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Our Tent of Meeting
While we have never met Francis Frangipane, his writings have mentored us in profound ways. Mike in particular has been significantly impacted by his books, which reflect an author for whom Christlikeness is a singular goal. This is a selection from his book, Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God. We include it for several reasons. This is without doubt a “kairos” time for us all to seek God. The world around us is anything but routine, and God is raising up a remnant that will not just survive, but thrive as they advance the Kingdom of Light against the encroaching Darkness.
The selection also resonates with us in that our home here in the Idaho mountains has become a sort of Tent of Meeting for us. As you will read below, Moses pitched the Tent of Meeting “a good distance from the camp” of the Israelite nation. God pitched our tent, so to speak, a good distance from the “camp” of comfort, familiarity, and friends in Oregon, and even a shorter but not insignificant distance from our current ministry focus in the Sun Valley area of Idaho. While at times it has been a quite challenging adjustment, we believe God knew what He was doing.
May we all “choose to leave the camp of familiarity – whatever that may be for each of us - and place our tent in the presence of God.”
The Tent of Meeting
"When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face, O Lord, I shall seek'" (Ps. 27:8).
There are certain times when the Lord calls us out of the routine of our daily lives. These are special seasons where His only command is "Seek My face." He has something precious and vitally important to give us that the familiar pattern of our daily devotions cannot accommodate. During such times people are often delivered of sins that have plagued them for years; others discover a depth in their walk with God that leads to greater effectiveness in ministry and prayer; still others experience breakthroughs in their families and are used by God to see loved ones brought into the kingdom.
Yet here we are not seeking God for things or even for other people. We are seeking God for Himself. Maturity starts as we break the cycle of seeking God only during hardship; holiness begins the moment we seek God for Himself. A touch from God is wonderful, but we are in pursuit of more than just an experience, more than "goose bumps and tears." We are seeking to abide with Christ, where we are continually aware of His fullness within us, where His presence dwells in us in glory.
How do we enter this sacred place? If we study the life of Moses, we will see how he sought God and lived in fellowship with Him.
"Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp" (Exod. 33:7).
Notice that "everyone who sought the Lord would go out.” If we are going to truly seek the Lord, we must pitch our tent "a good distance from the camp." What camp is this? For Moses, as well as for us, it is the camp of familiarity.
Is there anything inherently wrong or sinful with the things that are familiar? No, not in themselves, but you will remember that when Jesus told His disciples to follow Him, He called them to leave the familiar pattern of their lives for extended periods and be alone with Him (Matt. 19:27; Luke 14:33). He knew that people, by nature, are unconsciously governed by the familiar. If Christ would expand us to reach for the eternal, He must rescue us from the limitations of the temporal.
This is not to say we neglect our families or that we become irresponsible as we seek God. No. God has given everyone enough time to seek Him. The time is there. Having done what love would have us do for our families, we simply say no to every other voice but God’s. We must redeem the time: cancel hobbies, forsake television, and put away the newspaper and magazines. Those who would find God, find time.
Sadly, many Christians have no higher goal, no greater aspiration, than to become "normal." Their desires are limited to measuring up to others. Without a true vision of God, we most certainly will perish spiritually! Paul rebuked the church at Corinth because they walked "like mere men" (1 Cor. 3:3). God has more for us than merely becoming better people; He wants to flood our lives with the same power that raised Christ from the dead. We must understand: God does not merely want us "normal"; He wants us Christlike.
For the Holy Spirit to facilitate God’s purposes in our lives, He must redefine our priorities in life. Christlikeness must become our singular goal.
For most people, however, our sense of reality, and hence our security, is often rooted in the familiar. How difficult it is to grow spiritually if our security is based upon the stability of outward things! Our security must come from God, not circumstances or other personal relationships. When it is, the other areas of our lives experience eternal security.
Yet our fears run deep and are numerous. Indeed, most of us pass through life umbilically tied to the world of the familiar. Even people who have been delivered from adverse situations are often drawn back into hardship. Why? Because adversity is more familiar to them.
Humans are cocooned in the familiar and thus insulated against change. When we work all day only to come home, watch television, then collapse in bed, our lifestyle tethers us to earthly things. These things may not necessarily trap us in sin as much as they keep us from God.
Moses would leave what was familiar and pitch his tent "outside the camp," where he would then seek the Lord.
"Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come" (Heb. 13:12-14).
In the same way that Moses and those who sought the Lord went outside the camp, and as Jesus went outside the camp, so also must we, at times, leave the camp of what seems normal and predictable and begin to seek after God. Here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city that is to come.
This is one reason why Jesus said, "When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray" (Matt. 6:6). Christ desires us to leave the familiar, distracting world of our senses and abide in the world of our hearts, bearing in mind that the highest goal of prayer is to find God.
Every minute you seek God is a minute enriched with new life and new power from God. Give yourself a minimum amount of time -- an hour or two each day -- but do not set a limit, as the Lord may draw you to seek Him on into the night. And continue day by day, and week by week, until you have drawn near enough to God that you can hear His voice, becoming confident that He is close enough to you to hear your whisper.
If we are going to become holy, we must sever the chains and restraints -- the bondage of desiring just an average life. We will choose to leave the camp of familiarity and place our tent in the presence of God.
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Comments
Thank you Mike and Terri for reminding me of the ministry of the Holy Spirit I experienced when I was intorduced to the writings/wisdom of Francis Frangipane.
He has become a good friend and his words continue to pierce the fog swirling aroound the Church.
May sondance be God-blessed!