Enjoy the Mingling of Divinity with Humanity as we Come forward to God in Christ

The spiritual interpretation and application of the Ark of the Testimony is deep and profound, for the acacia wood overlaid with God signifies the mingling of divinity with humanity which is strong in character and high in standard, and the lid of the ark signifies Christ as the meeting place of God and His redeemed people.

The Ark in the Holy of Holies signifies Christ as the center of God’s dwelling place, the church, and the contents of the church as the house of God.

The Ark was not the physical center of the Tabernacle when it was erected, but it was the inmost part, the central part of the ark.

The three parts of the tabernacle signify the three parts of our human being, and our advancing in our experience of Christ is signified by our entrance into the Holy of Holies where we can commune with God.

1 Thes. 5:13 says that we have a spirit and a soul and a body.

The human spirit indwelt by the divine Spirit is signified by the Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the tabernacle, the place where God dwells.

Our spirit is indwelt by God as the Spirit, and it is here that God dwells and resides; from our spirit, He wants to spread into our soul.

Our soul is signified by the Holy Place, and our body is signified by the outer court. We need to advance from the outer part, the outer court, through the Holy Place, into the Holy of Holies.

The Ark today is in our spirit, in the Holy of Holies. The Ark is the center and content of the tabernacle; similarly, Christ is the center and content of the church.

We need to take Christ as our life and person, and He needs to become our center and our content in our daily life and in our church life.

Christ is not only our Savior, our food, our drink, and our covering; He is also the Ark, for He as the embodiment of the Triune God has come into us to be our content and center.

Corporately, as the church, we need to not only stand on the unique ground of oneness to fellowship with all the saints in spirit, taking care of the oneness of the Body.

We also need to have Christ as our center and content, so that He is the Ark in the tabernacle, the Christ in the church.

If we don’t have Christ as our center and as our content, we may have meetings and we may call ourselves the local church, but we don’t have the expression of God, the testimony of God, and the presence of God.

The Ark Signifies the Mingling of Divinity with Humanity; we need Christ’s Humanity, Strong in Character and High in Standard

The Ark of the Testimony was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold; this signifies the pneumatic Christ (Christ as the Spirit) as the embodiment of God and as the mingling of divinity with humanity, the building of God with man, dwelling in our spirit for us to contact God and enjoy God (2 Tim. 4:22; 2 Cor. 3:17; Col. 2:9; Heb. 9:4).

Christ is in us right now as the indwelling Ark; He as the testimony of God, the embodiment of God, the expression of God, dwells in our spirit.

In Exo. 25:22 we see that it was on the lid of the Ark that God meets with us; God meets with us in our mingled spirit, in Christ. God meets us only in Christ and on Christ; here He speaks with us and is with us.

Acacia wood signifies Christ’s humanity, strong in character and high in standard, as the basic substance for expressing God (see Exo. 25:10; Matt. 3:16; 4:4; 8:20; 9:12-13; 11:29; 12:19-20; 17:27; 20:28; 27:12, 14; Mark 1:35; 6:39-41; John 6:12; 7:6; cf. Acts 16:7).

Acacia wood doesn’t merely signify humanity but the humanity of Christ, the beautiful, uplifted, high humanity of Christ.

If we read the Gospels we will see how uplifted and strong the humanity of Jesus is.

When He came to John the Baptist to be baptized in Matt. 3:16, John told him to make an exception and have Jesus baptize him, but the Lord didn’t “cut him some slack” but rather, He had to fulfill all righteousness.

When the enemy came in Matt. 4:4 to tempt Him, He kept His position as a man toward the enemy, and He defeated the enemy as a man.

In Matt. 8:20 He said that, though the foxes have holes and the birds of heaven have roosts, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head; He didn’t insist on His comfort and convenience.

The Gospels show us that He was merciful, full of compassion, and lowly in heart. He would not break a bruised reed nor would He quench a smoking flax.

He loved the weak ones and was sensitive toward them; He was flexible, and in His service, He was diligent, orderly, and willing to be restricted by time (John 7:6).

All of this is actually in the Spirit of Jesus for us to be able to appropriate and experience; the Spirit of Jesus is with our spirit, and we can enjoy and experience all He is in spirit.

He is the compound Spirit with all His experience, attainments, and obtainments, and we can eat Him and live because of Him (John 6:57).

