THe Brazen Laver

 

 

Gold is the key element that's within the holy place.

The outer court speaks of the law age, and um, from the law age, which means basically from Moses to Christ, is 1500 years.

And so the dimensions or that in the outer court were 1500, um, cubits or square cubits from not just onto exactly what it, but it was 1500.

Now when we move into the holy place, we find that the measurements add up to 2000, which speaks of the church age, which speaks of, you know, there's 2000 years from basically from the resurrection of Christ who is returned, becomes 2000 years.

So that is where we look at it.

Last week, you received a handout that went through the different areas, the different days, this handout of, you've got it.

You know, we may refer to that bit.

You can see the tabernacle that's actually written in there from the time of the outer court, holy place, and the most holy place, again.

Measurements.

There's nothing in the Bible that's just there to fill up the space as we looked at last time we see these different areas.

So, you know, coming into the most holy place, right where the very presence of God is, uh, it goes to down to a 1000 the measurement, it makes up a 1000 cubits, so to speak.

And so, again, referring to the millennial age, the rate, the age of Christ, when Christ returns, he rules on this earth for how long?

1000 years.

As a coincidence or has God, you know, consistently building truth in this?

So as we understand this, in the outer court, we looked at that laver and the altar, the brazen altar, the brazen laver.

We see that both of those dealt with, you know, dealt with areas of sin and uncleanness, the laver was speaking, the altar was speaking of the cross, largely where all the sacrifices were, wasn't a pretty place.

You imagine the amount of animals that were slaughtered, sacrificed there, the blood around the altar and stuff.

Never a pretty price.

Cross is not a pretty place.

The laver we looked at last week and the washing of the water by the word, and how the altar dealt with there, with sin, you know, within us, where the laver dealt with, it was like a self-reflection.

We look into the word of God.

The whole thing about the mirrors and water and reflection, and we saw all of that.

So, we understand this.

Now we're taking another step.

We come through that.

We came through the gate, pretty well speaking of repentance.

Remember, we're doing it.

We're coming from Mans. We has approach to God.

So we come through that the gate, the big gate into the outer court, uh, again.

Now we've come through the door when we looked at the entrances.

3 entrants, but only one way.

The gate, the door, the veil.

So our approach to God is on this particular journey.

So, okay, um, looking at the lamp stand, it had 7 lamps, uh, which had wicks and oil.

And, um, which is important, again, number 7, uh, as we're looking, if we're looking in at numbers 7 is a divine number, uh, number of completion.

We look at 8 in what's 8 mean?

Eight?

I know that we're not looking at the number, right, but just throwing it in there, just how God looks at different things about number 8 being new beginnings.

Or not. It's the day after the completion.

So it's a new beginning.

And interesting that that circumcision was done for the males it was done on the 8th day.

You know, so circumcision, speaking there of a new beginning, we're circumcised in heart and whatever.

So, the lamp stand there, 7 lit lamps, and, um, you know, the difference between this candlestick and normal candles.

Why didn't they play?

Why didn't they have normal candles?

Mainly because candles are self-consuming.

Once they burn out, that's it.

You've got to have a whole new candle where within the lamps, they're not a, when we, even though we're talking about a candlestick, they are oil-fired lamps.

So the lamp itself was a little bowl that had oil in it and it had a wick in it. So the wick drew up the oil, you lit the wick, it drew up the oil, and a bit like for those that have been around a bit, like the old kerosene, you know, the kerosene lamp, had the wick in there and you had to replace the wick after it.

You'd trim it and it had the kerosene.

You could literally sit, you know, from a modern day illustration.

That's how these lamps worked.

That they uh, had the wick, the wick sucked up the oil, and when you lit it, it was the actual oil that was burning and being used up, but it did affect the wick itself.

And so we're in a normal candle.

The candle would just keep burning down.

The wicked burned down in the candle.

Of course, the wax would burn down and there'd be, at the end, you'd have nothing left.

Hey, Eric, so, you know, the whole picture of this is that the church is not merely a kindle.

Um, uh, to be a candle or to give um, candlelight, but it's to be a lamp stand, shedding forth divine light by the continue.

Now this is what we got to understand.

We hear it here in campus a lot.

I'll wear it, wear a, you know, a city on the hill, you know, let our light shine, and we're referred to those scriptures here today, because they're very important.

But how do we shine?

It's true, a continual supply of oil.

Take away the oil, we lose our shine.

Any church that hasn't got, you know, the Holy Spirit moving in that, moving through the people, our personal life that hasn't got the Holy Spirit working through us.

We will not shine.

