*Dear ministry friends, the following is a guest article from a dear friend and a fellow member of CMFI, Pastor Richard Flint from Lancashire, UK. I hope you will be blessed, as I was, in reading about the importance of carrying the Presence. You can find a link to Richard’s ministry website at the end of his article. Every blessing, Howard
Carrying the Presence
The Lord has been teaching me a valuable lesson over the last ten years or so. Following Jesus is a journey in which, if only we would realize it, he wants to teach us how to carry His Presence. And this, daily. Notice I am not saying anointing here. This is relational. The anointing, when properly understood, will follow as we follow. My spiritual education over this time has been within the sanctuary of the prayer closet—time here spent with Father God, in the Word, and in the Spirit.
Moreover, and this will form the crux of what I believe would have me share with you today, there is a second sanctuary in our spiritual lives as we do the hard yards in his footsteps, walking with Father through the issues of our lives, the body of Christ. What he has shown me is how vital it is that we have a fresh revelation of our responsibility and our joy to actively carry the Presence, His presence, in us, into the heart of the gathering of his people, his body, in whatever form that might take. This is so that Him in us is available to minister to our brothers and sisters, just as He in them can also minister to you and me. Colossians 3:14-16
If truly understood and practiced, this simple idea of the two sanctuaries and a Presence that requires carrying with care can potentially bear spiritual fruit in both the life of an individual, as it has so often with me, and in the life of the body as well. So how did I get here?
Over a decade ago, I woke one morning with the phrase ‘the tabernacle of David’ in my head. With interest piqued, I knew I had heard the voice of the Lord here. And as I began to explore the scriptural background to this phrase, I noticed right away some remarkable things about ‘the tabernacle of David’.
We have the initial physical shelter built by King David himself in the heart of his new capital at the beginning of his reign, more of this below. However, in scripture, the phrase ‘the Tabernacle of David’ features three times. And significantly, each of these describes its operating within three different spiritual ages. Prophetically, the tabernacle of David is the structure from which the Lord will execute judgment in the millennial kingdom, Isaiah 16:5. In Amos 9:11-12, we find it described within an end-times context.
Most significantly for us today is the last citation of this particular phrase within scripture. In Acts 15, as the apostles have gathered together in Jerusalem to consider how to respond to the expansion of the embryonic church within the Gentile world of the first century through the ministry of the Holy Spirit within Paul and Barnabas, the apostle James stands and makes a telling intervention. He says with God-given authority, I tell you what this is, this is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Amos 15:16-17.
I found this remarkable. The tabernacle of David is described here as also being prophetically fulfilled two thousand years ago. Fulfilled in the church, spreading like wildfire through the Roman Empire. The church was finding expression within this first century of Godless pagan culture. The church that was impacting the world beyond the people for whom the Lord came, his own people, the Jews. This church is described here, by definition, as the tabernacle of David by the words of the Lord’s own brother.
Moreover, two thousand years on, what about us today? If we look again at the original prophecy in Amos, how does it begin? In the last days. That is us, isn’t it? Is there, therefore, a further fulfillment of this prophecy for our time? My next step was to turn to the actual passage within which the tabernacle of David was instituted under the king, and again I was amazed at what the Lord showed me. It is all about carrying the presence. 2 Samuel 6:1-19.
This passage, these nineteen verses, became for me a veritable wellspring of revelation and delight in the Lord. They tell of the newly anointed king moving the Ark of the Covenant from Gibeah, where it had been in storage since its return from the Philistines under the previous wearer of the crown of Israel, King Saul. From the king in the flesh to the king in the Spirit.
At this point, we do need to understand that the Ark of the Covenant carried the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, a golden pot containing manna, and Aaron’s almond rod that budded, but for David and the children of Israel, it carried the very Presence of the Lord God. Indeed, as it is described in this passage, ‘…the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the LORD of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubim.’ For David, this was all about placing the Presence of the Lord God physically at the heart of the nation, and to do this, it needed to be in the heart of His new capital, Jerusalem.
For me, as I read this narrative, I became aware that this also speaks directly to us today, and the Lord brought out for me a revelation that has eventually filled four books. In brief, the first part of the passage, the journey, can be understood as our journey. Our journey of faith as we strike out on the road, as we move on from the cross of Jesus Christ, and endeavor to follow in our Lord’s footsteps. There will be bumps along the way, and at these times, things will need to change. Father loves us too much to let us stay the same. He desires to form in each of us more of the nature He shares with His Son, and this within our hearts. So that the journey, our journey is a journey of heart transformation. And as such, there will be things that do need to change and even die.
We all come to the Lord with often well-entrenched drivers in our lives, what I saw as I explored the Hebrew meaning of the names of the three ox cart drivers mentioned in the narrative, Abinadab, Ahio, and the fated Uzzah drivers of a very different order. What was expressed within their names was the three important psychological drivers that impact all our lives. In translation, their names mean the following: Abinadab – the father is willing, Ahio – brotherly, and Uzzah – strength.
