 "Jacob's Dream"
 "Abraham and Lot"  "Holy Family"  "Baby Moses" Oil Painting by POWildy |
EXODUS "Lord, You say you are my friend…." Intimately we should know our Lord! These words of Moses would then sink in to our hearts deeply and we to would have that 'Yes, Lord' spirit. Look at what Moses is saying (what's in his heart):
Get that kind of heart, then hear God say; "You are my friend - I'll go with you and give you success." Exodus (my paraphrase)
need the bitter water story here
see Ex. 11:7 God's heart Am I, are we, our presence causing enjoyment of the earth? Matt 5:13 "Ye are the salt of the earth" Salt? Job 6:6 Is it the presence of salt that causes us to enjoy our food?
From my journal note: AT OUR BITTER WATERS! Use God's purposes here, when you are at a wilderness place that's to bitter to drink in. See self then die! That's God's purpose for us always. Since birth, we have had a need to do that. Till death, we will need to remember it. Our enemy is lurking in the shadows, waiting for us to do the same thing they did in the wilderness. Lurking there, whispering in our ears. We must learn to turn away from those temptations, not God. Human nature will 'very naturally' turn away from God! Know that and when temptation comes - 'STOP IT'! Refuse to listen! Do not 'GIVE PLACE' to the natural turning away nor the spirit voices in your ear saying; "God will not do this for you! You must do x, y, z, whatever that enemy voice/spirit voice is saying to you - it's a very clever, deceitful voice that has to pegged and set for the kill! STOP IT! DON'T LISTEN! In the wilderness - God is giving us privilege to prove our love and trust in Him - take it as such and make Him proud! So what I'm trying to say here is: At your Mirah, tear the limb and throw in here at the bitter waters:"SELF - AND DIE" LOOK TO HIM -
to His Word, see
in Isaiah 52 - "His visage was marred - more than any man - His
body so
broken, disfigured one would hardly know it was a man standing
there! See
that! See what Jesus says: "Who has believed our
report?
To whom is the ARM of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up
before Him
as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no
form nor
comeliness - that when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we
should desire
Him. he was despised and rejected of men and a man of sorrows;
acquainted
with grief. We hid our faces from Him, He was despised and we
esteemed Him
not. Surely He has borne our (yours and mine) grief and carried
our
sorrows; (say that here at Mirah - He has borne my grief and carried my
sorrows,
HE HAS!). Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our
iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are
healed. ALL WE like sheep have gone astray - we have turned
our own
way; the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us ALL!
LOST HERE…. first 5 FRONT AND BACK HAND WRITTEN PAGES. So starting below with page 6: ….. made of pure gold, special Bread of the Presence on the table. All that goes into the tabernacle symbolizes His strong love for us and His desire to dwell with us, and we with Him. Hungering for us to 'come' and be seated with Him, at His table, with the true bread of life. Which is Christ Jesus, the special Bread of the Presence. 'Come', He is calling as He was then, signified in the Most Holy Place. Exodus chapter 26 verse 34 God says to place the [Ark of the covenant (containing the Laws of God), the mercy place, and the table with the Special Bread of the Presence] in that Most Holy Place. God is the same, yesterday, today and forever, bidding us to that table Presence, that place in Him where obeying the laws are not a problem. Where loving God becomes the focal point of life and knowing His love becomes the purpose of Life. Desire fulfilled becomes the 'Tree of Life' and union with Him means everything. Nothing else really matters because once bound to Him we find that it is no longer I, but it is He. His heart's desire becomes our very breath and we finally 'see' that it is our heart's desire and has always been in His, or in Him. He is bringing us through tests to help us 'see' our own hearts and learn our great need is keeping our eyes only on Him. Then we can do down together, hand-in-hand, down from the mountain of God's Presence, as Moses did, to feed His sheep. What God worked out in Moses heart He waits to work out in all of us, even more. He wants to bring us to this place, this wilderness place, to develop a Moses disposition. God will teach us even as He did Moses on the back side of the desert. We must learn to 'rest and wait' for His appearing. Our God loves to commune with us in solitary places. After the tabernacle stories in the word come the stories of the priests, clothing, the dedication of the priests, the promise, "I will be with you", the Holy incense, and then Moses sent down from the mountain because the people had defiled themselves. First look at Paul's writing from Prison! What we are to be clothed with you'll see perfectly described in Philippians chapters one and two. I am not going to put it all down here, but want to encourage you to go get your Bible and read it for yourself with this in mind: 'What should I be clothed with?', and 'Can, or should I really be able to rejoice and be thankful in hard times?' Please, if you want those answers go right now and read Phil. Chapters 1 and 2. Ex.32 Here the story of the wilderness journey changes in nature, God's disposition changes seemingly; because Moses didn't come down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. "Look," they said, "Make us a god to lead us, for this fellow Moses who brought us here from Egypt has disappeared; something must have happened to him." Then the people began offering burnt offerings and peace offerings to the calf-idol and followed with feasting, drinking, wild parting and sexual immorality.. (Ch.32,v.6) At first here in verse seven the Lord tells Moses to go quickly to His people 'for they have defiled themselves'. Then the Lord seems to have taken a deeper look into their heart and minds. Deciding they were a stubborn, rebellious lot and His anger wanted to destroy them all. he said, "I will make you Moses, into a great nation instead of them" (Ex.ch.32,v.9,10) We know the story: Moses then pleaded with God for the people
and God
listened to Moses and changed His mind and spared them.
