Chapter 5
Concealed – The Process for the New Creation
After waiting more than 400 years, God delivered the Israelites slaves out from bondages in Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai where ‘the first church meeting’ was recorded (Ex. 19). Kelvin J. Conner in his book ‘The Tabernacle of Moses’ mentions the first major revelation of God at Mount Sinai was on five things:
1. The Tabernacle of Moses – Exodus 25-40
2. The Law Covenant or Mosaic Law – Exodus 20
3. The Priesthood, both Aaronic and Levitical – Exodus 28,29,39
4. The Five Offerings and sundry Sacrifices – Leviticus 1-7
5. The Three Feasts of the Lord – Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacle (Leviticus 23)
Upon these five things the whole Epistle of Hebrews dwells, interpreting all in relation to the ministry of Christ Jesus, the firstborn of the New Creation. In my earlier days I pondered…”after waiting more than 400 years, the first major topics God communicated to His people was the tabernacle layout, the priesthood and all the ceremonial laws…it must be of great importance!” But even though I could see its importance and sense of urgency, I could only study its parts and not understand its whole.
1. Not a new concept but a new way
The revelation of the Aaronic Levitical Priesthood is not God introducing the new practice of priesthood to Israel. We note that there were already priests in the multitude that gathered among them in Mount Sinai (Ex 19:22). The Ancient Near Eastern world of Egypt and neighbouring countries were steep in religious alliance to their deities. The Aaronic Levitical Priesthood, the Tabernacle, sacrificial system and the ceremonial laws were God’s revelation in type and shadow of the weakness of the former angelic priesthood of the Kingdom in heaven, having the form but not the life. All the types and shadows are signs pointing to Jesus Christ, the fulfilment of God’s desire of the New Creation for the reformation and replacement of a new priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. God desires an authentic priesthood of intrinsic Light! These were all shadows of the true substance in the perfected priesthood to come in Christ Jesus, the firstborn of the New Creation. The tabernacle and the temple of the Old Testament were obsolete and destroyed when Jesus Christ becomes the living temple. The temple in heaven will also become obsolete and replaced when the fullness of the New Creation becomes living temples (Rev.21: 22-23). Today we are privileged to look back on 6000 years of history of all that God has revealed and are better to understand it clearer.
2. Neglect not so great a salvation!
All of us must know that God desire to form us and put us into the Most Holy Place to serve and guard His Kingdom for Him. This picture is the same as God forming Adam and putting him into the Garden of Eden to serve Him as priest and to guard His sanctuary or temple (i.e. His seat of government) as His vice regent in His Colony on earth. We are having on-the-job-training (OJT) in preparation for our destiny in the New Jerusalem. The dimension of the New Jerusalem is a perfect cube (Rev 21:15-17) similar to that of the Most Holy Place. As mentioned earlier, the Throne Room of God is the only perfect adobe of His reign in the entire universe. New Jerusalem or the New Temple will no longer be like the old temple layout with three compartments, namely the Most Holy Place, the Holy Place and the Outer Court. It will only have the Most Holy Place. The inhabitants of the New Jerusalem are living temples of intrinsic light. There is no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Rev 21; 22). The Holy Place and the Outer Court had been brought down onto the Colony on earth for our preparation, training, tests and approval. Those who fail to pass the Outer Court and progress into the Holy Place as Light and who fail to learn to serve and guard in the Most Holy Place in their journey on earth, they will not be holy participants of the first resurrection in Heaven (Rev 20:4-6). Therefore fear God!
Gal 6:7
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
A. The Tabernacle of Moses– the Picture, Pattern and Process for the New Creation
Moses was instructed to follow exactly the pattern for the tabernacle and furnishings (Exodus 25:8-9) because it is an exact copy of the real tabernacle that God erected in heaven (Hebrews 8:2; 6). We know the pattern of the Temple of Solomon is almost identical to the layout in the tabernacle.
The whole layout of the tabernacle and temple compound has three compartments with its entrance from the East, namely the Most Holy Place, the Holy Place and the Outer Court, to which a graduated scales of holiness, is attached. The source of light in the three compartments is different and distinct. The seven furniture of the Tabernacle are also different and distinct, signifying the different stages of our spiritual maturity.
The Outer Court receives natural sun light but the Holy Place and Holy of Holy are covered and enclosed with no natural light coming in. The Holy Place is illuminated by the Lampstand with its seven lamps. The lamps were lighted up by the holy fire from God. It is the picture of the Holy Spirit as the source of Light giving light into us (2 Cor. 4:6). The Most Holy Place was heavily veiled from the Holy Place and it was lighted up by the Shekinah Glory of God. God is Light and when the light in us is in oneness with His, we enter into the Most Holy Place (c.f. John 17:11).
The Brazen Altar and Brazen Laver in the Outer Court were made of wood overlay with brass, a picture of ‘man’ nature and judgment and the dealing of his sin nature and works of flesh.
The Holy Place where only the priests are allowed to enter and ministered before God had the Golden Lampstand hammered out of pure gold and the Table of Shewbread and the Golden Altar of Incense were made of very strong wood overlaid with gold. The Holy Place is a picture of ‘God-man’ nature; the supernatural life of a spiritual man empowered by the Holy Spirit. It requires the spiritual man to consistently maintain this spiritual state by his consecration and priestly ministering before God. In the Holy Place, the priests had to constantly put oil from crushed olives to cause the lamps in the Lampstand to light continuously. The priests had to bake and prepared the fresh breads for the Table of Shewbread in the ministry of the Word, constantly burning the incense in prayers and ministering to the LORD at the Golden Altar of Incense. It pictured the consecration of a spiritual man with his crucified life serving as the priest of God (John 15:1-8).
