Enter into the Sanctuary of God and have Honest Conversations with God to Gain God

When we enter into the sanctuary of God, have honest conversations with God, and even pour out our heart and complain before God, we open our being and He has a way to work Himself into us a little more and conform us to the image of Christ.

As believers in Christ who love the Lord and pursue Him, we need to bring all our requests and complaints before Him, knowing that He is causing all things to work together for good so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ.

We need to tell the Lord everything, whether good or bad, joy or sorrow, happiness or things unpleasant – tell Him all.

In the Gospels, we don’t have too many cases in which the people told the Lord things, but there are at least two cases in which this happened.

One time the disciples of John, after he was killed, went to bury him and came to the Lord and told Him.

This was such a sad situation, for John the Baptist had a sad ending; however, John’s disciples came and told the Lord.

Another case is when the Lord’s disciples returned after the Lord sent them to preach the gospel and heal the sick, and they told the Lord about what happened when they did so.

This was a joyous occasion, and even such things need to be told to the Lord.

When we have something joyous that happens to us, when things are going well, and something or someone makes us happy, we need to tell the Lord.

Also, when someone or something makes us sad, we still need to tell the Lord. We need to tell Him everything.

When we are sad, we should not just be sad and that’s it; rather, we need to tell the Lord, Lord Jesus, I am sad.

When something upsets us, instead of just being upset in ourselves and by ourselves, we can just tell the Lord, Lord Jesus, I am upset; look at this thing or this person, how upset they make me.

Just be honest with the Lord.

When we are happy when something happens to make us happy and those around us cause us to be joyful, we should not just be joyful and that’s it; we need to tell the Lord.

We can simply tell Him, Lord Jesus, I am so happy. Look what happened, look what they all do and how they care for me: I am so happy.

When we open to the Lord in this way concerning our joys and sorrows, our happiness and our sadness, and our ups and downs, He will become more intimate with us.

If we do not tell the Lord our joy and share our successes with Him, it may be possible that these become a replacement for the Lord.

If we do not share with Him concerning our sadness and sorrow, it may be possible that these become a separation between us and Him.

He is sovereign, He arranges all things to work for good for us, but we need to tell Him all.

May nothing replace the Lord in our being, and may nothing separate us from the Lord.

In all things that happen to us, in all things we do, and in all things that we are involved in, we need to tell the Lord.

He listens to us; He is sympathetic to every one of our problems. May we just tell Him everything.

Our Complaining to God may be the Best Prayer, for He has a Way to Work Himself into us and Conform us to His Image

The title of Psa. 102 says, “A Prayer of an afflicted one, when he is fainting and pours out his complaint before Jehovah.”

Most psalms do not have a title, but this particular psalm has this title, for it expresses a prayer of an afflicted one who pours out his heart and complaint before the Lord.

We may have such an experience also, for many times we may be afflicted and even fainting, and we may complain to God.

Even our complaining, though it may sound not so positive, can be the best prayer before the Lord.

We may complain to God, but our complaining may be the best prayer, the most pleasant prayer to God.

While we are complaining, God is rejoicing, because He is causing all things to work together for our good, so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ, His Son (Rom. 8:28-29).

Some of us may be predisposed to complain, and we may complain about our spouse, our work, our family, our church life, or the things happening to us.

Others may never complain but may bottle up everything inside.

No matter what happens and what kind of personality we have, we need to tell the Lord everything.

We may even complain to God, but this may be the most pleasant prayer to Him.

As we complain, we open to Him, we give Him our sorrows, and He has a way to work Himself more into us.

As we complain to the Lord, God is rejoicing, for He is working behind the scenes to cause all things to work together for good until we’re conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Psa. 55:17 says that evening, morning, and at noon, I complain and moan.

On one hand, we do not encourage one another to do this; on the other hand, we need to tell Him everything.

The Lord loves to hear us talking to Him, even though we may complain and moan.

When we complain and moan before the Lord, we pour out our heart before Him, and we give Him all our problems, sorrows, pains, and sadness.

In exchange, He gives to us what He is; He imparts Himself into us.