Because it's the oil that is the fuel for the light to shine; without the fuel, there's no—you can light the wick, but the wick won't burn unless it's got the fuel there.

So, um, we got to understand that, that being the light of the world, Jesus was the light of the world.

We know that we, but the church being alight within the world, its light is true, the constant supply of the oil of the Holy Spirit.

That's why the Bible says, be filled.

But it's not in the context or the language that it's written in, the, it's the, the grammar of it means continually be filled.

So there's not just one filling of the Holy Spirit.

In our personal prayer times, we meant to spend time and just ask the Holy Spirit, you know, God fill me, fill this vessel again, let it be filled with your oil.

Let it be, the disciples were, apostles were, what, the 120 on the day of Pentecost.

They were filled with the spirit, go forward a couple of chapters in Acts.

They're all praying after the persecution, and all of a sudden as they're praying, the building sh shook with the presence and power of God, and what does it say?

They were all filled.

With a spirit.

Oh, but I thought they were already filled.

They see it, you know, it's like the lampstand.

The land, there's candle stick, it's constantly using.

We are constantly using, so we need to be supplied as well.

So the whole cheap purpose of the candlestick to give light in the holy place.

Where there was no natural light.

Out in the outer court, we had the natural light in the holy place.

It's a tent.

And the most holy place, it's a, it's a big tent divided into 2 sections there and it's covered with skins and all this.

There was no natural light that came in there.

So you walked in there and the candlestick wasn't burning, it was darkness.

So, it was to provide light in there.

And again, speaking of the church, being the only light illuminated by the oil of the Holy Spirit throughout the church age.

So the church is the light.

The church we are the, you know, we are the wine.

We're to not hide our light, but have our light exposed and we're going to have a look at just a little bit of that, what that even means.

So the brazen laver and the candlestick.

Interesting.

They had no measurements.

There's no measurements given to the size of the candlestick as it we saw last week.

There was no measurements to the brazen laver.

And so, um, you know, again, a thought can be that we cannot measure The light of God.

That's revealed through the church.

Um, you know, for time and eternity.

The same being as that we can't measure, you know, the cleansing power of the water of the word.

No. We can't put a measure on it, you know, how much can it, can it cleanse in our life?

How much light can it give out?

There's no measurement to it.

And so, you know, the candlestick itself, what is it?

Again, what is it?

Therefore, there's 2 things that represents both the Lord Jesus Christ.

And but it was also being the light of the world, but it also represents the church.

Uh, the church, the one of the best scriptures is Revelation, chapter one.

In fact, if you like to just turn to that, Revelation.

Chapter one and verses verse 12.

We're pretty well familiar with these scriptures.

And from verse 12, it says, then I turned to see who was talking to me.

And when I turned, I saw 7 gold lampstands.

And among the lampstands, there was someone like the son of man, he was wearing a long road with a gold sash.

Around his chest, his head and his hair were like, uh, white, like wool in fact, as white as snow.

His eyes were like flames of fire.

His feet were like glowing bronze, refined in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of raging waters.

In his right hand.

He held 7 stars out of his mouth, came a sharp 2 edged sword.

His face was like the sun when it shines with full force.

Notice a lot of reference to the light, shining light, bright.

When I saw him, I fell down his feet like a dead man, but he placed his right hand on me, stopped being afraid.

I'm the 1st and last living one, I was dead.

But look, I am alive forever.

Never, I have keys of David, death and Hades, therefore, write down what you have seen, what is, and what is going to happen after this.

The secret meaning of the 7 stars that you saw in my right hand, and the 7 gold lampstands is this.

The 7 stars, the messengers of the 7 churches and the 7 lampstands, are the 7 churches.

Um, just a question.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, sure.

The length, then, was it one, or was it the...?

One of many?

Was a lamb stained one, or was it one of many?

We were about to look into that.

Yeah.

Inquiring minds are jump out. Oh, yeah.

So, um, Actually, the next point on your note is that the candlestick was made from one piece of beaten gold.

Yeah. So it was one, you think, this is amazing, as I held up, you think of something like this, and when you go into it, you know, and go into all of its parts, its knobs, flowers, um, all the different little vessels, uh, on there for the lamps and that type of thing.

This whole thing, one piece of beaten gold.

That's amazing. It wasn't, there wasn't a mould made, and they, you know, once they refined the gold and all of that sort of stuff, they then poured it into the mould and then out came this; it was one piece of gold.

that then was beaten.

All of these different areas.

They weren't sections, they were all one, and they were beaten.

Imagine the ability of those people who did that, which will, which we'll look at.

So, you know, uh, go, why goal?

Well, gold speaks again, of deity, of divine.

Gold is always a reference to the to guide himself, the pureness of gold and that.

