Coming into God’s Light and Walking in it to have God as Light Shining in our Meeting

The service of the priests was to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people, to take care of the tabernacle with all its furnishings, to light the lamps in the Holy Place, and to burn the incense. Many Bible commentaries on the matter of lighting the lamps tell us that we need to be enlightened by the Lord, but we need to get into the details and depth of this matter, and we need to see how this applies to our Christian life and church life.

We should not remain only in the realm of understanding the meaning of these types but enter into the experience of lighting the lamps. Teachings have no effect for us in life except filling our mind with concepts, but having a prayerful attitude as we get into the depths of this matter will cause us to spontaneously function as priests in an experiential way as we get together as the church.

God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all; if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with God and with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from any sin (see 1 John 1:6-9).

As believers in Christ we are priests to God and our daily walk should be habitually in the light; for this, we need to spend time in the presence of the Lord. Our focus as priests is not “working for God” or “carrying out God’s work” but spending time with God to be filled with God and have God shine on us until He can shine through us.

In the Gospel of Mark, a gospel showing us the Slave-Savior laboring for God and accomplishing God’s purpose, we see how the Lord Jesus spent much secret time with the Father even before the sun rose up, or spending the whole night on the mountain with God.

As priests to God we need to come to Him again and again and spend time with Him in a solid way, allowing Him to shine on us and confessing anything that He exposes; then, we will be children of light in reality, we will walk in the light, and our meeting with other believers will be the lighting of the lamps in the Holy Place.

May the Lord save us from manufacturing our own light or using any natural light, and may we come to the Lord, be shined on by the divine light, maintain the fellowship with the Lord to walk in the light, and light the lamps in the meetings of the church!

Coming into God’s Light and Walking in it to have God as Light Shining in our Meeting

The light in the Holy Place in the tabernacle is not a natural light (like the sun or the moon) nor an artificial light (brought in by a man) but a divine light, a holy light, which is the real light, God Himself (John 1:9; 1 John 1:5).

The light in our meetings with the fellow believers should not be any man-made light manufactured by us according to our education or spiritual opinions, neither should it be any natural light brought in by man’s natural cleverness or understanding, but a divine light, God Himself as light shining in the saints.

Today’s Christians are divided by many kinds of “light” – natural light and artificial light – but we need to come back to the word of God to be enlightened by the Lord and be controlled by the unique, genuine, and highest light: God Himself.

The opening of the word of God gives light (Psa. 119:130), and as we get into the word day by day, we will see the light and be in the light, which light is God Himself through His word.

If we exercise our natural ability to “light the lamps” in the meetings, there will be murmurings and reasonings (Phil. 2:14-15), but if we exercise our spirit to daily walk and live under the divine, redeeming, and shining light through the word of God, God will have a way to shine through us and the saints will be edified, enlightened, and built up.

The church life is a miniature of the New Jerusalem, where there’s no sun nor moon nor any man-made light, but God is the light shining in the Lamb as the lamp, and the entire city is a “diffuser” to spread God as light to the universe (Rev. 21:23). Apart from God in Christ, the redeeming shining God, there is no light in the church life; but when God in Christ shines on us and in us, the whole church life is filled with light and God’s glory can be seen among us.

When we come to the light, live in the light, walk in the light, and gather together with the saints, we will clearly see the “furnitures in the Holy Place”, that is, we will appreciate the different aspects of Christ as the show bread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar.

When the light shines in the meetings of the church we have a proper vision of Christ as our life supply (the show-bread table), we see the expression of God in Christ through the church (the lampstand), we see the need to pray one with God at the incense altar, and we see the way which leads into the Holy of Holies.

When the light shines in the meeting, we have the view and the expectation of entering into the depths of Christ within God (Exo. 25:23, 31; 30:1). The purpose of the gathering of the believers is to have the sanctuary of God with the lighting of the lamps by qualified priests so that we may see the different aspects of Christ (signified by the items of furniture in the Holy Place) and see the way leading into the Holy of Holies (the depths of Christ within God).

Lord Jesus, may Your word be open to us as we prayerfully read the Bible so that we may have the divine light. Save us from manufacturing our own light, walking in a natural light, or seeking artificial light. Oh Lord, we want the divine light, the holy light, the real light which is God Himself! We come to You to spend time with You and be shined on by You until any impurities are eliminated and we become children of light, light bearers, holy priests lighting the holy lamps in the holy place, the meetings of the church!

