SOUL SANCTIFICATION
While the Outercourt takes you through a process of cleansing your flesh from sin, it also helps you learn the sacrifice of the moment (repentance), as well as helps you place God as Lord over your life. The Sanctuary addresses two more issues necessary to complete the Sanctification of your tripartite nature (spirit, soul and body). The covered room you have just entered begins that work by addressing your soul. To do this the Holy Spirit will work on you from the inside – out in order to prepare a place for Him dwell and in doing so He works to totally fill every space ‘within’ you – even the smallest of spaces you have historically ignored. You see these Rooms of Mystery are actually you, and in here you will learn how God wants to change you. The Kingdom really does begin within you (Luke 17:21)

The Wilderness of the Outercourt cleanses your flesh, but the first Room of Mystery must go deeper in order to cleanse your soul. You will quickly find the hopeful exhortation of Paul coming true, that God would “sanctify you, spirit, soul and body.” Before you exit this room, you will have had the second of the three dealt with. As you journey through the Amber light of this room you will begin to think differently, respond more maturely, and not give up so easily. You will expect the chaos in your life to turn to a higher order and the result is deeper joy, peace, and faith that you can accomplish all things if Christ strengthens you. All this is the fruit of The Dark Night of the Soul. The problem is that it seems so dark when you first enter. When your eyes eventually adjust, you will have “eyes to see” even when others cannot.

OBEDIENCE RATHER THAN SACRIFICE
In this room you learn that God sets the rules of the Rooms of Mystery. Rules that He knows will benefit you, give you hope and reveal your future – that is if you finish the journey and do not quit. It will take great courage – do you have that? Remember, the Outercourt is about sacrifice. This room - the first room - in the Sanctuary, the Holy Place, is about the mystery of obedience. Remember, the Spirit of God will not violate your will even if it means prolonging your journey.

It was the mental arguments, emotional fears, and the stubborn will of the Hebrew children that delayed the entry to their future by forty years. May it not be so with you.

FROM MY EXPERIENCE

One final thought that I would like to leave those of you who feel, think, and believe that God has not come through for you. The truth is that you more than likely have never completed the transforming process of this room. Sorrow, disappointment, and disillusionment do not mean you have completed The Dark Night of the Soul and God has not come through. It means you are still thinking you can make the rules of the room and how God must respond to your perceived needs. Notice I said, “perceived needs”, because what you think you need is not the reality of what you actually do need – even if you currently think it is.

To the degree you have anger, bitterness, resentment, and pain seething within you about how your life has turned out – is the degree of your need to be in control.  These feelings and thoughts are an indicator that you have set the ground rules that will prove God is real and working on your behalf. Therefore many think that if God does not do it your way, in the manner you expect, then He is not God or He has not held up His end of the bargain. The reality is that there is no bargaining with God. No greater, pure, and perfect light will be given to those who think they set the rules. Perhaps what you are feeling as you read this is the very reason you were brought into this room – to help you think, feel, and respond like He does - instead of the way you historically have.

More on the Dark Night of the Soul in my next post.

Blessings,
John Paul

“I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.” Psalms 63:2

It is clear that David understood the Glory and the power that were present in the two rooms called the sanctuary. David knew that God’s power and Glory were there to help him change. Here, in the Sanctuary, one can see and experience The Spirit of God at depths far beyond mortal abilities and as you ascend to higher spiritual levels the change needed stretches beyond our own capability.

INCREASED PRESENCE
In this first room of the Sanctuary, drenched with a seeming unearthly light, one learns the introductory finery of a life aided by an increased presence of the Divine. Yet, even in David’s most intimate moments with God, he was left wanting for more. How is that? Because, he could not experience what you have the opportunity to experience today. What is that? He could only experience being in the presence of the Spirit of the Living God – you see David could not experience the very Spirit of God residing within him. You have this opportunity. The very Spirit of God desires to dwell within you. At the time of David one could be infilled with the smoke, but not The Presence it represented. Today, you have this Spirit within you and that very Spirit is seeking to take over – if you will allow that to happen, for He will not violate your will.

ICONS
These pieces of furniture in the Holy Place, as well as the screen, the smoke, the bread, the light, and the gold were all merely shadows of things to come. They spoke and prophesied of a coming era when light would not come from a candlestick, smoke would not come from incense, bread would not be made by hand, and the Spirit of God would speak directly to your heart, not through icons. These pieces of furniture can still help you visualize the enormity of what God has provided and as such they are very good, but they are not the fullness of what they represent.