When we experience the Spirit of Jesus, His humanity can be lived out in us. The Ark shows that humanity is the basis for God’s expression; God wants to be expressed in humanity.

The lid of the Ark was made of pure gold, but the rest of the Ark was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold.

It wasn’t just the gold but acacia wood supporting and sustaining the gold.

The wood was enveloped and wrapped in gold – it was overlaid with gold on the inside and on the outside.

Humanity is important for God’s testimony. This is why today Satan attacks our humanity.

We are living in an age where the attack on humanity is blatant; especially the humanity of the young people is attacked. The humanity of our young people is Satan’s target today.

There are more mental cases among the young people than ever before. Satan doesn’t care so much for the older generation – he seeks to destroy the young people.

The young people have many kinds of concepts and movements, and the source of all these concepts and movements is Satan.

Satan indoctrinates the mentality of the younger generation with these things; he is subtle, injecting his evil, satanic, devilish concepts and ideas into the young and fresh mentality of the young generation.

Satan aims to damage the human mentality and ruin their humanity; this is why the Bible speaks so much about having a sound mind.

We must be clear that the source of all the damage to mentality among the young people is Satan.

May we learn to drop our concepts and mentality and simply take God’s word as our way of thinking.

We need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and be aware of Satan’s stratagems to damage humanity with his thoughts and ideas. Oh, Lord!

May we give ourselves to the Lord to be in His word with much prayer and consideration so that the humanity of Jesus may be infused into us.

We need to pray for the proper humanity for the Lord’s testimony. We need to have Christ’s humanity, high in standard and strong in character, be infused into us.

The acacia wood overlaid with gold signifies the mingling of divinity with humanity, the mingling of God’s nature with the uplifted humanity of Jesus.

The acacia wood being overlaid with gold both inside and outside signifies the divine nature penetrating the human nature and resting on the human nature so that it may be expressed through the human nature (Exo. 25:11; Rev. 3:18a; 2 Pet. 1:4; cf. Rev. 17:4).

He can be expressed only in this way, through this mingling; when we enjoy the mingling of divinity with humanity, we can express God and be His testimony.

Lord Jesus, mingle Yourself more with us today for God’s building. We open to You as we come to Your word to eat You and be infused with the humanity of Jesus, strong in character and high in standard, for the testimony of Jesus. Amen, Lord, have a way to uplift our humanity by infusing Yourself into us more and more day by day. We pray for the humanity of Jesus to be infused into all the saints and especially in the young ones. Cover and protect the saints from Satan’s attacks on humanity. Oh Lord, we pray for a proper humanity for the Lord’s testimony! Mingle Yourself more with us so that You may be expressed through us. Renew our mind and remove any old concepts and thoughts; replace our concepts with Your mind, Your desire, and Your purpose. Amen, Lord, gain Your corporate expression, the testimony of Jesus, among us today in the church life!

The Propitiatory Cover of the Ark Signifies Christ as the Meeting Place of God and His Redeemed People

The lid of the Ark of the Testimony was made of solid gold; it was the propitiatory cover of the Ark, for here God met with man (Exo. 25:17-22).

What does this cover of the Ark signify, or who does it signify?

According to Rom. 3:25, Christ is our propitiation place; Christ is not only the One who makes propitiation for us and the propitiatory sacrifice but also the propitiation place.

He is the very expiation cover, what the King James Version calls, the mercy seat.

Because of the redemption of Christ, the blood is sprinkled on the expiation cover, the propitiatory cover, and now God has the ground to meet with us, His redeemed people.

The lid of the Ark, the propitiatory cover, is a type of Christ. Christ is the One who propitiates (Heb. 2:17), the One who appeases the relationship between God and us, the One who reconciles us to God by satisfying God’s demand through Himself as the propitiatory sacrifice (1 John 2:2; 4:10).

He is the Hight Priest that makes propitiation, appeasing the relationship between us and God and reconciling us to God by satisfying God’s demand through Himself as the very sacrifice that propitiates.

As the High Priest, Christ is the One who propitiates; as the sacrifice offered for us, He is the propitiatory sacrifice. What a Christ we have!

He is the mingling of divinity with humanity, and He is our propitiation. He is both the propitiatory sacrifice and the One who propitiates, and He is the very propitiation place, the place where propitiation takes place!