What I saw was that when distorted, these drivers can represent in each of us religion, fear of man, and self-sufficiency. To truly follow Jesus, our drivers, drivers such as these, do need sorting, and in Christ, this is the way of the cross, and it means that, like poor Uzzah, at times we have to die to ourselves in these profound areas of our heartfelt motivation, Romans 8:13-14.
Why? So that we can carry the Presence, His Presence, in the heart of our lives. To carry it not on any brand new shiny worldly cart, look at 1 Samuel 6, to see where the idea of the ox cart came from originally. No, the Presence was always to be carried on the shoulders of his people, specifically chosen for the task (see Numbers 4). This was the essential lesson that King David had to learn here (see 1 Chronicles 15): it is all about walking in obedience to the Lord and to his word. This is surely also the essential lesson for us as well, as we learn to carry His Presence in our hearts through the issues of our own lives.
There is so much more that could be said here, such as how this passage also carries a prophetic message for the church in our own times with regards to the cult of worship in our day and the significance of where the Presence was moved to following the breach, the Household of Obededom. However, we do need to move on to focus on the second half of the passage and what it says to us about the tabernacle of David and how this also speaks to us today concerning what perhaps needs to change concerning what happens when we gather together in His name.
The reason we have taken some time to focus upon the first part of this passage of scripture is to establish and to understand the importance of the essential symbolism here of the carried Presence. We are now the vessel within which the Lord God dwells. This is through the salvation work of the cross of Jesus Christ that has been wrought in each of our hearts. We now carry Him by His Spirit and through the Father. I believe that we so need to be more aware and spiritually alive to this wonderful reality. This applies to our 24/7daily reality, and what we are going on to see is that this certainly applies to our presence within the church reality as well, 2 Samuel 6:17.
This speaks to us directly, and it tells us that when we do gather together in Christ, we need to understand that we are bringing the Presence, where we go, He goes! When I have taught on this, I have stood at the door and handed out eggs to everyone as they come in, and have then asked them to hold on to the egg throughout the session. I didn’t need to ask them what they had been very conscious of in the session, and surprisingly, it wasn’t my no doubt erudite and inspiring teaching. No, it was the egg. How much more…perhaps you can finish this thought. We carry something more precious, and at the same time far more fragile, in our hearts. How conscious are we of this, particularly when we enter church and meet with His people?
We also need to realize that within the gathering, Jesus has a place, His place, just for the Presence, His presence, in us, as he does for the Presence that is in each of everyone who is gathered with us, if they are in Christ. This is because when we do gather together, the king, our King Jesus, desires to hand out gifts to each one of us. The gifts are threefold, as we see in 2 Samuel 6:19.
We do need to understand that when we gather in the body in Christ, this is the Lord’s opportunity to do spiritual business with his people. This, the church, should be a scary yet amazingly exciting place to be. We need to discover perhaps a much higher faith-filled expectation for the gathered body of Christ than perhaps we have at present. The enemy has done its best to discredit things of the Spirit over recent decades, but I believe the pendulum, if you will, is swinging back. This time, however, it is not just about the charisma. The charisma will come when we are seeking the character, the character of Jesus in our hearts, which is His Presence-given, formed, and refined! This is the 24/7 journey, following Jesus, and learning how to carry the Presence.
This is why, moving forward, when we meet together, we’ll need the three gifts:
Cake of bread – The bread is the foodstuff common to all humanity, see Genesis 3:19, and as such it is the gift, the spiritual carb that is shared person to person. Shared in love out of a heart of love for our brothers and sisters. A gift that takes us to the list of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. As we gather, we might have needs that need to be met, we might be the vessel through which these needs can be met, or we might be a bit of both. This speaks of an active expression of agape love one to another, each of us being fed or being the vessel through which the food is passed.
A good piece of flesh – This reminds me of the words of the writer to the Hebrews, where in chapter 5 he likens the taught word of righteousness to strong meat. Spiritual protein that feeds the gathering. This is the sent word, the word of the Lord that will achieve that for which He has sent it. We are not only talking about a programmed taught word, but it can, and perhaps ought to be, a word that comes fresh out of the body. An essential truth, motivation, or even a challenge that might be carried in prophecy, a tongue, or vision, always backed solidly by scripture and comes from the right place, an encouraging, edifying heart of love for our brethren, 1 Corinthians 14:26.
A Flagon of wine – This speaks of a spiritual refill whenever we gather. As we have given out during the time since we last met together, we need time to be built up and refreshed in the Lord. Perhaps there does need to be time for everyone to pray for one another. Our fellowship at these times also needs to be sweet and in the Spirit, Ephesians 5:18-21. So that, when we leave the gathering, we might carry the Presence with renewed vigor sustained by the three gifts we have received, until the next time.
There is so much more that could be said about the spiritual symbolism that I found in this passage, such as concerning the two types of sacrifice, peace and whole burnt offering, found here. Anyway, I hope this has been helpful and has given you an appetite for more. There is always more in Jesus. You can put the egg down now, by the way, but please, keep on carrying the Presence. May He bless his word to you all. -Richard Flint
Connect with Richard and his ministry site: Faith and Creativity