Welcome to the fourth part of our teaching series, 'Intimacy: The Power of the Tent Meeting'
So far, we've shared three points on it:
1. The tent of meeting is for our Survival and Sustenance [Read Here]
2. The tent of meeting is Where Men are Formed [Read Here]
3. The tent of meeting is The Secret to Lasting Strength [Read Here]
In this post, I will cover point 4:
The Tent of Meeting is Where we Encounter Glory
The tent of meeting is the place where men enter into the glory of God, and where that glory rubs off on them.
See, when you see men that have been with God, it is very obvious. You can literally point it out.
It’s like entering into a fire and saying that the smoke will not stay on your body. It is impossible!
Look at Moses visiting the tabernacle for example. Moses went in and when he came out, his face shone without him even knowing it.
Exodus 34:29 NKJV
“Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.”
This is what the tent of meeting does: it leaves a mark that others cannot deny, it highlights men.
There are so many people in the church today looking to stand out, wanting to be announced, wanting men to see them and say they are of God.
There is only one way we are identified with God, it is from being and staying in the tent of meeting.
It is where God’s glory rubs off on us,
It is where men touch the glory of God,
It is where God clothes us with His own essence.
I think I will have to break down what Glory is first:
The Hebrew word for Glory is 'kabod', which is literally translated as 'weight, heaviness, significance.'
While the Greek word 'doxa' is translated as 'honor, splendor, radiance.'
The Glory of God is the sum of the presence of God
It is what John saw and fell as a dead man,
It is the weight of God.
His presence!
His beauty!
His power!
All of it summed up together, at the same time!
The Glory is God’s holiness, love, power, and majesty made visible and knowable.
Again, all of it at once.
No wonder it overwhelms, because God’s majesty on its own is a lottttt!
Now imagine the combination of it all,
Imagine all of it put together:
Majesty
Power
Beauty
Presence
The same presence that mountains melt like wax before?
That same presence
We must know what we are really bargaining for when we say we are coming to the tent of meeting.
We must know whose presence we are coming to and what happens to the men that dare to come here.
Like have you seen God?
Have you seen all of God?
😭😭😭
Luke 9:28-29 NKJV
“Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening.”
See what happened as Jesus prayed, His face was altered, His robe became white and glistened.
Glory is not just a concept; it manifests. It is visible, it is tangible, and it is imparted in the tent.
There is nowhere else it is imparted,
No where else!
Look at the apostles oooo,
Look at them very well,
Acts 4:13 KJV
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
They took knowledge of them!
Unlearned fishermen o, uneducated.
But they took knowledge of them, and their conclusion was that they had been with Jesus.
See, the Glory of God is the undeniable evidence that this one has marked attendance with God.
It is what makes men to stop looking ordinary.
It takes away your earthly qualifications and descriptions.
It gives you a new aura and a new name.
Glory is the portion of those who dwell in the tent. Believe me.
When you truly dwell in the tent, men will know, even without you speaking, that you have been with God. Men will know.
See, we can easily sniff out people that have been with God o.
Fun fact? Unbelievers can sniff out too, I'm not even joking.
Our assumption is usually that it is people who are on fire or who meet with God that know others that have been coming too.
Sorry o, even people that don’t meet with God know the difference.
Intimacy cannot be hidden!
Sooner or later, it will show.
2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
And look at the effect of beholding the Glory of God, it rubs off.
We too are changed, from Glory to Glory.
As we behold, the Glory of God goes to work in us, it changes us from inside out until we too begin to reflect the very person we behold.
One thing I will say the tent of meeting did for Moses also was change His outlook to God.
As He continued to behold the Glory of God, His questions changed.
His ability to love with instructions changed.
At first, Moses would ask questions like, “What if they don’t believe me?"
Exodus 4:1 KJV
“And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.”
But as he kept returning to the tent and beholding God’s glory, his outlook shifted.
The man who once asked a thousand questions, “What if they don’t believe me?”, “Who am I?”, “I can’t speak well, I be stammerer”, became the man who, at the Red Sea, simply heard “Stretch out your rod” and obeyed without hesitation.
Sometimes, your inability to have faith is because you’ve not been showing up in the tent of meeting.
How can you do “At thy word Oh God” for a God you don’t know/show up before?
How?
Impossible o
That level of obedience is born in the tent of meeting. It is there that God is revealed, His voice becomes familiar, His heart is unveiled. Without showing up, without beholding, without staying, you cannot genuinely surrender at His word.
Moses didn’t just get there in a day. It was years of showing up before the Presence, years of beholding the glory of God, until his reflex became obedience. Until the only answer he knew was obedience and Faith in his heart.
That’s why the tent of meeting is non-negotiable. You can’t live out “At Thy word, O God” if you don’t first live in “At Thy feet, O God.”
You must find your way to the tent of meeting, you must learn to stay in.
This is the mystery of the Glory of God, it does not just reveal God, it reshapes us.
Like you look at God in so much awe and reverence that it causes something on your inside to begin to conform to the same image.
And this is why the devil fights your secret place, he knows that if he can keep you away from beholding, he can keep you from becoming.
What the devil is attacking is your becoming.
All those I’m struggling to pray, I’m struggling to study the word, recognize what the enemy is attacking.
Fight!
Fight for your life
Fight for your destiny
Fight for your becoming
Fight!
Fight by showing up in the secret place!
I will share a secret with us that has worked for me:
Everytime I see myself struggling with praying and studying the word, I just start over immediately.
I pick a time, a consistent time to work with daily.
Nothing must shift the time.
I just show up
Tired, I show up
Pumped up, I show up
My job is to show up consistently, daily at the same time.
Until the spirit realm recognizes that power in consistency and I am carried into the point of prayer.
Until my whole body understands this is a new system for it and it aligns.
And I’m not even trying to pray for 2 hours or even 1 hour.
I don’t try to fall back to my best record.
If it is just 30 minutes, I start over there.
And it is the same advice I’m giving us.
Build prayer as a habit
Prayer is not a gift o
I’ve heard someone say it to me before: "you people that have the gift of prayer"
Me: "which people?"
I don’t have the gift of prayer please
I learnt to pray
I struggled
I stayed
I put systems in place for prayer
If it means sleeping early to wake up early,
If it means shutting down my Netflix account for a while,
If it means not being on twitter for a while,
I do all it takes!
Out of all the gifts that God has given me, prayer no be gift please 😭
You fight for your prayer life.
And if you knew the things that are happening daily in the spirit realm ehn, you will not be complacent.
It is like an open market:
If you like come to Oyingbo, if you like stay at home, there is trading going on daily concerning your life in the spirit realm.
They are pricing things that involve your life, you are there scrolling through TikTok aimlessly.
Prayer is a habit YOU have to build
Studying the word is a habit YOU have to build
Yours is to show up and then God does the rest
Yours is to show up before Glory and He does the rubbing off work
Yours is to show up
Yours is to show up and behold
And I pray for everyone,
We receive strength to show up before the Lord.
For as many of us struggling, distracted, weary, discouraged, we ask for help tonight. Help us Lord
May every weight that keeps us from your presence be lifted .
Distractions lose their grip.
You awaken in us hunger for You that is stronger than the many excuses we’ve lived with before now.
We are no longer held back.
And as we behold You, help us to become like You.
In Jesus name
Amen.
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