The Most Holy Place has the Ark of Covenant which is made of very strong wood and overlay with pure gold. Here it is fully divine nature. We look forward to the day when we put on the glorified bodies, emanating the intrinsic Light that we have attained through nurturing and being developed by the process here on earth. The spiritual person has matured to become the Living Ark, becoming living epistle of the Spirit written in the tablets of the heart instead of the Law written in tablets of stone. The Word is saturated inside and he is living the Word (eternal Manna) and in the stature of righteousness having the authority delegated by God (budding of Aaron’s rod).
1. The Divine, Spiritual and Natural
Apostle Paul mentions the spiritual, carnal and natural man (1 Cor. 2:14, 15, 3:1-3). The three compartments in the Tabernacle indicate the spiritual ‘graded holiness’. The Most Holy Place is divine nature, the Holy Place is supernatural or spiritual nature and the Outer Court is man nature. The nearer we come to (or become) the Ark where the Mercy Seat of God is in the Most Holy Place, the more mature, the more divine nature of God, and the more of His light emanates within us. Within the three compartments in the tabernacle, we are saved, being saved and will be saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is a gift of God (Eph 2:8). Those who reject the righteous requirement of God and His saving grace in Christ (Rom 1:16-32) live outside the tabernacle in the Land of Nod as wanderers and fugitives.
2. Entrance is from the East
We must particularly note that the entrance into the tabernacle is from the East. To be able to stand before God face to face requires the process for a person to enter into the Outer Court from the east gate and to continue to progress westward into Holy Place and finally into the Most Holy place. It is a picture of the spiritual process of maturity with different levels and stages of spiritual dynamics, dimensions, baptisms and stature. The process will progress from shadow to substance as more and more of the Light is deposited as intrinsic light within a person. The entrance to the Tabernacle and the Temple was from the East. This is very important which we will see clearly later.
3. The Temple layout in the Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is the pattern of the temple layout. After God formed Adam and Eve, He put them into the Garden of Eden to serve Him in priest-king function to guide, guard and govern the Kingdom Colony in the land of Eden on earth. Their failure in total dependence to God in their delegated authority (the Fall) caused Adam and Eve their position and place in the Garden and the ‘cherubim were placed at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life’ (Genesis 3:24). They were disqualified to serve God as priest-king in the Garden, which is the Temple of God. Adam and Eve failed to guard the sanctuary against the serpent’s deception that appeals to the ‘sense knowledge which they acquired and accumulated through their natural five senses without dependence on God. God would not allow Adam and Eve to depend just on the knowledge of Him without the Life of His i.e. the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve had to learn the ways of God, not just His works. They have to be nurtured and developed in the God’s kind of life.
Divine wisdom comes from God when He illuminates our heart. We have His Life (Light) in us by the ministry of the Spirit.
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6)
Wisdom is the spiritual illumination to use the right knowledge for the right time, right place, right way, and right context. Wisdom is the signature mark of the peak of our salvation in Christ. In order to perform under the demands for performance, many charismatic ministers use talents, techniques, tactics, skills and eloquence without spiritual illumination which comes from the power of an endless life in God (Heb 7:16). They got ensnared with the mask and the mass!
2 Cor. 4:1-6
4 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake.
Adam and Eve and their children were still within the Kingdom in the land of Eden but not inside the Garden. Cain was still able to hear the warning and counsel of God (Gen 4:7). They were still ‘God’s people in God’s place under God’s Rule’, meaning the relationship is still safeguarded but to regain their priest-king function as God intended them for, they have to learn the obedience through the sacrificing of their self life in love as foreshadowed in the animal sacrifices to God. They have to learn the way and the process to be God’s governing priest-king. God was teaching them and want them to learn the holiness for His priesthood. Likewise when God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, His intention was for them to be His new priesthood but they had to learn and to undergo the process. All of them were called but few were chosen …actually only two made it, Joshua and Caleb (Num 26:65)
Ex 19:3-6
3 And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
We already noted that there were various types of pagan priests in the exodus multitude (Ex 19:22) but God wanted to instruct His people of the holiness of His priesthood that was different from the priests the Israelites found among their neighbourhood. God took Aaron and his four sons to be the Levitical priesthood and set up the Tabernacle and all the ceremonial laws pertaining to priesthood and sacrificial system for the single purpose of teaching them and us in type and shadow. The godly remnant of God’s priest-king continues from Adam to Noah to Abraham to us today. This witness of the Light was never extinguished! God’s intention for the New Creation of the new priesthood remains unchanged and steadfast.
Cain was the only one expelled from the Kingdom and driven out from Eden and from the presence of the God after he murdered his brother Abel. Cain went out to dwell in the land of Nod (meaning ‘wandering’) on the east of Eden (Gen 4:11-17) but Adam and Eve were still in the land of Eden and they continued to raise up a godly lineage and ‘then men began to call on the name of the LORD’ (Genesis 4:25-26).
Gen 6:8-10
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
4. Cain’s ungodly line – the consequences of rejecting God
Cain separated and left the presence of the LORD as a cursed person, as a fugitive with guilt of condemnation and with fear of punishment, living the life of a vagabond, wandering aimlessly without meaning and purpose (Gen 4:14). This is the life of sinners who rejected God, wandering without purpose and meaning, insecure and laden with guilt and fear, futile labour and deceived by their own foolishness, destroyed by evils.
Cain went eastward, further and further away from God, descending into decline, deception, decay, destruction, and death. As he distanced further from the Source of Light, Cain diminished into darkness...darker and darker. The land of Nod means the land of wandering. Egypt pictures the land of slavery and bondages. Notice the direction that Cain took…he went Eastward, distancing himself spiritually further from God.