But it's also, you know, the divine nature of Jesus.

He was the light of the world and 2nd in obviously in the church.

I want you, because we're going to refer to it a couple of times, let's just go to, um, Matthew, Matthew chapter 5 because, again, it's a description that's used a lot here in our church.

But, um, versus Verse 14.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14 and we'll read verse 15 because we're going to come back and refer to verse 15 and just open that up a little bit as well.

You know, referring to the church as a light, referring to us individually as lights within our, within our world.

Because it says you are the light of the world, a city located on a hill can't be hidden.

In other words, the, you know, the church is to stand out. The church is not to be hidden somewhere in the, you know, in the back blocks and that.

The church is to be seen within a community.

So there's a purpose that, uh, we're not seen in a community if we just gather here on a Sunday and have our own little bless me clubs and meetings and praise the Lord and whatever else, I hope, you know, the terminology that we use in the ministry, holy huddles, and stuff.

You know?

Um, that's not affecting the world.

That's right.

You got to think about that.

If we're a city on a hill and we're to light up, our region is canvas churches to be a city on a hill and it comes forth all the time and it's used all the time.

Well, if it's to be this city on a hill, then what is it?

How is that light going to get out?

And shine within our city?

And um, so verse 15 gives a bit of an idea.

People don't light a lamp and put it under a basket.

But on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

And in the same way, let your light shine.

Verse 16, we'll carry on to there.

In the same way, let your light shine before people in such a way that they will see your good actions.

And glorify your father which is in heaven.

So in that, well, we'll open it up a little bit towards the end.

But, you know, it's easy to say that we're alike.

Let us be a light on the hill.

What would be even, you know, more God that um, that in the way that we conduct ourselves, in the way that we reach out to our community, in the way that, that we're touching people's lives and helping people or whatever God, you know, opens us up to, to function in this city, that in, in the actions of what we do, that we're alike to our community.

That was something that, wow, have you heard what Canvas Church does?

Have you heard that, you know, the people in campus?

Ah, you know, I had contact with a person and they went along to this Canvas Church and man, they helped me out, and, you know, I ran into this person in an aisle of Woolworths, and somehow we got talking, and I just felt it shared something, and that person just, you know, right then and there, they prayed for me, and it just something happened in my life, and, uh,

That's our life.

You know, our light is not, you know, having our church meetings and our deep dives and all this sort of stuff.

Our light is that when we take, you know, these things as where, as the holy ghost works in our lives, that we're putting it to practice out there within the world.

You know, our neighbours are seeing something.

Our friends are seeing something, you know, if they're not saved, there's a difference.

Um, there's a difference around about our life.

A member, a guy who's an apostle now, but he started off as a school teacher, and he was just frustrated with the things about teaching and getting through to the kids, and God just spoke to him and says, this is your classroom, then you take authority in this classroom and set it up.

And so he started to pour a lot of prayer that, you know, these kids would be touched by, as they came into the atmosphere of his classroom, they'd be touched by the presence of God.

And, um, he had kids that were, you know, school teachers, they, he had a bunch of kids go past his, his room and and, um, and they said to him, they said, there is just something about your room.

Every time we walk past your room, we start shaking, and we don't know why, you know, that we would just start shaking.

And he just turned to him, he says, have you guys been involved in the occult now?

Oh, yeah, you know, we're right into that.

See, a time of just sharing with him when teachers could back in those days.

And delivered these kids.

You know, even teachers, there's something strange about your your classroom, you know.

We come into it.

There's an atmosphere, something about it.

I know, but they were just feeling the presence of God.

You know?

His light wasn't being, and we can do that.

We can do it into our homes.

I've started even praying.

I have Silver Chain come and, you know, every 3rd, every 2nd day, just change the dressing on my back, and so I've just, I got a hold of that and I thought, you know, God, when these people come into my home, they'll be in touch.

So I started to, you know, even though the atmosphere in our home is that.

But now I've started to be a bit more specific.

And we've got a lady.

She's going to—we're looking for a way of inviting her to church—and all of a sudden she's become my main nurse.

I used to have all different nurses.

Now this one comes, like she's a sister to Hari.

And she's out there, bubbly, and just fantastic.

But there's a, now there's a reason that, that she just keeps rolling up.

Yeah.

Showdowns doesn't ask for it.

They just keep putting her on the list.

And so we're just walking, working with her and talking, building a friendship and then just looking at that opportunity to invite her.

That's, that's a lie.

You know, we discuss different things.

Uh, uh, she's right into chocolate and Maltese has put out a white chocolate sort of thing.

So Katie went out to and bought her a packet of white, this white chocolate Maltese.

