God Tabernacled in His Bride Part 1

Throughout the Body of Christ one word is consistently accentuated to identify our present place in Church history– Transition. I wrote extensively about this subject in my book, “Angels That Gather.”

As time progresses, greater clarity is coming into view as to the nature of this shift and how the Bride of Christ should be positioning herself. Clearly, we are thankful for every expression of spiritual outpouring enjoyed in recent years. However, we also recognize none of the “revivals” have yet fulfilled what has been promised for this age nor what we as a ministry have been contending for.

There is something unique woven into the spiritual DNA of an overcoming generation that desperately longs for the invisible union of the Heavenly Bridegroom and the earthly Bride. This “revival” will take on different characteristics from any previously demonstrated in Church history. It will be distinguished by passion and purity paving the way for more pronounced expressions of power and authority; it will be the Lord Himself fully tabernacled in His people.

This transition can easily be identified with a historically important time for the nation of Israel and their commitment to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Feast of Tabernacles also known as the Feast of Ingathering was the final feast of the seventh month symbolizing this present season.

With the closing of the harvest year, centered on the ingathering of fruit, the Israelites set aside a time of rejoicing and celebration. According to the Lord’s instructions they were to leave their dwelling places and construct temporary booths in which they resided as a prophetic picture of the Lord Himself dwelling for a short season within His people before he comes to permanently reside in the millennial Kingdom. The “booths” symbolized temporary dwelling places to be occupied enroute to the Promised Land.

The Lord spoke to me extensively in 1994 about the importance of Tabernacles in the midst of an extended fast. Now, 14 years later I am seeing many of the things spoken at that time poised for fulfillment.

Three Times a Year

Three times a year the Israelites were required to gather in Jerusalem to observe the Feasts of the Lord. Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles were each built around the harvest cycles. In them there is considerable prophetic insight to help identify where we are in history and what God’s people ought to do.

Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD. – Exodus 23:16-17

The Feast of the First Month—Passover
1. The Feast of Passover-
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
3. The Feast of Firstfruits

The Feast of the Third Month—Pentecost
1. The Feast of Weeks

The Feast of the Seventh Month – Tabernacles
1. The Feast of Trumpets
2. The Feast Day of Atonement
3. The Feast of Tabernacles

Application of the Blood
1. In Passover the blood was sprinkled upon the door.
2. In Pentecost the blood was sprinkled on the people and the covenant book.
3. In Tabernacles the blood was sprinkled seven times on the mercy seat.

Spiritual Israel

Clearly, the Lord’s Church is spiritual Israel. What happened to natural Israel historically provides types and shadows of what is to take place during the Church Ages. First the natural then the spiritual; the apostle made this profoundly clear in 1 Corinthians 10:11 and 1 Corinthians 15:46 saying:

Now all these things happened to them [Israel] as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

Each of the three Feasts must also be experientially revealed in and through God’s people. There is an abundance of historical evidence from the New Testament that affirms two of the three annual Feasts of the Lord have been fulfilled in Christ and His church. We now stand on the brink of the fulfillment of the last Feast that will usher in the Lord’s return. This is the feast of the seventh month or the Feasts of Ingathering–Tabernacles.

End-of-the-Age Harvest

We live in the days of the final harvest. Jesus said the end-of-the-age is the harvest and during that season He would send “angels that gather” out of His Kingdom all stumbling blocks and everything offensive so that the righteous would shine like the sun in the Kingdom of our Father. (Matthew 13:41 & 43) This will be the unveiling of the Sons of God who will exhibit a Power and Glory not yet seen in Church history.

It will be the Lord Jesus tabernacled in His Bride to demonstrate His Kingdom and His divine nature. There are ever increasing heights of Truth and Glory that are to be appropriated in these last days. It is upon this prize that we fix our hopes and expectations for the full revelation of who He is and what He is able to do through us as a result of the Cross.

The Feast of Tabernacles is also known as the Feast of Rest. This is the promised rest spoken in Hebrews saying:

For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. –Hebrews 4:9-11

The Spirit’s anointing that came upon the Old Testament prophets rested for a season until God’s mandate was complete and then it lifted; in the ministry of the Lord Jesus the Spirit remained and tabernacled in the Son of God. The Bible declares that the Heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended as the appearance of a dove and remained. This is our promise as well; just as He was sent so also will we be sent!

We Wish to See Jesus

An interesting exchange took place in John 12:20-24 with fascinating inferences for this day. Two of His disciples informed the Lord that a company of Greeks had come with a request saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” The Lord’s reply seemed odd unless you read it from a contemporary point of view understanding the incredible prophetic implications of His statement. He said:

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

The Lord Himself was the grain of wheat that went into the earth. That Seed has experienced two thousand years of growth, pruning and maturation until at the end-of-the-age there will be an ingathering harvest of exponentially multiplied grains of wheat just like the original seed. That is the principal outlined in Genesis 1:11-12; seed produces after its own kind. This last day’s generation is saying “we wish to see Jesus;” and that is to occur in His Bride as a seed harvest like the original that went into the earth.

The Lord prophesied in Matthew 13 that the end-of-the-age will be the harvest and the wheat sown into the earth are “sons of the Kingdom.” This reality can only be achieved when the Lord’s Spirit is fully manifested and tabernacled in His bridal company doing the greater works. Then this generation will “see Jesus” in a real and tangible way. This will bring in the fullness of the Gentiles as promised by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11.

Leaven Free

When the Lord discovers His rest in us we will then discover our promised rest from the toils and labors that makes us weary emotionally and spiritually. It is in this season that we will be most fruitful. Pentecost is the only Feast that allowed leaven. Leaven is a symbol of false teachings, religiosity and mixture. The Lord once said, “If I can find a people without mixture, I will release my Spirit without measure.” That is what lies imminently before us.

The Feast of Tabernacles included Trumpets as a prophetic picture calling for a Holy convocation and preparation for purification and cleansing. The Day of Atonement and Ingatherings prophetically set forth the final operation of the Lord in the earth prior to the Lord’s second coming.

The final harvest of souls before the Lord’s return will then be facilitated. It sets in motion the gatherings or calling out of the Saints unto the Lord and the perfection of the Church by the power of blood atonement. That is, we are to know the full measure of redemption and the power of His atonement and fulfill the Apostle Paul’s prayer saying, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” –Thessalonians 5:23.

The fullness of the Feast of the seventh month overflows or overlaps into the seventh day of the Lord which is the Kingdom Age to be enjoyed for one thousand years.

Sanctified in Truth

Neither in Passover, nor Pentecost, but in Tabernacles the word was opened, read and explained to the people. This is a picture of the mysteries of the Kingdom being unveiled to provide insight and illumination to cause us to “shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” – Daniel 12:3

The prophecies of Daniel clearly point to this season of history when the book that had been previously concealed at the Lord’s instruction is now opened and devoured by a bridal company at the end-of-time generation when many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase. It is at this time that we fulfill the prophetic directive of Revelations 10:11 and take the now opened book from the Lord’s hand, devour it and ”prophesy again concerning many peoples, nations, tongues and kings.”

Spiritual truth was revealed at Passover and Pentecost; but in Tabernacles full and complete Truth will come into the Bride of Christ making her a bright shining light to the nations. This will ultimately prepare her for the Lord and “…sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” –Ephesians 5:26-27

To Be Continued…