God's Tabernacles

Dear Weekly Readers! 

Thank you for your prayers for our mission trip to India. We are back home and well. We hope you enjoy this article by Pastor Wayne. 

May God bless your week, 

John R. 

GOD'S TABERNACLES

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. (Psalm 46:4)

Many questions arise in our minds as we meditate on this verse--1) What is the river?  2) What are the streams?  3) What is the city of God?  4)  What is the holy place of the tabernacles of the most  High?

The water the Lord spoke about to the Prophet Ezekiel is the water of the Holy Spirit.  In Ezek 36:25-27, God said to the Prophet:  " ... will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. ²⁶ A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."  Later Ezekiel was shown a river that flowed out of the temple that deepened and enlarged as it flowed (Ezek. 47:1-13).  This pointed forward to our Lord Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, upon whom the Holy Spirit descended when baptized by John in the Jordan River as a confirmation to John that Jesus was the true Messiah who was to be made known to Israel, and who, Himself, would baptized with the Holy Spirit (Jn. 3:24-34).

All the streams and rivers of this world begin at a small rivulet and grow larger as other streams flow into the main stream.  The river of God, however, begins at the throne of God and continues to expand and enlarge the farther it  flows.  It needs no added source.  Only God can bestow upon all believers the Holy Spirit.  This was the answer to the Samaritan woman who came  to draw water from Jacob's well to whom Jesus said:  " Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: ¹⁴ But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:13-14).  

Hence, every believer is one of the streams of this Holy Spirit River.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost shows us how this River of Life expanded and began to spread to people of so many nations around the Mediterranean Sea as believers empowered by the Holy Spirit began to share the Gospel in their homelands.  These streams, or individual believers, make glad the city of God through the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25) in relationship to one another, and through their evangelistic work in sharing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to others.

The city of God is the host of true believers.  This is confirmed by what the Apostle John saw when exiled on the island of Patmos when he saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, as bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2).  The Church is the bride of Christ and the city of God is made glad as believers walk in love with one another and whose chief desire is to please the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9; 1 Thess. 4:1).

We are the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High as Paul writes in Romans 8:9-11: "... ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. ¹⁰ And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."  

We are the living stones who are a testimony and witness to the world of God's loving mercy and grace; having taken us out of the miry clay and set our feet upon the Rock, Christ Jesus our Lord (Psa. 40:2).  Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, let us rejoice in the Lord, living daily for Him who was slain to Whom belongs  "power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" now and forever! 

Pr Wayne Juntunen