Cain still retained his creativity, ability and productivity but without God. He began a new beginning without God. His first son and the first city he built were called Enoch, which means ‘beginning.’ Cain reproduced and multiplied according to his own kind and a civilisation was formed with self sustenance, technological advances, livestock and arts and music but with the disorders of polygamy and murders. Cain and his descendents descend swiftly from God into moral decline, decay and destruction by evils. God eventually caused the Great Flood to clean them up. The Tower of Babel and the City of Babylon pictures the confusions in man-made attempts to attain access of the things of God.
5. The Ark, the Flood and Baptism
1 Peter 3:18-22
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 There is also an antitype which now saves us — baptism(not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
The Flood (discuss further later in the book) in Genesis 6 shows the ungodly destroyed by the water, just like the entire Egyptian army perished in the water of the Red Sea. Today, the prince of the power of the air is still enslaving the ungodly in captivity.
Eph 2:1-3
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. NKJV
Noah and his family (the godly line) were saved from the Flood in the Ark, which symbolises Christ. The Israelites crossed over the Red Sea and the River Jordan on dry land. The water of the Red Sea and River Jordan is the picture of spirits which cannot touch the Israelites because of the Blood of Christ and the Ark respectively.
There are baptisms the Church needs to understand and enter into. ‘The prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience’ has to be dislodged from the air with the governmental grace that Samuel and the other living Arks carried (c.f. Luke 10:17-24) and his gangs of unclean spirits or waters displaces from the land by His Kingdom. It must be dry land in the Kingdom. The mission of the Church is Kingdom Colonisation[1] and it is multitasking in establishing God’s rule, maturing God’s priests, developing God’s people, governing God’s land, building God’s Temple, and defeating, dislodging and displacing darkness and advancing the colonisation.
6. What is baptism?
The word “baptism” is the Greek word ‘baptizo’, which means to immerse totally in until a permanent change in state e.g. fresh cucumbers are immersed in vinegar until it changes state permanently to become pickles. The other Greek word is ‘bapto, meaning ‘to bip in,’’ so the fresh cucumbers are dipped into hot water for a short while to cleanse it. ‘ And they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 19:5) meaning they were immersed in the present truth teachings of Jesus as the Ascended and Exalted King and not remain in the revealed truth of John the Baptist. They were 'soaked day and night or totally saturated' with Truth and Light of Jesus Christ.
‘The doctrine of baptisms’ is plural, referring to the initiation into spiritual dimensions. The spiritual maturity of the saints is progressive; meaning dimensional, living in levels and arriving in stages. Personally I had immersed in and saturated with the spiritual dimension for fourteen years. There are three aspects you received upon successful baptism of the spiritual dimension:
a) The Mantle,
b) The Spirit and
c) The God.
Elisha received these three aspects of the spiritual dimension carried by Elijah for succession and continuation (2 Kings 2). The seed reproduce after its type and in successful spiritual reproduction, these three aspects of the matured man is reproduced onto his successor. The mantle, like a well enables the Spirit dimension to be kept and stored so that the God that began with the forefather can continue with the successor. That is the reason why the God of Abraham is also called the God of Isaac and Jacob. He was not called God of the Israelites and we must note that that it is the Seed that determines the connectivity and continuity.
7. The local church – a congregation or a Body
Therefore the Church must be very careful and precise in what is being reproduced! Each leader of the local churches has different ministerial grace, gifting and maturity. They will reproduce the local churches according to their grace and level. It is important each leader sees this and avoid it. A local church cannot reproduce based on a personality but on purpose and destiny.
Pastors with a congregation paradigm will assume this is ‘my church’ or ‘my ministry’. Please note it is the Lord Jesus Christ who found His church and give us His ministry. When ownership replaced stewardship and ‘the things been entrusted to us’ with is replaced ‘our entitlement to it’, we are defiling the temple of God with another spirit that is not the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 3: 16-17).
Rather in a local church there are members with different gifting, maturity, grace and anointing. The pastor must realise the local church can also be a Body, perhaps in a scaled down version but nevertheless a full functioning body (Acts 6:1-7). Liken stem cell, the pastor must have the remarkable potential to develop members in various gifting, anointing and callings in the body during early life and growth and yet have the wisdom to pre-empt the tension and differences in the walls of separation. The goal is that the pastor must ‘decrease’ that they may ‘increase’. Not many pastoral leaders understand the grace of a wise master builder. Many have focused on the ‘scaffolding’ activities and miss the building itself! For a pastor to achieve this, mature wise apostolic inputs and oversight is needed.
Eph 2:14-22
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. 19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Also pastoral leaders build ‘boats for search and rescue mission’ whereas apostolic leaders build ‘aircraft carriers’ and ‘carrier strike group (CSG)’ to extend Kingdom influence and impact. Please do not mistake that I am talking about a bigger church or a bigger ministry. I am referring to the size of the internal reservoir capacity imparted. All of hell can come upon Apostle Paul and he didn’t even waivered a single bit (2 Cor.11:23-33). One of the uniqueness of an apostle is that he carries the grace, wisdom and dimension to quicken the maturity the saints without compromising the process. He forms the Christ in you, the hope of glory!
Once pastors of local churches adopt this paradigm shift from ‘congregation to body’ and implement it at the local church level with apostolic input, they will be comfortable as each local church can be an independent entity but they are interdependent as Body in a trans-local or regional grouping. It will break the sectarian spirit that cripples the churches.
8. Perfection by baptisms into dimensions
We need to understand the big picture from the Red Sea to Mount Zion because it gives us understanding of the progressive baptisms of spiritual dimensions we need to enter into the next higher level and eventually to reach the finishing line. We live in levels and arrive in stages. Mature godly servants of God are carriers of the Spirit and Word dimensions for the maturation of the ecclesia and feeding of the flocks.
