Holiness: Worship in God’s Space
“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:16).
God wants us to worship Him, and there is a proper time and place that God has made holy.
Worship in God’s Space
Before creation, all there was was God. There was no space or time because God had not yet created them. So for God to create a home for man, He had to pull back from Himself, and this is what we call space. In this space, God created all that we see and don’t see, all that we know and all that we still don’t know. God created us to worship Him. God also wanted us to have fellowship with Him. He wanted to dwell with man because He loved us so much. What He did was set aside another place, and that place was the sanctuary, also known at first as the Tent of Meeting and then the Temple. God spoke to Moses about building Him a dwelling place, a sanctuary—not just any dwelling place, but one that mirrored His Sanctuary in heaven. Exodus 25:9 tells us, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all of its furniture, just so you shall construct it.” And again in Hebrews 8:5, “These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the Tabernacle. For God said, ‘Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.’”
We see that the Sanctuary is an earthly space that mirrored God’s heavenly Sanctuary. This holy dwelling was a space in our realm where God and Man could come together. It consisted of the Outer Court, where on the Altar of Sacrifice there was continually a shedding of blood by which Man could draw near to worship God. Yeshua/Jesus became our sacrifice by which we can now draw near to God, even enter into His throne room. There was the Laver, which the priests would wash their hands and feet in before entering into the Inner Court. God’s appointed space, the Sanctuary, was so holy that God required the priests to remain in a state of holiness so that they could do their work in the Temple. We too also must remain in a state of holiness, because we are a royal priesthood, and we too bring our worship before our Creator, our heavenly Father. If we fall out of that state of holiness because of sin, we can once again be washed in the cleansing blood of Yeshua when we repent.
Then came the veil which led into the Inner Court, called the Holy Place. The Holy Place consisted of the Altar of Presence, which twelve loaves of bread sat upon, and each Sabbath the priests would eat of these loaves which were as fresh and warm as when they were placed on the altar the Sabbath before. Yeshua is the Bread of Life. The Menorah was the only light, and its light shone out of the Temple. The Menorah represents Yeshua, who is the Light of the World. The Altar of Incense, which sat before the veil that led into the Most Holy Place, represents the prayers of the saints.
Once a year, the High Priest would take this incense in a fire pan from this altar and enter into the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, and the smoke from the burning incense would mingle with the cloud that covered the Ark of the Testimony, which was the only thing placed in this section of the Sanctuary. The Holy of Holies was so holy that the High Priest could only enter once a year on an appointed day called Yom Kippur. On top of the Ark was a covering which was called the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat had two gold cherubim with their wings touching each other. Inside the Ark was kept the Ten Commandments. All were holy, all were parts of worship.
Walking Through the Tabernacle in Prayer
So let us look at the Tabernacle as a form of prayer. We start on pilgrimage to the House of the Lord. Here is where we sing and praise the Lord. We enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Yeshua is the door: we must come in the name of Yeshua. Then we must stop at the Altar, bringing the sacrifice by which we draw near, that is, Yeshua. From there we go to the Laver and wash in the blood of the Lamb, repenting of our sins and asking for forgiveness. We then go and enter into the Holy Place. We stop at the Table of the Lord, for Yeshua is our food and drink. We then go to the Menorah, for Yeshua is our Light, and there we ask the Holy Spirit to anoint us. Then we bring our prayers and supplications before God at the Altar of Incense.
So to put this all together, I believe our prayer should sound something like this: After praise we would say, “Father, I come in the name of Yeshua and I draw near by His sacrifice. I come with thanksgiving in my heart and I enter your courts with praise. Father, I am eternally grateful that You loved me so much that You sent Yeshua to die on my behalf so that I may have eternal life. I thank You, Yeshua, for Your shed blood, for there is power in that blood to wash me clean. Wash me clean of all my known and unknown sins and all that I have committed with my thoughts, words, and deeds. (Pause and consider your deeds. Repent and ask God to help you with all those sins that so easily entangle you.) Take off my filthy garments and robe me in Your righteousness, for You are my righteousness. My life is complete in You. Father, let me come and feast at Your table in the light of Your Word, for Yeshua is the true manna from heaven, the Bread of Life, the well of salvation. He is our food and drink, our portion—our cup overflows. He is the way, the truth, and the life; lead me in the path that leads to life and keep my foot from slipping, for Yeshua is the Light of the World. He is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Fill me with the oil of that light and anoint me with the Holy Spirit. Impart to me Your wisdom, knowledge, understanding, discernment, Your insight, Your foresight and Your truth. Let me not be deceived and pass on a deception, but give me truth. And Father, let my prayers and supplications and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You.” Now you can start to petition God. You can begin to praise and worship again if you choose, but then it is here where you begin to be still and listen to what God has to say to you.
The place we choose as our place of worship is our Sanctuary; it represents the heavenly Sanctuary, as does our home, and even our bodies, which are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. All are holy and must be kept holy because God is holy and so we too must be holy just like His Sanctuary. When we celebrate God’s Appointed Feast of Tabernacles we are celebrating the time when God and Man will dwell together forever in God’s Sanctuary, His Tabernacle.
The Tabernacle of God is Yeshua. Everything in the Sanctuary represents Yeshua because He is the Tabernacle of God. We read in Revelation 21:22-24, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.” His appointed space is His holy space, the place of worship, the Sanctuary, the place of holiness.
Tweet this!