The House of Prayer | The Mystery of the Tabernacle

The tabernacle shows us how to walk with God. One of the pieces inside the holy place in the tabernacle was the altar of incense incense Represents prayer Once again, we're inside the holy place The only light inside the holy place was the light that was being given from the seven-tiered Holy menorah that was burning Continually It's a super natural projection of the Holy Spirit Now as the Holy Spirit was projecting in that holy place. What did the priest see? The priest saw two other sacred pieces of furniture The first thing he saw was the table of showbread and the second thing he saw was the altar of incense Again, the Lord said to Moses. I want you to build me this sanctuary that I might dwell with you exactly According to the pattern that I'm showing you so brothers and sisters We need to take very seriously the fact that these two objects that we're going to study right now. We need to take very seriously That they were in the sacred meeting place between Yonah's people Yahweh and his people and what they mean. Oh, it's interesting I just had a stumble and I said, yeah, yeah is actually an abbreviated form of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible So some we know that God's sacred name is Yahweh, but at times he's also referred to as yah It's a shortened form of Yahweh. So again as the Holy Spirit was projecting light into the holy place What did the priest see in addition to the menorah? Well, the first thing they saw was the table of showbread Which is also called the bread of presence or in Hebrew literally the bread of face Now what is the table of showbread and why is it called the bread of presence or the bread of face? Well, the table of showbread contained 12 loaves of bread and each loaf symbolized

one of the tribes of Israel so there was a loaf for each one of the twelve tribes and the bread was continually before the face of the Creator of Yahweh it symbolized that the father was Continually looking upon Israel his chosen people day and night the love of the Lord was beaming down Upon the twelve tribes of Israel and the light of the menorah never went out Continually the love of God was being poured forth on Israel. He saw them. He sees them. He loves them He's with them and that is the message for you and I God's love is Continually being Administered to our life the light of the sacred one never stops beaming it never stopped burning It never stops shining and it's always directed my holy brother and sister towards you and Me the love of God the love of Hashem the love of our Creator Surrounds our life Continuously Now I know it's easy to make a statement like that. I Know you've heard it before But let's face it There's times in life where we're hurting so bad. We're wondering Lord. I know you love me But if you love me so much, why did this happen? I mean why? You know take somebody they're out there hammering and they're hammered a nail and they missed the nail the hammer goes down on their finger and Oh Lord, hi, you love me so much. Why did you let this happen? Things happen that are tough. I was really struggling Not completely related to this but it comes to mind I was I was on a plane not long ago and I was really praying to the Lord I was saying Lord

Let me become so aware of your spirit inside me of the fact that I live in your spirit That because I'm in you I live in victory over everything and all my Circumstances in you that I've been raised with you and I'm seated with you in the heavenly places according to your word So I've been meditating on those truths affirming them repeating them back to God and I'm sitting in the plane and all the sudden this baby a few rows behind me stops start screaming and crying and It wasn't like a gentle thing. It was like this baby was crying like Uncontrollably as loud as this baby could cry and I wouldn't stop and it was like, oh god It was you know, it's like so such a terrible thing I mean, it was so loud and just so disruptive and so caustic hearing it and I started say Lord, you know I'm believing that I'm in you but why is this affecting me so? so much, Lord, I'm talking about how because I'm in you, I can live in victory over all my emotions. And over every circumstance, I just got done talking with you about that. Yet I hear I got a baby two rows behind me screaming at the top of his lungs, and it's really getting on my nerves. So I'm just struggling. And the reason I bring that up, and I was able to overcome it, praise God. The reason I brought it up is because sometimes we can assert biblical truth, like God loves me. In the case I just mentioned, it was like, God, because you're in me, I live in victory. But then sometimes when the rubber meets the road, in this point that we're on now, affirming that Hashem loves us, that even as he looked on the 12 loaves in the tabernacle, symbolizing that his face was always upon his people in love,