TWO PURPOSES FOR THE FURNITURE
Speaking in broad terms, the furniture of this room is designed for two purposes, first, to help you understand God, second, to prepare you to present yourself to Him. The latter will come first. Before you can fully understand as much as you can about God, the dust must be swept from your thinking. You see nothing sticks when dust is on the floor. Therefore, before you take the first step toward the furniture, you will encounter the cleansing astringent of the “Dark Night of the Soul.” The fact is - by the time you are here you are already in it.

THE CATAPULT
It is the increased presence of the Divine that actually catapults you into The Dark Night of The Soul. There is a spiritual law that says, “The denser the atmosphere, the greater the change,” and the Dark Night of the Soul is all about change, deep, lasting change, transformational change. Change so deeply felt that one eventually loses track of what they once were. Here, the past seems like it happened to another person, and old things become new. More than likely, this process will be far to slow for you. None-the-less, the purpose for creating you will ultimately become clear – one cell at a time.

More on the Dark night of the Soul in my next post.

Blessings,
John Paul

You have just stepped inside the first Room of Mystery. There is only one way in and it is also the same way out – through the screen just behind you. That might give you pause, because the Veil that hangs across the room, on the other side of the Altar of Incense, is not another way out – it is the way to an even deeper spiritual life, and the Holy of Holies. However, I’ll cover that Veil in a later post.

You might have noticed in Scripture that ninety nine times God calls this tent His dwelling. He has brought you here to increase the measure of His dwelling within you. The impossible will become possible and you are here to prove it. Many can dwell in Him, few allow Him to dwell in them.

Within a couple of minutes your eyes have adjusted enough to see the three pieces of furniture that are spread around the room. But, there is more to see than just the furniture. Through the smoke that comes from the Altar of Incense directly across the room you will soon notice there are two more spellbinding matters that separate this room from any other room you have ever been in up to this point. The first of the two are the walls of Gold.

WALLS of GOLD
The more adjusted your eyes become; you will eventually see there is an unearthly color to this room. That color comes from the reflected light of the flames of the Menorah/Lampstand bouncing off the two sidewalls of Gold. The color of the flame and the color of Gold create an Amber-esk color, which is strangely picked up by the white smoke and so the color, unaffected by gravity, literally seems to swirl and move through the air. That this room would have this Amber color makes sense in so much as, every time a color is ascribed to God in Scripture, it is described as the flame and gold color of Amber.

You may remember that in the Outercourt everything was made from polished brass, but here, in the first Room of Mystery, Gold is the predominate theme and it is everywhere. The only exception is the brass base of the Golden walls. Remember, the walls of the Rooms of Mystery are ten cubits high (fifteen feet) and twenty cubits long (thirty feet). That is a lot of Gold.

THE CHERUBIM COVERING
If you can unlock you gaze from the swirl around you and look up, you will see the white form of the twenty Cherubim woven into the Linen tapestry above you. This tapestry covers the entire length of the two Rooms of Mystery (Sanctuary). It is hanging over the outside of the Golden Walls and is directly above you. There is nothing separating you from them.

In this Holy atmosphere these Cherubim seem so real you almost expect them to fly – which is actually what they are doing above and around the Throne Room in Heaven. Remember, Moses had to construct exactly what he saw when God revealed the structure of Heaven to him (EX. 25). It is extremely hard to weave moving beings into a tapestry so the still ones will have to do, and there are twenty of them covering the length of the Sanctuary.

These Cherubim are to remind you that Heaven is watching you and involved with your life - daily and minute-by-minute of each and every day.

THE COLORS OF TOTAL COVERING
The same four colors, blue, purple, scarlet, and white cover not only the sides and top of these Golden Rooms or Sanctuary, but also the screen entrance to each room including the first curtain to the Tabernacle and the Interior Veil that divides the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. In this sense they depict four glorious aspects of Jesus and what He alone did to reconcile you to God the Father.

The blue represents the prophetic nature of Jesus, the Purple depicts the authority He has in Heaven and Earth, the Scarlet depicts His blood that was shed on the Earth, and the white depicts His sinless nature. You must pass through each of these to enter any room. There is no other way to God the father.  If it were not for these four aspects of the life of Jesus you would not be able to enter this or any room of the Tabernacle – let alone stand where you are. Jesus alone is the door, the Dalet, the way to the Father.

I’ll write about the “Dark Night of the Soul” and the relationship of the furniture to you in my next post a few days from now.
Blessings,
John Paul

For those of you who might be new to this current theme of my blog, we are on a journey through the Tabernacle of Moses in an effort to see the many facets of how God gave us symbols, types, and shadows throughout the tabernacle in order to reveal the process and the transition of drawing close to Him. It is important to remember that the design and layout of this particular Tabernacle was shown to Moses (Ex.25) and he was instructed not to deviate from the pattern he saw in constructing it. It is a picture of Heaven, it is also the design of man who God longs to make the Tabernacle of God.

