Pilgrims on Earth Live the Life of the Altar and the Tent waiting for New Jerusalem

As believers in Christ who walk in the steps of our father Abraham’s faith, we must live the life of the altar and the tent, taking Christ as our life and the church as our living, realizing that we don’t belong to this world but our home is the New Jerusalem, the city which has the foundations! Amen!

We need to keep and enjoy Christ as the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles by being in the reality of feasting upon Christ and with Christ, and at the same time, we need to live a life of consecration to the Lord, a life of sojourning on earth, and a life for God’s interest on earth, eagerly awaiting the coming of the Lord so that we may be with Him.

We believers in Christ are different from the other people in the world; they can eat, drink, work, and participate in all kinds of activities and things in the world, but we are the people of God, even the descendants of Abraham, and our country is not here on earth.

We are here on earth for the Lord, and we want to focus not on our career, our family, or the society we live in, but on the Lord Himself.

Our entire Christian life is not a life of working or doing things for God; it is a life of feasting.

We feast with the Lord, in the Lord, and with the saints, the people of God. God has prepared everything; He went through a process to become the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit as the reality of the good land, and He is everything to us today.

God has accomplished redemption for us in order to bring us into the proper position for us to enjoy God, He has prepared Christ as our righteousness, and He is ready to dispense His life into us.

As long as we just open to the Lord a little, He dispenses Himself into us as our life and our everything.

Day by day we need to remain under the Lord’s dispensing, allowing Him to dispense Himself into us.

In a sense, we Christians don’t need to do anything outwardly for God; we simply need to enjoy the Lord, spend time with Him, and partake of Him as our feast, and out of this solid eating and drinking of Christ will result in a certain labour for the Lord and in the Lord.

We will labour for the Lord, we will do many things in Him and for Him, but it will still not be us but the grace of God, the enjoyment of God as grace, which is with us.

May we keep the feast day by day and may we bring the riches of Christ to the church meetings to partake of the all-inclusive Christ with all His riches among the saints and with the saints!

Live the Life of the Altar and the Tent by Taking Christ as our Life the Church as our Living

One aspect of keeping the Feast of Tabernacles is that we live in tabernacles here on earth; we live the life of the altar and the tent.

As believers in Christ, we are the spiritual descendants of our father Abraham, and we need to walk in the steps of Abraham’s faith today.

This means that today we must live the life of the altar and the tent, taking Christ as our life and the church as our living (Rom. 4:12; Heb. 11:9; Gen. 12:7-8; 13:3-4, 18).

Abraham used to dwell in a tent, but only after Gen. 12:8, we are told that he pitched his tent in a specific way.

When Jehovah appeared to Abraham, he did two things: he built an altar and pitched his tent, living the life of the altar and the tent.

If we want to live a life of the tent on the earth, living as sojourners here and awaiting the New Jerusalem, we need to first have the life of the altar.

To have the life of the altar, we need to be under God’s appearing.

We cannot consecrate ourselves to the Lord unless He first appears to us.

The altar signifies the cross where Christ died for us to terminate everything negative, and it also signifies our consecration; Christ is our true burnt offering, offering Himself for God’s satisfaction.

To have the life of the altar and the tent, we need to have the Lord’s appearing; when He appears to us, no matter where who we are and what we are doing, we simply stop and consecrate ourselves to the Lord.

To consecrate to the Lord doesn’t mean that we promise to do this or that for Him; consecration is not dedication.

In Hebrew, consecration is to have our hands filled; first, we need to have empty hands, and then the Lord will fill them with Christ.

Aaron and his sons were consecrated by Moses into their priesthood; they were to empty their hands and Moses was to fill their hands with the sacrifices, a type of Christ.

To consecrate ourselves is to empty our hands; it is not to promise the Lord that we will go preach the gospel for Him and we will read the Bible twice in one year but to empty ourselves and allow the Lord to fill us.

No one can consecrate himself willingly or voluntarily; consecration is an issue of meeting God and of God meeting us.

When we meet God, when we see Him, we are subdued. Abraham was subdued when he had Jehovah’s appearing, and Paul also was fully subdued when the Lord appeared to him.

Whenever we come to God and touch Him, consecration issues; we just avail ourselves to God.

We let Him fill us, direct us, and do whatever He wants to do in us.

We offer ourselves to the Lord willingly, offering not just ten per cent but everything; we put our all on the altar, being one with Christ as our burnt offering, so that we may be consumed for God’s satisfaction.

After we consecrate everything to God, God still knows that we have a living on earth, so He gives us something back from what we offer to Him; therefore, we live a life of the altar and the tent.