Heb 5:9-6:6
9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek," 11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. 6:1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
Hebrew 6:4-5 lists five spiritual dynamics and dimensions that the matured saints has entered into:
a) Enlightened
b) Tasted the heavenly gift
c) Partakers of the Holy Spirit
d) Tasted the good word of God
e) Tasted the power of the age to come
9. God’s fellow workers
Being delivered from Egypt the land of slavery and bondage and crossing the Red Sea (the atonement in the blood of Jesus) is the first step of our spiritual growth. The journey is like an ascending stairway until we arrive at Mount Zion (Heb 12:22-24). The evangelists can bring sinners to Christ but they cannot put Christ in them. There are continued works needed and other God’s fellow workers must be roped in (1Cor. 3:5-17). The functions of five-fold ministerial grace are unique:
1. Apostle – Govern
2. Prophet – Guide
3. Teacher – Ground
4. Pastor – Guard
5. Evangelist - Gather
B. The Concealed Revealed – The Process and the Way In
When we overlay the layout of the Garden of Eden, the Tabernacle of Moses and the Journey of Israel from Red Sea to Zion and superimposed them on top of each other (see large diagram on opposite page), we can see clearly the process for the spiritual maturation of the New Creation of Priesthood is hidden in the Journey of Israel from the Red Sea to Mount Zion. The two major crossings of the Red Sea and the River Jordan demarcated the preparation for the priesthood and the installation of the priesthood. It is also the process from the Outer Court to the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. River Jordan is the threshold into the Temple of God.
1. Crossing over the River Jordan - Entering the Threshold of the Temple
The River Jordan[2] is the threshold into the Holy Place of the Temple of God. The name “Jordan” means “the descender.” It denotes ‘to go down’. The Promised Land is on the west side of the River Jordan. Joshua led the Israelites to cross over the River Jordan from the east on the plain of Moab to Gilgal on the west bank of the river. Crossing the River Jordan is crossing the threshold into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle where only the priests and not the people are allowed to enter in and that is the reason why the ‘old man’ in the first generation that came out of Egypt all perished in the wilderness. They are those not able to crossover the River Jordan because they are bound by the gravity pull of the cycle of defeats in life.
The first time the word “Jordan” appears in the Bible is Genesis 13:10
Gen 13:10-13
10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. 13 But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.
God’s Promised Land is on the west of the River Jordan where Abraham chose to remain but the carnal Lot choose to go eastward, descending into decay and destruction in Sodom eventually (Gen 19).
“Jordan” is where there is the separation of spirit and flesh. This is illustrated even more by the names of the two streams on the east of Jordan: the Jabbok and the Cherith. “Jabbok” means “emptying” and is first mentioned in Genesis 32:22 where Jacob was ‘emptied’ of fleshly nature and renamed ‘Israel’, meaning the ‘prince’. “Cherith” means “cutting” and is first mentioned in 1 King 17:13 where God ‘cut’ away Elijah his trust on human zeal and strength to have faith on the words which God spoke to him. The word of God sustained him in the famine and Elijah is able to help the widow and her son because of the proceeding word of God. So the River Jordan is where the spirit of decline, decay, destruction, and death operates on the worldliness, fleshly and selfish nature of carnal believers, making them captives into cycle of defeats.
2. Three phases of Salvation
As mentioned earlier, God’s redemption plan has phases of salvation:
a. The Blessings of Salvation
b. The Purpose of Salvation
c. The Intent of Salvation
The first phase of journey is from the Red Sea to the River Jordan and is the wilderness journey of the Israelites. God delivered them from Egypt but it is not easy to deliver Egypt out of them. They still have slave or victim mentality and much of the world is still inside them. The wilderness is the crucifixion of the old man at the cross. It is painful and very unpleasant but they enjoy the blessings of salvation. God supernaturally provided and protected them (Duet 29:5-60 and as more of God’s original function is restored in them and normalised back to divine order they experienced the righteousness, peace and joy in the blessings of salvation.
The second phase of the journey is from Gilgal to Zion. This is the purpose of the salvation. God took them out to bring them in. They are to be victors and no longer victims. There is divine providence but it requires their human responsibility. They are responsible to be His Light and salt and like leaven, to permeate and prevail over the prevailing culture and to be overcomers in order to obtain the inheritance that was promised. The purpose of salvation is for training, testing, resilience and approval. The reward of successful completion of the entire journey is obtaining the inheritance (further explain in the section on destiny).
The final phase of the journey is the intent of salvation. We enter into the rest of God (Heb 4:1-10). The works of salvation is completed in us and we received His approval to be His priests in kingly governmental role as new His governing body in His Temple with Jesus Christ as High Priest / King. Going to heaven is one thing but which part of heaven are you going to is the question? In heaven, there is the Temple and there is Paradise.
3. Gospel of Salvation vs. Gospel of the Kingdom
We need to understand the difference between the gospel of salvation and the gospel of the Kingdom. The churches are familiar with the gospel of salvation. It is about the process of sanctification where God restore us back to our original function in creation. We suffer the Fall and the redemption plan of God is to restore back to us what was lost. It is the wilderness journey of God’s people, from the Red Sea to the River Jordan where their worldliness, flesh and self are dealt with by God until they arrived at Kadesh (meaning holiness). It is here that many Christians read the Bible ‘men-centred and not God-centred’ because there are so much pastoral needs.
Life for God’s people in the wilderness is not too bad though the cross deals with the carnality of the believers. In the wilderness God provided free air conditioning in the heat of the day by His clouds and central heating in the cold night with His Pillar of Fire. The manna, the water, the shoes, the clothing were all provided for. They were protected from their enemies. There were testimonies of God’s supernatural healings, provision, providence and miracles and everyone is excited with the blessings. God’s mercy was pouring out on them but they need to know the favour of God! Redemption in the gospel of salvation means enjoying everything their Saviour Jesus Christ has done for them in restoring back what they have lost in the Fall. They enjoy the reconciliation back to God the Father and the fellowship in the church, be a nice Christian and do good, hang in there and awaits going back to heaven.
