#16 Tabernacle: The Mystery Of The Lampstand

Topic: More problems of the Second Veil

Since the Mystery of the Lampstand is preceded by the entrance through the Second Veil we will combine parts of these two studies since they are intricately related. The division of “light” between the Outer Court and the Holy Place is at the Second Veil. Several of our past studies have focused upon the profound difference between natural light of the Outer Court and the pure Spiritual Light of the Holy Place. This study will deal with the transition that I believe is just ahead for the “prototype church” in this next restoration.

REV1:20] “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

This great mystery is in two parts. First the mystery of the seven stars which are the angels or messengers to the seven churches AND second the mystery of the seven golden Lampstands which are the seven churches in Asia. Still, the whole mystery concerns the seven golden Lampstands in these two dimensions, (1) the churches and (2) the messengers.

The Lampstand in the Tabernacle of Moses has been an enigma for me for many years. Certain facts are given but not a clear, rational explanation is given that explain the facts. For example the Lampstand was “pure gold” and hammered out of one piece and had a variety of “decorations” that were one piece with it. Many logical explanations have been given that leaves us cold and unsatisfied. For example; The Lampstand is Jesus who is the light of the world! The fact is the Lampstand was never exposed to the world and was covered over completely when it was moved and even the Levites could not view the Lampstand or approach it until it was covered.

We have determined that since only the “Lamps” that sit upon the Lampstand provide the illumination for the Holy Place nothing here can be understood by intellectual capacity or by human logic. The seven flames of fire are defined as the seven Spirits of God which shows us only spiritual revelation will allow us true understanding in this next dimension. Therefore, this “mystery” is hidden to those of us who rely upon our own intellectual capacity to understand spiritual things.

Our previous explanation of “pure gold” for example has been limited to an abstract quality which we have called “Divinity.” Since the Lampstand has no wood within it’s structure we have concluded that the “real church which He is building and is His body” is made up only of Christ. The substance of the “true church” is only “Divinity” and not Divinity plus humanity. That means “pure gold.”

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to peal back one more layer of the veil that separates the Outer Court and the Holy Place. We will attempt to reveal part of this mystery of the Second Veil by defining this abstract term of “Divinity.”

We are using the term “Divinity” to speak of the substance, the character, the person and the qualities of God, Himself. However, the term “Divinity” still does not define Who God Is. Even though we may know the word “Divinity” we may still not know Him who IS Divinity. The Bible uses several terms to more clearly define “Who God Is.” For example we know that “God Is Love” which is the substance of His Person. He is also Life. God is Light. God is Good. God is Truth. God is Spirit. All these terms speak of Who God Is, His eternal being.

A multitude of scriptures speak of what God does but they do not tell us Who God Is. EXO 34:6] Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; [7] who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Here is a list of terms that explain a few attributes of God but knowing these is different than “knowing Him.” Since “God is” Love, Life, Truth, Good, Light and Spirit all these attributes are each linked to the other. They are all part of the same person. For example there can be no life if there is no Love for God is both of these. There is no Light where there is no Love. Truth depends upon Love etc. Can we really know “Good” outside of Love. Really the end of all things is summed up in “Love.” If we excel in Love we have overcome.

One of the scandals of the visible church over the centuries has been the fragmentation into different groups by denominational positions, doctrinal positions, forms, traditions, customs, dress, and outward ordinances. The question that has been presented by many has to do with the prayer of Jesus in John 17 and whether it can be answered in this life or if He just prayed that for eternity.

JOHN 17:21] that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. [22] “And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;

JOHN 17:23] I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.

This “final” perfection of the “Lampstand church” is a perfection in UNITY or in “one piece” hammered out of pure gold.

LUKE 6:35] “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. [36] “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

To be classified with the sons of God requires that we Agape our enemies which includes that we be kind to ungrateful and evil men. Obviously we can’t rejoice because we have passed this test.

JOHN 13:34] “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. [35] “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Evangelism takes on another dimension when those “in the church” begin to Agape one another. The one piece Lampstand of pure gold [divinity] can only be hammered into one piece when we are manifesting Agape.

There are so many of these scriptures dealing with Love [Agape] we can’t use them all. Still we have to define what the Bible means by “Love which IS God!” We use the term “love”so freely and loosely that it has lost most of it’s meaning in modern life. Therefore, I will use the Greek term “Agape” to speak of Who God Is. God IS Agape! The basis of “knowing God” is by knowing “Agape.” However, God is also Truth and to know “Truth” is to know God but this is still in another dimension separate from knowing doctrines. It is “knowing Him who is Truth.” It is this “Truth” will set us free while “doctrines” many times brings more bondage and more division.