Where is the love of God there - you may ask. Let me remind you, when they began to speak against Moses - saying he had disappeared - what they were really deciding in their hearts, 'God had disappeared' God had brought them out there and dropped them. Do we ever feel or say to God, "Where are you, God?" 'Did you bring me here to just drop me?" I have said that! I have thought, or judged God like that. Watch out! That is dangerous ground! Because the condition and inward turning away has begun, then idol worship and all sorts of sin will follow. Get back on good ground fast. Imagine loving someone, you have suffered for them greatly because of your love, you have gone to great pains to help them and have gone to great lengths showing them your strong love and your mighty protection, resulting in delivering them from hard, hard circumstances. They have seen with their own hearts; thanked you; praised you, even made up love songs to you and loved you back for all that you have done. For giving them such love. Yet as soon as you turn around, so to speak, quickly they forgot. They begin to accuse you of not caring, saying, "He has disappeared, He doesn't even care" They decided to join together and give their love and loyalty to your enemy; they pledge themselves, party, bow down, and make love to your enemy. Here's what God saw in their hearts: When He delivered His people He said, "When I see the blood I will pass over you and not destroy you. That blood was the sign to God signifying their heart's condition and when they began to worship idols and commit adultery in this desert place God saw they had no heart towards God. No heart that says, "We believe you God and we obey" … no hearts that had put the blood, truly over the door-posts of their hearts! What He saw in their hearts caused Him to want to destroy them. That is why it is of great necessity to 'guard our hearts'. Accusing God is a step away from refusing God. Refusing God, simply means not believing in His love for us and consequently not loving Him enough to allow Him to 'Be God' for us. We must learn to trust and wait. He truly wanted to bring rest and peach and blessings to them. God did listen to Moses pleadings for the people, He did not destroy them when they completely turned their hearts away from him. God truly wanted to bring this people to a land flowing with milk and honey - but at this point He told Moses; "but I will not travel among you for you are a stubborn, unruly people, and I would be tempted to destroy you along the way." This is so sad, when you realize god did such great, awesome, and terrible acts in Egypt and at the sea to deliver His people, His loved ones, His family. He 'set His heart on them.' He desired to draw them to Himself and to see and hear them 'drawing Him' to themselves. His heart was hungry for their love, their intimacy. He parted the sea! He made the bitter waters sweet! He rained down angels food from heaven for them! Yet, they stiffened their necks, hardened their hearts and refused His love. Moses erected the sacred tent (the' 'Tent for Meeting with God' he called it) far outside the camp, and everyone who wanted to consult with Jehovah went out there. (33:7) Here we see the depth of Moses relationship with God and the heart of Moses. He prayed to God; "You say you are my friend, and that I have found favor before you; please if this is really so, guide me clearly along the way you want me to travel so that I will understand you and walk acceptable before you." (v.13) This prayer has some of the most important words we will find in God's word. Because here we find the heart attitude that the Lord replies to; "I Myself will go with you and give you success" (v.14), and "Yes, I will do what you have asked, for you have certainly found favor with me, and you are my friend." Hungering to know our Lord intimately we should allow these words of Moses to sink in to our hearts deeply. I know this is the 2nd time I'm writing this, but 7 times would not be too much... Here's the Moses' heart:
God rewards for that kind of heart:
God say;
