BRAZEN BELIEVERS – Heaven Meets Earth – Part 4 (Foundation, Service and Harvest)

BRONZE BASES – FOUNDATIONAL TRUTHS

Not only are all the pegs made of copper (bronze), but all the strategic foundational elements are also bronze. Anywhere a person can enter or exit the court or God’s dwelling place (the tabernacle), have bronze bases supporting it.  A base is considered to be a separate architectural feature, which is the bottom of something. It is the structure’s support or foundation, like when you pour a concrete foundation for a new home. Some foundational truths for the body is that we “enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise…” (Psalms 100:4).  Worship of the Lord is essential to oneness and to entering into relationship with Him.  We become what we behold.  If we don’t worship God, we will end up worshiping something or someone else.  We were created to worship Him.

Another foundational truth is that Jesus is the foundation for the church, the chief cornerstone (2 Corinthians 3:11; Isaiah 28:16). This said.  Ephesians 2:20 also tells us that “God’s household is built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets.” When the leaders of the church are operating according to the will of God, people can easily flow into the presence of the Lord.  A good friend shared this analogy with me: “Avenues are usually free of congestion and traffic accidents.  When leaders do their own thing, it’s like a major intersection in Los Angeles when the traffic light goes out.  Traffic moves, but very painfully.  A traffic cop must come in to temporarily fill in for the errant light just as God can temporarily fix things. But don’t become complacent with the traffic cop.  It is neither his duty nor his desire to fill in for that light permanently.  Lights are meant to shine.”

BRONZE UTENSILS – SELF-SACRIFICIAL SERVICE

All the utensils of the tabernacle used in all its service were bronze (Exodus 27:19). I have to admit that I usually just tolerate useful tools.  I delegate all handyman projects to my husband. He loves doing them and I love them being done.  I know when he goes out of town on business I appreciate useful tools much more.  I still prefer a man attached to that tool.  I’m so un-mechanical it’s almost funny. I know I trivialize usefulness and I think most of Christ’s body does too.  Life is less difficult with useful tools.  They make necessary work easier.  And most important of all those useful tools (mechanical types in the body) bless all of us.  My husband’s main love language is service.  He washes the cars, mows the lawn, cooks for company, etc, etc, etc.  I do appreciate these things and feel very blessed. 

Remember Jesus didn’t think himself too good to do useful tasks.  Washing the disciple’s feet was not only an act of love, but menial labor.  Those dirty, stinky feet needed to be cleaned. Biblical love is self-sacrificial service, not just a feeling (Heb 12:28).

BRONZE CLASPS – UNITY FOR HARVEST

Last but not least for copper in the tabernacle. There were fifty bronze clasps joining the goats’ hair tent together (Exodus 36:18).  Scripturally, fifty is the number for jubilee, freedom or deliverance. These bronze clasps in the tabernacle point to unity within the church enabling the church to reach the world. The goats’ hair tent was the covering for the tabernacle, which touched the tabernacle itself.  This is a picture of the harvesters and evangelists in the body who reach out to bring the people in. God gave me a word in relation to this:

The goats’ hair tent represents those individuals who touch the unsaved (the harvesters). Just as Sampson’s strength was in the keeping of his Nazarite vows in not cutting his hair so the strength of the harvester is in the joy of the Lord.   

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.  He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seeds, shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing in the sheaves with him” (Psalms 126:5-6).

I’ve researched Samson in relation to harvesters and received a wealth of knowledge, which is for another time.  Suffice it to say that the saved are called sheep and the unsaved are referred to as goats.  One day the Lord will separate the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), but for now the Lord wills that not one shall perish (2 Peter 3:9).  Those believers who ask for the lost as their inheritance (Psalms 2:8) and actually all believers,  are called to go out into the harvest fields for they are white (John 4:35-42).

