Zadok
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LETTERS TO AARON
This is the third in a series begun January 1, 2011. Philip, Aaron's father, was a mail carrier for 42 yrs. and wanted to express his heart to his son and ultimately to all his family. May these installments be a blessing. If so, you may email Philip at ggayle1977@yahoo.com.
Part 3 Let us take a historical look at where the Holy Spirit has brought the Church in the area of worship in this generation. As a starting point, I will be using my interpretation of Romans 12:1 from earlier in this letter. My conclusion was that of the twelve tribes of Israel, the Church is the most like the priestly tribe of Levi. If the Body of Christ is a priestly tribe like Levi, then we should be able to determine some things by making comparisons between their ministry and ours. Studying the pattern of worship represented by the tribe of Levi, there are striking parallels between the calling of the Church and theirs. It appears that the Church (modern day Levites) has come to the point where their ministry of worship began every morning. They started the day at the brazen altar in the outer court to begin the day's worship with equivalent of what to today is called "worship and praise" (Psalm 141:2). If this is true, then it has taken from at least the 1970's until now, in the beginning of the 21st century, for the Holy Ghost to bring the Church, as a whole, to the brazen altar. Those groups, who even fifteen of twenty years ago, would not have dared to lift their hands or to shout or to embrace up-tempo music as a part of their worship now are willing and active participants in such things. Even the Baptists, out of whom I came years ago, and others of the older of more reserved groups within the Church now lift their hands in worship. Anyone who came out of the denominations knows the likelihood of such things happening borders on the miraculous. We have seen those persuasions who were the least demonstrative in their worship begin to "loosen up." We could say something is going on here. Those of us among the "spirit filled" crowd have prayed for Lord to send revival and send the Glory. I now suspect that He has been slowly and methodically answering that prayer in a way we were not expecting. I believe, while we were not looking, He has been bringing the Body of Christ into the entrance of the unseen tabernacle, there to begin to learn to worship Him in "spirit and truth." And if this is the case, He must have a smile on His face. Usually, the Church looks for the spectacular while the Lord works by master principles. He wants us to abide in the vine, while we what to plant grape seeds in the morning and be drinking wine by sundown. One of the master rules of interpreting scripture is called the principle first reference. Every valid biblical conclusion has its starting point at the first place it is mentioned in the scripture. One such example is mentioned in the book of Genesis. It is the law of "seedtime and harvest" (Genesis 8:22). Although the Almighty does a limited number of things in an instant, He is primarily a master gardener, or, as Jesus said in John 15, "the Husbandman." With the Lord, it is the seed of His word planted in the human heart. Those who study the moving of the Spirit of God point to certain things that should occur before one is justified in saying revival has come. Historically, if there has been a revival that affects change in the Church, there should be discernable changes in the general society as well. When I spoke about the traditional Churches having had their view of worship transformed in recent years, I need to add to this that an entire industry has sprung up around the "worship music" that has come out of these changes. (Even though some negative aspects have occurred, for at least one major Christian music publishing company has been bought by an even large secular corporation.) The growth of the industry strongly suggests that while we were unaware of the plan, the Lord has been slowly, methodically working with it behind the scenes. What the Body of Christ and the world labeled scandously as that, "worship and praise music," is now mainstream. It is now big business. Local worship leaders wait, with baited breath, for the next song or album to be promoted from the industry. Don't get me wrong, there is an anointing on much of today's music and those who perform it, and those with the anointing are part of the historic signal for revival having occurred. However, the whole thing that began those many years back has now become so large it has obscured the original purposes of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit has only begun to show the Church true worship. He does not intend for us to stop and be satisfied, supposing we have fully entered in, for He was only opening the door of the outer court to us. His desire is that we walk on into the fullness of all He has in store for us as we learn to stand before the Lord to minister unto him. If I am right, we are at a special time! After a long and steady effort, the Holy Ghost has brought us to the point where we are now. When we, of the "Spirit filled" persuasions, have heard all of those reports of Baptists lifting their hands in worship and of other things happening (and some of the Methodist or Presbyterians), we were very dismissive. We have said things like: "It's about time"; or "They don't even speak in other tongues"; or "Now that they have seen the truth, they ought to come over among us." There is much truth in those kinds of statements, but the attitude with which they were uttered was often unkind, unchristian and arrogant. (As I will point out later, their doctrinal stands against speaking with other tongues and the gifts of the Spirit will put them at a distinct disadvantage in the tabernacle. Since