The point I’m trying to make is that the pure Gold Lampstand is in another dimension separate from the logic and human understanding of the Outer Court. It can never be known or experienced in the realms of human intellect. Most people that have spiritual understanding are frustrated with the “visible church” because what man sees is not what God sees. What we “see” as the visible church has very little to do with the pure gold Lampstand which is Christ manifested in His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all!

John 14:6] Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. The application I am making is to these three veils. The second veil being “Truth”, the Truth that He, Himself is. [Most Christian will agree that the first veil represents Jesus the Way.]

I want to use the term “conceptual truth” to speak of the Outer Court dimension of intellectual understanding and system of doctrines. Conceptual truth may or may not be “eternal truth.” Our concepts of what we think “truth” is may be full of half truths and even errors. It may have a certain amount of human deception connected to it. For this reason conceptual truth can never build or represent the Lampstand church which is made of pure gold. We can never be sure if our “Truth” is really absolute and exact because it has been influenced by our culture, tradition, religious thought and sources other than God’s Eternal Truth. Most of the division within the church is based upon conceptual truth. Since everybody has developed some form of conceptual truth how will the church ever be able to come into this unity that Jesus prayed for in John 17?

God has a predominate attribute that bridges the gap between conceptual truth and His Eternal Truth that is to be experienced by His church. That quality is “Agape” that passes understanding.

Eph 3:16] that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in [Agape]love, [18] may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, [19] and to know the love [Agape]of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

1 COR 13:4] [Agape] Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, [5] does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, [6] does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; [7] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

When conceptual truth fails and causes division the adhesive factor that keeps everything from falling apart is Agape. If it does fall apart the problem is not “the abundance of conceptual truth that we have accumulated” but the problem is the lack of Agape that manifests and demonstrates a higher truth. Some truth divides because it is not eternal but just temporal. This “truth” will pass away but Agape (Love) remains.

1 COR 13:12--------now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. [13] But now abide (remains) faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I know in part speaks of “conceptual knowledge” that is only partial. If we think we know it all we are thinking too highly of ourselves. Pride and arrogance manifest in conceptual knowledge which puffs up but seldom builds up.

Trying to unite the body of believers through conceptual truth is fruitless because too much opinion is involved. The same thing is true of experiences and ministries or projects. Projects may unite for a short time while everyone is busy but when the project ends the unity ends.

What then is the “quality” that will unite “the body of believers” into “the body of Christ?” Agape! What about prophesy, gifts, power, ministry, tongues, baptism, end time doctrines or giving our possessions to feed the poor? All these are destined to pass away in time but Agape is eternal! If God is measuring everything by our measure of Agape how do we begin?

2 PET 1 explains that after all the things are added to our life the last quality to add is Agape. Those who try to begin with Agape will soon be discouraged. We showed how Agape and Truth are related and both have their source in God and are God. If we really excel in Truth we will excel in Agape because one without the other is not Christian.

The Veil of Truth speaks of who Christ IS and not just about what He does. He IS Truth but He IS also Agape and He is Life. To make the transition through the Veil of Truth into the golden light of the Lampstand requires that nearly every area of our life and person and being must be radically transformed and then adjusted to this new dimension. It appears that we must “develop” into the Holy Place Life and ministry and not just step across the threshold of the second veil unchanged.

As an example; The basis, the essence and substance of Truth is Agape. If we preach “truth” outside of Agape we will surely undermine the very truth we are preaching. Since conceptual truth can hold so much error and deception, the “eternal truth” is held captive unless there is the balancing factor of Agape. Agape “covers” the lack of experiential truth.

Conceptual truth can never unite the body of believers into the Body of Christ which is identified as the possessor of Agape. The “bride” without Agape is a fantasy. Conceptual truth contains bias, tradition, culture, opinions, prejudice, self-interest, even self-centeredness and personal ambition. For that reason scholarship alone can never discover the ultimate or absolute Truth because it is affected by it’s own will and way! Therefore, to make conceptual truth the basis of church or the basis of who we will accept into fellowship is gross error and prevent us from beginning. Once error is birthed it can only grow into gross error as we see in many cults.

God’s viewpoint is eternal and he judges and evaluates according to what is eternal and what is temporal. Much of the “popular church activities” are temporal while Agape is eternal. This obviously is the goal of the Christian Life and the quality we can carry with us when we pass out of this life. The Word is very bold to say “the greatest of these is Agape.” Too much of what we call “the visible church” is just a counterfeit, masquerading as reality. This is not a matter of placing blame or of being critical but of understanding what is eternal reality and what only relates to time.

