Revelation 21:3 “…Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” A tabernacle is a tent, a temporary, movable structure. We could feel more comfortable with a more solid and secure building, but God is always moving us on, moving us forward to new pastures in Him. There comes a time when the Lord requires us to spiritually pull up the tent pegs, fold up the canvas and move up to “higher ground.” The Lord wants us to live in that place where we can move under the direction of the Holy Spirit and totally trust Him.
Genesis 12 records the event of Abraham, aged 75 years, acting in obedience to a proceeding word and promise from the mouth of God, leaving his father’s house, his kindred and his country to move to a land of God’s choosing that Abraham had no knowledge of. By today’s standards he would probably be judged as being mentally challenged and irresponsible!……but God had a wonderful plan for him and through his obedience, Abraham left to begin his journey, he made many mistakes along the way but he was not God’s mistake! God was with him, teaching Abraham, through his failures, life’s lessons, just as He does us! There were times when he tried to “help God out” to fulfill His promise to him, he listened to wrong counsel and produced Ishmael through his failure, but God was faithful and fulfilled his promises to him at the appointed time. God’s timing is immaculate, He has “set times” of divine appointments in our lives and our waiting times are required of God to build His character into our lives. There is no waste in the economy of God.
Nevertheless, in the beginning, Abraham left all the familiar structures and comfort of his homeland and moved out in obedience.
IN OBEDIENCE THERE IS DIRECTION, AND IN DIRECTION THERE IS CORRECTION. The life of Abraham is a wonderful example of this.
We cling to our comfort zones of form and structure and can become dependent on them, but these are false securities. God is not against us enjoying the many blessings sent from His hand to our lives, but He does not want us to trust in them so that they become false securities to us. God wants to remove all our false securities, even of wrong believing. When God begins to shake the false structures of our lives we can experience feelings of being very vulnerable, which is related to fear of the unknown. The Lord wants to take us to a place where we let go of what we have known and allow Him to teach us to be totally confident in Him and His care of us……GOD LOVES ME!
Human nature seeks security, security comes from strength but we often look for it in the wrong places. Our true identity is found in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is working in us to remove our false securities and false strengths. Hebrews 12:25 “See that you do not refuse Him that speaks…” Verse 26, “…but now has He promised saying, Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. 27 And this word, “Yet once more,” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28: Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”
God is shaking everything that can be shaken so that only what remains is the character of God. Our only security is to be “in” the Shaker where, and in Who, we trust and are safe. The ways of God, the character of God, the life of God – the Indwelling Christ is my only true sanctuary. The Shaker cannot be shaken!
Amen! Thank you.