the tabernacle is a place of the Spirit, we cannot be without tongues and gifts. We simply cannot function fully within the tabernacle without them being a vital part of our spiritual repertoire. Those of us who, in the past, left their ranks were confronted with the same struggle they have as they come into to the Lord's pattern of worship in the tabernacle. The Lord is not going to change; so hopefully, they will find out, like we did, that if anyone is going to change it must be them.) Over these years, the Spirit has been bringing them through the door of the outer court and up to the brazen altar. At the same time, they will find those of us who arrived there long ago have sadly been camping out there. I believe that many of us "Spirit filled" folks have an arrogant attitude about our brothers and sisters who are outside our ranks. If we observe the current state of affairs, we would have to say that we are not much better off than these newcomers. Most of us "Spirit filled" folks will not be of much help when it comes to showing them around the tabernacle. We haven't explored it ourselves. We should be the very ones who say, "just follow me brother, I'll show you around, for I understand how you feel; I was once new to all of this myself." But we have largely become as "politically correct" as the churches from which we once fled. It seems like most of us don't much believe in Spirit-filled things like we once did. If we had not let what we have learned over the years slip, we would be ready to lead those incoming brothers and sisters deeper into the tabernacle of praise. Regrettably, few of us, having had to learn what we needed to know, didn't progress in our journey. Sadly, the vast majority of us still need some kind saint to take us by the hand and "show us through the place." As the Holy Spirit was bringing other parts of His body up to speed about worship, we got too comfortable and were not ready for their arrival. As the hunger for God and the call of the Spirit gets stronger and stronger, the ecclesiastical systems from which they emerge will be no less friendly to them than they were to us when we left their environs. Rather than searching the scriptures to determine if what is happening is of God, the powers that be within those groups normally view it as a threat to their doctrinal stance and to their turf. Fortunately, the Lord does not call a denomination (or some synod) to take its place in the priesthood as He did the whole tribe of Levi. As I proved earlier, he calls individuals. To those who heed the call of God, the "denominational dance," I have just described, will, in the final analysis, have no more effect on them than it did on us years ago. Some groups will be like the Anglicans, who, during the healing movement of the 1930's (and the charismatic movement of the 1970's), entered into some of what God was doing. After searching the scriptures, they validated to their satisfaction that these were genuine moves of the Spirit. (To this day praying for the sick is a part of any Anglican service. The same can not be said about their Episcopalian brothers, of late.) Other denominations, though, will be like those who then adamantly opposed what the Holy Ghost was doing during the healing move of the 1930s. Evangelists, such as F. F. Bosworth, Charles S. Price,( and many others) were winning multitudes to the Lord preaching the commonly agreed upon doctrine of the New Birth. They also saw great miracles and healings as they asserted that healing was as much a part of the gospel as was the New Birth. The Lord was using these ministers to restore His healing flow that, for the first three hundred years of church history had flowed along side the river that regenerates the spirits of men. The old line denominations began to see their numbers and influence begin waning. In an effort too stem the tide, many mounted an artful and regrettably largely successful effort against the Spirit. Dr. T. J. McCrossin, a Presbyterian minister, who came to believe the doctrine of healing, and had received the baptism of the Spirit began to work with Charles S. Price in his ministry during this time. Also during this period Dr. McCrossin wrote one of the classic books on divine healing, Divine Healing and the Atonement*. In this book, Dr. McCrossin sites the writings of a Dr. Gaebelein, who among others, began to put forth a teaching that has now spread far beyond their boundaries. Their strategy was to oppose any thought of divine healing being a doctrine of the Church (this was really an effort to protect their turf). As the cornerstone of their "teaching" they took a prayer that the Lord Jesus only prayed once and elevated it the level of an ancient doctrine of the Church. To come up with this new doctrine it was necessary for them to ignore their own rules of scriptural interpretation. They began to teach that it was an affront to the Lord for any of his children to ask Him for healing without adding the proviso, "if it be Thy will" to their prayer, as Jesus did at Gethsemane. They ignore the fact that during the earthy ministry of our Lord He never refused any that asked Him to heal them. It must not have been important to them that when a question arose about whether it was His will to heal He always affirmed that this was (Luke 4;18). The prayer Jesus uttered at Gethsemane had absolutely nothing to do with healing. And yet, this teaching (they came up with in the 1930's) has risen to the level of a doctrine of the Church in many circles, It would eventually infect nearly the whole traditional Church community. *(available from Kenneth Hagin Ministries). Those of us who grew up in those systems were taught that our prayers for almost any thing else except to be born again must end like this, "in the name of Jesus, if it be thy will". Perhaps the worst