After the experience of the altar, we live in a tent, and everything in the tent has passed through the altar.

After we offer everything on the altar, consecrating ourselves with all we are and have to God, God still allows us to keep some things as we live on the earth for His purpose.

We live on the earth for God’s purpose, and we are not set or settled here – we can be moved for God’s move when He wants us to move.

Building an altar means that our life is for God, that God is our life, and that the meaning of our life is God (Exo. 40:6, 29; Psa. 43:4; Lev. 1:3, 9).

There’s nothing on this earth for us; we are not here for the things on this earth. We live here on earth for God, and God is the meaning of our life.

As a result of living a life of consecration, a life of the altar, we live the life of sojourning on earth, the life of the tent.

May we daily come to the Lord to have His fresh appearing so that we may live the altar and the tent.

Abraham’s living in a tent testified that he didn’t belong to the world but rather, he lived the life of a sojourner on earth (Heb. 11:9-10, 15-16).

Erecting a tent is an expression and a declaration of the fact that we do NOT belong to this world but rather, we belong to another country.

We are only sojourners here; we are passing through, and our eternal habitation is the New Jerusalem, the city which has the foundations.

When we have God’s appearing we realize that there’s nothing for us here on this earth; people on earth chase success, glamour, riches, and fame, but for us God is enough, for God is the meaning of our life, and we take Christ as our life and the church as our living.

The earth is our temporary dwelling place – we are only pilgrims here.

As the true descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7), we believers in Christ should be pilgrims on the earth, moving and pitching our tent even as he did (Heb. 11:9, 13; 1 Pet. 2:11). Amen!

The world is not worthy of us; we belong to God, we have a heavenly calling, and we have a heavenly country!

We have an eternal tabernacle, so today we live in a tent by first building an altar as a result of the Lord’s appearing to us. Amen!

Lord Jesus, we want to walk in the steps of Abraham’s faith today by living the life of the altar and the tent. Amen, Lord, appear to us. Your appearing is everything to us. We don’t want to just live according to the old knowledge of You but in Your fresh, new, instant appearing. Your appearing causes us to just consecrate ourselves to You. Amen, Lord, may we meet You and contact You day by day. We take You as our life and we take the church as our living. Oh Lord, we love to see You face to face! We love You, Lord, and we give ourselves to You. We build an altar and lay all we have and are on the altar, for You are the most precious One and You are worthy of all. We are nothing, Lord, but You are everything. Our life here on earth is for God, God is our life, and the meaning of our life is God. Amen, Lord. We willingly dwell in a tent today, following You wherever You want us to go. Oh Lord, this world is not worthy of us. We do not belong to this world – we belong to another country, and we live here on earth for You! Grant us to live the life of the altar and the tent, having Your fresh appearing daily!

As Pilgrims on the Earth, we live in the Tent of the Church Life Waiting for the Ultimate Tent of Meeting, the New Jerusalem

After Abraham built his first altar in Gen. 12:7, he built a second altar between Bethel and Ai, which stand in contrast with each other (v. 8).

He pitched his tent between Bethel on one side and Ai on the other side. Bethel means “house of God” and Ai means “a heap of ruins.”

As the called-out ones, we consider only Bethel, the church life, as worthwhile; everything else is a heap of ruins.

This is our testimony today; as pilgrims on the earth, we live in the tent of the church life and consider the world with all it has to offer as a heap of ruins.

As Paul said in Phil. 3, we count all things loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We have two options: either Ai (a heap of ruins, a type of the world) or Bethel (the house of God, the church).

If we look at the world today with its politics, commerce, the societal issues, and the corruption and immorality, we see it is corruption upon corruption, rottenness upon rottenness, for it is a heap of ruins.

But praise the Lord, in the church life we enjoy God’s presence, God dwells with us, and God is our everything.

As we enjoy God’s appearing in the church life, we live the life of the altar and the tent today.

Abraham had his failures, even as we do, and there was the forsaking of the altar and the tent; however, with him there was a recovery, and recovery is a matter of returning to the altar and the tent with calling on the name of the Lord (Gen. 12:9-10; 13:3-4; Rom. 10:12-13; 12:1-2).

Abraham drifted and went down to Egypt, where he had his failure.

We also have our failures; after consecrating ourselves to the Lord and being absolute for Him, we slowly drift.

But praise the Lord, there is a recovery! God is faithful in appearing to us, and His appearing causes us to build another altar.

The way to be recovered back to God is not our determination, our zeal, or making up our mind; it is the Lord’s appearing and our coming back to the altar.

