HOW TO ENTER THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
How can we learn to consistently come into God’s presence? How can we learn to live in God’s presence in a permanent way?
I confess, as a younger Christian, there were times when I would experience God’s presence, and times when I would not. There was a lack of consistency in my ability or understanding to come into the presence of God. Over time, I have learned, grown, and practiced this reality, and I believe there are several keys given by Scripture that we can embrace and build into the fabric of our walk with God.
I believe that when God gave the structure of the temple or tabernacle to Moses, He was literally setting out a plan or road map to bring His people back into His presence. The writer to the Hebrews speaks much of this. He calls it, “the way into the holiest place.” (Hebrews 9:8)
When Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, God stationed cherubim with a flaming sword to block the way back into His presence. In that moment, mankind lost access to the presence of God. (Genesis 3:24)
From the fall of mankind at the beginning of the book of Genesis until the time when Israel was brought out from Egypt, mankind could no longer enter into the presence of God. Through the ministry of Moses and his encounters with God in the desert, God established a system of blood sacrifice so that He could begin to bring His presence back into the world.
The Bible has much to say on the subject of the tabernacle. There are 328 verses in the Bible concerning the subject of the tabernacle—approximately 300 in the Old Testament and 28 in the New Testament. When God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle, He warned him clearly, saying, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:5)
It was vital that Moses completely followed God’s instructions. The earthly tabernacle—whether the original movable tent version or the later elaborate stone constructions—was built upon a heavenly plan and design that God wants us to grasp. We no longer need to visit a temple or tabernacle to worship God. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)
In constructing the temple, God was showing mankind how to come into His presence. I believe it is important that we come into God’s presence in God’s way. I also believe it is vital that we approach God in the manner He has ordained, not according to our own preferences. Just as it was not appropriate for David to construct his own personal etiquette around the transportation of the ark, so also God has prescribed a protocol, method, and pathway by which we must come into His presence.
It is important to note that the various steps God has outlined in this pathway are not for His benefit, but for ours.
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17)
The tabernacle is a plan for how to come into God’s presence.
There are various steps that the people of Israel were required to follow in the Outer Court, the Inner Court, and the Holy of Holies. The temple was a three-part or triune construction. God is triune. (The Trinity.) We also, created in God’s image and likeness, are triune beings. We are spirit, soul, and body. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
The three stages—or courts—of the temple each correspond to one part of our being. In the Outer Court, we worship God with praise, celebration, and exaltation. We literally offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. (Romans 12:1)
We raise our voices and sing. (Psalm 95:1) We lift our hands to the Lord. (Psalm 134:2) We clap our hands. (Psalm 47:1) We come into His courts with thanksgiving and praise. (Psalm 100:4)
In the Outer Court, we submit our bodies to the Lordship of Jesus and celebrate who God truly is. It would be wise to examine the original meanings of the Hebrew words for praise and worship. In comparison with the average—even exuberant—Western evangelical or charismatic church, all of our worship is tame and insipid when measured against the Hebrew understanding of worship.
While the Outer Court relates to our body, the Inner Court pertains to our soul. In the Outer Court, we praise, celebrate, and exalt. In the Inner Court, we worship. The Outer Court is a place where we dance and spin with joy before our God. The Inner Court is where we kneel and pour out our hearts and emotions as an offering before the Lord.
Come, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. (Psalm 95:6–7)
The Outer Court relates to our body. The Inner Court relates to our soul.
The Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place, corresponds to worshiping in the Spirit. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24) There is a place in worship that goes beyond emotions. There is a place in worship where we literally meet God, Spirit to spirit. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (1 Corinthians 6:17)
Throughout all eternity, this is the place of worship we will continually inhabit—unbroken and glorious Spirit-to-Spirit communion with the Triune God. However, it is possible for us to enter into that glorious place now. God, in His wisdom, has prepared a pathway for us to come into that place. It can be difficult, especially for the uninitiated—for those who have not practiced—to enter immediately into that realm of Spirit-to-Spirit communication with God. There are often matters within our soul that must be addressed and laid aside in order to enter into that place of glorious fellowship with the Lord.
Our spirit is seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6) Yet, despite this, our soul is not, and neither is our body. Our soul and body dwell on the earth. Our body becomes tired and is affected by the world around it. For most of us, whether we are aware of it or not, our soul is not in continuous communion and fellowship with God. Our soul is influenced by many things—usually by what we allow to enter through our eyes, our ears, the words of our mouth, and the environment in which we live. There is no work, effort, or striving required to enter into Spirit-to-Spirit communication with God—we are already there! The true effort, and at times struggle, is to bring our body and our soul into that same place of glorious communion.