What are we harvesting?  Souls to live eternally with Christ.  Recently, I felt led to ask a friend of mine to join me in a Bible study.  The only problem was that I cared too much about what she thought and was afraid to ask.  I forgot that I had been praying for her for over two years!  I was finally obedient and invited her. To be only told “I’d love to, but I hate to go to those things alone. Would you pick me up?” Would I!  Wow.  The fruit is so ripe it’s falling from the tree into our hands.

We need to boldly pray that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers into the fields and orchards (Matthew 9:37-38).  And we still need to pray that our supervisors, the apostles, rise up and take their place.  If we aren’t about our Father’s business, this fruit can be wasted.  Either the birds of the air can eat the fruit or it can fall to the ground and rot.

I got so excited when I read Ed Silvoso’s book, That None Shall Perish. The prayer evangelism he describes is supported in the Exodus picture of the goats’ hair tent touching the Tabernacle, God’s house of prayer touching a lost world (the goats’ hair).  When we touch a person’s hair, it implies a caring relationship. How do I care for my fellow man?  By loving them by sacrificing my own agenda and comfort, and being connected to the Lord of Love.  Each believer is called to show that we really love God by loving our neighbor. Both God and the world around us are looking for the Church’s substance our natural and supernatural substance. We all need to move into a new level of sincerity so: “Let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]” (Ephesians 4:15a AMPL).

Remember that part of the word for “bronze” in the burnished bronze feet of Jesus (Rev 1:15, 2:18) means frankincense. (See PART 1 – HEAVEN’S WILL http://wp.me/p2k1dQ-55) We ARE to be frank-incense. To be frank is to be free, forthright and sincere; and thus, our lives will be unmistakably evident to a lost and dying world. Incense is the very material that produces a pleasing odor when burned. Living our lives as a daily sacrifice is a pleasing prayer. We are to be the fragrance of the Lord, the smell of the Holy Spirit, which — in Christ — will cause life and passion to come forth.

Won’t you be a vessel where heaven touches earth?

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10).

~ Robin Main

www.sapphirethroneministries.com
www.santa-tizing.com
www.mysticmentoring.com

Written October 24, 1998 – Sapphire Throne Ministries – Robin Main. Copyrighted – If you are going to copy this, please copy it right by giving attributions to this source. Blessings!

*****

BRAVEN BELIEVERS ARTICLES:

[1] BRAVEN BELIEVERS – Heaven Meets Earth – Part 1  => https://sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/brazen-believers-heaven-meets-earth-part-1-heavens-will/

[2] BRAVEN BELIEVERS – Heaven Meets Earth – Part 2 (Selfless Love) => https://sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/brazen-believers-heaven-meets-earth-part-2-selfless-love/

[3] BRAVEN BELIEVERS – Heaven Meets Earth – Part 3 (Oneness) => https://sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/brazen-believers-heaven-meets-earth-part-3-oneness/

[4] BRAVEN BELIEVERS – Heaven Meets Earth – Part 4 (Foundation, Service and Harvest) => https://sapphirethroneministries.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/brazen-believers-heaven-meets-earth-part-4-foundation-service-and-harvest/

*****.

RESOURCES AVAILABLE:

• Ascension Manual book => https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578188511

• Understanding the Order of Melchizedek: Complete Series book => https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Order-Melchizedek-Robin-Main/dp/0998598240/

• MEL GEL Study Guide book => https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578188538/

• MEL GEL Study Guide: Volume 2 book => https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998598232/

• Set of Hebrew Living Letter Flash Cards => https://www.sapphirethroneministries.com/flashcards

• Blazing New Wine of Hanukkah: Bridal Restoration of DNA book => https://www.amazon.com/Blazing-New-Wine-Hanukkah-Understanding-ebook/dp/B010MHNZMK/

• SANTA-TIZING: What’s wrong with Christmas and how to clean it up book => https://www.amazon.com/SANTA-TIZING-Whats-wrong-Christmas-clean/dp/1607911159/

*****

His Divine Building Plan in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Time – 1 of 3

— The Biblical Pattern for a Global Shift in the Divine Order of Earthly Things–

A radically new dispensation has arrived upon the scene of human history every two thousand years since the dawn of time. Don’t let the word dispensation trip you up, because it simply means an administrative system. When the One who is sovereign initiates a new dispensation, God reforms how He manages and runs things on earth.