Well, she was over the roof, man, and, and, and eat them and devout them, and she's always asking, you know, some nurses just come in and do their job and out, but she's all, how's the family?

What are you up to?

Where'd you do?

Watching.

what we involved in and we get now involved in her family.

She went over to Queensland and so we were able to, these sort of things, you know, a little, little bits of action where you, where you're shining your light.

And so that's what we've got to look at: in this place, we are a city on a hill.

We are, in one sense, to allow our light.

Um, you know, the presence of God, the light that we are to shine before the world.

But a lot of it is not just words, but action.

What are we doing?

What are we, um, how are we helping people and how are we praying for different things?

So, um, in all of this, the gold had to be beaten into shape.

It wasn't put into a mould, as we said.

This is an interesting thing if you study the goal, the more gold.

The more that you beat gold, the more it shines.

It shines brighter.

What an interesting aspect.

The more you beat it, the more it shines.

And so again, you know, this speaks, again, that the Jesus shone more and more as he went through all his sufferings, his bruisings, these things that, you know, caused him to be a light that shone caused him to be one and and, you know, in that light too.

Don't get upset if people get upset because light exposes.

Yeah.

You know, you can go through that, sometimes why do people persecute you?

Why do they rise up? You think, what did I do?

Well, it's your light.

There's something about you.

There's, there's this.

There's this aspect of God's presence around your life that touches their life and they don't like it.

They don't understand what it is, but your light is exposing something in their life.

And so there's either 2 ways of handling it.

They either, you know, they start asking you questions or they attack you.

There was a very reason that Jesus, you know, all the religious stuff that Jesus had to face, his light exposed the Pharisees.

And they hated it.

absolutely hated it.

Because they had the rule and the rain, you know, they had the people under their feet.

They, they were looked up to as these great people and, and yet Jesus took, well, there's a, in Matthew, you think it is, you whitewashed sepulchres, you vipers, you this, you that.

Great loving Jesus.

You know?

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, one that makes up a whip and clears out the temple, like you see this, but he exposed them.

His light exposed them for who they were, what they were, and they hated it. And so then they were, we got to get rid of this God.

We got to kill him, even though that was in the plan of God anyhow.

Uh, but they didn't understand that, but his exposure, that, and that's the one thing about, you know, allowing this light. And, and, uh, so as he got beaten more.

So don't worry about persecutions.

Because what's going to happen with the persecutions and the trials and the things that the church goes through and the church is people?

So basically what we go through, the testings, the sufferings, and all of that is going to cause us to conform to this divine pattern and shine like pure gold.

We're having the more that we are beaten, the more that we undergo, the more, and it's not just the persecutions either, as we'll see later on.

God does some work in our lives.

God does some disciplines in our lives.

As well, that shaping is moulding us, so that we are being conformed to an image.

So God has an image and God allows different things, different areas, different um, testings, trials, disciplines, circumstances that are going to shape and and us into this uh, candlestick, this, this light that's going to be able to shine, you know, before men.

It's a patent.

And that's why we conform to the image.

There was a pattern for this lampstand, and it was beaten, shaped, and formed into this particular image, and that's what we're going to be formed into.

To fashion.

This is something. I want you to go to Exodus chapter 31.

You know, how could such an intricate piece of detail work be done?

So, excellence, Exodus 31

And versus one to 6, X is 31.

And it says that the Lord said to Moses, look, I called Yuri's son, Bezel, a grandson of her from Judah's tribe.

And I filled him with the spirit of God.

With wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all kinds of craftsmanship to create plans for work in gold, silver, and bronze.

And for cutting stones to set them for carving wood and for doing all kinds of craftsmanship.

Along with him, I'm appointing that fellow's son, that fella, from the tribe of Dan, and I've given wisdom to all who are skilled so they can make everything that I have commanded of you.

So we have these things.

Fill the spirit.

You know, as amazing craftsmen that they were to do what God wanted them to do, they needed that anointing.

to be able to do it.

And so it's the same within our lives, you know, to be able to do, to be able to allow the light to shine, to be able to, um, you know, walk with God and do the things that God wants us to do.

We've got to have his wisdom.

We've got to have his anointing as good as what we are. You know, the greatest speakers, we look at preachers and stuff like that.

Yeah, they can pack, they can pack a place, but the fact of the matter is, you know, to bring the transformation that God desires in the lives of people, they have to be ones that, that are, you know, so anointed and so gifted by him.

Yeah, they're great speakers that you can bring into a church that, that because of their communication skills, you can hang off their words and you go away.

Wow, that's marvellous.

But the fact of the matter is, you know, is there transformation?