On the journey into the Most Holy Place, the people of Israel would pass through five stages that represented important steps in preparation for the entry and acceptance in the Most Holy Place and the presence of God. Today, we do not enter a physical temple. The curtain or veil has been rent (John 19:30), and yet we need to pass through these same five steps and deal with the same five issues that the people of Israel needed to engage with.
The first item of furniture one would see when entering into the outer court was a brass table or brazen altar (Exodus 27:1-8). This is the place of sacrifice. This is the place where blood was shed. Nobody could come into the presence of God without the shedding of blood. No sacrifice would be acceptable without the shedding of blood. The blood of Christ has been shed once for all. It never needs to be shed again (who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. Hebrews 7:27). Although the blood of Christ has been shed once and for all, it is vital that we engage with that truth. The biggest blockage every born-again, spirit-filled Christian will experience today in engaging the presence of God is sin and the consciousness of sin. It is the blood of Christ, and the blood of Christ alone, which will deal with these things.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all sins and the blood of Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness (If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9).
It is vital that we are cleansed from all sin, and it is also vital that we are cleansed from the consciousness of sin. Each and every week in a church context, I will see people who are struggling to engage with God’s presence. For those two reasons. Firstly, there is sin in their life. Secondly, there is transgression in their existence they have not repented, forsaken, and been cleansed from. Often, more frequently, there are people who genuinely have asked God to forgive them, but they are living in the swamp of condemnation. Satan, the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), is speaking to them. They are living under the influence of Satan’s voice of condemnation more than they are the voice of the blood of Jesus.
The blood of Jesus speaks (Hebrews 12:24). It is not enough that the blood of Jesus, on the heavenly altar, speaks of our righteousness. We must, here on the earth, align our words with the words of the blood. We must agree with what the word of God says about the blood of Jesus.
They overcame him (Satan, the accuser of the brethren), by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 12:11).
If we are to enter the presence of the Lord with ease and facility, then it is vital that we solve the sin problem. We need to be cleansed from sin, and we need to be cleansed from the consciousness and condemnation of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1 NKJV.)
Humanity will always walk away from God and hide from God, as Adam and Eve did in the garden, when there is sin or the consciousness of sin in our being. We cannot simply live as sinners who are pardoned. However, it is crucial that we learn to clothe ourselves in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV.)
Righteousness gives us boldness to access the presence of God.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. (Hebrews 10:19 NKJV.)
From God’s vantage point and in his eternal perspective, we are already righteous because of the finished works of Christ and the blood of Jesus. Our mission and goal is to establish our hearts in that righteousness. We need to renew our minds and allow the truth of the work of the cross to go from our mind, through our mouth, and into our hearts.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:23-24 NKJV.)
In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. (Isaiah 54:14 NKJV.)
In the story of Exodus, when the angel of death came to visit Egypt, each family of the nation of Israel needed to slaughter a lamb. The blood of the lamb was shed, and yet that blood needed to be applied to the doorposts of each house. In the same manner, the blood of Jesus needs to be applied to our lives. It is not enough that we have a theological belief in the power of the blood of Jesus. Rather, the blood of Jesus requires practical application to our lives. God commanded the children of Israel to take a herb called hyssop. They were to dip this into the blood and then apply it to the doorposts of their houses. We apply the blood of Jesus to our lives through the words of our mouths. It is essential that we learn to declare the righteousness of Jesus Christ with the words that we speak.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10 NKJV.)
One of the most powerful things we can do as a Christian, and one of the most beneficial practices for the rest of your life, is to take all of the Bible verses that speak about the blood of Jesus and learn to declare them daily over your life in the present, first-person tense. For example, Hebrews 10:19 says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.” (Hebrews 10:19.) You can proclaim, I have boldness and daily access to God’s presence because of the blood of Jesus.
The realities of what Jesus accomplished on the cross are settled forever in heaven. When Jesus arose from the dead, the first person to meet him was Mary. She immediately reached out to embrace him, and Jesus would not allow her to touch him. He responded, “I have not yet ascended to my God and your God.” Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”
Jesus needed to ascend into the heavenly throne room and pour out his blood on the heavenly altar, where it still resides today. Later that day, Jesus would appear to his disciples and encourage them to touch him. “Handle me, for a spirit has not flesh and bone as you see I have.” Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
Notice that Jesus did not say flesh and blood to the disciples, but rather flesh and bone. The blood of Jesus is on the altar in heaven right now. His blood is speaking right now. Christ’s blood will speak throughout all eternity, and it is speaking better things than the blood of Abel. Right now, the blood of Jesus is declaring that we have been made righteous before the courts of heaven.