we can assert that. But then sometimes we run into situations in life when it seems like things go wrong. We find ourselves in pain. Maybe we're sick. Maybe something, God forbid, happens to somebody in our family. Maybe our car breaks down driving home on a winter night. And we thought, Lord, you love me, but why is this happening? Surely, God, if you can prevent a sparrow from falling to the ground, you could have prevented this. Isn't that true? That's where the challenge comes in. I want to encourage us. The next time something goes wrong in your life, the next time you find yourself in a situation that you can't explain, that's hurting you, you're in pain, the next time that happens, and it seems like God's not with you, because you think, well, if he loves me and he's with me, why is this happening? The next time that happens, let's take it as a challenge to say, Lord, I don't know why this happens or why I'm in this situation, why I'm in this pain, why I'm suffering, but Father God, I'm gonna believe and declare that you love me and that your love and face is shining on me right now,

even as it continually shone on the bread of presence inside the tabernacle. Let's take that as a personal challenge and test of our faith. And as we make that declaration, like Job did in the book of Job, all those terrible things were happening to him, but Job declared, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Let's take that as a challenge. I know it's easier said than done. I'm even in fear and trembling saying it to you, because I'm wondering, oh no, how's the Father gonna test me now in this? But we have to make a decision in the love of God that Father God, even when it seems like things have gone wrong, I'm gonna believe you and trust in your love. So Father, I ask you to strengthen us, each and every one of us right now to pass that test in Yeshua's name every single time, to declare your love and your faithfulness and to believe in it in Yeshua's name through the darkness. Amen. Amen. We gotta do that, friends. We gotta do it. We gotta do it. And when we do that, we're gonna get strong.

And when I've said, as I said to you so many times, when you get strong, you'll be happy. You know, the Bible tells us in the book of James that we should rejoice when we encounter various trials and tests, because when we encounter these trials and tests and remain faithful to the Lord through the trials and tests, by affirming his love, by not losing faith, by clinging to him, James tells us that we become mature and complete. We become strong and we break through. And so Hashem loves us. I'm reading a little book right now, Hashem. That's the Hebrew way to speak of God. It means, it literally means the name. Ha the Shem name. So Jewish people, as you know, they won't utter God's name composed of the four Hebrew letters, Yod-Heh, Vav-Heh, because they feel it's so sacred, it shouldn't be spoken. So they'll just refer to God as the name. They won't say his name, they'll just say the name. So that is in Hebrew spoken of as Hashem, the name. So I'm reading this little book right now, this little paperback book, it's probably 50 pages. And it just is almost like, and it looks almost like a kid made the cover of it. It just says, Hashem loves me. And it's a really simple book, but it's so precious.

It's so childlike. And it's so like, if we know that, we've got everything we need, right? Hashem loves me. That's what the bread of presence, the bread of faith is all about. Moving on now, what is the next piece of furniture that the worshiper or the priest, I should say, saw inside the holy place as the golden menorah, as the flames of the golden menorah lit the room? The next thing the priest saw, my beloved friend, was the altar of incense. The incense arose from the altar of incense. and it's inside the holy place, the meeting place between God and His people, the blueprint for how to walk with Him, the blueprint for how to stay connected to Him, the blueprint for having His presence around our life. And what this tells us is to walk in the fullness that we're looking for, we need to live in a continual state of prayer because the incense was continually burning. A lot of people, when they think of prayer, they think of it as a separate thing. Like, okay, I'm gonna go pray now. Or, okay, I'm gonna go there to pray. And that's fine, that's a good thing. But prayer needs to move beyond a certain time of day or going to a certain place. The prayer of the believer

needs to be a continual dialogue with God. That's why the Bri Kadashah in the New Testament tells us to pray continually. So how do you live in a state of prayer? Again, the tabernacle shows us how to walk with God. One of the pieces inside the holy place in the tabernacle was the altar of incense. Incense represents prayer. We read this in the book of Psalms, we read this in other places in scripture. Incense in the Bible is symbolic of prayer. The incense is a fragrant aroma ascending unto the Lord. And you and I, when we talk to God, when we share our life with God, that is a pleasing fragrance to Him because this is what He desires. He desires that we would give Him our life. And how can we give Him our heart? How can we give Him our emotions? How can we really open ourselves up to Him, to merge with Him, unless we're talking with Him continually? Now, when I say continually, that might sound like a real big burden to some of you. Well, how do I do that? But let me just begin here. What is prayer? At the most basic level, beloved one, prayer is simply, listen, a reaching out to Hashem, a reaching out to God.