Living and Walking under the Divine Light by having a Time with the Lord to Confess

How can we differentiate between artificial light, natural light, and the light of God? How can we be Christians who walk in the light so that we may be qualified to bring in God’s light in the meetings, the Holy Place? For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to live and walk under the unique and genuine light, the light of the redeeming and shining God (see Rev. 21:23; 1 John 1:5, 7; Eph. 5:8-9).

We need to spend time with the Lord and resist the urge to shorten this time. We cannot have a “shortcut time with God”; we need to spend much time in the Lord’s presence and allow Him to shine on us. In our fellowship and conversation with God we need to confess our sins and anything that He exposes in His light.

A lot of the Lord’s shining comes in the form of confession. We should not think that confessing is not profitable (since it doesn’t bring in anything), healthy (since it can bring us into introspection) or outright not comfortable….we should just open to the Lord concerning all things and allow His light to shine on us, making a detailed confession of our personal life to Him.

In our time with the Lord we may realize that we don’t have a proper fear of the Lord, we do not closely follow the inner feeling but rather many times ignore the Lord’s feeling within, we give into passions and lusts, and many times we act presumptuously. As we spend time with the Lord face to face, we will realize how much we need the Lord’s salvation; we need the Lord to deliver us from our shortcomings, failures, and corruption.

We will be exposed that we did not live before the Lord often enough, we did not draw closer to Him enough, we didn’t wait on Him when doing things, we didn’t enter into His presence at set times to read His word and fellowship with Him, and we didn’t trust Him or seek His word and fellowship in all things.

In our personal time with the Lord as we open to Him we’re enlightened, exposed, and shined on to realize that we many times lose our temper at people, we are harsh on their mistakes while being lenient on ours, we did not allow the Lord to speak to us or teach us enough, and our spiritual condition is too poor. We will realize that our work for God must be matched by much prayer, and we need much perfecting from the Lord for us to follow His feeling and live one spirit with Him.

Such realizations in our conversation with the Lord lead us to repent, confess, humble ourselves before God, and submit ourselves to the mighty hand of God so that He would enlighten us, fill our whole being with light, and qualify us to be those who light the lamps in the meetings of the church, the Holy Place.

When we have a detailed confession before the Lord and allow Him to shine on us, we will be in His light and walk in light, and when we meet with other believers, we will let Christ shine through us.

Our daily living as a priest to God qualifies us to be priests functioning in the meeting to light the lamps, and this light will come out of the embodiment of the Triune God (the lampstand), the divine nature (the gold), Christ’s humanity (the wicks), and the Spirit of Christ that saturates us as the divine oil.

To experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the church meetings we all must have Christ as our everything, live according to the divine nature, enjoy and live out the uplifted humanity of Christ, be filled with the Spirit of Christ as the oil, and be clothed with the expression of Christ as our holy garments. All these come from our confessing before the Lord to be living and walking under the light of God.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. We confess that we have not lived before the Lord enough, we did not wait on Him long enough, and we have not closely followed the inner feeling but rather often ignored it. Lord, draw us more to Yourself to spend time with You and be shined on by You so that we may confess all our shortcomings, failures, and sins. We want to be those who live and walk in the light so that we may be qualified to light the lamps in the holy place. Lord, may we all see the many aspects of Christ and aspire to get into the depths of Christ within God to experience God in the Holy of Holies!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1, “The Priesthood,” ch. 16, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 4 / msg 4, Lighting the Lamps and Burning the Incense.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # No natural light, but just the lamp / Within the holy place gives sight; / Whene’er the priest the incense burns, / The lamp he too must light. (Hymns #791)
  # Lord, may Thy blood now cleanse me, / Wash all my sins away, / That with Thy Holy Spirit / Thou may anoint, I pray. / My service, I confess, Lord, / Is failure-full and weak; / The filling of Thy Spirit / To live for Thee I seek. / Oh, from myself deliver, / From all its misery; / I’d henceforth be forever / Completely filled with Thee. (Hymns #280)
  # When I within the darkness dwell, / My shallow state I cannot tell, / I only think how I excel, / And proudly dream. / But when at last I come to Thee, / Thy searching light uncovers me, / I see what I could never see – / My self exposed. / I wither ‘neath Thy piercing ray, / And all my strength dissolves away, / My self-esteem in dust I lay, / And lowly bow. (Hymns #430)