57. We Are the Tabernacle
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had [were already] passed, and the sea did not exist any longer. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a great voice out of the throne, saying: “Look and see, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself, their God, will be with them. – And He said to me, “It is become! I am the A and the Z, the Source, and the Completion. To the one who thirsts, I will give of the spring of the water of life freely. The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.”
Some Basic Terms. We are finally able to define some basic terms in their simplest, clearest, and most central sense. Salvation is – sharing life with God inside of loving one another. Or – a shared life with God in the Church. Life is – knowing the Father through knowing Jesus Sent into us. Knowing the Father is sharing life with Him. Knowing Jesus Sent is loving one another. The Kingdom is – every next step we take out from a shared life with Father and with one another, life unfolding.
BUT – what is all this about? It’s ABOUT a dwelling place, a Tabernacle for God, a God who just wants to come Home.
A Body for Father. The goal is not a body for Jesus. The goal of Jesus in us, His body, is a body for the Father.
What is a body? A body is a form inhabited by an invisible spirit/word person, that is, a living soul, and through which this person can now interact with and be known by other persons in their own forms. Animals have earth-only forms, with sufficient spirit to be alive, but not to interact with heaven forms. Angels have heaven-only forms, but are able to be visible as if with an earth form.
Humans are different. Humans have a form, a body, that is fully heaven and earth married together.
God Has No Body. The capacity of our human form, our ability to interact with and know other persons of heavenly form and all heavenly and elemental reality is the same as angels. The capacity of our human form, our ability to interact with and know other persons of earthly form and all earthly and physical reality is the same as animals. Yet we operate as both all the time – by nature. This makes us unique and special among all created things.
God has no body. He has no form through which He can interact with and be known by anything He has created, whether physical or spiritual. God is disabled, just like us.
The Bent of God’s Desire. God cannot be known apart from us. We cannot be human apart from God. The dwelling place of God. – This is not peripheral. It is not a tack-on. It’s not God being nice.
A place for God to dwell, to reveal Himself to created things, to be KNOWN – this is what every word in the Bible is about. This is the intention towards which every thought and desire of God is bent. Jesus, by Himself, cannot be God’s House, for never once did Jesus experience reciprocal love inside the human experience. – Christ is a many-membered Body. God is relationships; God is family.
Incredible Things. There is so much in our passage and I want to go through it piece by piece. The center is God coming Home, but that wondrous reality is surrounded by incredible things, as we would expect.
Now, even though humans are referenced in these lines, none of this is about humans, but about God. The first line references the substance of God, the second, His form, the third, His desire, the fourth, His action, and the fifth, His completion. Substance – Form (appearance – symmorphy) – Desire – Action (energeia) – Completion.
Let’s go through these before we consider the boxes.
Substance Already All. I realize now that I always viewed these five lines as unrelated things and considered each separately. Now they sing together as Father coming through. – I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had [were already] passed away, and the sea did not exist any longer.
Here is substance already all. – If anyone is inside of Christ, he is a New Creation. The old things are already gone; look and see, the New has already become. And all things are out from God, the One who has already… – The Church, which is His body, the fulness of Christ [right now] who already fills all inside of all.
Substance Becoming Appearance. Substance inside of God is the only reality; there is no old creation, for it vanished in the cross of Christ. A new heavens and a new earth is NOT referencing a “future event,” but that which is already the only thing real. Humans today who refuse and deny what is real are pictured as the sea. There will be no more sea when substance enters into appearance in the eyes of all.
And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Substance becoming appearance is Christians loving one another such that all the world knows that God is True.
The New Jerusalem. The “New Jerusalem” is defined exactly in the gospel. It is NOT a planetoid or spaceship circling the earth. It is NOT “Jesus and the Jews.” The New Jerusalem is the Church of Jesus Christ, the mother of all who believe into Jesus, whether formerly Jew or formerly Gentile. And God commanded us, to Abraham and through Paul, to cast out any thought of those “Jews” who refuse Jesus.
The word “Church,” in the Greek, means “assembly” or “gathering.” It is the gathering together of local believers in Jesus that is the only experience of Church we can know.
The Form of God. The New Jerusalem is Christian Community, believers in Jesus together in small local gatherings, committed to walk together as the revelation of God, loving one another with pure hearts fervently. Christian Community is the form of God, the appearance He takes upon Himself that He might be seen and known.
