Becoming a Dwelling Place for the Holy Presence: Part 1

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. Rev 21.3

Israel is the blueprint. It is the blueprint for every nation, for every community, for every family and for every individual. The primary purpose of the Scriptures’ lengthy exposition of Israel’s deliverance from pharaonic bondage, its purificatory and preparatory journey in the wilderness, its sequestration from the practices of the surrounding pagan nations, and its establishment of the Tabernacle and its system of worship is not historical documentation.

Rather, it is to show us how to become holy, step by sacrificial step: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy (Leviticus 19.2).

1. Deliverance

I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Exodus 6.7).

Questions that we need to ask ourselves:

• Am I fully delivered from pharaonic bondage?

• Does my life reflect the fact that I am a new creation and that everything in my life is now new as a result of my giving my life to Christ, or did a part, or multiple parts, of me resist rescue and stay behind in Egypt?

• Do I feel more at home in the world or in the Church?

2. Purification and Preparation

The Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people” (Exodus 19.10).

Questions that we need to ask ourselves:

• Is my purification a priority or something that I only think about occasionally (if ever)?

• Do I consistently step back from the daily events of my life, whether practical or spiritual, and look at them within the context of preparation for work in the Kingdom, or am I just going from one thing to the next, experiencing everything as if at random?

• Am I hiding something (from other people and from God) that needs healing?

3. Consecration

You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine (Leviticus 20.26).

Questions that we need to ask ourselves:

• Does the form and structure of my day differ from that of people who do not know Christ or does my life and theirs look the same?

• Outside of the time given to my non-negotiable responsibilities (whether professional, familial or circumstantial), what do I do with the time that I have available to me each day? Note: it might be useful to make a personal timesheet so as to get an accurate view of where time is being spent.

• What do I think about more than anything else?

4. Worship

All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door (Exodus 33.10).

Questions that we need to ask ourselves:

• Is my life organized around my worship or is my worship organized around my life?

• Is there anything that I would rather do more than worship? If yes, what is it?

• What thoughts and feelings surface when I think about worship?

Our answers might shock and even disturb us. It’s okay. No one is judging you. Sanctification is a process. It is a process of getting nearer and nearer to the sphere of holiness in which Christ exists. He wants us to join Him in this sphere.

In fact, He wants this sphere to become our sphere. He wants us to become holy so that He can come and dwell with us. That is what He wants: for us to dwell in Him and for Him to dwell in us. To get to that point, however, we need to know where we are now.

Where there is a deep yearning to go deeper, further and higher, we will find Christ, ready and waiting: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday (Psalm 37.4–6).

Christ longs to lead us into the life of flowing water that we know we were born to live, but which we can’t, for some reason, make into a reality. Christ will make it into a reality because He is the mighty fount of living water that ceaselessly flows and He gives of Himself generously, freely and—ultimately—eternally:

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance (Isaiah 55.1–2).

Amen +

Author of You Are Mine and Apocalypse, Sister Anastasia writes on the role of the ancient, ascetic Church in a rapidly changing, modern world.

Photo by Ashwini Chaudhary (Monty) on Unsplash