When the Lord appears to us and shows us how much He loves us and how rich He is to us, we simply surrender to Him again.

When we call on the name of the Lord, we have a recovery of the altar and the tent.

May we keep calling on the name of the Lord, in spite of our failures, so that we may be recovered to the life of the altar and the tent in our Christian life!

Eventually, in Gen. 13:18, at Hebron Abraham’s tent became a place where he had fellowship with God and where God could fellowship with Him.

As we consecrate ourselves to the Lord and live as pilgrims for His interest on the earth, we live the life of the altar and the tent, and God comes to visit us; our tent is God’s dwelling place.

Abraham’s tent with the altar built by him was a prefigure of the Tabernacle of the Testimony with the altar built by the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exo. 38:21).

Abraham, a stranger and a sojourner, eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God (Heb. 11:9-10, 12-16).

Abraham’s tent was a miniature of the New Jerusalem, the ultimate tent, the ultimate tabernacle of God (Gen. 9:26-27; 12:8; 13:3; 18:1; Rev. 21:2-3).

As those who keep the Feast of Tabernacles today, we live the life of the altar and the tent, for we are living in the tent of the church life and waiting for its ultimate consummation – the New Jerusalem (1 Tim. 3:15; Lev. 1:1; Heb. 11:10).

The New Jerusalem is the ultimate “Tent of Meeting.” We live in a tent today, as pilgrims, living for the Lord’s interest, and we are waiting for the ultimate Tent of Meeting, the New Jerusalem! Amen!

The Feast of Tabernacles is the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem, which will be consummated first to be the firstfruits in the millennial kingdom as a reward to the overcomers and then consummated finally to be in the new heaven and new earth as the full enjoyment of God’s full salvation to all the perfected believers. Amen!

May we realize we are pilgrims today, living in the tent of the church life until we arrive at and become the ultimate “Tent of Meeting,” the New Jerusalem, where God and man indwell one another mutually for eternity!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we give ourselves to You today. You are our life. You are the meaning of our life. We do not belong to the world; we live a life as a sojourner on the earth, for our commonwealth is in the heavens. Amen, Lord Jesus, we are pilgrims on the earth, moving and pitching our tent to follow You. We take You as our life and we take the church as our living. Everything that is contrary to the church life is just a heap of ruins. Oh Lord, we give You our daily living. Appear to us again and again. Keep us calling on Your name. We love to be with You and have You dwell with us so that we can fellowship together. Amen, Lord, as we are living in the tent of the church life, we are waiting for its ultimate consummation – the New Jerusalem! We want to live the life of the altar and the tent until we enjoy the firstfruits in the coming age and we will enter into the full enjoyment of God’s salvation to all the perfected believers in and as the New Jerusalem! Amen!

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 James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 41, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 8, Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles and as the Spirit Flowing out of the Believers as Rivers of Living Water.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The life of the tent, a portion from, The Life of the Altar and the Tent, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee.
  – Abraham – living by faith, being today’s river crossers to live the life of the altar and the tent, via, ICS website.
  – The Recovery of Living the Life of the Altar and the Tent, outline via, LSM Webcast.
  – Seeking and Longing for New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The second altar, a portion from, The Life of the Altar and the Tent, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee.
  – My Personal Testimony – Pursuing Christ, Living the Church Life, and Enjoying the Ministry, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The New Testament Tabernacle is Alive, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Ministry Excerpts from Recent Conferences and Trainings – Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming – 2023 International Chinese-speaking Blending Conference – The Life of the Altar and the Tent, via, Having this Ministry.
  – Babel and Sodom versus Abraham’s tent, a portion from, The Vision of God’s Building, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – He looked for a city and lived in a tent, / A pilgrim to glory right onward he went; / God’s promise his solace, so royal his birth, / No wonder he sought not the glories of earth. / He looked for a city, his goal, Lord, we share / And know that bright city, which Thou dost prepare / Is ever our portion, since willing to be / Just pilgrims with Jesus, our roof a tent tree. (Hymns #974 stanzas 1, 4)
  – Consecrated is Thy temple, / Purged from every stain and sin; / May Thy flame of glory now be / Manifested from within. / Let the earth in solemn wonder / See my body willingly / Offered as Thy slave obedient, / Energized alone by Thee. (Hymns #403 stanza 2)
  – One with Thee, Thou Son incarnate, / Born with Thee, the Man of worth, / We, the members of Thy body, / Sojourn with Thee here on earth. / One with Thee, Thou Son anointed, / Sharing too the Spirit’s power, / We in full cooperation / Labor with Thee hour by hour. (Hymns #475 stanza 2)