Today, many Christians are stuck between a high vision and a low reality. In other words, we aspire to something grand, yet find ourselves struggling when our reality doesn’t meet that standard. In our daily life, while we admire a higher life, we are pulled down by the gravities of the world: not just sins and obvious struggles, but also all the practicalities, inconveniences, and necessities of a modern human living. We live life like a turtle, always facing downward as we slowly walk on the earth. How can we rise above, instead flying like an eagle? How can we live the life we admire?
What we need is a subjective encounter with a real being — the true Person, the Lord Himself, who shines in our hearts, illuminating the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). In the Old Testament in Exodus 34, Moses ascended a mountain, from its base to its peak, where he saw the glory of the Lord. After spending 40 days and 40 nights immersed in God’s glory to the point that his own face shone, how was he to lead the Israelites to experience the same wondrous God that he had? It was through a vision — a revelation — of a building.
Through Moses relaying the blueprints of the tabernacle to the people, the Israelites had a way to practically and subjectively experience this very Person Moses had encountered. The tabernacle wasn’t just a blueprint only, but a vision to be realized for accomplishing God’s purpose: for His people to dwell as one with Him, and to express Him and reign with Him as His counterpart. Today, we might not be building a physical tabernacle or climbing to the mountaintop to meet with God. But as New Testament believers, this shadow from the Old Testament is realized by the church, our real, subjective, and tangible experience of the mountaintop and of the tabernacle. It is here that we meet Him and dwell with Him, receiving His shining in His glorious presence. It is here that we realize His grand and high vision — His blueprints — on the earth today. What life could be higher, more soaring than this?
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 9/22/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)