"You are my friend!" Besides it goes much deeper! If you notice following this prayer Moses then asked to see God's glory and God said that He would make His goodness pass before Him. Being friends with God causes us a strong desire to 'see' His glory and then God responds to our heart's cry. He set His love on us and we are His. He is full of love as a father to His child, as a husband to His wife or as a mother to her children. God's love to us, His child, His wife, is all of that plus so much more. Beyond anything we could ever comprehend. Yet, in the wilderness His children always turning away! Resulting in God wanting to destroy His people because wicked hearts turning away means, they're turning to something or someone else. I'll leave it with that - I think you are getting the picture. Don't just think its them, there it that wilderness - its all people, for all times, in all their wilderness type experience. When God allows a person to come to a trying place, a troublesome place, a trial, a test, a hard place - that's their wilderness place! We all go through wilderness places. Going there in a heart of intimacy and rest is what God is after. Once we get to the place of intimacy and rest in the wilderness, we find the wilderness beautiful. The face of God is there, His presence, His love, His table, His Tabernacle, His gifts bestowed! Once we rest in our wilderness places - our life becomes a blessed unity with Holy Spirit Dependency. At this time in their exodus travels the Lord "descended in the form of a pillar of cloud and stood there with Moses and passed in front of him and announced the meaning of His name. I Am Jehovah, the merciful and gracious God, He said, slow to anger and rich in steadfast love and truth. I, Jehovah, show this steadfast love to many thousands by forgiving their sins, or else I refuse to clear the guilty, and require that a father's sins be punished in the sons and grandsons, and even later generations." (34:5-7) Moses fell down before the Lord and worshipped. And he said, "If it is true that I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, then please go with us to the Promised Land; yes, it is an unruly, stubborn people, but pardon our iniquity and our sins, and accept us as your own." (v.8,9) Here Moses once again allows us to see his heart. He had had such a transformation in his wilderness experiences waiting before God! Moses had learned waiting upon God, during this long period in his life when God had hidden him away. He had learned to walk very gently before God in humility, loving God deeply, trusting God and hoping in His graciousness. He even learned to take upon himself the sins of God's people as if they were his own. He had not bowed sown nor turned his heart from God. He had learned that if not for the grace of God it could have been him turning away. Also that except for God's grace tomorrow he may be the one in deep sin. In response to Moses prayer the Lord replied, "All right, this is the covenant I will do, "Miracles such as have never been done before anywhere in all the earth and all the people of Israel shall see the power of the Lord - the terrible power I will display through you. Your part of the agreement is to obey all of my commandments; then I will drive out all of your enemies before you." (v.10,11 paraphrased) "Be very, very careful not to compromise with the people.. if you do you will soon follow their evil ways. Instead… break down their idols. For you must worship no other gods, but only Jehovah, for He is a God who claims absolute loyalty and exclusive devotion." (12-14) see my thoughts: "Loving God" Here we see God's response to Moses Heart. God has a heart longing to show His love and power and covenants here to do that through Moses. Once again stressing the importance of devotion to Him and no other. His love has no limit to those who exclude all idols and who will be whole-heartedly devoted to Him. Moses
then was led up again on the mountain with the Lord for
forty days and
forty nights, and all the time he neither ate nor drank. The Covenant -
the Ten
Commandments - were given and Moses came out of the mountain glowing
with
radiance upon his face from the Lord's
presence.
