You must be born again.
In the tabernacle Moses built, the inner court was reserved for consecrated priests (descendants of Aaron) to perform sacrifices. The Holy of Holies was off-limits. It was a no-go area. It was a sacred space within the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, protected by a heavy veil. Only the High Priest could enter there, once a year, on Yom Kippur. This restriction represented the high holiness required to approach God’s presence.
If any man violated these restrictions, he died on the spot. This is what happened to Nadab and Abihu when they offered strange fire in the temple. Priests entering the inner court and the holy of holies had a rope tied around their waist. If they died as a result of ritual impurity or because of sins of disobedience, they were then pulled out with the rope around their waist.
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Access By Faith
However, what is impossible with man is possible with faith in God.
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Jesus says:
Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Matt 17:20).
Therefore, Abel could offer an acceptable sacrifice to God before the Law of Moses. He did this by faith.
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By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it, he being dead still speaks. (Heb 11:4).
The Tabernacle of David
But by the grace of God, David, the man after God’s heart, also found a way to bypass God’s legal limitations. He was not an Aaronite, and neither was he a Levite. He was from the tribe of Judah. Nevertheless, his faith in God made a way for him to offer an acceptable sacrifice to God.
David says:
Enter into (God’s) gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. (Psa 100:4).
Rebuilding the Tabernacle of David
God sent me to pray for a man sick with cancer. But after I prayed for him, God did not heal him. His parents sent for me. They said that after I prayed for him, he became better. But then he became so much worse. Could I come back to pray for him?
God told me to go back. But I struggled with God. I told Him, “If You wanted to heal him, You could have done so the first time I prayed for him.” “Why do I have to pray a second time?” “If you want to kill him, just kill him without involving me.”
So, God said, “Don’t pray for him again.” “Just show him a video.” God said, “Go to the shelf, and I will show you which video you are to show him.”
When I got to the shelf, He asked me to stretch out my hand and take a videotape. When I did, I took one entitled, “If Satan Can’t Steal Your Joy, He Can’t Keep Your Goods.”
I watched the video and understood why it was relevant. Jesus says:
Therefore, you now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. (John 16:22).
I copied the video and took it to the man on his sickbed. But when I played the tape, it only played for 10 minutes. There was a power cut, so the recording stopped. Not to worry. I told him about the message in the video. “Rejoice.” Thereafter, for two hours, I sang praises to God with the sick man and his family.
Two weeks later, the man died. Then, I changed gears with God. I told Him it did not matter whether those He sent me to pray for lived or died. He can heal them, or He can kill them if He wants to. My business is to touch and pray; healing is His department.
Sacrifice of Praise
When I reached that juncture, God told me to sing a song:
“I will enter His presence with thanksgiving in my heart,
I will enter His courts with praise
I will say this is the day that the Lord has made
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.”
When I sang that song, God switched on the light. I now have perfect understanding of the matter. Indeed, I was sent to heal the sick man. But his healing was spiritual. God was taking him home to Himself. God’s message to Him was to enter His heavenly gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
What God required of the man was a sacrifice of praise.
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place — of which you say, “It is desolate, without man and without beast” — in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever” — and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the Lord. (Jeremiah 33:10-11).
The sacrifice of praise is acceptable to God. It is offered joyfully even under the most inconvenient circumstances. God does not accept praise that is not offered joyfully.
The psalmist asks:
Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? (Psa 43:5).
No matter the vagaries of life, God requires us to offer to Him joyful praise:
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. (Psa 63:3-5).
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, and my soul, which You have redeemed. (Psa 71:23).
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. (Psa 43:4).
Women like to dance. But make sure you are dancing on the inside
Building a Temple
David resolved to build a house for God. He insisted God was too important to dwell in a tabernacle. However, God told David he could not build Him a temple because he had killed too many people and his hands were full of blood.
But God said through Isaiah that He does not desire a Temple built by fleshly men.
Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word. (Isa 66:1-2).
God sent men to destroy every temple built by men.
Spiritual Houses
Jesus told the Samaritan woman:
Believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:21-24).
Temples Built Inside Men
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 2:4-5).
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Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. (1 Cor 3:16-17).
Useless Sacrifices
God also cannot accept sacrifices made by sinful men. What He desires from men is love and mercy. That is the first and great commandment.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (Matt 22:37).
But you cannot love God unless you are born again.
God says in Hosea:
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. (Hos 6:6).
Jesus reiterates this:
Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. (Matt 9:13). CONTINUED.
[email protected]; www.femiaribisala.com
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