The focus is on the restoration of the Fall and becomes men-centred on the needs and the purposes because its paradigm is on the blessings of salvation but this is only first phase of the entire spiritual journey. This first phase is very important and sinful men must be redeemed and restored back to his original function and divine order as God created. It primarily deals with restoring men back to his original creation wholeness.
The second phase is taking and transforming the Promised Land, it is a process from Gilgal to Mount Zion. Its purpose is to bring the righteousness, peace and joy of the Kingdom of God in the land. Like the Israelites who were led by Joshua, we as the people of God learnt how to subdue the works of the flesh and the ungodly culture of the heathen around them. It requires us to have the power to prevail and the wisdom to govern. We receive our allocated plots from God as our little ‘Garden’ and have to excel in personal self government and consecration to serve and guard it. To order not to allow the gates of hell to penetrate into our little ‘Garden’, we must secure the Kingdom of God in our ‘Garden’ building strong walls of wisdom, discipline, strong values or gates and vigilance to protect it so that the gates of hell cannot prevail. The rebuilding of the broken walls in the Book of Nehemiah is about wisdom, knowledge and skills in securing the Kingdom from enemy infiltration. It is from this secured stronghold of our little ‘Garden’ that we are required to grow in strength and wisdom and be knowledgeable and skilful to extend and advance the Kingdom (Ex 23:30, Duet 7:22). It is in this position of strength that we multiply the blessings God has given to us to be a supplier of His blessings to others. We are not a consumer but a supplier of His blessings.
The Book of Judges shows the failure and consequences of apostasy of God’s people and its root cause is revealed interestingly in the last five chapters of Book of Judges which focus on the lives of two Levites. Their priestly lives were messed up and escalated to national political and moral anarchy. Once our priestliness is not plumb-lined accurately to God, the government of His Kingdom is comprised and collapsed. Apart from Him, we could do nothing! We must first learn to walk with Him, before we talk with Him.
The purpose in the Promised Land is primarily focus on the process and training of the priest-king function. In the Old Testament we can see the picture of fullness of the purpose of salvation when King David attained the fullness of priest king function in the image and likeness of God. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom. It is the preparation of the New Priesthood in the Order of Melchizedek for the New Governing Body of the New Kingdom in the New Heaven and New Earth.
4. Seek inheritance not utopia
The golden age of the nation of Israel was during the period of King Solomon when the glory of the Kingdom of God manifested fully in all areas, economic, military, technology, science, education, medical, government, laws etc but that utopia state was short lived. We must be careful of overemphasis, there is a social responsibility and desire for a better world but the key objective of this phase of the journey is inheritance and not utopia. I believe the state of utopia in Zion can be achieved in personal life and in the ‘Garden’ allocated by God to us but not in a national or global level. The world is still serving out God’s plan and purpose until it is fully accomplished.
5. Why the need to crossover the River Jordan?
- It is the threshold of the Temple into the Holy Place where only the priests are allowed to enter.
- It is God’s designated place for them to enter into, the Promised Land.
- It is in Canaan land at the major crossroad that God intended for the nation of Israel to be His unique showpiece to the nations of the world to come to know Him.
- God desire a spiritual inheritance for Himself and for those who reach Mount Zion. It is all about spiritual inheritance both for God and for your descendants! The churches that choose to remain in the first part of the journey i.e. from Red Sea to River Jordan will never enter into the inheritance and they will never have any spiritual inheritance, which I will explain in later pages.
6. The Priesthood of the Order of Melchizedek
The first time the word ‘priest’ appears in the Bible is in Genesis 14:18. Melchizedek who is both king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met with Abram soon after his victory over the five kings who had defeated four other kings earlier (Gen 14). In short, Abram had dominion over all the kings in that region. He can be considered the world superpower of his time. He had a kingly stature and status. God had shaped Abram in righteousness and godly rulership by His dealings in Abram’s life. Abram had matured in spiritual stature and touched the dimension of righteousness and now Abram was in the capacity to receive this revelation from God, the mystery that was kept for him. When Abram met Melchizedek he could discern the aura of righteousness and the stature of godliness of this king compared to all the other defeated kings. Abram was attracted by the weight of glory of this person carried and he honoured Melchizedek with a tithe of all.
Gen 14:18
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.
7. The Revelation that Abram received
From the encounter with Melchizedek in Genesis 14, God allowed Abram to see into His heart and mind of His intention of a reformation of the governing body in the Kingdom in heaven with the New Creation of new priesthood in the order of Melchizedek, who are to rule and reign with Christ Jesus in godliness, righteousness and divine wisdom. This is the first mention of the word ‘priest’ in the Bible and it is so much earlier than Moses or Aaron or the Levitical priesthood.
Heb 7:1-12
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace," 3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. 4 Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. 5 And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; 6 but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. 7 Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. 8 Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. 9 Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, 10 for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.
Need for a New Priesthood (Ps 110:4)
11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.
8. “As you are lighted here on earth, heaven is lighted up”
In the Melchizedek encounter, God showed Abram the new type of priesthood who would govern His Kingdom. God also began to tell Abram why He called him and explained to him the plan and process. God told Abram to look into the night sky saying, “Abram, as you are ‘lighted up’ here on earth, heaven is lighted up.” This was the same words I heard in a voice within me in one of my usual morning walk with Him. The words came so distinctly clear “as you are lighted up here, heaven is lighted up” and it went deep and sharp into my spirit. This new priesthood is prepared in the Kingdom Colony on earth through the process of God’s dealings in their life until they come into the position of maturity of Christ-likeness to exercise godly government in God-given authority that is accorded to the stature attained in Christ Jesus. It is crucial that Christians understand we are not here on earth just to believe in Jesus, be saved and waiting to go to heaven! We are here to follow Jesus, to be formed like Him by the Holy Spirit and His Words, with His Light inside us and to govern righteously in all that God has given to us e.g. our life, our spouse, our children and our resources and property and to be His light of the world, the salt of the earth for healing of the nations, to permeate the surrounding darkness like leaven of righteousness. As we are lighted here on earth, heaven is lighted up! First the physical then the spiritual! We are being prepared for the Kingdom.