There is an old-fashioned term that we used to hear often in the churches, or in all the hymns and songs: “Pleading the blood.” What does it mean to plead the blood? To plead is a legal term. Pleading means to state one’s position and posture before the law. If somebody is involved in a court case, the very first question they will ever be asked at the arraignment is, “How do you plead?”
At a very real level, each and every one of us, every single day, are asked the question, how do we plead? The world has only two answers to this question: guilty or innocent. The world is still feeding from the tree of the knowledge of good or evil. The world evaluates everything as good or evil. Hence, we plead guilty or innocent. But we, the believers, have another plea. When the accuser of the brethren comes and accuses us, we do not cry, “I am guilty,” nor do we cry, “I am innocent.” Rather, we plead the blood. Our defense is that we are righteous in the blood of Jesus. We stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. While this is a settled matter in heaven, it is often not a settled matter in our own lives and in our own hearts. Our role is to take the things that are forever settled in heaven (Psalm 119:89), and make them settled in our own hearts.
There was a season in my life, around 20 years ago, where the Lord had been speaking to me about engaging in this process of daily proclaiming the blood scriptures over my life. Over a period of time, these truths had really sunk into my heart, and I began to develop faith in the word regarding the power of the blood.
Several months after beginning this discipline, I was preaching in a charismatic church in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I had been speaking in the church for a couple of evenings, and at the end of the second service, after praying for a line of people, I sat down on the front row to gather my belongings together and have a glass of water. A lady approached me and said that she had a prophetic word for me. As a rule, I never allow people I do not know to give unsolicited prophetic words over my life. I have learnt that this can be dangerous, and I put a high premium on protecting my heart from unhelpful or unbiblical words spoken over my life. In spite of this, for whatever reason, possibly I was simply tired and did not have the energy to deal with offending the lady, etc., I allowed this woman to speak. That evening, in my sermon, I had mentioned how my wife was eight months pregnant. I would be returning to Europe next week and wanted to be there for the birth of my second child. This lady began “prophesying,” and she literally commenced pronouncing a curse on me. For around two minutes, she mumbled on, saying, “I see death, death is coming, blackness, darkness, death, yea, verily, death,” etc. This was definitely not a word of edification, exhortation, and comfort. 1 Corinthians 14:3.
When the lady had finished her curse, she ended with, “thus saith the Lord,” and began walking away. As she walked away, I reached out for the “hem of her garment,” and pulled her back to me. I said, why do we not pray together over that word? When I opened my mouth and began to speak, all of the verses I had stored up in the interior of my heart concerning the blood of Jesus began to come out like bullets out of a machine gun. I stood there at the front of the church and declared, “it is written, it is written, it is written,” and broke every word of curse she had spoken by the power of the blood of Jesus. The blood is powerful. It declares we are righteous. But if we are to enter successfully and consistently into the presence of the Lord, then it is vital we establish our hearts in that place of righteousness.
In the book of Esther, we see a wonderful example of the principle of righteousness and entrance into the presence of the king. In this story, there is a time when Esther wants to enter into the royal court and plead before the king for the life of the Jewish people. Esther is the wife of the king, but in those days, the king had many wives and concubines, and Esther had no right or privilege whatsoever to simply march into the throne room of the king and make requests. Esther knew, and correctly so, that she could probably lose her life if she did this. During that era, the protocol was that somebody would present themselves for entry to the court of the king. The king could choose to raise the sceptre, which means the person had right of entry to the courtroom, or not. If not, they would be refused, or even pay a price for having dared to enter his presence. Of course, when Esther enters the courtroom, the king raises the sceptre and declares that she can ask for anything, even up to half of his kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and the sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness. But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.” (Hebrews 1:8 NKJV)
The king of heaven has forever raised the sceptre of righteousness for us, his people. We are no longer in the place of Isaiah, living in fear and terror when we come anywhere near the presence of the Lord. Far from it. Rather, we are at perfect peace and at home in his presence. Literally, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. (Isaiah 26:3 NKJV) And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6 NKJV)
The king has not offered us anything up to half of his kingdom; rather, he has literally said, whatever you ask in my name, I will do. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13 NKJV)
It is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom of God. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32 NKJV)
Continued in part two.
