God is Training us to Worship and Partake of Him through His Speaking in the Church

This week in our morning revival enjoyment we come to the first part of the Crystallization-study of Leviticus, and we focus on, God Training His People to Worship and Partake of Him and to Live a Holy, Clean, and Rejoicing Life.

Through His speaking in the church as the tent of meeting, God trained His people to worship and partake of Him, and to live with holy, clean, and rejoicing life. Today we want to focus on why is there the need for training, and how God is speaking to us from the tent of meeting, which is the church today.

As God’s people, we are now in His house, the church, the place where God meets with man. Here God speaks to us, He dwells with us, and His very presence and dwelling is a training to us, for He brings us up to the standard where He is.

Our God is a speaking God, and He has made us His people. He chose us, predestinated us, cleansed us, gave us the Word as not just a guidance but as our supply, and He dwells among us to speak to us and train us to be His people.

If we read the book of Leviticus we may see a lot of requirements and regulations, many of them related to the way we worship God, prepare and offer the sacrifices, and the priesthood.

Many believers have read this book and have not really understood or enjoyed it, because there was no proper opening up of this book in the light of God’s New Testament economy of God.

May the Lord open our eyes and may we see Christ, apply Christ, enjoy Christ, and be filled with Christ, so that in Christ and with Christ we may come to God and offer this Christ to Him for His satisfaction.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Word of God who defines, explains, and expresses God. Thank You for becoming the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, and as the Lamb of God You are the reality of all the offerings. Lord, we take You and we apply You as the reality of all the offerings. You are the One who satisfies God and satisfies us. You are absolute for God. You are our peace and our peace maker. You are everything to us for us to come forward to God, enjoy God, and offer true worship to God.

God is Training His People to Worship and Partake of Him and be Properly Related to Him and His Dwelling Place

In Exo. 25:8 God told Moses, Let them make a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell in their midst; therefore, the tabernacle was built according to the pattern shown to Moses, and God’s intention was to enter into the sanctuary and dwell in the midst of His people.

When He came to dwell in the sanctuary, and He spoke to His people from the tabernacle, from the tent of meeting; the whole book of Leviticus consists of God’s speaking, which is a training to His people.

God cannot deny what He is – He is holy, righteous, pure, light, and love, and He has come to dwell in the midst of His people; this requires a great deal of training by God directly, so that His people know how to be with Him.

God is the center of His community, and His presence and being with us trains us.

Training means that we are being delivered from the natural way of doing something, and we are equipped and qualified to do that matter in a proper way. God is speaking to us, His people whom He delivered from the world; even though we’re not of this world, there’s still much of the element of the world in our being.

He chose us, He redeemed us for His own name, He made us a holy nation and a nation of priests – all these are God’s sovereign actions.

In Leviticus God came in the midst of His people and, through Moses, He spoke words of training regarding God Himself, worshipping God, partaking of God, being holy as God is holy, living a clean life, and ultimately, living a rejoicing life.

Also, God trains us as His people how to relate to the tent of meeting.

In Lev. 26:11-12 we see that He walks among us, so we have to be trained to correspond to Him. In Lev. 19:29 He charges His people to keep His Sabbaths and revere His sanctuary.

How does the Lord feel when on the Lord’s Day morning there’s a large number of saints who are habitually late for the table meeting? This is an act of disrespect for both Christ and the church; we therefore need to be trained to have a proper regard for God’s sanctuary.

In Lev. 17:8-9 we see a training of what we can enjoy at home and what we should enjoy in the church meeting. In Lev. 18:3-4 we see that in the church life we should not do as they do in the world but rather keep God’s word and walk in His way.

It may appear that God’s training is just a list of requirements God has from His people but, actually, if we look closer and have the vision of God’s economy, we will realize that God is ready to apply the universal, all-inclusive, inexhaustible Christ as everything to God and to us.

For all of God’s requirements from us in His training of us there’s an indescribably wonderful provision: every aspect of our fallen being is addressed by Christ as the offerings, and Christ as the priest brings God to us and brings us to God for us to contact God as we are washed and purified.

