave it to us freely but we act like mephibisheth (terrible spelling oops) sometimes…they have free podcasts from their website http://www.liberatedliving.com (another GREAT website with a free book listed on tithing versus grace in abundance is http://www.tekoapublishing.com (and I highly recommend the book..its amazing)
the final suggestion i have is the book “The Shack”
These are merely my suggestions, as someone who has gone through a similar ‘God sending me out of the church for a season’ time, I can tell you that those resources had I had them years ago would have helped me tremendously.
I pray that you will find the peace that passes all understanding and that this transition would stir you clearly into deeper waters with the holy spirit. Many blessings on your journey!
Will
To Will,
Great. Glad my post helped. I do not normally watch mystical/supernatural type movies, but I had heard so many Christians refer to this movie that I decided to investigate it. It is interesting how Hollywood will unknowingly inject a Jesus analogy into a movie.
I recently watched a teenage slasher movie, my first. This one intrigued me. It took place on a college campus and centered around a few MIT type tech geek students. The IT department was experimenting with different frequencies and bandwidth and in doing so had stumbled upon and released an evil who’s sole purpose was to kill. (Sound familiar?) Now, here is where it got interesting; the only way a person could stop the evil from infecting them (and being killed) was to cover every door, window, and crack with red tape. Blood red tape. The evil could not penetrate the red tape. The evil could not even locate people if they were “covered” with the red tape. I found it all interesting.
Still, I don’t recommend that anyone watch teenage slasher movies.
Thanks Will for your testimony, it maks sense to me in everything you said concerning church, even oneself.
I remember the last day I was to this second church I went after I left the one God asked me to leave, believing that it was ok to find an other church, so I went to this one, so I said to myself “this i a good church to start all over again, (I thought)” though I was acommodated there, somehow my spirit was not confortable there. I could not undertand why.
Then one day we had all night prayer there, as I was earnestly paying, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “you are to pray for the powers of darkness to be broken in this place, begin to rebuke the spirit of withcraft, call fire from heaven, as I began to pray so, no joke! few minutes later, after was praying the pastor and his wife began to act very strange looking at me, then at about 20 minutes they left the church before even the prayer meeting was over. Ever since I wonder what happened there. I don’t like/want to judge, I just put that event in Gods hands. I left that church also, and here I’m waiting on God to revel His will to me. But I miss to be among the congregation with brothers and sisters. I pray thst God will bring me to the right church.
An other thing that I discovered is, that a lof of filty from myself is coming up. I see that I hae more race to forgive than before…
So let us let our precious father do thework in us as He desires.
God bless.
Cati
When you wrote,”many times we feel we are justified in returning to the sin because of how God is treating us.” Really rang true for me but I never thought I was blaming God for the situation, just needing to escape because I’m not familiar with the new place hes wanting me to be in.
Hey Will,
I’m glad God prepares people, outside of the church for His purposes. I’m glad He also sends people from one church, to the another church in trouble to turn it from a system to a family and to help them in their time of trouble…
I remember my last church change, I didn’t want to leave, I loved it where I was, but I had to change homes and that led me to change churches. In the first few months I had a series of dreams about the church and myself…(This was nearly 5 years ago)
One of them was about a big oil tanker that was stuck on a beach but still in the water, right where the waves break, and the sea was relatively calm…Curious enough, the church and now where I live, is a costal city…
To make a long story short, there were about 5 people on this tanker (one of them was the pastor) and they were wearing oxygen masks with tanks on their backs, on the other hand, I had nothing on. The tanker was full of a substance that seemed like it had to be off loaded to shore. It was toxic liquid but hard to identify. I grabbed the offloading pipe and started drinking the stuff (as if trying to off load the liquid as in sucking liquid from a higher vessel to a lower vessel and letting it drain out - the fisics principle story - don’t know what it’s called).
Anyway, the people said “No, don’t do that”, they obviously knew how to “handle” the liquid, but the liquid was still onboard, they couldn’t get it off. Then I saw myself walking on the beach with someone and fading into the second part of the dream which had to do with me…
Later on, I found out that the church was in problems…further on, the pastor had heart problems and nearly died…
Today he is fully recovered, thank God and the church has been slowly recovering and progressing, and I have only been a small part of it and many people have helped - from other churches and even from around the world…
What I’m trying to say is that how ever bad the church may be, we must cherish it…even if we do leave, and come back or relocate or whatever the case, it’s always like coming back home, with flaws and all…
God Bless!
