The Presence of the Lord

 Exodus 28-29; Acts 7

“So I will consecrate the tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”

Exodus 29:44-46

The purpose in God delivering Israel out of Egypt was that they might know him and that God might dwell with his people. When we frame salvation as primarily about heaven and our eternal destiny, we minimize the importance of the consecration of our lives through the atonement of Christ, so that we, like the Israelites, may be indwelt by the presence of God. The mystery and miracle of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God within us is that we, too, are consecrated, or set apart, as a kingdom of priests to serve our God. Our eternal destiny of consecration, communion, and co-laboring with Christ begins at salvation when we are delivered from the ‘Egypt’ of sin and spiritual bondage.

Are we living in Egypt, or the Promised Land?

Are we walking in the Spirit, daily consecrating ourselves to God and his sanctifying presence?

Are we growing in the knowledge of God and his ways?

This is our personal and corporate witness to the power and reality of God in the world.

“Lord God, I offer myself to you this day for worship, service, and witness, for your glory.”