I would direct you to a lesson in Symmorphy V: Life, “13.3 The Face of Jesus.” This is about how God is made visible. The New Jerusalem coming out from God is another way of saying God coming Home. It is God being made visible in every local place across this planet.
Interaction Among. God wins a form for Himself by sharing form with us, that is, symmorphy. Yet God’s form cannot be static; God’s form is energeia, koinonia, reciprocity, the sharing of relationship among many.
A statute is not a living form. A body is not one part, but many. Yet God is not many parts; God is the dynamism, the fellowship, the interaction among those parts. God is Love; Love-one-another is the only form God takes. Here is God made visible. – The whole body, being joined together and being held together through every joint of its supply or provision, according to the energeia inside the sharing (koinonia) from every part (Ephesians 4).
The Heart of the Matter. Then I heard a great voice out of the throne, saying: “Look and see, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself, their God, will be with them. This is the Heart of the matter. – Desire means Heart.
The central meaning of the Ark of the Covenant inside the tabernacle and in the center of the camp of Israel, according to Moses in Exodus, is that God was dwelling in the midst of His people. – “And there I will meet with you.” Yet in the old, God’s presence among His people had to include much metaphor because Jesus could not yet live inside of them.
Knowing God. The metaphors of the old did not mean that God was not there with them as He is with us, it meant that they were unable to know what was true. Life is not God with us; life is KNOWING God with us.
We KNOW God with us through Jesus Sent into us. Because we live inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of us, we are able to KNOW the vast extent of God-with-us. Again, we see the detriment of our chopped-up approach to Scripture. Paul wrote Ephesians 3:17-19, filled with all of God, as the direct expansion and explanation of Ephesians 2:20-22, being built together for a dwelling place of God.
Ever Expanding. I wrote Symmorphy I: Purpose in order to gain some understanding of the ten ruling verses of the Bible. Writing Symmorphy V: Life was the greatest expansion of understanding until then. But now, this present study of The Apocalypse Now is the largest expansion of our knowing of these amazing verses thus far.
We know the meaning of Revelation 21 because we KNOW, ever more, the ten ruling verses of the Bible. Then, vice versa, Revelation 21 is enabling us to know, especially the second ruling verse, filled with all the fulness of God, as its meaning is made visible to all heaven-earth. Rooted in Love, filled with Love, Love poured out to all.
God Being Himself. It’s called the Apocalypse, and it has already begun. A large part of the remainder of Symmorphy VII: Completion will be on the dwelling place, the tabernacling of God.
When I say, “sharing Hheart with God,” I mean sharing with God His overwhelming, all-consuming Desire to be made visible inside His Tabernacle. – That God might be free to be Himself inside His creation. Without such a Tabernacle for God, all human problems must continue. With such a Tabernacle for God, all human problems are resolved. Wickedness is not the presence of humans; it is the absence of knowing God-among-us.
The Energeia of God. And He said to me, “It is become! I am the A and the Z, the Source, and the Completion. To the one who thirsts, I will give of the spring of the water of life freely.
Every element of the Energeia of God energeoing inside of us, the actions of God, reciprocity, receiving and giving, source and completion, speaking and creating, is found in these words. God speaking, “It is become,” is the resurrection out from death; it is life forevermore. The A and the Z is Jesus defeating death for all first and then Jesus coming in last, carrying the last little one who belongs to Him safely in His arms.
Utterly Personal. The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.
Now we come to something truly extraordinary. God is utterly personal, and God, here, is speaking about the greatest, deepest, most intimate personal relationship with Himself that could be conceived. I have called this God’s completion. Yes, we are members of a glorious Church that is the revelation of God-love to all creation forever. Nonetheless, there is a personal intimacy of knowing God that is the core and the source of all that Salvation.
The Completion of God. Christian Community is not being lost in a group; rather, it’s just the normal expression of our love for one another, God through us. Inside of all that is outward, the completion of God is a personal intimacy with the Father, knowing Him as Jesus knows Him. In fact, this is Jesus’ greatest sharing of form with us, that He gives us His own knowing of and relationship with the Father.
If Jesus shares all of Himself with us, then His knowing of the Father must be part of our symmorphy. Then, when we know the Father as Jesus knows the Father, we turn and discover that all things belong to us.