Christ is the propitiatory cover with the shining of His divinity and the redeeming of His humanity, the place where we enjoy propitiation before God and where we can meet and fellowship with our righteous, holy, and glorious God to receive Him as grace (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 4:16).

Without Christ there’s no place for us to meet God and for God to meet us.

But now in Christ, we have a standing before God, and the righteous God can meet with us.

We are so sinful, but praise the Lord, Christ shed His blood for our sins, He sprinkled His blood to cover the requirements of God, and He has become the very place we can meet with God!

We have come to the blood of sprinkling (Heb. 12:24).

The offerings were offered on the altar in the outer court, which is a type of the cross for our redemption.

Some of this blood was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled there seven times on the cover and before the ark.

This shows that the blood is for entering; the blood is not only for forgiveness but also for us to enter in and come forward. Amen, today we can come forward because of the blood of Jesus!

We can come forward to the throne of grace in our spirit.

May we appreciate the Lord’s blood according to His estimation, and may we come forward to God, for the blood has been shed and sprinkled, and we can come to God to meet with Him!

On the propitiatory cover, there are the two cherubim, facing each other and the ark; they represent God’s glory. But the blood is sprinkled, and we now have a standing before God.

Most of the Lord’s children have never realized in a full way that the Christ who lives in us is the One portrayed by the Ark with the cover.

He is the indwelling Ark with the cover; no matter how many failures we had, no matter how many defeats we had, we can come to Christ to enjoy Him.

God has the ground to meet with us and we have the ground to enjoy Him. We can enjoy Him because firstly God has the standing in the blood and we also have the standing of the blood.

And this propitiatory cover is the throne of grace; He is the One enthroned between the cherubim (Psa. 80), that is, on the propitiatory cover.

We can come to receive mercy and find grace for timely help, and we are in glory!

Sometimes we sense that, as we spend time with the Lord with tears, repenting for our sinfulness, we are in glory because we are in His presence.

We have no words to describe it, but this is our experience as we come to Christ as the Ark in our personal fellowship with Him.

As we have fellowship with the Lord quietly, we enjoy forgiveness and joy, for His blood cleanses us, Christ makes propitiation for us, and He becomes the very place we enjoy God, and glory is here – God’s presence is here!

The two cherubim of gold on the propitiatory cover indicate that God’s glory shines out from Christ (Exo. 25:18-20); the blood of the propitiatory sacrifice being sprinkled on the propitiatory cover of the Ark signifies that because of the blood of Christ’s redemption, we can have fellowship with the righteous God in the midst of His glory (Lev. 16:14-15).

The more God meets with us and speaks with us, and the more we meet with God and listen to His speaking, the more of the testimony of God there will be in our experience.

It is here on the Ark, on the blood, in the glory, that God is meeting with us, speaking with us, and infusing His element into us so that our experience is from glory to glory.

This should be our daily experience, day by day from glory to glory!

Praise You Lord for shedding Your blood for our redemption. Praise the Lord, we now can come forward to God based on the blood of Jesus Christ to enjoy God. Hallelujah, Christ is the propitiation place for us to meet with God and enjoy God. Thank You, Lord, for making propitiation for us; thank You for being the propitiatory sacrifice and even the place in which we and God can meet. Amen, Lord, we come forward to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace. We come to You to be infused by You and have Your speaking. Mingle Yourself with us as we remain in Your presence in Christ; accomplish the desire of Your heart as You meet with us and speak to us. We love You, Lord, and we come forward to You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 86-89 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 4, entitled, The History of the Ark and the Tabernacle.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Now I share Thy human life, Lord, / Filled with Thy humanity, / All of Thy complete obedience / Is available to me. (Hymns #474)
  – Grant us the vision clear to see / We need a new humanity; / From all our nature, we must be free; / Eating of Jesus is the key! / Breathing this man within the Word, / Calling with them who call “O Lord”; / Eating this man in one accord— / Breathe, call and eat! (Hymns #1173)
  – By Thy separating blood, / We have all been sanctified; / ’Tis by Thy preserving blood / Holiness is testified. / By Thy propitiating blood, / We have all been justified; / ’Tis by Thy redeeming blood / God is fully satisfied. (Hymns #224)