part of this scenario is the fact that this is now taught as if it were some ancient doctrine of the Church. I don't blame those who taught me. In fact, the majority of what I was taught in the Baptist church was scripturally very sound and has provided a firm foundation for my faith. They did not know this little bit of history I have just recounted. As it turns out, this is not an ancient doctrine of the Church, but a recent concoction of men with a little help from the wicked one. The truth is that this "doctrine" is really no more ancient than the 1930's. As I have already said, when the Lord drew many of us out of our various places in the Church, we were met with the same inward struggles that will confront those who are newly come to the tabernacle. They will need our example, our love, and our prayers and above all be able to present them with a level of true worship that satisfies their hunger and far exceeds any of their expectations. History is replete with far more sever actions that have been taken and are still being taken by the Church against those of whom she counts as her own. Their rule normally is that when the established order feels its doctrine or its turf is in jeopardy, their instincts rise to maintain their self preservation (such action usually trumps any move of the Holy Ghost). It appears that most of the systems of what the world calls the Church are at work to stop the very God they claim to serve. But history also proves that in the final analysis our God shall prevail. We were redeemed to be made kings and priests unto our God. I believe He is about to shed a great deal of light on both of these ultimate purposes of His. (Which are to bring His body into complete submission to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and usher them into the inner sanctums of the tabernacle.) This letter primarily is about our "calling as priests (and the difficulties as well as blessing in ministering as such)." However, there can't help but also be an increase on the Spirit's emphasis concerning the office of the king also, since both of these offices function from the same throne (Zechariah 6:12-13). We are in the end time and He will fulfill more and more of what has been prophesied. There is a divine process that makes it possible for us to take our place before the Lord. We must now begin to learn to stand before Him at other places of ministry in the Tabernacle beyond the brazen altar of sacrifice. Worship and praise were the things the Lord used to draw us into the outer court and will be the vehicle for others as well. Multitudes now leave church services where music is presented like a concert feeling satisfied they have fully worshiped the Father in spirit and truth. What the Lord planned to be the beginning of His revelation of our entering into His gates has been misinterpreted as being the end of His purposes for His priesthood. Today, with a relatively few exceptions, the Body of Christ has progressed no farther than the brazen altar in the outer court of the Tabernacle. There is so much more in the inner rooms which are an unseen realm of which we are just at the door. How did we ever come to the conclusion that God (who desires us to find out His ways) would be satisfied with one or two ways for his people to approach him? Based on Romans 12:1 (as I have already proven) our ministry to the Lord bears a striking resemblance to that of the Levitical priesthood. A close look at their form of worship reveals a very complex and intricate system combining many ways of entering in His presence. Could the God that conceived what the tribe of Levi walked in under the Old Testament have any less planned for us under the New Testament? Remember that when the plan of worship was laid out before Moses, he was instructed to institute precisely what was shown him. Therefore, what was revealed to Moses was a shadow of the temple in Jerusalem which was a lesser symbol of the true Temple of God in Heaven. In other words, Moses was told to set in order something that was a form of the master pattern of true worship. A door into the heavenlies now has been opened, that a long time was closed to most of God's saints. If we choose to follow the Holy Ghost further into the Tabernacle the things that are about to transpire, in the realm of worship, will be beyond what the human mind can conceive. I want to say again, that this pattern of worship is not the only way the Holy Spirit might lead us to come before the Lord. But to this point, He has taken us into the beginnings of this pattern, Therefore, I think we can safely assume that this will be the primary path He will continue to take us down. In John 4, the Lord told the woman at the well that worship was being changed. We know from what He said to her that worship was being shifted from the temple in Jerusalem to the Temple in Heaven. Because of this transition, the priesthood represented by the tribe of Levi was to be replaced by one that comes before the Father to worship Him in "spirit and truth." The true nature of the New Covenant and the priesthood that functions under it sometimes has caused confusion to the people of God. The Church has always seemed to want to create an order of priests that, in varying proportions, is a mixture of the tangible one of the Old Testament and the unseen one of the New Testament. As I have shown, and will illustrate later, only when saints ministered in the unseen Temple were they truly functioning as priest to the Lord. In John 4 Jesus asserted that the highest form of worship revealed to man, up to that point of time, was being superseded. The visible temple on mount Zion was giving way to the unseen Temple on Mount Sion. The Mosaic priesthood, after the order of Aaron, was being supplanted by the unseen Priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek, under