The outer layer of white linen curtains comprises the perimeter or wall of the Tabernacle. Inside the Tabernacle is the covered room(s) and Scripture calls the two as one - the “Sanctuary.” I often refer to them as the rooms of Mystery because form the outside you cannot see inside them and unlike the outer court they are covered.

The area outside the Sanctuary is the “Outer court” or “Court of the Gentiles,” where sin (lust of the flesh) is addressed in your life. This process in your life may also be called the Dark Night of the Wilderness, though you are about to find out that this area of the Tabernacle is much brighter than the rooms you are about to enter. It only seems dark because of the emotions you experience as you give up things that are ultimately destructive to you, all the while thinking you have to give up everything you like and  enjoy.

THE ENTERING
It is now time for you to take a deep breath and move forward between the Pillars of Grace. You reach down to lift the screen, and step inside. As the screen drops behind you, you find it hard to see for a while. The only light that you have to see by is from the Lampstand to your left. It has seven flames, one from each of its seven branches.

It will take some time for your eyes to adjust from the light of the Sun to the light of the Lampstand. As that happens, you begin to make out the silhouettes of a table with some bread on it and on the other side of the room, directly across from you; there is an Altar with smoke rising from it. In fact, the room is filled with that smoke.

The room you have entered is small. It is one fifth the size of the outer court and therefore much smaller at 20 cubits long and 10 cubits wide, than the 100cubits by 50 cubits of the outer court. So you might feel a “pressed in” feeling. Some even suffer from spiritual claustrophobia and immediately want to bolt back to where they came from. One thing is for sure it will take some time to feel comfortable in this room when you are used to living your own life.

By entering this room, you not only have chosen to do so, but without knowing it you have now entered the Dark Night of the Soul and the next deeper level of your Transition begins.

More on the Rooms of Mystery in a couple of days.

Blessings,
John Paul

In preparation to walk through the curtain and into the first room of Mystery, the Holy Place, you will first have two issues that will have to be settled. Each seems easy to do, but in actuality they are quite difficult to live. We humans are so caught up in our own capabilities and self-sufficiency that the thought of being incapable of something seems noble, but hardly acceptable. However, the truth is that those thoughts do not make us more able, but less.

THE FIVE PILLARS
The First step you must face before going into the Holy Place is that you have to pass through the five Golden Pillars. Up to this point you have not seen Gold, it is not used anywhere in the Court yard. Each Gold covered pillar you are looking at represents the Holy, Pure nature of God and you will see a lot of Gold in the rooms ahead as the holy nature of God is abundant. Each Pillar is 10 Cubits tall (fifteen feet) but, more importantly, they represent the five facets of God’s Grace, which are Patience, Humility, Equality, Favor, and Kindness. Believe it or not, you do not possess the fullness of these five facets at this time, even if you think you do. It is by His grace that you can enter here and not be killed. What you got away with in the Outer Court will get you killed in the Holy Place.

You will learn the finite nature of each of the five facets or pillars before you change rooms again. I might add, that the learning of these facets of Grace do not constitute the consistent application of them  – that will take the rest of your life. But, for now your desire to come closer is good enough and once inside that desire goes a long way in aiding the speed of the maturation process in your journey. To enter this room, there is just enough room for one person to walk between any of the Pillars. But, before you do there is first a screen or curtain that you have to lift to enter the Holy Place. This is the second of the two matters that you must settle before you can enter.

THE SCREEN TO THE HOLY PLACE
The first curtain you have already passed through was actually the curtain to the Tabernacle and the Outer Court. The second curtain, the one you face now is to the Holy Place and is actually called the “screen.” It is made of fine linen as is the inlaid Cherubim covering of the Sanctuary and the curtain to the Tabernacle itself. In fact, all three entry tapestries are made from hand woven, fine linen, and designed with the same four colors: Blue Scarlet, Purple and White.

These four colors of each door remind us that Jesus is the “Door” and we can only enter through the prophetic testimony of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the authority of Jesus, and the righteousness of Jesus. No entry into Heaven would be possible without those four elements – none of which we have earned or have any capability of achieving.

The covering of the third door to the Holy of Holies is called the “Veil” and I’ll write about it in a later post.

If there is any design in the “Screen” it is not given in Scripture. Many believe there was woven some sort of design that portrayed heavenly, spiritual, beings flying or orbiting around, guarding the third Heaven and interacting with us. Others feel the “all seeing eye” of God was woven into the screen. Perhaps all of the above was woven there, we do not know.  But, we do know this that all mysteries are unlocked in Him.

As you stand there, ready to walk in, you cannot help but be reminded once again of all Jesus did is in reconciling us to the Father and preparing the way for us to have unbroken communion with Him.