God's the transformer.

We come to, we don't just come to church.

We come we come to obviously honour God.

But, you know, even in the message, why, it's another message.

Well, that, that message should be an area that transforms an area that, that, that, pricks our hearts.

Peter, Peter got up and preached on the day of Penecost. And such was the word, you know, that the people were, the Bible says they were pricked in their hearts.

It was like something was driven into it, and they cried out.

What we must

What do we do to be saved?

Church has got to come to that place.

We're not quite there yet.

We have times of it.

We're not quite there yet, in the place where, whereby people, and it's not just salvation.

It's, it's in areas we looked at the, the laver last week, you know, that, that, as the word is coming forth from whoever's, you know, bringing, bringing the word on a Sunday, is it, is it in the sense really exposing the areas and how in a, see, amen?

I've got to be, I've got to be changed in this area.

I've got to be, you know, God, I've got to do something.

We should be going away from church either, either being, you know, being transformed, that the message, you know, we go out, we don't have an altar call for the sake of having an altar call, is where people can be touched by God, because people can be prayed for, people who can be ministered to that sort of thing.

Or, and if they don't, you know, we go home, there are people that go home and they'll meditate on that word and that, and God will then, you know, begin to open up areas and expose.

But I want to say this, you know, if we pray that, God, you're anointing.

Without the anointing, gifted people will fill a building.

Gifted speakers will fill a building, but only anointed, you know.

Speakers will bring forward transformation.

And that's the key.

That's why God says, we want to be conformed into his image and his likeness.

So, um, this, this whole fashioning of it, you know, Master Craftsman, but again, out of all of that, they needed the divine touch to bring forth something that was in the pattern of what God wanted. And we need that divine touch.

Doesn't matter.

You know, how great, how smart, how wise, how, how good we still need the divine touch upon ourselves, upon others to speak into our lives.

Number one, again, it was one piece.

One speaks of unity, wonders, one accord, one church, and uh, Those scripture, John, chapter 17.

Jesus' prayer, you know, that we are one, the number one was all right throughout that prayer in John chapter 17.

And so, you know, we see this aspect coming through that there's, you know, one way of approach to God.

We looked at it through the entrances.

You couldn't go another way.

Well, there's one way to God, our approach to God.

There's one God, there's one mediator between God and men.

There's one sacrifice for sins, there's one body and one church.

I had a, a, and I deleted it somehow, I don't know how I deleted it.

But there was, um, There was, uh, I think it was Pope Francis.

There was a quote from Pope Francis, and I thought, oh, this will be great for deep dive.

And he quoted, I deleted it somehow, but he said this: he was speaking to all the different religions.

He was saying, listen, there is there is one God.

But then he gone on and he said, there are many, you know, to the Muslim, there's their way to it, to Buddha's their way, to someone else, it's their ways.

There's someone else, and they've got his quote, but we all lead to the one God.

No, there's only one way.

And that's what the tabernacle really brings out.

So, um, you know, he he had this quote sort of embracing all religion.

One god?

Yeah, we all we all have the one God, I want to tell you.

The Muslim god is different to the Christian god and the Hindu god is different and they're all different.

The Buddha's god is different.

And all that that they worship.

But there's, yeah, one gone, but it's so many ways, but God keeps it.

There's only one way.

like deleting it, isn't it?

Yeah, one way.

One way.

Just so.

And it sounds, and it, of course, you know, he's trying to be friends with everyone and whatever else, and, but as standing on it, one way, one sacrifice.

Oh, but if I'm a good person, you hear people say, well, if I'm a good person, you know, I'll get to heaven.

Well, how do you regard yourself as a good person?

What standard do you put up as being a good person?

The whole thing of the Ten Commandments, it sits down being a good person.

So you, are you a good person?

And um, and people will say, yeah, I'm a, I, I, I'm a good person.

Ever told a lie?

Or, yeah?

You ever stolen something?

Oh, yeah?

Oh, interesting, you know?

The Bible speaks about, if you break one of these commandments, you're breaking broken all of them.

Yeah.

So you're guilty of the lot, you know?

So, you know, depending on the standard that you set, and that's why, you know, that's why the world, if you understand what's happening in the world, is they all constantly trying to break down the standard of God, lowering the standard.

You know, all things become acceptable and, and this is what, what God sets out, this, this is, this is priority, this is a pet.

Well they start to break it down.

They work it down, you know.

And um, and to the to the point where, uh, well, there's not one way to God, well, there's many ways, you know, as a leading, a leading spiritual, um, person within the world, that that 100s of 1000s of people look up to and take his word as being God speaking himself, and yet he's so off the track, and what the Bible says.