its high priest, the Lord Jesus. Surrounded by the visible form of worship of his day, David had a revelation of worship into the unseen realm. In Psalm 141:2 he said, "let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice." In this passage he declares that in the eyes of God both prayer and what today is called "worship and praise" are equally deemed to be worship. As we will see, there were multiple points in the tabernacle at which the priest was to minister, two of which are revealed in this passage by David. This verse is important because it opens the door into the other facets of true worship. I believe the Holy Ghost is about to swing this door wide open to all. If they from their free will, would come in and take their place. If we understand the lay out of the Mosaic Tabernacle, then David's insight points to two facts. The first one is that true prayer penetrates to the golden altar of incense within the holy place. And that which we now call "worship and praise" (which has always included the lifting of hands) was ministered at the brazen altar of sacrifice in the outer court of the same unseen Tabernacle. I said earlier that today even the Baptists, out of whom I came, now lift their hands in worship, but fail to see the significance of its place in true worship. The lifting of our hands in worship, as an integral part of praise has now, finally, been elevated in our eyes to the place it has always occupied in the mind of God. But the exalted place of our prayer and of other forms of worship within the Tabernacle has yet to penetrate the psyche of the Church as a whole. We have far more to learn about what occurs in true worship. The Lord is about to elevate this whole pattern to the place He esteems it to be. Because the Tabernacle has specific areas where worship takes place, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with those places. Most good reference books or Bibles have a chart in it with the layout of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. A look at any of these charts will prove one of two things. Either the Lord is overly concerned with boring details or He had a precise purpose for every single one of them. It is obvious to any, but the most casual observer, that the later is the case. This was not then, nor is it now, some haphazard plan. And since the Church (as priests) could easily be called the Levites of the New Testament, a study of the tabernacle and what was intended to happen there should be very important to us today. Those of us who willingly follow the Holy Ghost are now being ushered into the place in heaven that has the pattern for the tabernacle of the congregation. This is a subject of the utmost importance to us, if we are ever to understand the purpose for our redemption. What I am laying out is either just more details, in a world that is already too complex, or the beginning of a very important discussion about the heavenly place into which we are called. A point that needs to be made here is that the tabernacle Moses erected in the wilderness was somewhat different from the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem. Both of these bear some marked differences to what we know about the Temple in Heaven. However, the arrangement of the tabernacle of the congregation contained the simple basic pattern that runs through all three of them. Therefore, most of what I will be saying is based on the pattern of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. Let me here describe what Moses was instructed to build in order to have a frame work for the rest of this letter. The Tabernacle of the Congregation had a large fence that enclosed the outer court and the Tabernacle. At one end, as you entered the outer court stood the brazen altar. Upon leaving the brazen altar of sacrifice (Psalm 141:2) and moving to the opposite end of this enclosure (just before you enter the Tabernacle) was the laver. At the extreme opposite end of this enclosure (looking from the altar of sacrifice) was the tent called the Tabernacle of the Congregation. Upon entering the tent there was to the right the table of shew bread. To the left would have been the minorah or candlestick. And directly in front of the priest was the golden altar of incense (Psalm 141:2). The altar of incense was against the veil that separated the Holy place from the Holy of Holies. Inside the veil was the ark of the covenant having the mercy seat set as a covering over it. It is necessary to keep the position of each of these places and their furniture in mind, in order to characterize the place of the New Testament priestly ministry. The Spirit can lead us to come before the Lord in other ways than within the confines of this pattern that I have just described in the last paragraph. I have mentioned Adam in the garden, Moses at the burning bush, Joshua in the tabernacle of meeting that preceded the Tabernacle of the Congregation. David, in the tabernacle of David, held the Ark of the Covenant in a place other than the Holy of Holies. (All this was just prior to Solomon's building of the temple in Jerusalem.) However, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament (the predominate form of worship mentioned is the form embodied in the tabernacle of the congregation and the ministry of the tribe of Levi there). This would indicate that we ought to know quite a bit more about this pattern of worship than we do at the present time. The reason the Lord shed his blood was to redeem us and for us to be able to take our places in the Tabernacle and for us to become intimately acquainted with what goes on there. What I am saying should be thoroughly considered because of its importance in the eyes of God. Such is reason enough to delve into it regardless of man's views as to it complexity or usefulness to the kingdom. |