9. The New Creation – the New City
God showed Abram the dysfunctional condition of the Kingdom in heaven because of the cosmic chaos and His intention of reforming and replacing with a New Creation of new priesthood. Abram was informed that he and his descendents were part of God’s plan of the New Creation, and that he was the patriarch. After his victory over the nine earthly kings, Abram experienced the natural kingly governmental stature and now Abram experienced the spiritual kingly governmental stature of the Melchizedek Priesthood and had a foretaste of it. Abraham’s understanding was enlightened and he saw the riches of the glory of inheritance for his descendants (Eph 3: 18) of what God was talking to him about!
God was pleased with Abram that he believed and was eager to be partaker to do and finish the plan of God… the Gospel of the Kingdom was preached to Abram and God counted it to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Abram was passionate to pursue God’s plan but was concerned about his old age and he had no successor to continue and finish the plan. God told Abram about the process and assured him that when His divine nature is fully developed in him, he will have a son for succession.
Gen 15:2-5
2 But Abram said, "Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." 5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
10. The seed will reproduce after its own kind
The father of Ishmael and Isaac was two different persons. The father of Ishmael is Abram and the father of Isaac is Abraham. Abram successfully finished the process of God’s circumcision of his fleshly nature and now has ‘Yahweh’ nature in him. There was an incorporation of Yahweh’s name into Abram’s new name! Abram has ‘ah’ nature and now become Abraham. The same is for Sarai to Sarah.
Here we see the spiritual principle of a seed reproduces after its own kind. God needs to form the Seed in us. Abraham understood this principle in God’s plan and pursued it with passion. Isaac was willing to be tied up for sacrifice at Mt. Moriah and Jacob pursued until he was changed to become Israel…all because of this spiritual principle! Jude exhorts us “I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3). It is not just about apostolic doctrine but also the life. Jude is referring to the Seed!
Heb 11:8-16
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude — innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
The Heavenly Hope
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
2 Cor. 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
11. The spiritual dimension of the Melchizedek Priesthood
The spiritual dimension of this Melchizedek priesthood is demonstrated by the governmental anointing carried in Samuel:
1 Sam 7:12-14
12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us." 13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14 Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. NKJV
God was no longer inside the physical Ark, Samuel was the living Ark. The fullness of God’s governing grace of priest, king and prophet was upon him. It was this Melchizedek Priesthood that Peter was preaching at the Beautiful Gate of the temple.
Acts 3:17-26
17 "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' 24 Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' 26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."
Apostle Paul also demonstrated the stature and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood in the city of Ephesus when the evil spirits announced and acknowledged his presence “Jesus I know and Paul I know…” (Acts 19:15) Paul was a living Ark.
Jesus was talking about this company of New Creation – the Melchizedek Priesthood in Luke 10:17-24. The seventy was a company of people who of Light, empowered by the Holy Spirit, carrying the Melchizedek’s governing stature and grace. These are followers of Christ Jesus with solid substance of Light!
Luke 10:17-24
17 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." 18 And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." 21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 22 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." 23 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the thigs you see; 24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."
12. The Mystery of the Eternal Reward
Those in the first resurrection are the fruits of New Creation – they become the new governing body of priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. In Hebrews chapter 6, the writer exhorts us to go to perfection. He exhorts us that it is impossible if we truly abide in Christ and not bear fruits, just as the rains watered the herbs useful for whose by whom it is cultivated (Heb 6:7). The writer was encouraging his immature readers that God is not unjust to forget their work and labour of love. (Heb 6:9-12). The second resurrection is for those in the Book of Life (Rev 20:12). Paul was knew and was pressing in for the company of first resurrection (Phil. 3:10-11) and he exhorts us to imitate him as he follows Christ!
Rev 20:4-6
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. NKJV
C. God’s Pattern, Process, Priesthood of the Order of Melchizedek
God brought His people on a journey of 42 stops from the Red Sea to the River Jordan (see Numbers 33) after delivering them from Egypt the land of bondages. It is the process of the formation and qualification for priesthood. Interestingly, genealogy of Jesus listed in Matthew 1:1-17 ends at the 41 generations. The New Creation is the 42nd and the final generation in formation! The 42 stops are divided into three sections of 14 stops each. The whole journey in the wilderness is to remove the world, the flesh and the self to empower them to have victory over the cycles of defeats.
42 stops are divided into:
1. First section of 14 stops – removal of the world in us
2. Second section of 14 stops – removal of the flesh in us
3. Third section of 14 stops – removal of the self in us
1. Holiness
We count 11 stops from the start and 11 stops from the end of the 42 stops, i.e. +11 stop and -11 stop (stop nos. 32) are two critical spiritual state. We have Mount Sinai and Kadesh.
The +11 stop is at Mount Sinai where the Israelites received God’s requirement to be His Kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex 19:5-6). But at the +14 stop, they failed to enter into the Holy Place in the Promised Land (Numbers 13:26, 33:18).
The -11 stop (nos. 32) is Kadesh, which means ‘holiness’. It is the spiritual state of attainment and fulfilment of God’s requirement given in Mount Sinai. It took 38 years of God’s dealings for the Israelites in the wilderness. Aaron the High Priest (type and shadow) died (Num 33:38) when Kadesh is reached. Kadesh or holiness is a pre-requirement before entering the Promised Land or the Holy Place of the Temple of God.