For several years now, the whole world has become engulfed in an atmospheric (spiritual) climate of change. Simply look and see words like “kingdom,” “shift,” and “change” are in the air. Please realize that the promises that have regulated human affairs for the past two thousand years are not going away, but shifting by a quark or two in order to prepare God’s people for our coming King. God is in charge of this and any shift in the divine order of earthly things, and it affects everything we do and who we are. It literally is a new state of being in Christ. This new state of being will result in the gathering together in one all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10) – which in a word is One(ness). This fresh new order carries with it a pristine DNA for a new creature, which will produce a new prototype.

The purpose of this divine global shift in earth’s administration is to make adjustments so His resurrected body of believers and His pure and spotless bridal company can come into their fullness.  We have entered a season where an elemental change is occurring so that a corporate body will be prepared for Him (Hebrews 10:5). This new thing – a manifestation of the perfect multi-membered resurrection of Christ’s body – will inaugurate the Age of the Bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7-8) and the Age of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-10) and the Age of the One New Man in the Messiah (Ephesians 2:15) – these three being one as diverse aspects of the same consummation. Please don’t get hung up on gender-specific terms; both men and women are called to be part of the One New Man and the Bride.

The Biblical pattern for each new dispensation is first a precious son volunteers to become a worshipful, sacrificial burnt offering; then gradually a new dwelling place for God is built. Just know that the Creator of our universe started with something wholly natural, but eventually His divine building pattern will culminate in something entirely spiritual.

“The spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual … Just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we will bear the image of the heavenly … flesh and blood can not inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:46, 49-50 NASB).

Let’s take a closer look at times in the Bible when a precious son volunteers to become a pleasing sacrifice. Notice that each one of the participants is an example of those who volunteer freely in the day of God’s power (Psalms 110:3). They literally present themselves as a Burnt Offering by fire.

The first example presented to us is Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. Some facts hidden in Jewish history about Abraham will help better illuminate our burnt offering picture.

Before Abram became Abraham, he originally shared the idolatrous practices of his father, Terah, who manufactured and sold actual graven images (idols). At the tender age of 13, Abram was personally convicted by the Most High God to cast off all foreign gods, so he smashed all of his father’s idols. Terah was furious, because he had lost a lot of things including time, energy and money; therefore, Terah took his case to the pre-eminent rebel of his time who was the first earthly king – Nimrod. Nimrod, being a law unto himself and the flesh, ruled that Abram was guilty. He had the “defiant” Abram thrown into a fiery furnace. What’s astonishing is that Abram miraculous survived his very close and personal baptism of fire long before Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3).

We then see God’s heart response to Abram’s sincere belief and his obedience in coming out of Babylon by forging a unilateral covenant of faith with him as a prototype for all who believe. The unilateral covenant where Abram was saved through faith by grace was, and is, only dependent on God’s faithfulness (Gen 15). Notice that Abram was asleep when God made His covenant with him. Significantly, God appeared as a flaming torch which passed between Abram’s five split offerings. The number “”five” in Scripture speaks of divine favor and grace.

Always pay attention to the first occurrence of any thing in the Bible, because it sets precedence. Therefore, the first account of a son volunteering to be a sacrifice is when God asked Abraham to take his only son up to Mount Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering as a voluntary act of worship (Genesis 22). Many of us think back to when we were taught this in Sunday School, and picture Abraham running the show and Isaac being a small boy who unconditionally trusted his father; but Hebrew history records that Abraham was 137-years-old and Isaac was 36 at the time. Knowing their more advanced age brings better clarity on how both participants – both Abraham and Isaac – truly volunteered freely. When Abraham and Isaac willingly ascended Mount Moriah, Abraham (the father) carried the fire and Isaac (his son) carried the wood for the burnt offering on his back. This was a Messianic foreshadow of an unprecedented event fulfilled around two-thousand years later by Jesus and His own Heavenly Father. Abraham built an altar there onMount Moriah, arranged the wood, and placed his only begotten son on top of the wood. When Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son, an angel stopped him at the last moment.

