As we continue the subject of taking up your cross, we will see that it is simply cooperating with the Word of God to change your character into the character of Jesus. It means totally abandoning the things that you have relied upon for your love, security, and significance. It is simply allowing Jesus to live His life through you. It is not some kind of self-abasement, rather it is the abundant life!

We will be focusing on two major consequences or rewards that are a result of living a life of taking up your cross.

1. Your character. As you continually take up your cross you will be conformed to the image of Jesus. The major factor is you will be conformed to love like He loves, give like He gives, and forgive like He forgives. As you live this life of love, all of your spiritual enemies will be rendered harmless, and you will overcome. Remember, faith works by love!

2. God's presence. As you continually take up you cross, the second major reward and consequence will be that you will experience the presence of God more richer and more often as time progresses.

We need the presence of God to set us free and cleanse us in order to overcome. We cannot overcome difficulties in life with plans and formulas, with the pastor's sermon or the Sunday school class. We must be in touch with the Living God! In Revelation chapter 2, the church at Ephesus was into great works, but God said to them, "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love" (Revelation 2:4).

Often we hear the expression, "Feeling the presence of God." While we do not trust in our feelings, and certainly the presence of God is often without feeling, often we can and do sense the presence of God.

The Tabernacle pattern makes this "feeling" dependable.

God wants our emotions involved. As you will learn in this process our emotions are not relied upon until after we consecrate our mind and will. If we use this pattern, our emotions are safer. There are a lot of "spirits" out there that can and do affect man's emotions, but God has made a safe way to know that it is Him.

We need to know that there are enemies that want to stop God from being real to us. Our enemies come at us three main ways, our flesh, the world, and Satan.

God has already provided for all victory over our enemies! The way into His presence was provided at the Cross when the veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom - Mark 15:38 says, "Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." Now it is our job to cooperate. We must take up our cross - which will give us the victory!

Ezekiel saw the tabernacle in a vision. I believe it was a vision of the New Tabernacle, you and me.

In Ezekiel 47:1-12 God describes a river that flows out from the Temple, and flows into the Dead Sea. "Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar" (Ezekiel 47:1). Then Ezekiel saw the river increasing in size progressively, first ankle deep, then knee deep, then loin deep and finally over the head so that one could only swim.

"Then he said to me: "This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the [Dead] sea [representing the dead people of the world who need Jesus], its waters are healed" (Ezekiel 47:8).

"And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes" (Ezekiel 47:9).

Where is the temple today? 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." " He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). The river is the presence of God, the Holy Spirit flowing from you and me out to a dying world.

We need to understand that there are enemies that we may be cooperating with which will prevent us from entering into God's presence and even from overcoming. In the next few chapter we will deal with those issues by using the example of the Tabernacle. These hindrances include:

a. Not accepting God's forgiveness, and not offering forgiveness.

b. Not making the Word of God first place in your life.

c. Keeping an unthankful attitude towards God.

d. Hanging on to your independence and your strong will, and not allowing God to work out His will in your life.

e. Not allowing God to renew your mind and remove strongholds in your life.

f. Not maintaining an attitude of praise, which leads to worship.

g. Not loving and giving as Jesus does. In other words, being selfish and self-centered.

In his book Applied Christianity , Doug Metzger makes a valuable statement about how many people are unable to have an intimate relationship with God. He asks the people he counsels if they have ever been denied intimacy. Then he defines intimacy as love, joy, peace patience, kindness, gentleness, mercy, grace, comfort, acceptance, and things like that. He then asks the person to forgive those who have denied them these attributes and to confess as sin how they may have sought after them apart from God.

I believe that going through this could be a very valuable place to begin to increase our intimacy with God!

It takes sacrifice to come into His presence.

As recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 4, during a battle between the Philistines and Israel, Israel was defeated and the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant. However possessing the Ark was not something that the Philistines wanted. Their own idol Dagon was destroyed, and other misfortunes befell them. The Philistines returned the Ark to Israel (1 Samuel 5-6). Finally the Ark stayed in the house of Abinadab for 20 years.

David, as recorded in 2 Samuel chapter 6, was determined to bring the Ark of the Covenant, representing the very presence of God, to Jerusalem. They put the Ark on a cart pulled by oxen and began the trip. David was leading the way with praise, worship, dancing and singing. But the Ark began to fall off of the cart. Uzzah put out his hand to balance it, and in doing so God struck him dead. God had prescribed a special method for carrying the Ark and the hand of the flesh, the works of man interfered, and he was struck dead.

The Ark rested in the house of Obed-Edom for three months and God blessed the household abundantly. Obed-Edom was a servant, a Levite, and a worshiper. David must have studied more about transporting the presence of God, the Ark. When he came back to finally bring it to Jerusalem, he did something unusual.

