The second article of furniture in the outer court that the people of Israel would encounter was the brazen laver (Exodus 30:18 NKJV). This was a large brass bowl, one that would be highly polished and would contain clear and clean water. When somebody wished to approach the presence of God, blood would be shed at the altar. Then the person would need to gaze into this brass bowl and wash their hands and face in the water. The brazen laver or bowl speaks about the washing of water by the word of God. That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word (Ephesians 5:26 NKJV). The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, but that is not the only cleansing we need in our lives to approach God. The blood of Jesus makes me righteous, but the word of God sanctifies me. Again and again in the New Testament, we see this principle that it is God’s word that sanctifies the people of God.
Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17 NKJV).
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises (the word of God), that by these promises we become partakers of the divine nature and are sanctified from the corruption in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4 NKJV).
Christ loved his church that he might wash and sanctify it with the washing of water by the word (Ephesians 5:26 NKJV).
Having these promises, let us sanctify ourselves (2 Corinthians 7:1 NKJV).
The Word of God is also a mirror. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1:22-25 NKJV).
The Word of God is a mirror in two different ways. Firstly, it shows us the reality of our current state. We may judge ourselves and evaluate ourselves in many ways, but it is the Word of God, and only the Word of God, that can truly show us how God sees us. This is true for sin in our life and for God’s correction, but it is also true for “instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16 NKJV). The Word of God shows us how God sees us in Christ Jesus. When I look into the Word of God, I see myself through the lens of heaven and the opinion of God. I see that I am more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37 NKJV), I see that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13 NKJV), I see that I am the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).
The washing of the water of the Word of God sanctifies our minds and our hearts. It literally washes and cleanses us from the dust and the effects of life. We cannot live in this world. We cannot walk in this world without being, at least to a large degree, affected by that life in this world. It is good to study the Bible. It is beneficial to understand the Bible. It is advantageous to delve in and unpack the truths there, but at a very practical level, the Word of God literally washes you. Scripture washes away the “reality” of this world and renews our mind to the realities of heaven. God’s Word recalibrates us. The Bible realigns our soul with our spirit and enables us to come into the presence of the Lord. Selah.
When the children of Israel would pass from the outer court into the inner court, the first article they would encounter in the inner court was the golden candlestick, or menorah. The menorah was a seven-headed candlestick, and each candle would be kept alight continually. The menorah, or golden candlestick, represents the Spirit of God. The book of Isaiah refers to the seven Spirits of God.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2 NKJV).
The menorah also represents the spirit of man, and how man’s spirit is called to be in union and fellowship with God’s Spirit.
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart (Proverbs 20:27 NKJV).
To enter into God’s presence requires revelation. To enter into God’s presence requires illumination. Jesus spoke in Mark chapter 4, in the parable of the sower sowing the word, that no man lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Jesus was speaking of the revelation that comes to our spirit when we encounter the Word of God.
The measure of thought and study you give to the truth you hear will determine the measure of virtue and knowledge that flows into your life, and more besides will be given to you (Mark 4:24 AMPC).
It is vital that we grasp that entering into the presence of God is not a mechanical or process-driven action. At a practical level, we can only ever enter into God’s presence by divine invitation. It is not enough to say the right words and perform the correct actions by rote. We need the Spirit of God, working with our own spirit, to awaken us to His reality. If we are truly to enter into the presence of God, then our worship must be in spirit and in truth (John 4:24 NKJV).
I am an analytical person. I am a thinker. I love to analyze. I am certain that I drive many of my friends crazy during conversations because, at some point, I begin to talk and engage as a lawyer would. I often want to stop someone mid-sentence and cross-examine them about how one concept applies to another, or point out that they have veered into a completely different subject. We are all unique. We are all created equally, and yet we are each created differently. I have discovered in my own journey with God, and observed while helping others on theirs, that our intellect can often interfere with our connection to God.
To be perfectly clear, God is never opposed to your intellect. He delights in it. He created it, and the Bible instructs us to love the Lord our God with all of our mind (Matthew 22:37 NKJV). Despite this truth, it is essential that we submit our intellect to our spirit. The mind will always attempt to figure God out. It will always try to understand Him. I have come to learn that revelation does not come through understanding.
Rather, God reveals things to us, and then, as a secondary response, we may engage our intellect to think, examine, and inquire. We do not believe because we understand. We understand because we believe.
By faith, we understand (Hebrews 11:3 NKJV).
In Luke chapter 7 (Luke 7:36–50 NKJV), we read the story of Simon the Pharisee, who invited Jesus to his home one evening. I believe Simon was a good man and had sincere, meaningful questions to pose to Jesus.
Imagine the setting. Simon has invited Jesus for dinner. He has also invited his learned and intellectual colleagues. Together, this group of men is questioning Jesus, I believe in good faith, about who He is and His understanding of the Torah.
