In the first part of this title (SEE HERE), I spoke about The tent of meeting being for our Survival and Sustenance. I'm going to continue from there before I move on to the next point.
Deuteronomy 8:3 NKJV
So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 ERV
He humbled you and let you be hungry. Then he fed you with manna—something you did not know about before. It was something your ancestors had never seen. Why did the Lord do this? Because he wanted you to know that it is not just bread that keeps people alive. People’s lives depend on what the Lord says.
Matthew 4:4 NKJV
“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
It is not just bread that keeps people alive.
If they ask you how you intend to live long and well, I’m sure we all have healthy living tips; I will go to the gym, I will eat healthy food, cut carbonated drinks, etc.
But while this is helpful, man must know that what keeps us alive is the word of God.
What keeps us alive is what the Lord has said.
You have a fundamental need for God’s word.
We are making decisions daily; people are taking courses, starting businesses, doing so much.
But you see, we must remember that what gives us life is God’s word.
This is how dead situations come to life; the word of God!
This is how men advance; by "thus sayeth the Lord."
This is how men climb!
And how do we hear the word of the Lord?
The secret place!
The table of the showbread in the tent!
Man shall not live by bread alone is a survival strategy!
It is not a metaphor.
The tent of meeting is where we must stay for dear life
Man shall live by EVERY WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God
From the written word to the spoken word, Logos to Rhema.
Quick one, how often do you eat food in a day?
Tobi: Standard: Thrice
Busy Day: Once
Bukky: Once mostly
So we eat from once to 3 times daily.
The question then is, if earthly bread cannot really sustain us and it is the word that gives us life, How often do we eat the word daily?
Should it then not be more than the earthly food we eat?
And this is what satan did when he came to tempt Christ, tell Him that bread is enough.
The devil is still doing that today, presenting alternatives for sustenance;
“A good job and you are fine”
“You need money and all is well”
But hear what Jesus told him: Bread is not enough
Earthly provisions do not keep man alive, it is why we keep running here and there.
You were built to live by the Word that comes from the mouth of God.
Not just the Word that was written, but the Word that is still speaking.
I remember someone saying that if as a Christian you say you are hearing God daily, you are delusional.
This is how the devil keeps men away o!
Because when you appear in the tent of meeting, there is always a word waiting.
There is always a God waiting to give you food to survive on, from the written word to the spoken word.
This is also why I keep encouraging us to read the word.
If you like praying but don’t like Bible study like that,
Sorry for you oooo, very very sorry for you.
Because what you are doing is wasting your resources and arsenal. The word and prayer go hand in hand.
When you abandon the word,
When you fail to show up in the tent of meeting,
When you forsake the secret place,
You are starving yourself
And starvation leads to malnutrition which in turn leads to death.
This is why I said “If I don’t pray, I will die”
I wasn’t saying that to scare us
It is the end result, and it happens so slowly.
It is the same way Samson didn’t know that power had left him.
You need God
You need the secret place
And if bread alone could carry you through life’s valleys, you wouldn’t be burning out every two weeks.
Stay in the secret place,
It is for your survival and sustenance.
2. The Tent of Meeting is Where Men Are Formed
“God told me I will become the President of Nigeria.”
“My pastor saw a vision and said I will be great.”
“I saw myself preaching to thousands.”
That’s beautiful.
But listen carefully, you will not become anything if you do not find your way to the Tent of Meeting.
God does not form men through prophecies alone, He forms them through encounters.
Men are formed in the secret place.
This is where men become.
Exodus 33:11 NKJV
“So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.”
So the Lord spoke to Moses as a man speaks to His friend...but his servant Joshua would remain in the tent.
It was Moses being spoken to o, but Joshua was coming regardless.
Moses was leading, He was the one that had the burden to stay, but look at Joshua, he stayed too.
One was leading, another was being shaped to lead next just by staying.
Just by sticking with the tent of meeting.
I have seen this play out in the physical a lot.
Joshua became mighty because he lingered in the presence of God.
I’ve shared my story a number of times,
I never prayed for any gift.
You know the way people pray “God send me to Nations”
“I will stand in the midst of thousands and heal the sick”
I never prayed or desired healing, I never prayed for the prophetic,
What concerns me with another person’s life? 😭
I don’t want to know your gist please.
I just got to a point where I craved God and wanted to be with Him.
And this is where everything started for me;
This is where gifts came from,
This is where power came upon me from,
Just by staying.