David discovered that it required sacrifice. "And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep" (2 Samuel 6:13). Can you just imagine? Every six paces oxen and fatted sheep were sacrificed! It must have been a slow trip.

How do we enter into God's presence? Through the blood covenant. Our relationship and fellowship with God are based upon a blood covenant. To the Western mindset that can be a foreign thing. The closest comparison we have is marriage, and so many people have an understanding of this relationship that is contrary to the Bible. The total life is given to each party, nothing is held back. The more we lose our life to God, the more of His life we receive!

The Tabernacle is a powerful symbol of the two crosses to use as a prayer guide. It will help us take up our cross and walk us into the very presence of God for fellowship! The Tabernacle is not limited to this symbol however. It is an endless study of the character of Jesus, the makeup of man, and the heart of God. Using it in this way is just one facet.

The Tabernacle is a picture of the three parts of our soul, which are the will, intellect (mind) and emotions. This serves as a foundation for our part of the blood covenant, our sacrifice.

"The Old Testament tells us how the chosen people of God lived on earth. At first, the tabernacle served as the center of the 12 tribes; later it was the temple which became their center. The center of the temple was the ark. The tabernacle, the temple and the ark are all types of Christ. As long as the children of Israel maintained their proper relationship with the tabernacle or the temple they were victorious, and no nation could overcome them. Even though their enemies learned how to fight while they themselves were not familiar with fighting, the children of Israel overcame all their enemies nonetheless. But the moment they had problems with the tabernacle or the temple, they were taken into captivity. Nothing else, whether they had powerful kings or great wisdom in themselves mattered at all; the only concern which mattered was whether or not they had offended the ark of the tabernacle or temple. If the Lord had the preeminence, then theirs was the victory. So too with us today. In minding the victory of Christ, we also have the victory." Quote from God's Plan and the Overcomers - Watchman Nee

There are three parts to overcoming. "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death" (Revelation 12:11). The word "lives" is psuche in Greek, which means the soul. It does not mean our physical life, it means our will, intellect and emotions. It means that unregenerated part of our being that needs to become like Jesus. "Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23).

Overcoming involves the completion of our part of the blood covenant with Christ, that is, taking up our cross. This process is not easy for any of us to totally understand because God is always the one who must reveal how we must take up our cross at any particular moment in our lives.

During the overcoming process it is God's purpose to heal our soul. When we die we will receive a new body, when we were born again we received a regenerated spirit, however our soul is in the process of being healed all the while. It is God's purpose to repair our will, intellect and emotions. The Book of Nehimiah contains an analogy about rebuilding the walls of our personality. The name Nehimiah means comforter, representing the Holy Spirit.

Certainly we have a free will, volition, however our will may have been damaged by years of living outside of Christ. Oftentimes we make subconscious choices that are contrary to God's purpose.

Our mind or intellect becomes a prisoner to strongholds of the enemy, and God sets us free during the overcoming process.

Finally, we find that our emotions are unreliable. At times we feel like God has overtaken us in a marvelous way, only later to find out it was not God at all. Other times we feel like God does not even exist, or if He does, He has dropped our file and forgotten all about us. God wants to establish our emotions so that they may be reliable and may be used in praise and worship for Him.

Remember, as we have brought out before in Isaiah 61, after verse 2, the day of vengeance, we see in verse 4, "And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations" (Isaiah 61:4). This applies to our will, mind and emotions. We will cover all three of these areas in future chapters.

When we push into the presence of God, we cannot help but to take up our cross, which automatically has an effect on the will, intellect and emotions. We find ourselves laying down our will for His will, our thinking for His thinking and our emotions for His emotions. We discover that another miracle is taking place, His character is displacing our character, and we are beginning to change.

I have wondered why sometimes it seems so difficult to know that we have reached God's throne in prayer. I heard a man say one time that God spoke to him and told him it was because that tension of pressing into His presence was good for him. That kind of pressure peeled off his flesh as he was pursuing God.

God is actually accomplishing many things during our overcoming affliction.

1. We are overcoming the actual curse or affliction we are dealing with.

2. We are closer to God, in intimate fellowship, than we have ever been before.

3. Our soul is going through a healing and is being renewed.

4. We are being conformed into His image.

5. We receive the rhema, God's personal Word, to us.

When we are in affliction, the only remedy is to push into the presence of God for relief. When we find His presence, it seems like everything will be all right. We discover a different perspective on our life and on our affliction, which only His presence can uncover. We begin to look at things from the heavenly viewpoint.