And now you can lift the screen and take a step into an atmosphere and a sight you shall never forget.

Blessings,
John Paul

As I have mentioned the composition of the Sanctuary is critical to you understanding what is about to happen to you, and if I might add without sounding cliché what you are about to go through inside this Sanctuary will literally begin the shaping of “you,” Soul and Spirit. Here in this hidden place your weaknesses will be uncovered and revealed to you – all the while being covered by God, and you will begin the highest level of the transition process – that of transformation.

So let’s take a brief look at the meaning of the four coverings you are about to walk under. We’ll take a look at the broad implications first. All four layers covered both rooms of the Sanctuary. So that not only the Holy Place, where your soul will be addressed is covered by these four layers but, also the Holy of Holies, the place where God will touch your spirit.

THOU SHALT NOT SWEAT IT

One of the surprises of the four layers of coverings was that because of them the interior of the Sanctuary was cooler than the outside air. This allowed the priest to work without sweating. I always thought it strange that the priests were commanded not to sweat. Herein you can now understand that as long as the priest did not over work they would not sweat. This was indicative that the priests were not to worry as well, for worry increases the body temperature and causes perspiration. In other words you are not to “sweat it.” That does not mean you are to neglect the furniture you will encounter in the Rooms of Mystery and their application to your life, but you can spend so much time working for God that you fail to get to know Him.

THE FOUR LAYERS of COVERING
Four is the number of God’s creative works and is the Hebraic number for the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet – Dalet. Dalet literally means the low door through which one must bow down to enter. It is indicative of humility. The whole of the Tabernacle is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth and the Sanctuary is the door.

The Covering of Badger Skins (top outside layer )
Because of the height of the walls of the Sanctuary, about the only thing everyone could see from outside the Tabernacle was the Badger skin covering. This represents two things - Humanity and fierceness. Humility in that once you enter the Sanctuary pride will get you killed. Humility is unimpressive to the world and as the Apostle John said, “He came into the world and the world knew Him not.”

The badger is one of the fiercest animals to be found. It is reminiscent of the saying of Jesus about the Kingdom of Heaven, “The violent take it by force.” The Badger is also a loner, this signifies that everyone must individually come to relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The Covering of Rams’ Skins (second layer, under Badger Skins)
The Ram was the sacrifice for the consecration of the Priests. It was the animal caught in the thicket that God provided to replace Isaac as the sacrifice made by Abraham. This covering of ram skin was to be dyed red and was to portray the application of the blood of Jesus that would cover us and allows us to come boldly before the Father. It is through or under the covering of the blood of Jesus that everything you are about to experience is possible. This is possible because He (Jesus) became obedient unto death on the Cross and if not for that blood none of us would live once we encountered Him. It is the reminder that we are to present our bodies to Him as Living Sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God and this is our reasonable service. As I have mentioned, obedience will be one of the things you learn in the first room of Mystery.

The Covering of Goats’ Hair (third layer, under the Ram Skin)
The third layer is the first covering that was woven by the hand of women. The reason for this layer of covering of the Sanctuary to be made from goat’s hair is the same reason Elijah wore a mantle of Goat’s hair – it represents the Spirit of Prophecy. Thus in Elijah’s giving that mantle to Elisha, the Spirit of Prophecy was given to him. That Spirit is the very testimony of Jesus and the prophetic nature of all you have and will experience in the Tabernacle. This layer of covering is also called “the tent” in Scripture and is parallel to what was written of Jesus the Son of God: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt (lit. ‘tented’) among us.” So in entering these rooms you are entering a new presence of closeness with Jesus as well as entering into the initial glimpse of the prophetic purpose for which you were created.

The Four Colored Tapestry of Cherubim (fourth layer, under the Goat Hair)
The bottom layer or fourth layer of covering is the beginning of deeper mysteries. This very ornate Tapestry was visually the most impressive of the four coverings. It was to be woven from fine Linen with four beautiful colors; Blue for the sky, communion and revelation, Purple for Royalty, Scarlet representing authority and the blood of Jesus, and White for purity and sanctification. In its design were woven twenty cherubim with ten on each side facing each other with their wings outstretched over the ceiling of the Sanctuary. These twenty Cherubim, though stationary in the tapestry, are actually moving and circling or orbiting, the Throne Room.

As with the other three covers, this tapestry spans both the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. This tapestry parallels the atmosphere and covering of what the Apostle Paul called “The Third Heaven.” Because these Cherubim were woven within the tapestry, and in so being, they could be seen both on the outside of the Sanctuary and on the inside. We shall see this is quite stunning once you enter the Rooms of Mystery.

More on the Tabernacle Transitions in the next post.

Blessings,

John Paul