The title of the second message in the winter training on, Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2) is, The secret revelation concerning the enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God, the God-man.
This secret revelation is seen mainly in the tabernacle, in Psalm 84. The tabernacle is not just a place where God meets with man and speaks with man – it is a type of the Triune God as the eternal Word becoming flesh and bringing God into man to live in man, God tabernacling among us in the person of the Lord Jesus (see John 1:1, 14).
The secret revelation of the house of God
It is not that obvious what the tabernacle is – there is a secret revelation of the house of God, a more profound significance. The tabernacle typifies the entire Triune God being incarnated to become enjoyable and enterable by man.
It is in Christ as the tabernacle that we can come to meet God – we are washed and cleansed by His precious blood (the bronze altar), we eat Christ as the bread and are enlightened by Christ as the Light (in the Holy Place), we offer Christ as incense to God for His satisfaction (at the golden altar), and we meet with God in the propitiation place on the lid of the ark, where God meets with man.
The tabernacle is not just a picture of the church life, but it is the Triune God for us to enter into, to partake of, and to enjoy! The entire Triune God was incarnated to become the enterable and enjoyable God for man to enter into God and enjoy God. And God’s incarnation is NOT a One Instant Event – it continues throughout the entire New Testament age until it reaches the New Jerusalem, the eternal universal tabernacle!
Every time man is regenerated God is incarnated! Every time we enjoy the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we become the incarnated God – God dwells in man and is expressed in man!
An increased appreciation of the house of God
Our appreciation and enjoyment of the house of God typified by the tabernacle is in degrees. Every year we enjoy and appreciate the house of God to a further and deeper degree, especially after passing through some experiences. When we come into the church life we have a sweet honeymoon, heavens on earth!
All the brothers seem to be heroes and all the sisters are like angels. After 6 months or a year, as deeper and more exposing experiences come, we may think that the heroes become gophers and the angels are scorpions… – and the church life may become a “vinegar-moon” church life, with some disappointment and discouragement…
All these experiences are used by the Lord as a kind of a test to help you to deepen your enjoyment and appreciation of the house of God. All the natural things we came within the church life needs to be stripped away from us for us to become God’s house, Christ’s enlargement!
The Lord is faithful – He uses the negative things happening to us to strip us of anything natural so that we may gain Christ and be reconstituted, reconstructed, and remodelled with Christ!
If we do not murmur and complain but turn to the Lord, we will say, Lord, Who do I have in heaven but You, and there’s nothing I love and appreciate more on the earth as Christ! This increases our appreciation of the house of God.
The furnishings in the tabernacle
The way the furnishings in the tabernacle were arranged and their significance are very mysterious and meaningful. We need to see that the house of God is the central focus of the whole Bible and the hidden matter in God’s heart which He wants to obtain.
All the furnishings in the tabernacle are types of Christ and His processes, and are part of the way God provided for man to enter into God and be incorporated with God to become the New Jerusalem, the enlarged Holy of Holies!
At the bronze altar in the outer court – a type of the cross of Christ – all our problems are taken care of, our sins are washed away, and we are cleansed by the blood of Christ.
At the laver we are being washed by the water in the Word to be inwardly cleansed. Then, we go on into the Holy Place, where we have Christ as the lampstand shining on us as the light of life, Christ as the living bread and the bread of life for us, and the golden altar where we offer Christ as the incense of God’s acceptance.
In the Holy of Holies, we have the ark of the covenant, in which there is Christ as the hidden manna in the golden pot (the divine nature of the Father), the budding rod for authority in the resurrection life of Christ, and the law of the new covenant which operates inwardly to regulate us and transform us!
Here, in the Holy of Holies, we meet with God on the lid of the ark, under the wings of the cherubim and upon the sprinkled blood – this is the mercy seat, the propitiation cover, the atonement place, where God speaks to us face to face!
Praise the Lord for the tabernacle!
When we see the preciousness and the enjoyment involved in the tabernacle, leading us to become part of the tabernacle together with the Triune God, all we can do is to Praise the Lord!
Our praises are a testimony that Everything Is Done – God has done everything, we are not just enjoying Him and praising Him! Christ has won the victory, Satan is defeated, the tabernacle is being enlarged to become the New Jerusalem! We now dwell in the house of God by praising God! Praise the Lord!
[sharing inspired from the second message in the 2011 winter training, topic, Crystallization Study of Psalms (part two), and the subject of the message is, The secret revelation concerning the enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God, the God-man (given by brother James Lee). This is just “the tip of the iceberg” of the enjoyment in this wonderful message… On the same topic: The Secret Revelation concerning the Enjoyment of Christ. Picture source: Whom do I have in heaven but You?]
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