Paul wonderfully expresses it in the Book of Romans. Paul takes the first eight to eleven chapters of Romans to explain the desperate need of mankind and the wonderful provision God has made for that need. Then he says in effect that in view of these wonderful mercies, take up your cross. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:1,2). Then in the next few chapters he gives some very good practical advice on how to take up your cross and present your members as a living sacrifice. I urge everyone reading this to read Romans Chapters 12-15 prayerfully, asking God to convict you in your ways of selfishness.

Our mind needs to be transformed and renewed (to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure. Christ appearance was changed and was resplendent with divine brightness on the mount of transfiguration). God does a supernatural work of changing us as we submit our old will, intellect, and emotions.

Transformation is kind of like the displacement method. When clean water is poured into a glass of dirty water, the displacement theory transforms the water. The dirty water did not become clean, but was displaced by the clean water. As we go through this process the character of Jesus displaces our old will, mind, and emotions. That is called grace!

As you journey into Fellowship with God, picture taking a walk through the Tabernacle as the priests of the Old Testament did.

"In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me" (Ps 27:5b).

We begin here. We walk through here We end up here and take up our cross. in God's presence.

When Jesus said that we must deny ourselves, lose our life for His sake, etc., He was using a word that refers to our soul. So we must deny, or say no to, our soul.

Our soul is three parts: the will, mind (intellect) and emotions. The Holy Place represents that part of our being, the soul. It has three pieces of furniture that represent our will, mind and emotions (see above picture). Allowing God to replace our old will, mind, and emotions with His, is the taking up of our cross.

Our will, mind (intellect) and emotions are attacked by our flesh, the world and Satan.

Now we will take a journey to each of these items in our prayer time and journey right past our enemies into the very presence of God!

Instructions:

1. Read this introductory section of the Tabernacle again at least once a month. Then continue through the Tabernacle daily taking at least twenty minutes to make contact with God. It is not necessary to read or study each and every line, just touch each idea.

2. When you start through the tabernacle your back is to be toward the world and your face toward Jesus. This is important, for the Holy Spirit will not honor you with His presence if you are facing in the wrong direction (spiritual direction-Acts 26:18).

3. Go to each "stop" and deal with that subject in prayer with the Lord. Look up some of the Scriptures. Be alert for areas of repentance, for this is one of our main contributions toward this fellowship time with God.

4. It is preferred that you go through all these stops at one time. You can do it in twenty minutes. However, if you do not have time in one sitting to go through this entire process, do not give up. Instead, begin the process in the morning, and go through at least one step. Then, do the next one at lunch. If you need to, go ahead and continue the next day. Eventually, live a life of this process and it will be a natural process of always staying in His presence.

Under the Old Covenant, Israel held an annual Day of Atonement called Yom Kippur. The sins of Israel were to be dealt with on this one day of the year when the high priest prepared to go through the Tabernacle on behalf of Israel for their sins.

At the Bronze Altar, in the outer court, there were two young goats, called calves. One was given a scarlet cloth around its neck indicating it would be slain for blood. The other was tied up outside the gate indicating it was to be the scapegoat. The first goat was slain at the altar and the priest took its blood into the Holy of Holies, where he presented it with incense off the altar of incense (the place of praise). As the incense burned, it filled the Holy of Holies with smoke, which represented (and actually released) the presence of God. The priest would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat once and in front of it seven times. Outside, every person in the camp lay prostrate through all of this. No one saw any of it happening, yet it meant that their sins would be forgiven for the entire year.

Next, as the priest returned and changed his clothes, he laid his hands on the head of the other goat, the scapegoat, symbolizing the transfer of all of the sins to the head of the animal. There was to be a very rugged man chosen to take the scapegoat into the desert wilderness and lead it to a place where it could not return. He would take it to an inescapable place. They would go to a valley surrounded by ledges and cliffs and the goat was lowered down so it could never escape (Leviticus 16:21-22).

Now as the priest laid hands on the scapegoat, beginning the second part of the ceremony, he confessed the sins of the entire Israel. He would say, "Lord, place my sins and the sins of the people on the head of this goat. Now go and depart." As they led the goat out of the camp, all of the people stood and rejoiced. They could all see and understand, even the children. The scapegoat is symbolic of Jesus being our scapegoat, being lowered into Hell for us with our sins on His head. He took our sin and removed it forever, never again to be found or to return. Psalm 103:12 says, "as far as the east is from the west, so has He removed our sin from us." Micah 7:19 says, "that thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

Hebrews 9:12-14 says, "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

In the next chapter we will continue our walk, and appropriate this forgiveness. Then we will follow the prescribed path right into the presence of God.

  Metzger, Doug. Applied Christianity. LaGrange, GA: Four Winds Publishing, 2000

Nee, Watchman. God's Plan and the Overcomers. NY: Christian Fellowship Publishers, 1977.