For that reason the Bible presents Agape as first and foremost above all the other qualities and attributes we strive to possess. Agape is the motivating factor that established the creation in the first place. God was seeking an object of His affection and children that would respond to Him in Agape. This Agape then is to be extended to all the children born of God. His motivation for Calvary was Agape. God so Loved that He gave!

Seeing all this we must re-evaluate our labor for God to see if the result is eternally productive or just temporal. At this point it seems that uniting a body of believers into the Body of Christ will be the greatest of all miracles. This will even eclipse the Red Sea parting and the water out of the rock.

1 JOHN 2:] On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the “true light” [Lampstand ?] is already shining. [9] The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. [10] The one who loves his brother abides in the light [Lampstand ?] and there is no cause for stumbling in him. [11] But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

According to this verse there are two options. We either love our brother or we hate our brother. We probably think that even though we don’t love our brother at least we don’t hate him. That means there must be a third option where we don’t really like a person but we don’t dislike him enough to be classified as hate. However, from God’s viewpoint if we don’t Agape our brother then we must hate him.

1 JOHN 3:14] We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. [15] Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. [16] We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

These are powerful verses that we read over and assume this is not speaking of us. We reverse the order by saying “since I have passed out of death into life” that means I love the brethren. According to this verse after we love the brethren we know we have passed out of death into life. Agape is the witness that we have passed over into the eternal realms.

1JOHN 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. [8] The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

According to this verse we have no real assurance that we are born of God until we manifest Agape for one another. 1 JOHN 4:19] We love, because He first loved us. [20] If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. [21] And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Agape is the evidence that we are really part of “His church”, the one He is building! Not only will the lack of love disqualify us from being part of that church but it even disqualifies us from being believers. Without Agape we have no assurance we are born of God or know God.

If the Lampstand is a picture of the real functioning church that means that Agape is an integral part of the Lampstand. The pure gold Lampstand hammered out of one piece of Gold reveals that “Divinity” is more clearly defined as “Agape.” We might say that “Divinity” IS “Agape.” The fire of God then is designed to produce pure Agape. The dross then might refer to all the human affection that is so fleeting and temporal and superficial. That which is temporal must be consumed by that which is eternal.

Without experiencing the Truth [which IS Christ] the veil between the Outer Court and the Holy Place is a great mystery to us. Not because God is not willing to reveal Truth but that revealing Truth to the proud and arrogant would add to their “conceptual knowledge” and just puff up more.

The consecration offering then begins the process of consuming the dross of human qualities and human affection in order to develop the eternal quality that is God, Himself [Agape]. If the church is to be “the fulness of Him that fills all in all” it can only mean that something must first be emptied before it can be filled with Him. If the church is filled with Him it can only mean filled with Agape and the qualities that are God, Himself. At that time Revelation Truth is no problem because it is established in Agape.

One of the Seven Spirits of God seen as one of the seven flames of fire on the Lampstand is the Spirit of Judgement and the Spirit of Burning. Some feel this manifestation of the Holy Spirit will not be seen until the Tribulation when Jesus returns. However, I believe there must be a partial manifestation of the Spirit of Judgement and the Spirit of Burning now “in the body of believers” to prepare them to be the “body of Christ.” That is “Judgement” upon these carnal and temporal qualities and “Burning” to remove the dross from the gold for the Lampstand. The Spirit of Judgement and the Spirit of Burning is a friend to all who are walking in the light that they have.

David Wilkerson and others are prophesying that the Spirit of Judgement is coming upon the church in America. If my interpretation is correct that will be a good thing and signal the transition has begin.

Once we have the revelation that the Gold is Divinity and that Divinity is Agape we will welcome the fire to burn away the superficial and the counterfeit and to remove people who are masquerading as believers. This is a great blessing because the fire will reveal the quality of our experience in Christ and prove if we have Agape or just a desire to be “saved.”

1 COR 3:12] Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, [13] each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. [14] If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. [15] If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.

It is not IF the fire comes but WHEN the fire comes. It is clear that the “Fire” must test each man’s work to see what kind of work it really is. This is a great blessing because we don’t have to wait for the judgement seat to discover if our work was acceptable or not. If “agape” is the measure of our work and our life then we may all be in trouble. To come up with the lame excuse “But I am saved” is already shot down by several verses in 1 John.

We may discover that is obedience to the revelation that we have that enables the Holy Spirit to give us more revelation and greater light as we walk in the light that we have.