In the midst of their discourse, a woman enters the room. She is not there to serve, she is not there to clean, and she has not come to ask any questions. Mary falls at the feet of Jesus and begins to anoint His feet, then wipe them with her hair.
Think for a moment of the contrast between Simon and his friends, asking valid intellectual and theological questions of Jesus, and Mary, who simply wanted to pour out her soul before Him and worship Him.
It is likely that Simon understood certain truths about the Messiah that Mary had never fully grasped. However, I would suggest it is just as true that Mary had perceived things about Jesus that Simon could not comprehend. Jesus was in Simon’s mind, but Jesus was in Mary’s heart.
If we are to enter into the presence of God, there is a place where we, like Mary, need to set aside our intellect for a time—not to work out the presence of God, but to bow before the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Selah.
The second piece of furniture that the children of Israel would encounter in the inner court was the table of showbread. It was a large table with twelve loaves of unleavened bread made from finely ground flour. The twelve loaves would represent the twelve tribes of Israel, and later the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The finely ground flour would represent the offering of our will to God.
If we are to enter successfully, and consistently, into the presence of God, then it is vital that we engage the step of laying down our will before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Your soul loves God, but your soul wants God on its own terms. Your soul adores God, but your soul will always want to maintain control. Throughout all of our journey on this earth, until Jesus comes or calls, there will be a battle between our flesh and our spirit (Galatians 5:17 NKJV). Your flesh will always want to pull you away from God, and your spirit will always want to draw you nearer to Him. Who will win that battle? The answer is found in our soul. To truly walk with God, we must choose with our will to allow our spirit to dominate and not our flesh. We must allow our will to be laid down as an offering before the King of Kings, rather than to allow our flesh to dictate what will happen. At a practical level, I see this battle played out every week in every church. Whenever we come into the presence of God, there is a part of us, our spirit, that delights in entering into His presence. This part yearns and longs for communion (common union) with the living God. We were made by God. We were made for God. We were made for communion with God.
In spite of these glorious truths, there is another part of us, our flesh, which wants God, but wants to stay in control. There is a war between the flesh and the spirit.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be (Romans 8:7 NKJV).
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things (1 Corinthians 2:14–15 NKJV).
One of the most glorious things we can ever do is to learn to pray in the Spirit. A major component and part of praying in the Spirit is the action of praying in tongues. Having exercised this gift for nearly 40 years, I have come to the conclusion that every time we pray in the Spirit, this battle occurs. If I decide that for the next 15 minutes I am going to pray in other tongues, I notice that I encounter this battle, especially in the first 5 to 10 minutes. If I begin praying in tongues, there is a place where my natural, unrenewed mind wants to take back the steering wheel of my time and my day. My mind is suddenly flooded with many of the things that I should do. I find an incredible resistance, as Stephen Pressfield calls it, that rises up inside of me and tries to draw me away from my choice to engage with the Spirit.
How do I win this battle? It is actually very easy. It is actually very simple. I can simply choose with my will to do something. I choose to pray in the Holy Spirit. I may not feel like this; my flesh might be much more enticed by watching the show on Netflix, and so forth. But I can simply choose what I will do. I can choose to raise my arm in the air. I can choose to put my arm down. I can choose to pray in tongues, or I can choose not to. I can choose to worship God, or I can choose my own pursuits. To enter into the presence of the Lord is to lay down one’s will and to submit oneself to the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The final article of furniture an Israeli would encounter when entering through the inner court would be the altar of incense.
This was a golden altar on which a special incense would be burnt and offered unto the Lord.
The sacrifice of incense was the final step that one would need to engage with before entering into the most holy place (the holy of holies). This step is one of the most important keys in learning to enter into the presence of God. The altar of incense represents the altar of our worship that we bring and offer unto the Lord. It is worship that brings us finally into the presence of the Lord.
But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3 NKJV)
We cannot come into the presence of the Lord without blood (the righteousness of Jesus Christ), but it is equally our offering of worship that draws us into the glorious presence of the Lord.
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15 NKJV)
You are a worshipper, you were born to be a worshipper, and you were born again to be a worshipper. It is vital that we grasp this, the Father does not seek worship, rather, the Father seeks worshippers (John 4:23 NKJV). Worship is your connection with Father God. Worship is the connection point, more than any other, between your spirit and your soul. When we bring the sacrifice of praise and worship, we acknowledge who God is and literally lift Him up. So, I was born in the UK, and to this day in the UK, in a courtroom, one would refer to the judge as “your worship.” I do not mean we are worshipping the judge. Rather, we are ascribing worth and value to the position that the judge holds. Worship literally comes from an old English word, worth-ship. There is no entrance into the presence of the Lord without worship.