Our Page. “Inheriting all things” comes out from such Hheart intimacy with God filled with great meaning. We are much more than stewards. Our relationship with all heaven-earth things around us is as sons, the very essence of Christ Jesus.
Now we can lay out our Jesus Secret page. We will begin with speaking Christ. Then, we will have a large box titled “It’s All About God,” containing five subheadings, God’s Substance, God’s Form, God’s Desire, God’s Action, and God’s Completion. We will finish the page with a box titled “We Are the Tabernacle.” In that last box, we want to enter into the intimacy of the Tabernacle inside of Community.
Speaking Christ. We see the substance of God that the old is gone and that all things are New and of God. Death does not exist. We see the Church of Christ as clothed with the Lord Jesus, the revelation of the Father through her reciprocal love. We are the Tabernacle of God, His intimate dwelling place, His presence known to all ethnic families. We speak with God, "Become," and all know the Father. We give to all the knowledge of springs of living water welling up inside of them. We walk in the deepest Hheart intimacy with God, our Father; all things belong to us as sons with Jesus.
It’s All About God – God’s Substance. We place God the Father first, present and personal, real and active, utterly involved with us. We know only as God knows; we see only as the Father sees. All things exist only as they are already God's thoughts concerning them. Falseness and all not-Christ measurement is fiction at war against God. We exist only out from God. We speak substance with the Father; we speak, "Become," and all things are True, all things are out from God.
God’s Form. We see the Church of Christ, all believers into Jesus, clothed with the Lord Jesus and coming, every moment, out from God. When we speak of our fellow Christians, we speak only of those coming out from God. This Church, the New Jerusalem, expressed as local gatherings of believers sharing life together, is the form of God, the only form by which He is known. Communities of Christ are God's body. Their love for one another is God made visible.
God’s Desire. God dwells among His people. We are God's Tabernacle, His Ark of the Covenant. We devote our lives utterly to God being known as the presence and flow of Love in all human interactions. God's Desire to be known burns as the flame of our own hearts. We bring the knowledge of God-with-us into the knowledge of all everywhere we go. All are rooted in Love; all are filled full with all the fulness of Love; Love is poured out from all.
God’s Action. We synergeo with God in all that He is and does. We speak as God speaks, the speaking that is Christ Jesus. We are the continuous interaction between God as Source and God in Completion. The immediate action of Jesus as the only Salvation is part of His symmorphy with us, the form we share together. Jesus with us goes first into Life. Jesus with us comes last out of death, carrying that last little one who belongs to us together safely in our arms.
God’s Completion. We overcome in all things, not of ourselves, but as the completion of Jesus inside of all our human weakness. Inside of Jesus, God knows us and we know Him in the deepest levels of personal intimacy and sharing. We know the Father just as Jesus knows the Father, and together with Him. Out from our continuous sharing of Life with God, we receive all created things as sons, as our ever-enduring watch-care.
Experiencing Tabernacles. I count more than twenty Tabernacles that I experienced in my time in the move fellowship. I mark those in which I participated in either eating or worshipping together at least once, more than once for most, and years for some. Those Tabernacles I knew wherein I was connected by commitment were seven, Graham River, early Bowen’s Mill, Citra, the Albuquerque farm, the Ridge, Blueberry, and Blair Vally. When I think of each Tabernacle in each differing community, I realize that each reflected the nature and experience of that community, quite different, actually, from one to another.
Eating and Worshipping Together. In two settings, I experienced our eating together and our worshipping together taking place in two separate buildings. This may have been expedient, but it was not good. Somehow that large and familiar room wherein we experienced eating together and worshipping together, back and forth, remains in my heart as the center of JOY.
Maureen and I were married in just such a room.
Sadly, although we had much truth, we did not know the meaning of the Father. If we had known the meaning of the Father, the Tabernacle would have increased in value to us many times over. God is real, and His reality corresponds to what is most real to us.
The Place of Sharing. The Tabernacle to me was the place of sharing with one another, knowing one another. It was a place of laughter and warmth, of worship and joy, of sobriety and honesty.
Why did we not know that we WERE Father at Home? It’s because we were drinking from two different cups.