In training us, God wants to supply us with everything we need of Himself so that we may match Him.

Lord, train us as Your people to worship God, partake of God, and be properly related to God and to His dwelling place, the church. Thank You for being among us to dwell with us, speak to us, and be everything to us. Lord, deliver us from the natural way of living and doing things, and equip and qualify us to live and do everything according to You in Your house. We want to enjoy Christ as the reality of all the offerings – He’s our wonderful, inexhaustible, all-inclusive provision and supply as everything to God and to man!

God is Living and Speaking in the Church as the Tabernacle of God, the Tent of Meeting

Where is God in the book of Leviticus? In Genesis God was in the heavens; He spoke to man from the heavens, paid a visit to man from time to time, but He returned to the heavens. In Exodus God was on Mount Sinai; there He spoke with Moses and later with His people Israel.

But in Leviticus God is now in His dwelling place, the tabernacle, and this is where He dwells; He dwells in the tabernacle and speaks from the Tent of Meeting (Lev. 1:1; 27:34). The whole of Leviticus is God’s speaking, and He spoke from the tent of meeting to Moses and to God’s people.

The tabernacle is a type of the church; today God’s speaking is in His church, and His dwelling place is in the church. God dwells in the church as the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God with man, and He speaks in the church as the Tent of Meeting, the place where God meets with man.

In the church life we always have God’s speaking; actually, the extent to which we as a congregation are the church depends on the extent to which we have God’s speaking with us. If we don’t have God’s speaking, then we are not the church, for God lives among His people and speaks in the church.

When we gather together we are in practicality the tent of meeting, where God meets with man and man meets with God; here God is in Christ to speak to us (John 1:14; 14:2; 1 Tim. 3:15).

According to the principle of the typology, God speaks in the church as His tabernacle; this Tent of Meeting is the oracle, the place of God’s speaking (Lev. 1:1).

The preciousness of the tabernacle is not the gold or precious items inside – in Egypt or in Canaan there were many more precious items; what was precious about the tabernacle was God’s speaking.

In the church what is most precious is not anything outward, the ability of the saints or their capacity and social standing, but the Lord’s speaking, which is among us.

Praise the Lord, in the church we have God’s speaking, for God dwells in the church and God speaks in the church; His speaking is a treasure to us.

The way we can be trained to match God as His people is through His speaking. Through the tabernacle, with the offerings, and by the priests, God’s redeemed people are able to fellowship with God, serve God, and be God’s holy people living a holy life which expresses God.

To fellowship with God means to feast with God, to enjoy Christ as the reality of all the offerings together with God and in His presence. Through His speaking in the church, God trains us how to be with Him, how live a holy life, a clean life, and a rejoicing life.

Through His speaking in the church, God trains us to worship and partake of God and to live a holy, clean and rejoicing life.

We need to be trained by God through His speaking in the church to enjoy God, partake of Him, and thus worship God; we apply Christ and offer Him as the reality of all the offerings, and we enjoy Christ with God in the church as the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.

Lord Jesus, we treasure Your speaking in the church as the tabernacle of God with man. Your speaking is the most precious thing we have in the church life. You know our situation and our condition, and You have become to us the reality of all the offerings for us to enjoy, apply, and offer to God for our worship to God. Lord Jesus, train us through Your speaking in the church to live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life, worshipping You by partaking of Christ as the unique all-inclusive provision from God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 1, 14 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 1, God Training His People to Worship and Partake of Him and to Live a Holy, Clean, and Rejoicing Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Oh, purify us, Lord, by speaking in our heart; / Thy living, spoken word this washing will impart. / Increase Thy speaking, Lord, and cleanse our every part. / Oh, purify us, Lord, we pray. (Hymns #1135)
  # God’s house is filled with glorious radiance— / Filled with His speaking, filled with His presence; / Built up in oneness, life we express, / All that God is, in Christ, possess. (Song on, God is a God of Blessing and Glory)
  # God’s Kingdom today is a real exercise, / But when Christ comes to reign it will be a great prize; / It is wisdom divine that we now may be trained / That His plan be fulfilled and His justice maintained. (Hymns #947)