An encounter with the Lord and His Glory should forever change us…

If we but touch the hem of His garment… If we have experienced His touch, His power, His healing, His miracle working… If we have experienced a life transformed, overcome obstacles, found freedom, been delivered and set free from bondage… If we have seen His resurrection power in our lives, our marriages, our children, our churches, and our communities… If we have been made BRAND NEW and been SAVED – why are we living on the wrong side of His Glory; why are we living for anything other than HIM?

View Comments (6)

An encounter with the Living God should leave us changed, undone, uncomfortable – possibly offended, angry, terrified…awe-struck and humbled – because an encounter with the Living God should cause us to fall to our knees. He is everything! He is holy, mighty, majestic, all-powerful, and just. He speaks and the mountains quake and tremble in awe and in anticipation. And yet, He is good, kind, gentle and pursuant!

Do we move before Him with hope, faith and expectancy? Do we anticipate His move, His breath, and His resurrection power? Do we expect Him to move in our lives, our families…this nation???

We cannot live like the world when we CHOOSE HIM – when we say YES and make Him Lord and Savior of our lives. He transforms us, renews us, and makes us new; we are born again! It makes sense when we consider that our citizenship is not of this world. As a tabernacle, a living temple…the old way no longer fits; it’s like trying to put a round peg in a square hole. The two (the new and the old) will wrestle but are not meant to coexist.

THE TABERNACLE

The tabernacle was a built as a place to house His Glory (Ex 25-40). It was set-apart, holy, and could not be defiled. A defiled priest entering into the holy of holies could expect to be pulled out of that holy space, dead, with the rope tied around our waist; for no one, except the ONE – pure, consecrated, with the mantle of priesthood – was allowed into that space.

His presence. His Glory.

The Holy of Holies – filled with HIM – a place “where the divine and earthly realms met”.

The curtain once stood as a holy wall between us and Him.

The fear of the Lord is a holy fear; it is one that draws us to our knees in humility AND adoration. It acknowledges that apart from Him we are but dust. It acknowledges that He is loving, just, and worthy of honor and praise (awe). It magnifies the separation of sin between us and a holy God. And yet…

TORN CURTAIN

Do you know He is the ONE? Do you know that His death TORE THE CURTAIN IN TWO as He became the ultimate sacrifice – the only, perfect atonement – a sacrifice made ONCE AND FOR ALL? He finished the payment required when sin entered the world through the “first Adam”.

When we call on His name – Jesus, our Meshiach (our King, our Messiah, our savior, our “hoped-for deliverer”), we are drawn into the fold of God. We become sheep of His pasture. He becomes our leader, our protector, our comforter, our provider. We know we are SAFE when we are by His side.

For on the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; He will hide me in the secret place of His tent; He will lift me up on a rock. Ps 27:5 (Read this whole psalm today if you have time.)

As we press in and wave our white flag, as we surrender our lives to Him and choose to live for an audience of One, we sacrifice our own lives for His glory:

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you]. Rom 12:1-2 AMP

 WE ARE HIS TABERNACLE NOW

We are now the tabernacle, His sanctuary – men and women called to carry His presence into the world. We are a Korban Chai (living sacrifice) – the lifestyle of one who has taken up the Cross of Yeshua in consecration to the LORD.

We offer our lives up as a sacrifice of praise. We are His living stones, a royal priesthood, sons and daughters who carry the Name.

You [believers], like living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house for a holy and dedicated priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Pt 2:5 AMP

Friends, we have been extended a hand to walk behind the curtain, to experience His Glory, to be touched by His holiness, to KNOW an intimate relationship with the Master of the Universe (Adon Olam). The temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, inviting US into the Holy of Holies. The ultimate sacrifice (our Jesus) offered up on our behalf made a way.

…then I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “See! The tabernacle of God is among men, and He will live among them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them [as their God,]  Rev 21:3 AMP

Therefore, believers, since we have confidence and full freedom to enter the Holy Place [the place where God dwells] by [means of] the blood of Jesus, by this new and living way which He initiated and opened for us through the veil [as in the Holy of Holies], that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great and wonderful Priest [Who rules] over the house of God, let us approach [God] with a true and sincere heart in unqualified assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word]… Heb 10:19-23 AMP

Do you believe this – full freedom, full access? Is your life a reflection of the reality that you live as one intertwined with the presence of a Holy God?

Have you encountered Him? Have you experienced His goodness?

Have you stepped behind the curtain? He invites you in. The One who is worthy calls you by name and invites you to be a son/a daughter, to be His royal priesthood here on this earth. And as men and women who experience Him in that intimate space, we in turn RADITATE His Glory!

As people who have been in His presence, who have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we carry His tabernacle within our being. We step into a room and infiltrate the space with His presence. Think about how the Israelites couldn’t even get near Moses because of the glory that radiated off of him simply by having been with the Lord. We now CARRY that within us! We ARE His TABERNACLE!

…but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]. And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit. 2 Cor 3:16-18 AMP

Have you forgotten that your body is now the sacred temple of the Spirit of Holiness, who lives in you? You don’t belong to yourself any longer, for the gift of God, the Holy Spirit, lives inside your sanctuary. 1 Cor 6:19 TPT

HOW WE CAN CARRY HIS PRESENCE TODAY

Our fractured country is in need of His presence and the awareness of Him more than ever before. We need a “righting” that can only be accomplished in the fullness that Almighty God has to offer.

Will you choose to partner with Him? What if we believers carried ourselves will the fullness of what He has to pour out – believers SO full of Him that we would step into the darkest places in our land and shed HIS light into all the darkest corners? When the “light shines in the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it” (John 1:5)! I imagine us becoming like David’s men, the Gadites – warriors whose prowess far surpassed what man could do alone (see 1 Chronicles 12:14). I imagine legions of angels walking into battle with these men, with us!

The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it]. John 1:5

Let’s pray for encounters with His presence and His holiness to multiply across this land. No one is beyond His reach. And when HE gets ahold of someone’s heart, it flips the script. He is enough, He is good, He is alpha and omega, beginning and the end… We are called to live in response to what HE has done for us. Imagine the ripple of that traveling across our country.

We are carriers of His presence, of His Glory! Let’s boldly move forth today! And pray for the wind of His Spirit to blow across this place. Let’s pray for our leaders – starting from the top down. Pray for believers to step into every high government place and pray for His Glory to flood the space and to capture hearts for Him! And pray with the boldness of warriors who KNOW what they carry. Let’s pray for every anti-God agenda to be toppled by the weight of His Glory – that every man and woman running contrary to Him would bend their knees to the ONE!

Lord, let Your Glory reign, let it rain!

Let’s worship Him today – Let it Rain!

Suni Piper is a writer and passionate intercessor for the nation and for the Church. She is determined and surrendered to be a voice of truth, hope and encouragement to the Body of believers. Follow Suni at her blog ASurrenderedLife.com.