It is also vital we grasp the principle of a sacrifice of worship. In the western world, we have so developed our thinking, practices, and habits around worship, that it is often the case that we miss the heart of God’s purpose and intent in worship. If worship does not cost you something, then it has no value. This can be hard in our culture to grasp, but God wants your worship to be of value to you so it is of value to Him. I am not implying that God wants you to suffer, but He wants you to pay a price for worship.
In 2 Samuel 24 (2 Samuel 24 NKJV), we read the story where David is called to make a sacrifice before the Lord. To give a brief background, David had disobeyed God and sinned against the commandments of the Lord. As a result, judgment had come upon the nation of Israel. The angel of death is sent to inflict judgment, and at that moment, David is on the threshing floor of a farmer called Araunah. At that moment, God speaks to David and says, if you will give me a sacrifice, I will hold back judgment. The farmer hears and understands this message and immediately offers David his threshing floor to make the sacrifice, his bulls, his knives, everything David will need for the sacrifice is offered to him. In this context, David makes an amazing statement which would behoove us to think through in the context of worship.
Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24 NKJV)
David then buys the threshing floor and oxen from the farmer and offers them as an appropriate sacrifice to God. The sacrifice is received because it cost David something. Just as an interesting side note, the piece of real estate that David bought was the very place where the Temple would be built. God’s sacrifice of Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice in this universe which cost Him everything.
I have learned, and I believe the Bible teaches, that we need to bring to the Lord a sacrifice of praise that will cost us something. There are times when we love to worship. There are times when we enjoy worship. There are times when we long to worship. But if we are honest, there are times when we do not. There are times when our flesh simply wants to do what it wants to do. There are times in worship where we desire to pull back, to take back control, to not press further into the things of God.
These are the times we are making a sacrifice of praise. There have been several moments and seasons of breakthrough in my life when I know God has called me to praise Him without any feelings, any emotions, or any sense of His presence. We do not feel God’s presence and worship Him. We worship, and that will bring us into the presence of the Lord. Selah.
To enter into the presence of the Lord is a journey. We have seen that we are body, soul, and spirit. And that if we are to move into the place where we truly worship God, “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24 NKJV), then we must learn to walk through the biblical stages concerning our body and then our soul before we can enter into that place of spirit to spirit worship. This is a journey, but it can be a very short journey. I believe it is possible to come into the manifest presence of God in a few brief seconds. This is a path that we can practice. This is a route that we can learn to traverse with ease and familiarity. The essential aspect of entering into God’s presence is to come in God’s way and with God’s prescribed methodology. In the same manner that Uzzah was struck dead because he treated lightly God’s protocols and prescriptions for bringing the presence of God into Jerusalem. The more we move into a place of the manifest glory of God, the more weight, reverence, and awe we need to bring to these subjects.
When coming into the presence of the Lord, we need to learn to discern and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is not a mechanical process. There are times when He will speedily bring us from the outer court to the inner court. Sometimes, when He knows that we need to linger in a specific arena of worship and press in. On occasions we can pass quickly from a place of high celebration and exuberant worship into the Shekinah glory of God. At other moments He wishes us to linger in the inner court and truly release an offering of the incense of our worship. The vital element is always to follow His leading and guidance. It is crucial to never lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5 NKJV). The fundamental principle is always to submit our will and offer ourselves as that living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him, which is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1 NKJV). As a young man, I was privileged to spend some time under the ministry of the late Ruth Ward Heflin. She was an amazing Pentecostal evangelist who lived for many years in Mount Zion, Jerusalem. I highly recommend to you her book, Glory. Ruth Heflin would teach that we praise until the spirit of worship comes, we then continue to worship until we enter the Holy of Holies, quite literally the glory of God, and that it is the Holy Spirit who moves us from this one place to another.
What happens when we enter into the Holy of Holies? We literally enter into the glory of God. In the presence of God, we are back in the garden. Within the presence of God, we see the face of God. Amid the presence of God, we stand in the glory of God. Inside the presence of God, there is nothing to do, that is, there is no work to accomplish. All the work has been accomplished on the cross (John 19:30).
In the Holy of Holies, there is no time. We have stepped out of time into eternity. We bathe in the glory of God, that glory that we were created to inhabit. When we enter into the glory of God, we are like a fish that has come back into the water. We are in our natural environment. We were created from glory and for glory. Nearly every evangelical I have ever met knows two scriptures. John 3:16 and Romans 3:23. In my experience, most of them, or most of us, have never truly thought through the implications of Romans 3:23. We glibly say all have sinned (and rightly so), but we miss the point. All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 NKJV). The awfulness of sin is separation from God. The devastation of sin is removal from the glory of God. The purpose of Calvary was not to forgive our sins. The purpose of Calvary was to forgive our sins and bring us back into the glory of God. Selah. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10 NKJV) You were created to stand in the glory of God. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:14 NKJV) I encourage you to daily practice the habits and disciplines of entering into the presence of God.