Our text in Revelation 21 means drinking from one cup alone, the cup of communion. And it means Jesus drinking that cup with us in the Kingdom. What I’m trying to say is that fellowship with God is very real and practical, and God gave me a full and wondrous taste of what the fruit of Completion really is.
The Face of Jesus. I spent the most time gathering with others in the Tabernacle at Blueberry. When I say that my experiences at Blueberry were as “the womb of the Church,” that room in that building is the setting in my mind.
You enter into the bootroom. While you are removing your dirty shoes and putting on clean ones, you intermingle with others coming in, different ones each time. There are smiles, laughter, and kind greetings. Here is where you first see the face of Jesus. You go in and sit down at your table, even as others are joining you. The seating arrangements are changed periodically so that you can break bread with all over time.
From Laughter to Sobriety. God is acknowledged with thanksgiving, and then you eat your meal together. There is lots of conversation, sharing of the things of the day. Often, peals of laughter swell over the general hub-bub of conversation. The food is always good and bounteous. As you leave, you intermingle again in the bootroom, often discussing the next part of work, or the things of the evening.
But when you come back into that same bootroom for the service, the tone is entirely different. There is little conversation; rather there is a deep sense of sobriety on every face. You have come to gather together inside the presence of God, and you are determined to know Him.
The Overflowing Anointing. As you enter, you see all the tables moved to the back of the room and the chairs set in rows. You walk in quietly and take a seat with your family. Some who are already there are speaking quietly in heavenly languages. Those elders who have embraced the mantle of seeking the Anointing for the services are usually among those first.
Someone goes up to lead the praise. Everyone stands and, in the flowing of the Spirit, you sing, you kiss the Father together. You can hear the voices around you because they are not drowned out by the instruments. Different ones share the Word, sharing Christ Jesus planted in your hearts. You go home quietly, filled with the knowledge of God in the midst of His people, the overflowing Anointing.
Practical to Our Reality. To be the Tabernacle of God, then, is to carry this practical expression of God-with-us everywhere we go, bringing eating together and worshipping together in small gatherings in the same room to the experience of many. Whatever else I would birth out from my community experience into the experience of many, this is the heart of it.
God tabernacling among us is not airy-fairy; rather God is utterly practical to real human life. But as Isaiah said, Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? You can believe my report, for it is True and from the Father.
We Are the Tabernacle. God made visible is utterly real to and inside of our human experience. The Tabernacle inside of our local Community, the room where we eat and worship together, is the place where God and one another are most deeply known. We gather to break bread together in laughter and companionship, God among us. We gather to worship the Father together and to receive His Word planted in us as the Lord Jesus from one another, a Word made personal by each. We together are the Tabernacle of God, His dwelling among the peoples. Everywhere we go, we teach all to gather together in such places of commitment and of the sharing of God-life coming through the energeia of every part. We are the Father revealed.
Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “We Measure Christ Community.” For that lesson, read Revelation 21 a couple of more times in the JSV. We will be looking at verses 9-26.
When we know the Father, when it’s all about God to us, then the Church of Jesus Christ in both heaven and upon earth, coming out from God, is the focus and passion of our hearts. That Church to us is not abstract, but specific to daily human life. The Church is the measurement of Christ.
He showed me the city, devoted Jerusalem, coming down out from heaven from God, possessing the glory of God.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, our hearts sing in harmony with Yours, for You have filled us with Jesus. Father, the Apocalypse, Your revelation through Jesus as us, is a deep and intrinsic GOODNESS coming upon every aspect of human life, small and great. We rest in awe and wonder inside the safety of Your Goodness. We have given ourselves to You as the expression of all Your Desire.
“Yet now, out from You, Oh God, our eyes are set upon Your Church, upon our Christian brethren all across the earth, entering their hour of greatest need, entering Your hour of Victory revealed.
“Inside of Jesus, we call You, Oh God, into the knowledge of all Your people. Dwell among us, Father; let the gathering together of Your Church be Your habitation, the Tabernacle of Your presence made known. Inside of Jesus, we call everyone who belongs to Jesus alive today into the age-unfolding Gospel, into Christ as them, into Christ Community, loving one another with pure hearts fervently.
“Father, we know that we speak together with You, “Become,” and all things are brand new. Your knowledge flows out from us into every place. Father, we are Your Tabernacle, Your dwelling place forever. Father, You share our lives with us.”