In the last part of this series, we looked at how the tent of meeting is the place where we are formed; all the prophecies hovering over our lives are waiting for us to get into the secret place, nothing happens until we do.
I also pointed out how so many of the frustrations we face daily as humans are either because we are not coming to the tent of meeting or because we are coming with the wrong intent.
I will be progressing with our third point under the Power of the Tent of Meeting
3. The Tent of Meeting is the Secret to Lasting Strength
There are a lot of weak believers, people walking about thinking they are strong, but you can easily blow them off with the slightest wind of trouble. They look confident in public, but their roots are shallow. And overtime shallow roots always betray.
You will think you are fine o, but shallow roots allow you to be deceived for long.
We look stable for a season, but when the heat of life comes or the storm hits, we begin to wither.
In this our kingdom, strength is not built in public.
Strength and power are confirmed in public but they are not built in public.
Jesus saying to the wind “Peace be still” and the wind obeyed Him, you think it is child’s play?
“Lazarus, come out!” Come out from where?
There are some commands you can’t make in the spirit because you don’t know how they trade there.
It is a strange market for you.
In public, Jesus could silence a raging wind with one command, He could heal the sick with a single sentence. But those moments of instant authority were backed by long hours alone with the Father.
Every exploit we want to do is hidden inside of our showing up at the secret place. Again, strength in this our kingdom is not built in public; it is revealed in public o, but drawn from the secret place.
That’s our machine.
And please, try to hate the applause from the crowd. The applause of the crowd cannot sustain you in the day of battle. It is what you draw in the secret place that will hold you when the winds rise.
Stay showing up;
Show up on good days,
Show up on bad days,
Show up when you feel like and when you don’t,
Show up even if it is just 5 minutes,
Just show up!
The story of Samson is one that humbles me a lot. He was sent in a time when the Israelites had done evil in the sight of the Lord and had been delivered to the Philistines for 40years.
Judges 13:1 NKJV
“Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.”
Israel was being oppressed and God decided to send someone. He looked at a barren couple and sent His angel to them. In fact, the first time the angel of the Lord came, the husband wasn’t there and his wife didn’t pick all the instructions.
What did the husband Manoah do? He went to the tent of meeting. He prayed and asked God to send the angel again so they get clarity.
Guess what God did? He answered their prayers.
Samson was a man with prophecy over his head.
Judges 13:5 NKJV
“For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”
His own word was that he would deliver the Israelites from the hands of the Philistines. Marked from the womb!
In fact, marked before conception. Yet, he did not fulfil this to the extent of the words over him.
I do not believe that’s how God mapped out Samson’s end. God was so particular about him that He sent someone twice.
Actually, three different conversations if we add the part where the wife called her husband.
That’s how important Samson’s calling was: Heaven sent personal visitation to ensure the assignment was clear.
But see, prophecy alone doesn’t preserve power and strength.
Samson lost his strength long before Delilah cut his hair. It happened gradually, as he began showing up in the tents of the Philistines instead of the tent of meeting.
Judges 16:1 KJV
“Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.”
He went to an harlot.
He was there doing romance with the enemy; the very enemy he was meant to overthrow.
Numbers 6:1-5 NKJV
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin. ‘All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
The call of the Nazirite is that He is separated to the Lord!
Sounds like the consecration of the priest right?
Samson was meant to dwell in God’s presence (this was His call of separation), but instead he wandered into Philistine cities.
The symbolism of his consecration on the outside was in the cutting of his hair, but his hair was not the source of strength, it was a symbol.
Judges 16:20 NKJV
“And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.”
This is one of the most humbling scriptures ever,
Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him, his source of strength had left.
Why?
He wasn’t showing up in the right places.
Maybe if he was, he would have received intel about Delilah, the Lord would have corrected him.
The tent of meeting is the secret to lasting strength.
We can start strong and yet finish weak.
What we do in the hidden place fuels what we can do in the open.
When we neglect the tent, we may still look strong on the outside but the roots are shallow, and sooner or later, the fruit will show it.
Sooner or later, everything will collapse.
Satan always targets those called and set apart; those separated from one thing to another. He knows the weight of your calling, so he works to lure you away from the source of your strength. If he can keep you showing up in the wrong places long enough, the day will come when you try to rise as before, and find that the power is gone.
Satan knows.
He knows the secret to strength that lasts.
As a people, we must know too! We must know that it is in the secret place.
Satan’s job is simple: get you off the altar, out of the tent, and into places that look good but do not nourish you.
As Scripture warns: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10)
The enemy’s tactic is theft.
He steals your habit of waiting, he robs you of time meant to be spent in the tent of meeting, and he murders the destiny meant to be formed in the secret place.
But look at the counter strategy against the devil,
Isaiah 40:31 NKJV
“But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Those who wait!
Those who like Joshua stay back in the tent of meeting,
Those who prioritize being before God.
This is our own strategy as believers.
It is how prophecies are birth.
The devil is there waiting to steal,
We too we are here waiting before the Lord, being refuelled and pumped for purpose!
I beg us today to pay attention to the error of Samson.
It can be you,
It can be me,
It can be any of us.
Don’t be deceived, the presence is what gives you strength.
So Show up!
Show up on good days and bad, when you’re hot and when you’re cold, even if it’s only five minutes,
Just show up.
Fight for the tent of meeting. Guard your altar.
Wait on the Lord like your life depends on it,
Wait on the Lord!
If you keep returning to the secret place, the day you’re called to move in public will not expose weakness, it will reveal a strength that has been faithfully built overtime.
Stay. Wait. Be made.!
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