You cannot want to be anything for God or in God and not be friends with the tent of meeting.
Even Jesus the son of God stayed in the secret place.
Imagine that Christ who is not just the son of God but God Himself came to the world and He was subject to the secret place.
God Himself came and spent 30 years in hiddenness.
40 days fasting, was always withdrawing,
He knew this was it
This was survival and this was how He would be formed for His assignment.
If God needs the secret place, Why do you think you can bypass it?
Just in case you’ve been overlooking these scriptures before now, we will open them again.
We will go back to every place Christ knew to stay, even when it wasn’t convenient.
He knew that this was the only way the son of man would get on the cross and carry the sins of the world
Luke 5:15-16 NKJV
However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
Even though a great multitude kept coming to hear Him, He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness to pray.
He was not distracted by the crowd,
He did not assume that He had been formed,
In the height of popularity, He sought the tent.
One of the things the enemy uses to deceive us is busyness;
“God gave me this platform"
"God brought me into xyz"
"I must do the work of Him who sent me”
Sorry, you can only do the work of Him who sent you by staying with Him.
Mark 1:35 TPT
“The next morning, Jesus got up long before daylight, left the house while it was dark, and made his way to a secluded place to give himself to prayer.”
Long before everybody woke up, Jesus woke and went to the secret place!
Luke 6:12-13 NKJV
“Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:”
He went to the mountain and prayed, prayed all day and night.
In fact, it was from here He chose the disciples.
His own prayer, His own attendance at the secret place kickstarted their own forming.
Matthew 14:23 NKJV
“And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.”
He sent people away and went to pray!
Some of us, your prayer alarm is ringing but you are gisting and you don’t know how to end the gist, you don’t know how to end the call or just exit that conversation to pray.
I’ve been here too o!
I’m dragging myself also.
See, if you know the power in the tent of meeting you will not play with it.
If you have to send people away, you will.
When I just started with God, I used to pray in the toilet.
My roommates were always watching movies around my prayer time and they’d have friends around.
The only choice I had was the toilet.
Because I knew,
I had written on my sticknotes then that if I did not pray, I’d die.
So I’d go into the toilet.
At some point, one of them started using the toilet at night daily.
I hate cold a lot but I’d carry my winter jacket and ear piece, and I will go out inside the snow during winter for a prayer walk.
One thing was sure for me: I had to pray.
All of me that you know today was formed in that season of my life.
I tell you the truth.
Luke 22:39-44 NKJV
“Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Look at Jesus,
Just look at Jesus!
Even though He was in great agony, He knew.
He knew that on His own He’d not drink from the cup,
He knew He could not be the things that were written,
He knew it was from the meeting place,
At the very moment He was to die, He still went there!
He had been praying all His life ooo,
But final moment, He went still.
Again, Jesus who is the Word made flesh needed the Tent to be formed for His assignment, how much more us?
How much more us?
We cannot want to be anointed but won’t be still long enough to be crushed,
We cannot want to lead but have no history with the God who gives men blueprints,
We cannot want transformation but keep skipping the place where men behold to become,
It is not possible.
You cannot have prophecy over you and not like the tent of meeting,
You can as well discard the prophecy.
The Tent of Meeting is not a suggestion
It is not an option for us.
It is where we become; it is where men are shaped, stretched, and sent.
You do not become because someone prophesied over you or because God told you,
You become when you’ve been processed in the secret place.
Maybe we need to gather a list of people that died with prophecy unfulfilled just so we know that men can die this way.
Called doesn’t equal formed.
Hear me
Men can be called out of the secret place,
Prophecies can come to you anywhere,
In fact, babies yet to be born are prophesied about.
But there is only one way men become,
Only one place where men are forged: The Tent of Meeting
If you have words spoken concerning you that are yet to happen and you know,
You know it ought to be time
Check well,
Check your showing up at the tent of meeting.
I will close with this:
We cannot keep waiting to be shown off when we don’t show up before God.
Because God doesn’t send out what He hasn’t shaped!
Yes, God doesn’t just send anybody or anything out.
"Apostle to the marketplace"
Ehn…you will learn the secret place first.
God shapes men in the tent of meeting.
This is where flesh dies,
Where men are formed in Christ.
So if you’re asking:
When will I become what was spoken?
Heaven is asking you back, When will you return to the tent of meeting?
To be continued.
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