ABIDING – Are we getting it right?
Studying The Word of G-d IS worship. For how can we ‘obey an Instruction’ that we have not first closely scrutinized in order to understand for the purpose of application?
Study alone, however, is only the first act of WORSHIP. If the act of studying a Text alone (which still many Followers are not actively participating in) was enough to transform the ruach (spirit) of mankind, the Torah Teachers and religious leaders would have been RESTORING souls left and right by the power of His GLORY! However, Yeshua had to make them a spectacle [Matthew 23] because of the confusion they brought by their inaction to LOVE. Displaying their ‘hypocrisy’ enlightened souls in the crowd.
STUDY is not the finale. HERE is where the student often stops short:
The final act of worship is to LEARN what it means to ABIDE IN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. That’s much harder because it requires a certain humility, sacrifice, and ‘otherness’.
This is the second and final act of worship: HUMILITY THROUGH SUBMISSION TO THE RUACH HAKODESH FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING RESTORED AND RESTORING OTHERS.
In this week’s Torah Portion we are closely examining the Words of Torah in the building of the Tabernacle (Mishkan). The word MISHKAN means ‘dwelling place’. It derives from the root ‘shakan’ meaning ‘to dwell/abide/settle’. The word SHEKINAH derives from this root.
Yeshua taught this Kingdom Principle when HE spoke to the woman at the well about ‘worshiping in Spirit AND Truth’ [John 4].
ABIDING requires SUBMISSION to the Holy Spirit, which is then translating into ‘humbling yourself under one another’ [Eph. 5] as Followers of The Messiah. HUMILITY’s purpose is the RESTORED PERSON MANIFESTED by the very Shekinah of the Holy One!
Burn this image in your minds…’from one degree of GLORY to another’!
It is not enough to merely STUDY TRUTH if you are not being GOVERNED BY THE RUACH HAKODESH [Galatians 5-6].
The building of the Mishkan teaches us about SANCTIFYING (setting apart, making holy) OUR OWN PARTICULAR SEGMENTS OF TIME AND SPACE.
What do you think of when you think of SHEKINAH-GLORY? It is forward and onward into that BRILLIANT AND WARM HOLINESS that HE is calling us. Something eternal, beautiful, and life-giving ALWAYS comes out of SANCTIFYING our Time and Space (abiding).
HE calls us to be MANIFESTATIONS of HIS GLORY.
Are you DWELLING in The Set-Apart Spirit’s transforming KINGDOM GLORY?
