When I was being prayed for about my stomach issues (see I Call It A Miracle, posted April 26, 2016), God spoke to my spirit and said I needed to . . . . Well, I don't know exactly what He said. I got the impression I was to use the sea. I was to go back to the sea when I felt pain and I don't know when. Sometimes God's instructions are a little confusing. Even harder, sometimes I don't know what the instructions mean at all. That was the case with my instructions the night of my healing.
A while back God told me to study the throne room, His throne room. So for several months now I have been periodically meditating on the throne room of God. I've done things like downloaded a list of all the verses that have heaven or throne in them, but mainly I have been studying Revelations 4.
Revelations 4 is a very specific picture of the throne room, as it is yet to come. Within my study, I have looked at the sea underneath the throne of God. And this is where I'm going to take a very roundabout way to get back to that point.
As I study the throne of God, I have also been studying the temple and the tabernacle. The temple and the tabernacle were built to be earthly representations of the throne room of God. When we look at the items that are described, the structures that were built, we see representations of things that are found in the throne room of God. When Revelation 4 talks about the sea under God's feet, I looked to the temple of Solomon and find a brass sea (basin) that was set on four oxen and stood outside of the temple building. The sea was for the priest to wash their hands and feet, as they were doing their service at the temple, putting sacrifices on the altar. The brass of the sea was so thick that a man could spread his fingers as wide as possible and just be able to touch edge to edge. It was very large and held a lot of water, and, yet, this very large basin was not for bathing. It was for a large number of people to wash their hands and feet. It was meant to be used throughout the day so priests didn't just use it once and then not come back to it again, or at least that's my understanding. Also the sea would not be intended for removal of blood because the blood of the sacrifices would be not just on their hands and feet, but also on their priestly robes. They weren't going to the sea to clean their robes, just hands and feet.
As I study the sea outside of Solomon’s temple, I find within it a wonderful symbolism of salvation. Once we are saved, now that the sacrifice has been made, we no longer need to be completely washed. We have been completely washed. The purpose of the sea is the same as when Jesus washed Peter’s feet at the Last Supper (John 13:1-17), and Peter asked Jesus to wash all of him. “Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean . . . ‘"
As a Christian, I do not need to renew my salvation. I am saved! But I don't always know what that means or how it applies to my daily struggles. What I need is to have my hands and feet cleansed. Daily and throughout the day, I need to go back to God for freshening up. So as the weeks since my healing have passed, I believe I've come to understand God's instructions to me to mean that I need to go back to Him on a consistent basis for cleansing, not for salvation, but for removal of the dirt that continues to be a part of my daily experience.
A while back God told me to study the throne room, His throne room. So for several months now I have been periodically meditating on the throne room of God. I've done things like downloaded a list of all the verses that have heaven or throne in them, but mainly I have been studying Revelations 4.
Revelations 4 is a very specific picture of the throne room, as it is yet to come. Within my study, I have looked at the sea underneath the throne of God. And this is where I'm going to take a very roundabout way to get back to that point.
As I study the throne of God, I have also been studying the temple and the tabernacle. The temple and the tabernacle were built to be earthly representations of the throne room of God. When we look at the items that are described, the structures that were built, we see representations of things that are found in the throne room of God. When Revelation 4 talks about the sea under God's feet, I looked to the temple of Solomon and find a brass sea (basin) that was set on four oxen and stood outside of the temple building. The sea was for the priest to wash their hands and feet, as they were doing their service at the temple, putting sacrifices on the altar. The brass of the sea was so thick that a man could spread his fingers as wide as possible and just be able to touch edge to edge. It was very large and held a lot of water, and, yet, this very large basin was not for bathing. It was for a large number of people to wash their hands and feet. It was meant to be used throughout the day so priests didn't just use it once and then not come back to it again, or at least that's my understanding. Also the sea would not be intended for removal of blood because the blood of the sacrifices would be not just on their hands and feet, but also on their priestly robes. They weren't going to the sea to clean their robes, just hands and feet.
As I study the sea outside of Solomon’s temple, I find within it a wonderful symbolism of salvation. Once we are saved, now that the sacrifice has been made, we no longer need to be completely washed. We have been completely washed. The purpose of the sea is the same as when Jesus washed Peter’s feet at the Last Supper (John 13:1-17), and Peter asked Jesus to wash all of him. “Jesus answered, ‘Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean . . . ‘"
As a Christian, I do not need to renew my salvation. I am saved! But I don't always know what that means or how it applies to my daily struggles. What I need is to have my hands and feet cleansed. Daily and throughout the day, I need to go back to God for freshening up. So as the weeks since my healing have passed, I believe I've come to understand God's instructions to me to mean that I need to go back to Him on a consistent basis for cleansing, not for salvation, but for removal of the dirt that continues to be a part of my daily experience.
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