Soon it was time for the 'Tabernacle Gifts' to be given by God. God was handing out gifts to mankind! "All the people went to their tents to prepare their gifts. Those whose hearts were stirred by God's Spirit returned with their offerings of material for the Tabernacle, its equipment and for the Holy Garments. Both men and women came, all who were willing - hearted. They brought their free will offerings to the LLord. All with their God-given abilities came to assist. The craftsmen then got to work constructing the Tabernacle. All was done in the order designated by moses and was commanded to Moses by the Lord, and supervised by God's- appointed supervisors and God-gifted craftsmen." (Chapter 35)
From chapters thirty-five through forty God gives us the detailed description of the Tabernacle; the construction process and the workers instructions. Here is my paraphrase of it. It says everyone came whose heart was stirred, and whose spirit was willing. (Ch. 35:21). They came to fulfill all the details and complete the Tabernacle of God's design. Read chapter 35, see all the intricate details. We serve a God who cares about the details, He cares about the small, seeming insignificant details that we sometimes ask ourselves, 'Why do I put so much importance on that?' Let us be in His image and allow ourselves the seemingly insignificant completing process. Notice also how the word says the people's hearts were stirred, but then added - all whose spirit was will came and surrendered their stirrings, their talents to the Tabernacle completeness. You see, that means we are not puppets. God stirs our hearts, yet we must surrender with willingness to obey. Go ahead - read chapter thirty-five and see if you see your own gifts as you read. This is a beautiful chapter showing us God's loving, giving heart and desires to fellowship with us in ALL THINGS.
Think of it! Here in this wilderness place, God gave gifts to His children. Numerous gifts He names and describes and also their purposes.
The important thing to zero in on in this 'wilderness rest place' is the fact that God is leading His children away from bondage, from burdens, suffering, and troubles hard to bear!
He is bringing them to a place of blessing and rest; And promises fulfilled!
Enroute He says to them; "here, take these gifts, talents and abilities. Here, your heart is pliable, I can see your heart, He is saying, "Here, I Am god, USE ME!" "Here, take this gift; Here, you may bring this offering into My House; Here, this is your gift, take it freely." Open your heart if you are enroute to your promises being fulfilled. God has His heart full of desire to give gifts to His children. That we may bring them to His banqueting hall and all may see His love for us. "Come and dine He is calling."
It is such a glorious Tabernacle! because its such a glorious God who has designed all the intricate details. And best of all He has designed them 'in and through' us, His children. His house where He abides on earth. We Are the Tabernacle! We are His Temple! He Abides in His Tabernacle. He has placed upon us the honor of being used to bring His presence to earth through His Tabernacle. It is His Tabernacle, His Table, his Presence, his Honor, and His Children. What a pleasure, what a joy to be included in the beloved. Invited to be His very bride. Chapter forty verses thirty-four through thirty-eight of Exocus concludes with an example of how Moses, after finishing the Tabernacle work assigned to him - 'The glory of the Lord' appeared. "Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle and the glory of the Lord filled it. Moses was not able to enter because the cloud was standing there, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. Whenever the cloud lifted and moved, the people of Israel journed onward, following it. But if the cloud stayed, they stayed until it was time to move. The cloud rested upon the Tabernacle during the day time, and at night there was fire in the cloud so that all the people of Israel could see it." This continued throughout all their journeys! God's presence filled the Temple. His Tabernacle was so gloriously full of splendor - 'Rest' was their only option. God will bring us to a place of wilderness rest. A place so glorious and full of Himself that we learn the true meaning of 'Stay'. It is in the wilderness journey! On our way to the promise land where we enter into the 'Rest' He has prepared for us. A land flowing wit milk and honey. People are always wanting to enter in then they will rest. God says, "NO!" Rest, then enter in.
Here in this wilderness place we learn to be sensitive to the presence of the Lord, to dine and sup at HIS TABLE! We learn to discern when the cloud lifts and when it is God's will to journey on. God is teaching us the answer to walking in number three and four of Moses' requests. Requests being: "The way to be 'clearly guided' along the way He wishes us to travel. He is teaching us in our wilderness rest to know when to 'come' and when to 'go' - to journey on."
We must learn to recognize His cloud in our day time and His fire in our night experiences. When we do we also learn to glory in tribulation because the Holy Ghost fire that burns in our hearts is so good that we actually feel thankful for the hard, dark night. That's where we learn to be sensitive to God's voice and His Heart's Desires! Praise God for the cloud and for the fire. He always knows the best way for us to travel and leads us in ways that teach us to 'come' unto Him.
Even in
the desert a table is spread
and we are invited to come on in to sup and dine with Him - in His
presence
there is fullness of joy. End of Exodus. Exodus ch 7-12 worse and worse judgments.. not touching God's own. God wants to preserve His Own! thus, my authority is not based on my ability - its the power of government I represent ...I am an AMBASSADOR to Heaven's government. As that government is allowed to lead all the authority behind it are behind me. ***Persecution is NOT JUDGMENT FROM GOD!
Art and Writing by POWildy
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2010
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