Known as the “akedah” in Hebrew, this was the final test of Abraham’s faith. James chapter 2 says that Abraham’s “faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected,[ i.e. completed]. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS’ ” (James 2:22-23 NASB). Abraham’s persevered in his faith in God and moved into a more mature state of holding to the testimony of God (Rev 12:17; 14:12). The truth of the matter is if you believe in something, then you will naturally act on that belief and do those things which are consistent with what you believe. Otherwise, your words won’t line up with what you do and you will be known as a hypocrite.

After the akedah, there were several iterations of God’s dwelling place that were built, with one version overlapping the next precious son volunteering to be a sacrifice:

[1]   Wilderness Tabernacle (Built by Moses) – Portable earthly image that served as a copy and shadow of heavenly things to come (Exo 25:40; Heb 8:5)

[2]   Solomon’sTemple (Built by King David’s son)

[3]   Herod’s Temple (Built by an apostate king)

The next Biblical precedence of a precious son volunteering to become a burnt offering is Jesus (i.e., Yeshua). With Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection a great slide from the natural toward the supernatural began. Even though there was a new beginning inaugurated at the cross to facilitate a transformation of God’s temple, historically, there was a gradual turning so God’s people could transition into the new dispensation. The dispensation begun by Jesus’s baptism of fire (Matthew 3:11) – his crucifixion – was:

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5 NIV).

The promise of the new dispensation inaugurated at the cross was, and still is, the adoption of sons (i.e. restoration of fellowship). This promise was the first great quickening (Romans 8:11; Ephesians 2:5). It’s an eternal promise; therefore, it will continue. Right now, we have a fresh dispensation dawning, which encompasses and expands on everything that has gone before it.

“that in the dispensation of the fullness of time He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him” (Ephesians 1:10 NIV).

The new dispensation in our day speaks of gathering together in one all things in Christ. It should be another quantum leap in the spiritual direction, which should result in something enveloped by something completely heavenly. Something like: a holy city, the Lamb’s (Bridegroom’s) wife, the Bride, New Jerusalem “coming down from God out of heaven” (Revelation 21:2). Something like: the mature HEAD of Christ (Revelation 1:14) spiritually being joined to His mature BODY of believers (Ephesians 4:15-16; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). What I do know is that in this fresh dispensation, God is causing us to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) as well as hating mixture (Revelation 3:15-16). He is causing us to want to be just like Jesus. To move just like Him. To live just like Him. To be just like Him. In order to do this, we will have to diligently and consistently choose to walk in the same manner that Jesus did (1 John 2:6).

~ Robin Main

www.sapphirethroneministries.com
www.santa-tizing.com
www.mysticmentoring.com

Copyright January 2012 – Sapphire Throne Ministries – Robin Main

*****
.
RESOURCES AVAILABLE:
.
• Ascension Manual book => https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578188511

• Understanding the Order of Melchizedek: Complete Series book => https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Order-Melchizedek-Robin-Main/dp/0998598240/

• MEL GEL Study Guide book => https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578188538/

• MEL GEL Study Guide: Volume 2 book => https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998598232/

• Set of Hebrew Living Letter Flash Cards => https://www.sapphirethroneministries.com/flashcards

• Blazing New Wine of Hanukkah: Bridal Restoration of DNA book => https://www.amazon.com/Blazing-New-Wine-Hanukkah-Understanding-ebook/dp/B010MHNZMK/

• SANTA-TIZING: What’s wrong with Christmas and how to clean it up book => https://www.amazon.com/SANTA-TIZING-Whats-wrong-Christmas-clean/dp/1607911159/ w

*****