“But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” (Peter I 2:9)
When people hear the word “prayer”, they may think of several things. They may think of the prayers children say at bedtime like, “God bless Mommy and Daddy.” They may think of prayers where people just ask for things like, “God please help Susie with her test today. Please make Bobby well.” But true prayer is more than this. It is a intimate dialog between a person and the most holy God. We can see an analogy of this in the Old testament tabernacle.
To enter the tabernacle, one must enter through the door. The same is true in true prayer. Jesus Christ is the Door. We must surrender to Him to have an intimate relationship with Him.
The first thing we see when entering the tabernacle is the altar. We do not have to bring a sacrifice because the sacrifice has already been paid by Jesus Christ on the cross.
The priests performed the sacrifice then washed using water in the laver. If we have submitted to Jesus Christ, we are a member of the royal priesthood as Peter wrote. Before we can go into the holy place, we must wash ourselves and become pure, clean and holy
“If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;” (Psalms 66:18)
This is the reason we must cleanse ourselves before we go to Him in prayer. We must confess and repent of our sins and be washed by His precious blood. While we are clean and before we forget, we need to put on the armor which Paul wrote about in Ephesians 6: 13 – 17:
“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Once we are cleansed, we can enter the holy place. There we find the lampstand, the table with the shobread and the altar of incense. The lampstand stands for the Holy Spirit which illumines us. The shobread is the bread that the priests could eat. Jesus Christ is the Bread of life which we are to receive spiritual nourishment from. The altar of incense represents the prayers of the saints. The priests were responsible for keeping the lamps lit and keeping the fire on the altar of incense. They had to go in early every morning to do this. We must also enter the tabernacle of prayer every morning before we face the world.
There is a thick veil between the holy Place and the holy of Holies which is where God dwelt. The high priest could enter this place only once a year. When Jesus Christ died on Calvary, the veil was torn in two from top to bottom. God was showing us that He has taken away the veil and that all can enter the Holy of Holies if they have surrendered to Jesus Christ.
In this place the ark of the covenant with the mercy seat upon it is found. The mercy seat is where God is found. God wants to have a dialog with us, not just us talking to Him. He wants communion, not just a wish list from us. He wants to spend time with us to talk to us. Do you allow time for communion with God, Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit? We need to take time to listen and not just talk.
By Dean W. Masters
homefurn@preferred.com
Owner of the Masters List
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masterslist
Unedited redistribution approved