Our opening to Him is the best opportunity for Him to gain an opening in us to infuse us with what He is.

He needs us to open to Him, and if our complaining to Him is the only way we open to Him, He uses this opportunity to work Himself into us and to conform us further to His image.

We may be like a lone sparrow on the rooftop (Psa. 102:7), but He is there with us, listening to our voice.

This Psalm 102 speaks concerning the Lord Jesus; most likely during His living on earth He went up on the rooftop to have conversations with the Father, to tell Him all things, and to take Him as His everything.

The writer of Psa. 102 could not sleep or stay in bed because of the devastation of Zion; he went on the housetop where he poured out his complaint to God, asking Him to look upon Zion, the city, and the temple.

Christ in His affliction on the earth, while He was full of zeal for the house of God (John 2:17; Psa. 69:9) was a water, not caring for His own interest but for the interest of God’s house.

As He cared for the interest of God and for His house, Christ suffered very much, was afflicted, and was persecuted.

However, He told the Father everything, entrusting Himself and all those around Him with all the things they did into His hands.

We today may be so small like a sparrow, we may have so many problems, we may be afflicted, and there may be persecution and suffering, but we need to bring it all before God in prayer.

We need to be honest with the Lord and tell HIm that we don’t know what to do, but we give ourselves to Him.

We don’t know what is going on, but we open to Him, we love Him, and we want to pour out our heart before Him.

As we do this, we open our being to the Lord, and He has a way to work Himself into us a little more.

As we pray and complain before the Lord, He gains a little opening to infuse us with what He is and to conform us further to the image of Christ.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we come to You as we are. We bring before You all our problems, our sorrows, and our desires. We just give ourselves to You. Dear Lord, we pour out our hearts before You. We bring our complaints, our afflictions, and our moaning before You. Have a way in our being, Lord. Work Yourself into us a little more as we open to You, complain about things, and moan before You. Oh Lord, cause all things to work together for good so that we may be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son of God! Amen, Lord, we believe that You are in control, You arrange all things, and all things work together for good, for we love You! We come before You again and again with all our complaints, sorrows, sins, and mistakes. We just open to You about all these things. We give them all to You, Lord. Give more of Yourself to us. Conform us to Your image a little more today!

Enter into the Sanctuary of God and have Honest Conversations with Him to gain God as our Everything

If we read Psalm 73 we can testify that we many times can identify ourselves with the psalmist.

We seek the Lord, live in righteousness, and do good, yet we do not prosper outwardly, while the evil ones seem to prosper no matter how much evil they do.

Psalm 73 is a record of the sincere prayer of the seeking psalmist who was nearly stumbled by his own suffering and by the prosperity of the wicked.

He purified his heart and he walked in righteousness, but instead of enjoying material prosperity, he seemed to be plagued all day long and chastened every morning (Psa. 73:12-16).

Many times this seems the case with us also.

We seek the Lord, we do the right thing, and we purify ourselves, but we seem to be chastened and suffering, while the evil ones seem to prosper.

So we do what the psalmist also does: we complain before God. We ask Him, is this all in vain? Why is it that we suffer so much and the evil ones seem to be prospering?

We may be quite perplexed about our situation and the things happening to us, for we may suffer and be in distress, but those who practice evil seem to be doing alright.

We need to bring all these matters to the Lord and enter into the sanctuary of God.

When the psalmist entered into the sanctuary of God and received light from God, everything was clear.

He was initially very troubled, for he could not understand it.

But when he went before God in His sanctuary, he received the solution; he saw the end of the evil ones, and he praised God.

He even acknowledged that there’s nothing he desires on earth but God, and God is the only One he desires or has in heaven.

When we enter into the sanctuary of God, we receive the solution to all our problems and we see things in the light of God.

The sanctuary of God today is our spirit (where the dwelling place of God is) and the meetings of the church, where the Lord dwells with His people.

When we enter into the sanctuary of God – in the spirit and in the church – we will have a particular perception of the situation concerning the wicked; we will see things the way God sees them.

When we turn to our spirit and are in the meetings of the church, we see things the way that God sees them, and all things are clear.