So prayer doesn't have to always be even out loud. If you're reaching out to God in your thoughts, in your heart, or if you're speaking to Him out loud, whenever you're reaching out to Him, that is prayer. You see, Yeshua, when He was praying to the Father, He didn't always pray out loud. How do we know this? Because before He raised Lazarus from the dead, He lifted His eyes to the Father and He said, Father, I'm saying this out loud for the people that are around me. He said, I know, Jesus said, that you always hear me. In other words, Yeshua is revealing that He didn't need to be speaking something out loud to know that the Father heard Him and that He was in communication with the Lord. He had that internal awareness from His heart when He was in communication with the Lord. So prayer doesn't always have to be out loud, okay? Whenever you're reaching out, you're in a state of prayer. Now, I want you to consider this as we're getting ready to wind up today. That altar of incense inside the tabernacle, the smoke that was arising from it, it went straight up. In other words, if you took the altar of incense outside of the holy place, the smoke wouldn't go straight up. It would go wherever the wind was blowing.

If the wind was blowing north, the smoke would go north. If the wind was blowing south, it would go south, et cetera. It'd be moved by the wind. But inside the Mishkan, there was no wind because it was completely enclosed from the world outside of it. So the smoke went straight up. What does this tell us? That when we're praying, our prayer should go straight up. They should be authentic. They should be genuine. They should be clear. Well, you say, Rabbi, well, what would it look like if my prayer wasn't straight up? Well, here's an example. Sometimes people pray when they're in a group of people and their focus really isn't on the Lord. Their focus is on the people that are around them that are hearing them pray. Sometimes people, when they're praying in a group, they're more focused on impressing the people around them than they are really praying to the Lord. So the first thing is, if your prayer is gonna go straight up, it needs to be focused on the Lord, first of all. Then it needs to be genuine with you in your own heart. Are you saying what's really in your heart? Or are you just praying, quote, Christianity? What I mean by that is the culture of religion that we've picked up sometimes.

Some of it's helpful, some of it's not. We don't have to speak to the Lord in these and those, you know, oh, gracious, holy, heavenly Father. Maybe that's not the most authentic way in your heart to pray. I mean, I'm saying it's wrong, but, you know, he doesn't have to always be referred to as vow, holy master, you know, speak with him authentically from your heart, that's prayer that goes straight up. And then lastly, beloved, prayer that goes straight up is prayer that's prayed according to his will. The scripture tells us sometimes we ask and we don't receive because we ask amiss with wrong motives. We're asking God for things sometimes that aren't really his will for our life. But the scripture tells us, my beloved friends, children of God, that if we ask him for anything according to his will, we can have the confidence that he hears us and that our prayers are granted. So we should pray in a way, realizing that we don't have to be in a formal setting, it doesn't have to be at a place or a certain time. It's a continual dialogue with God, it's talking to God about everything, it's sharing our life with him, it's involving him in all our decisions. We continually are talking and dialoguing with God all day long. Then it's praying to the father in an authentic way, desiring the right things. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Let's make our prayer about God's purposes, about his glory, about his will, about the things that he desires for our life. Thy kingdom come, Jesus said, pray in this way, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So when Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to make it first about the father, about his glory, about his purposes being perfected in our lives.

And then lastly, beloved, we should include in our prayer a spirit and a sense of thankfulness for all that God has already done and who he is. So that's why the scripture says, let all your requests be made known unto God with thanksgiving. So let's take that step of faith when we're praying to God by ending our prayers, by being thankful. Father, thank you that you're faithful. Thank you that you hear me. I break off the spirit of doubt. Satan, I break you off my life. Father, I thank you for loving me and drawing me in to your precious holy light. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people, and the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. Yeh Vah Recheche Yahweh Vah Yishma Rechach Ya'er Yahweh P'navei Lechah V'chunechach Yisha Yahweh P'navei Lechah Ve'asem Lechah Shalom The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.