The thirty eight years of wandering was to form holiness in them. It is the resurrected life in the Spirit after the flesh or old man is dead. It is the process of dealing with the flesh and carnality in the believers. It is what is termed “the wilderness time” which is a normal part of our spiritual growth and it is one of the most painful yet most beautiful times in our inner growth. It is like the metamorphosis of an ugly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.
Hos. 2:14-17
14 'Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 "And it shall be, in that day,"
Says the Lord,
"That you will call Me 'My Husband,'
And no longer call Me 'My Master,'
17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more. NKJV
2. Sanctification
The 42 stops is a picture of the process of sanctification in the Outer Court where the flesh is burned in the altar and the spirit is cleansed with the water of the Word and Spirit of God.
The journey from the Red Sea to the River Jordan is the process of forming the priestliness inside us; it is the process of sanctification in the removal of worldliness, flesh and self in us, maturing and transforming us in holiness to be priests of God. This portion of the journey (Red Sea to River Jordan) is the formation of priesthood (see Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8).
3. Spiritual impartation
This process is not in the classroom, which we may learn and study but it is experienced in the dealings of God according to His grace that is upon a believer’s life. In the Levitical priesthood, Aaron’s high priestly function is to be transferred to his sons for succession. This arrangement by God is to teach us about the importance of spiritual impartation. For the people of God to be empowered believers to crossover the River Jordan into the Holy Place in the Promised Land, it requires spiritual formation, discipleship, and mentoring and life impartation of a matured servant of God. It involves the laying of hands of the matured servant of God into shaping their lives (Heb 6:2 ‘on the laying of hands). Moses imparted into Joshua and Joshua circumcised the second generation before crossing over the River Jordan. Men like Moses and Joshua stood before God face to face. They experienced and understood and carried a spiritual dimension. They have entered in and stood before God and therefore they have the spiritual know-how on how to bring God’s people in also. It was Moses who washed Aaron and his sons and placed the priestly garments upon them (Ex 29: 4-9). The washing and the garments deal with their inner spirit and their mantle. ‘The priesthood of all believers’ was declared since the days of Reformation but the spiritual dimensions of it had yet to be entered into. It is not head knowledge or verbal declaration. It is a heart to heart, spirit to spirit, life to life transfer and impartation. I have seen preachers exhorting and teaching the saints what they must do but not giving the spiritual ‘how-to’ and it left the people in wanting and not filled. You cannot give what you do have!
4. Entering the Holy Place of the Temple
The Promised Land is reached after crossing the River Jordan. The Promised Land is the Holy Place in the Tabernacle layout where only the priests are allowed to enter to minister to God.
The Holy Place is veiled and separated from the Outer Court. It can only be entered by those cleansed and qualified for the priesthood after successful completion of the wilderness journey of 42 stops and crossing over the River Jordan to Gilgal. Gilgal was the spiritual starting point for the installation of the priesthood. The veil that covers the Holy Place is the River Jordan and can only be removed when Christ is formed in you. It is the ministry of the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3 -4) and requires priests who are able to carry the Ark to stop the waters of the Jordan (Joshua 3:13-17), as foreshadowed by the Tabernacle of David …just David and the Ark, a spiritual dimension that is only achieved when you reach Zion. The Most Holy Place was veiled and separated the Holy Place and was torn after the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus the High Priest had entered into the Most Holy Place and from there and then, the Holy Spirit is sent to bring the rest of the priesthood in.
5. Into the Most Holy Place
Heb 10:19-24
19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Rom 8:29-30
9 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
We are exhorted by God to press in into the Most Holy Place and stand before His Presence and minister to Him. The promise is already given. The pathway is shown by Jesus Christ. The process is revealed from Gilgal to Zion.
The life and journey of David, from a shepherd boy to the Melchizedek priest-king before God in the Tabernacle of David shows us how the grace of God prepared him. There are many spiritual dealings, dynamcis and dimensions David had to undergo and it would require a separate volume to cover it. Gilgal, Ramah, Adullam, Ziklag, Hebron and Zion are spiritual dimensions we must matured into on our journey into the Most Holy Place. The spiritual stature and authority is different in these spiritual levels and stages.
a. Shiloh – the Entrance into the Most Holy Place, the Temple of God
The Tabernacle was situated in Shiloh (Joshua 18:1). The Book of Judges is about the priesthood in the Holy Place. It is about the consecration and lifestyle of the priesthood. The Book of Judges tells us of its contamination, corruption, seven cycles of refinement and defilement and contempt of the temple in 1 Samuel 2:12-17, resulting in Ichabod (1 Sam. 4:19-22).
When servants of God profit from their ministry with vested interest, they are disqualifying themselves. They can continue in ministry but can never enter to minister before God (Ezek 44:10-14 c.f. 15-28). Saul continued as king but God has left him and he still was unaware. As a servant of God, I must constantly mindful of two things: 1) did God left me and 2) has the devil left me (Lk 4:18)?
Shiloh is near to the entrance into the Garden of Eden, the Temple of God. It is the veil that separates the Most Holy Place and the Holy Place. In the Old Testament, the Levitical priesthood failed and in the New Testament the ‘Heroldian’ priesthood also failed (Jer. 7:12, Mk 11:15-17, Lk. 21:6). The tribe of Ephraim, that Joshua came from, was chosen to bring the Israelites into their inheritance in the Promised Land but they were disqualified from obtaining the inheritance, i.e. the Most Holy Place (Ps 78:67-68).