God’s sanctuary, HIs habitation, is in our spirit (Eph. 2:22); also, it is the church (1 Tim. 3:15).

For us to enter into the sanctuary of God is to turn to our spirit and to go to the meetings of the church and the meetings of the ministry.

In our spirit and in the meetings of the church we receive divine revelation and we obtain the explanation to all our problems.

It is not that God will solve the problems for us and He will remove the wicked ones; He will give us the solution to our problems and will comfort us and supply us in our situation.

When we have honest conversations with the Lord and enter into the sanctuary of God, we will eventually be enlightened to the extent that we take God as our everything.

Like the psalmist in Psa. 73:25-26, we will realize that we have no one in heaven but the Lord, and besides Him, there’s nothing that we desire on the earth.

Outwardly many unrighteous and evil things may take place, and we may suffer, be persecuted, and have much affliction.

However, our portion is God, and though our heart and flesh fail, God is the rock of our heart and our portion forever.

Before we enter into the sanctuary of God, we may complain and moan before the Lord; after we contact the Lord in spirit and in the meetings of the church, we will only care for the Lord.

When we really contact the Lord and touch Him in spirit, we will care only for Him, and everything else will affect us no longer.

He is continually with us. He took hold of our right hand, and He strengthens us, upholds us, and draws us closer to Him.

We will realize that God’s intention is that we would find everything in Christ and we would not be distracted from the absolute enjoyment of Christ.

The ultimate desire of God in His economy is for us to live Christ, magnify Christ, and gain Christ for His glory in the church (Phil. 1:19-21a; 3:7-8; Isa. 43:7; 1 Cor. 10:31; 6:20; 1 Pet. 4:11; Eph. 3:16-21).

This is what He ultimately desires.

For this, He allows things to happen, and He assigns things to us that may not be so pleasant or welcomed.

So we come to Him. We bring our sorrows to Him. We complain to Him.

And we enter into the sanctuary of God by turning to our spirit and being in the meetings of the church.

It is there, in God’s sanctuary, that we see the real situation and we take God as our everything.

We will clearly see that God wants to work His Christ into our being to make HIm everything to us so that we may live Christ and magnify Christ.

Lord Jesus, gain the sincere prayer of our heart before You. Keep our being open to You, even bringing our complaints before You. May we learn to tell You the things that puzzle us and cause us to be confused and perplexed. Amen, Lord, we want to enter into the sanctuary of God and receive revelation from God concerning our situation. We turn to our spirit and we go to the meetings of the church. Grant us to receive divine revelation and obtain the explanation to all our problems. Oh Lord, may we have many thousands of honest conversations with the Lord and enter into God’s sanctuary. Enlighten us, Lord, to the extent that we realize we have no one in heaven but You and we desire nothing on earth besides You! Amen, Lord, You are the rock of our hearts and our portion forever. Everything we need is in Christ. We want to remain in the absolute enjoyment of Christ so that we may live Christ, magnify Christ, and gain Christ for His glory in the church!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of the Psalms, pp. 353-355, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 2, entitled, Learning the Secret of Doing All Things in Christ as the Empowering One for Us to Live Christ, Magnify Christ, and Gain Christ for His Glory in the Church.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Trusting only in Thy merit, / Would I seek Thy face; / Heal my wounded, broken spirit, / Save me by Thy grace. / Thou the spring of all my comfort, / More than life to me; / Whom have I on earth beside Thee? / Whom in heaven but Thee? (Hymns #1054 stanzas 4-5)
  – All my sicknesses I bring Him, / And He bears them all away; / All my fears and griefs I tell Him, / All my cares from day to day, / All my strength I draw from Jesus, / By His breath I live and move; / E’en His very mind He gives me, / And His faith, and life, and love. (Hymns #564 stanza 3)
  – I am breathing out my longings / In Thy listening, loving ear; / I am breathing in Thy answers, / Stilling every doubt and fear. / I am breathing every moment, / Drawing all my life from Thee; / Breath by breath I live upon Thee, / Lord, Thy Spirit breathe in me. (Hymns #255 stanzas 6-7)