And uh, so there, there's, there's, this whole thing.

So one piece, one piece, unity, oneness, one God, one way, uh, one sacrifice, one body, one church.

Yeah, we could, we look in the world today and we see, well, you know, what about all these churches?

Well, there's one church.

All these churches have just a different name over there over their doorway.

But where one church, there's one body, but there are many members.

So we need to see the church as, you know, the church as a whole is, you know, it makes up the body.

But then we, you know, as the body has many members, so we have many little local churches all around.

So we could say on a local area, all the churches here in Rockingham make up the church in Rockingham.

But each is a member of the church.

So each has, that's why we're different.

each has a different function.

We'll be different to the church down the road or across the road or whatever else because we are a member.

So not all the members are the same.

You know, they're they're different.

There are different functions.

So each local church, in one sense, has a different function.

Then you can break down the local church, you know, as, as, as a body, and one sense, and, and I'm getting probably in a different area.

But, but each of us that make up that local church are then a members.

And so we, so we look at, um, we look at, we look at that as we're, in, in the connect group last night, if we hadn't kept reading one Corinthians 12 that Paul brought into that place about the body and about all different members and how we have all different giftings and functions and whatever.

It's finding, where are we?

Are we in I?

Are we a mouth?

Are we in here?

Are we a finger?

You know, are we a toe?

Are we a leg?

Are we a hand or whatever?

You know, God's made us, and then he's put us into that place in the body, as he, you know, he formed this natural body, made up all of these areas.

So it's, you know, you, you, 1st the natural, then the spiritual, the principle in God.

You can understand spiritual things by beginning to look at the natural.

Paul is a master of that.

He took a, he took things of creation, and then, you know, made them into what I call things of redemption, or he took the natural, and then he related it to the spiritual, and so he took the naturally.

He looked at the light, he looked at the creation of the world, then he brings it over into the New Testament, and he starts to bring the spiritual truth out of it.

He looked at the body, the natural body, and how the natural body, and all the different parts, and then he related the spiritual truth, the church, and the whole function of the church.

So as you study, sometimes the natural, then you can begin to understand, and how does it apply to the spiritual?

Paul was a master at doing that, was his gifting, so to speak.

So it gives us insight into that.

So, again, you know, this whole oneness, one piece, but beaten shaped, it shines, it glows, all this sort of thing.

The candlestick is a picture of the Bible.

Now this is, this is phenomenal.

And is it gone incidence or is, you know, or a coincidence?

In Exodus 25, 31 to 36,

Well, just quickly uh, go to it.

Exodus 25, verse 31.

35.

Because there's, and we just haven't got the time to, to go into this, but this will, this will blow your mind if you don't already know it.

Says 31 to 36.

It's about making the lampstand.

You ought to make the lampstand of pure gold, the lampstand in its base and stem shall be of hammered work and its cups.

The King James uses knobs and flowers are to be one piece with it.

One piece with it.

6 branches are to extend from its sides, 3 branches of the lamp stand from one side and it has had 3 branches, lamp stem from its other side.

3 cups shaped like almond blossoms and with knobs and flowers are to be one to be on one branch and 3 cups shaped and like almond blossoms and knobs and flowers are to be on the other branch.

And so for the 6 branches extending from the lamp stand, on the lamp stand itself, there are to be 4 cups shaped like almond blossoms with their knops and flowers.

A knop is to be under the 2 branches that extend out of, of the stamp, and an office to be under the next pair of branches that extend out, and, and so be it, just goes down, down.

Basically, what I'm speaking is, is, you know, looking at, looking at, at this, these round things of the knobs, and you have the flowers, then you have these bowls up, up the top, which were the actual lamp, the lamps themselves, and had the wigs, and they had the oils.

So all of this, this sort of stuff here.

But, um, the interesting thing, I want you to know is that this is a 7 branch too.

Talks about 3 and three, but there's the middle.

There's a middle branch.

So it's actually 7 branches across with 7 lamps on it.

Okay?

Now, they have discovered that when you, um, when the bolts, the knops, the flowers, on the shaft, along with the 6 branches on each side.

So all these, all these little bits and pieces that they, that they mentioned about the lamb.

So all along the shaft, the shaft is the middle, and then the 3 branches on each side, when all of those were totalled up. Amazingly, it adds up to 66.

You want to write that in your bike? In your in your book there, it just, it just happens to be 66.

But it even gets better.

What does 66 speak of?

Anyone know?

Is it, man?

Big girls?

Man.

No?

66 books.

66 books in the Bible.

I was thinking of that saying, you know, God's holy word.

Yeah. Tell in the story.