I’m also glad that He sends people He has prepared outside the church to help the church…but there is something about church that always makes you fell like home and family VS system and organization and so forth…
I’ve found that when one corporately goes out of the “four walls” and interacts outside…when one returns to the same place, the family bond feels so much stronger…
Blessings…
I find it so incredible and intriguing that Abba Father the One whom we worship is a God of symbolisms…. Everything that he has created, said or done has a significance beyond the obvious, linking the whole cosmic truth together. WOW!!
Thanks John Paul for your impartation of insights on God’s TRUTH.
oooh!! I’m excited!! I’m excited to see what’s next.
Dear Catarina Prata,
If I may add my testimony to Will’s, I just want to say, don’t be afraid of the journey ahead. I spent about 7 years outside the church system, at God’s leading. It was definitely a wilderness time, but a sweet time too. The paradox was that while I never felt more lonely and isolated in my life, I also never felt closer to God. He de-constructed and re-constructed every aspect of my faith and my relationship with Him. Hard, yes. But SO worth it. I’d recommend reading “Escape From Christendom” by Robert Burnell http://www.eaglevision.com.my/escape.html
and the website Spirited Exchanges has some great articles too. http://www.spiritedexchanges.org.nz/page/5/resources.boss
Blessings on your journey!
JohnPaul Wrote:
In the Holy of Holies, one will want to return to their own ideas, doctrines, and theology – the things they think God likes because we like them – this is the Pride of Life.
John Paul this statement doesn’t flow with what you have been writing about, previously, unless I am missing it altogether. I have to disagree somewhat regarding this statement because, it seems to be the opposite in my life regarding true transformation.
It seems that the more that I taste of the Lord in times of deep worship, the more I want to taste of Him, the more that I want to be like Him, the less I want to be like myself….Sometimes I bore my own self with my own ideas. When God has His way in those areas of my life that I am not proud of, I am more than willing to let go and by the help of God more inclined to embrace what He has for me which is His Love. His Love is the only Love that I have come to trust and know even when all else is failed, whatever that is…..fill in the blanks. I am not being sarcastic here, I am just being frank and honest, which in some cases can work against me.
I think that if we continue to talk about darkness, then people are going to focus more on that than the light of Christ. As I have observed in this particular posting. I think we all have to get back on topic and continue to move towards the third heaven’s instead of concentrating on topics leading to the second heavens. There’s too much darkness in the world and not enough light.
Peace,
Shirley C.
John Paul Wrote:
How you “navigate” the Outer Court is vital to the success of your spiritual journey. It will not only determine the ease of the rest of your journey, it will also determine how you handle the required application of each piece of furniture to your life. It will set the depth of the application and that depth will set the manner in which you will overcome or succumb to temptation.
I write:
When I trust God fully in everything in my life, I give Him the reigns, I don’t navigate because my relationship with the Lord is a Love relationship and not a relationship based on manipulation there is an equal exchange of love,freedom and flow. He takes you to where He wants you to be..He will even tease us by His grace. If He wants to Bless us with a visit to His Throne Room, eventhough you feel in your heart you do not deserve it while you are in a dark night, He only does that to wet your apetite for more and this is His grace, it is not our doing. It is only so we can desire more of Him.
When the Lord is about ready to bring me through a transition, one of the transition dreams that He gives me is that I am in a vehicle going somewhere, and it is raining hard, I can not see anything in front of me because it is raining so hard and all I can see is headlights and the wipers are not working and I am thinking that if I do not get these wipers to work than I am going to get into a serious accident, and then in the same dream the driver’s seat is too big and I can’t put me feet on the gas pedal because all of sudden I am too small and then I start too think to myself whose driving the car and why am I in it. Without too much analysis, I realize when I wake up, that God is in control of my life and I am right where He wants me to be and where He leads I will follow because He loves me and I love Him and I know that He has my best interest at heart beause He is God, and that is all I need to know.
When I was a child, I use to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man,(women), I put aside childish things and I at present see indistinctly as in a mirror but then face to face. At present I know partially, then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So Faith, Hope and Love remain. These three but the greatest of these is Love 1Corinthians 13:11.
Blessings!
Shirley C.
John Paul,
I know my character is hugely flawed (which is nothing to hard for God to work on and fix) but seriously I really want you to come to speak at the convergence school not for me but for the other students. I will skip if need be just for you to impart to them. They really need it. Look I have not even told them about my calling at all. I just stayed away from that issue. I am justing God for the finanances which is really heard for me until I went through an Exchange. As far as my character I am willing to go through the fire for it. I know because of someone had a vision they had they saw like a tear drop come from heaven and it me and when it did it came in and light came in and radiated out of me. Thus, for the first time in a long time I have hope something I did not have before. Oh, a lot of Joy….