In the Book of Ezekiel, the glory of God entering and exiting the Temple is through the ‘door of the east gate of the LORD’s house’ (Ezek 10:18-19, 11:1, 22-23). This ‘door of the east gate of the LORD’s house is the east gate into the Garden of Eden which was guarded by the cherubim and a flaming sword (Gen 3:24). Just as God’s glory left the Temple of Ezekiel’s vision through the eastern gate, man left the Garden through the east gate.
Man is the image and glory of God (1 Cor. 11:7). When Adam left the Garden through the east gate, as cherubim stood at the threshold of the gate, we see exactly the manner of God’s glory left the east gate of the temple when cherubim stood there. When man left the Garden, we see a picture of God’s glory leaving the Temple. And, in noticing this, we also realize that God’s glory must be return to the Garden by way of having mankind return there in order to reinstate the glory of God in man.
The entrance into the Garden of Eden, i.e. the Temple is closed (Ezek.43:1-7 c.f. Ezek 44:1-3) until Jesus the Prince (c.f. Jacob was renamed Israel, literally ‘prince with God’) entered in, as prophesied in Genesis 49:10. In the New Testament Jesus entered in Jerusalem and cleansed the temple (Mk 11, Lk 19). His death caused the veil that had images of cherubim sewn into it (2 Chron. 3:14) was rip wide open in the temple that we might enter into it again.
Ezek 43:1-8
Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces toward the east. 2 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. 3 It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw — like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4 And the glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. 5 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 6 Then I heard Him speaking to me from the temple, while a man stood beside me. 7 And He said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places.
Ezek 44:1-3
Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way."
The priesthood will be tested…’from the glamour in the palace of Saul to the plains in the wilderness’. The ‘cave time’ in Adullam is like the metamorphsis of the priesthood. The crossover into the Most Holy Place is Hebron. It is another level and another stage of the process from God’s people to God’s priests and now finallly God’s princes.
God’s People -->God’s Priests --> God’s Princes ... (in God's Place)
6 . Priesthood in the Old Testament
A study of Bible history timeline shows the Abraham was 150 years old and Isaac was 50 years before Shem died. Both of them would have been able to talk with Shem. Shem was from the godly blood line of Adam. The oratory transfer of the knowledge of God and the altar offering to God was passed down through this godly remnant. It is suggestive that Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of God Most High was from this godly remnant. Melchizedek was ruling Salem, the city of peace in righteousness as he ministered to God in his priestly role in governing function.
By the time of the exodus out of Egypt, there were already many types of priest in the Ancient Near Eastern world. Moses’ father in law, Jethro was a Midianite priest (Ex 18:1). There were many Egyptian priests too. There were even priests (Ex 19:22) among the Israelites at Mount Sinai when God came and appeared before them. The knowledge of the priesthood of God was lost after such a long time in Egypt.
7. God’s type of priesthood
God’s desire was a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for Israel (Ex 19:6). It was not a new concept to the Israelites but a new requirement that God is revealing. God chose Aaron and his four sons of the tribe of Levis to be priests of God, 5 persons out of the multitudes in the exodus to minister to Him in the Tabernacle, which God explicitly instructed Moses to building exactly to the pattern given.
God wanted to instruct the people of His Holiness through the requirement of priesthood, the sacrificial system and the ceremonial law. The Levitical priesthood of Aaron was just a means for God to teach his people whom He intended for priesthood. The weakness of the Levitical Aaronic priesthood was that it was just a form and a shadow but was never the substance! Eventually the Levitical Aaronic Priesthood, which also a type of ‘the anointed cherub who covers' priesthood, was discarded when God replaced it with a new priesthood in 1 Sam 12:35.
1 Sam 2:35-36
35 Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever.
The Melchizedek Priesthood was foreshadowed in Samuel, who grew up in the Presence of God, of the tribe of Benjamin, not of the Levi. Samuel became priest by growing in the Presence of God unlike the Aaronic priesthood which was by biological genealogy.
Samuel saw the weakness, decline, decay and destruction of the Levitical Aaronic Priesthood in Eli the High Priest and his sons. The Levitical Aaronic Priesthood ministered before God in rituals and religious forms. All these were signs that God imposed to point them to Christ. It was not meant for them to use as religious self justification or gains
Samuel understood the Melchizedek order of kingly priesthood of righteousness. In him were the three folds anointing of the priest, king and prophet – the complete three branches of government. The fullness of the government of God was in Samuel. The whole of Samuel life and his mindset was centred on the Ark of God. He grew in His Presence, ministered in His Presence and dwelled in His Presence and when the Ark was captured by the Philistines, Samuel longed for its return and restoration of Israel. The only life Samuel had been life in the Most Holy Place.
8. The Secret for the Apostolic Church - The Samuel and David Generations
In the time when the political and spiritual leadership of the country was decayed and corrupted and ‘everyone did what was right in his own eyes’, a young man was on the run from the abusive Saul and received a powerful input from Samuel whom he stayed with for a period of time (1 Sam 19:18-24). How did a young man who grew up in ungodly political and spiritual leaderships of Saul and Eli respectively, learn how to live and govern in righteousness and long for the Ark of God and the restoration of Israel to her glory? For that matter, who taught little Samuel in the apostate time of Ichabod? How did Samuel grow up in righteousness? Who taught him? The secret is little Samuel learned to minister before the LORD and the word of the LORD came to him (1 Sam.2:18, 3:1, 7 c.f. Acts 13:2). Likewise who deposited all these into David? Where did David receive such a powerful spiritual impartation? From Samuel! God was no longer in the physical Ark but Samuel was the ‘living Ark.’
The passion and purpose of Apostolic Church Training School (Acts) is all about this apostolic ancient pathway, with three goals: 1) Let there be Light, 2) Rebuilding Zion, the tabernacle of David (Acts 15:16) and 3) Governmental grace and stature of Esther 8:8.
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