Yeah.

So we have a beautiful picture of the Bible.

It just happened?

No?

It's a divine pattern.

Now, if we were further to this, if you were to take the shaft, And then 3 branches on one side of that shaft, it happens to be 39.

What does 39 stand for?

39 books in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament.

Then it even gets better.

If you take the 3 branches on the other side, total up all of those, it just happens by chance to come up to 27.

Watch 27 speak of.

The New Testament books.

So in all of this, we have a wonderful picture of the Bible itself that how it illuminates how it each speaks.

It's, it's a, um, it's a picture. 66, we, then you got the, the 39 and the 27th and, um, you know, the, the great thing is that the Bible is the only divine light and divine word for humanity.

It is the divine light, the divine word.

It's only his word that can show us where we are and where we're going.

Yeah.

Psalm 119.

I love this verse.

And it says, the word is a What?

Light?

Lamp, light.

Lamp, I think it's a lamp unto my feet.

Yeah, and light. And it's light to my path.

Notice it is a lamp onto my feet, so it shows me where I am.

Okay.

And then a light unto my path that shows me where I can go.

And so we need that, we, again, we need that word within our, in our lives to, to share, God, where am I?

Works interesting a bit like the laver where the laver shows, you know, exposes the things of, of where we are and then we apply it and it, and it can, you know, it works on our life to re, uh, to cleanse us of those areas.

So it's an it's a now and an and a future.

So we look at that, that, that candlestick, that light that we have shows us where we are.

We need the word of God.

It will show us where we are now.

It'll show us where our place is, but it'll also show us where we can go.

Steps of a good man are ordered by the law.

The Spirit of God, man plans his ways, but God will direct his paths.

He will lead us, he will guide us.

Purpose of the candlestick obviously was to give light.

It was the only source of light in the holy place.

We touched on it earlier, won't, I won't stay in there, but this handout that you got, you know, in, in relation to where the tabernacle fits in with the, what I call the redemptive week out of Bible collars, scholars call it the redemptive week of God.

You know, his process from, from sin up to the 2nd coming and, and on to eternity for Jesus.

So, uh, within that.

So it was, it was to give light.

It's the only light in this age.

The church, you know, basically is, is the only light that the world has today.

And so amazingly, we see how the world is trying to extinguish the light.

More and more of the persecutions.

You know, overseas, we don't hear it.

We hear of all that, the rubbish that goes on, but they don't tell you, you know, about the 10s of 1000s of Christians that have been martyred in Africa, in Nigeria, and all this that never reported on.

And what are they trying to do?

Well, they're trying to snuff out the light, but they'll never.

They'll never do.

God always has, um, you know, his light shining.

No matter how much persecution and that comes.

The candlestick was to give light before the Lord.

It's placement in the in the holy place was that it was, it was shining before the veil. And because we know the veil is the entrance into the most holy place, which was where the presence of God, the Shekinah glory of God was.

There was, there was no, no need of light into that when we, when we look at the ark of the covenant.

There was no need of light into that most holy place.

Um, God was the light within that area.

It was his presence, his glory illuminated that.

So when you read Revelation, at the end, there's no need for the sun, moon, and stars.

For God now is the light.

And so so we see all of these particular areas.

And, um, you know, the, again, the principle is that that, um, we're, uh, we're shining and uh, that the world by the works.

of God that we do.

Brings glory to God.

So we're this light that's shining before the Lord, and the world, by the works, and we looked at Matthew chapter 5 there, let our light shine.

And let them see your good works.

And out of that as they see it, then God's going to get the glory.

Again, the candlestick was to give light upon itself.

This is a, a little bit of a difficult scripture to when you read it, it has different translations, have different ways of explaining it.

And you've got to go back into the Hebrew words to sort of give a little bit of an understanding.

But, uh, very simply, Aaron, the high priest, when he came into the holy of holies, was to um, adjust the lampstand, the way that the lampstand was, was in it, it was, and the different scriptures or different translations bring out the both sort of minis.

It was to let, let's say at the end of this table, there was, there was the lampstand.

Now, the lampstand, I, it could, it could face you face on, or it could be turned so that, you know, the light is not so much, um, going that way.

It could go different size.

So there was a way that the lampstand was placed within the holy of holies, so that it could project out light, because obviously it had to light up the altar, the golden altar of incense and also the table of show bread, but also it, it, it reflected light upon itself.

And uh, where, where it says that there's, there's, it gave light upon itself in different translations.

Aaron positioned it.

So, you know, it was that it was illuminating itself as well as as it was illuminating other things.

That's the whole meaning of this.

And so we look at it in the same way how the, you know, how the Holy Spirit illuminates the 66 books.

We we try to read the Bible without the impartation without the Holy Spirit helping us.

It's just it's a dark book.

You know, people like, people read and say, I haven't got a clue what that's same word, man.

You know, what's all of this about?

But as the Holy Spirit, or the light illuminates it, we start to see it.

The lamp represents divine illumination.

I, I, in my research, I dug this out and I put this, this actual portion in just to give us a little bit more understanding.

Um, lamp represents divine illumination, revelation, witness, and righteous deeds, uh, if we compare those to scriptures, um, some 190 was looked at before, uh, about, uh, the lamp being under our feet, a light to our path, proverbs 4 and and verse 18. uh, I'll just quickly grab it uh, for it.

So just to be up there.

But, You know, says the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that grows brighter until the full light of day.

The whole aspect of the light, illumination, all this thing.

Now, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 15 says, no mean lights are light, and then puts it under a basket.

That word in there is a Greek word puts it under a basket.

And I found this very interesting as I was doing some study on it.

The, the basket stands for anything that conceals.

You want to write that word conceals.

You know, if you put a basket of, you put a covering over the light, you know, all of a sudden you, you, you dim the light.

You stop the light.

So, so in there, you know, we don't lie to light.

We don't, you know, God doesn't, when we're born again, we become, we can become light, but we can hide ourselves.

So in Matthew chapter chapter 5 talking about that whole light thing, city on a hill, you know, a church can conceal itself.

It can hide itself, you know, it can hide itself through.

I like these things, you know, fear, compromise, self-preservation, or societal pressure.

And I will just keep to ourselves, you know, we don't want to rock the boat.

Is a statement of that?

Well, what we're doing is we're putting our light underneath a basket.

We're concealing it.

And so, uh, what what we really need to be doing, it, the lampstand pictures, the God given platforms, through which believers are meant to shine.

Our workplaces, social media, local communities, volunteering, things that we're doing.

We're out there, we're landing our light shine.

We're not allowing fear and all these other things. There's, oh, well, I don't, I don't want to tell, you know, I don't want to tell people I'm a Christian.

I don't want to do this.

And we've, we've all faced, faced that.

past the space that, they get up so boldly on a Sunday and preach, and we should be like this, and then all of a sudden they can get faced in the community with something and that, they can pull back.

I've done it myself.

over the years, just pull back and I, and then, you know, tried to cover it up.

Oh, yeah, but I'm just being wise and I think, yeah, give a life, man.

You're scared stiff.

Call it for what it is, you know.

All right.

So, so within that, that to give you an understanding of that scripture in Matthew 5, verse 15, let not things conceal our light, but let the, look at the platforms where we can shine our light.

Candlestick was divinely lit.

Uh, the divine fire.

Now this is,

There's a lot of Bible scholars because there's not a full clarity in scripture, you know, just how this how this all happened.

So I'm saying something here that it aligns up with how God does something, but it's not fully within scripture.

Now, in Leviticus, in 9 chapter 22 and 24, it talks about divine fire coming out from the glory of God, right from the holy of holies.

It was, and fire came out through that, and um, and it lit the brazen altar.

Somehow the brazen all had to be lit, you know, because that's where they did the, that's where they did the sacrifices.

Now, it was one obligation of the priest, that they had to keep the fire burning all the time, for the sacrifice.

God lit the fire, the priests had to keep the fire going.

Now it's the same principle with the with the candlestick.

When the divine fire came out and consumed the sacrifices, the Brazen Altar was lit.

It is pretty well amongst most Bible scholars, that Coles then, divine lit coals, were taken, and they ignited the lamps on the candlestick, and also the golden altar of incense, because it, it had a fire within it, because when the priest or the high priest threw the, through the incense on it, it would burn, and up would come a, a fragrance, before the veil and before God.

And, and, uh, you know, the holy place and the most holy place was filled with this fragrance from that, from the incense.

So how did those fires get lit?

They need to be lit.

Well, God, you know, the principle of God is that he lights the fire.

So that's why they say, even though the Bible doesn't say that they carried coals into the, and they lit the lampstand and they lit the, the golden altar, and then from then on, they weren't allowed to go out.

It is, it is implied that through the divine fire 1st, then the coals were taken, and that, and they were lit.

But you won't find it in Scr.

I've searched and and researched and it doesn't have a description that say that is.

But it is broadly held by Bible scholars that when God lit the fire, then those coals were taken, lit the lamp, lit the golden altar of incense.

But the thing is this.

The fire was to never go out.

Never.

It was to never go out, and there was a human responsibility.

To provide, now, with the lampstand, where did they get the oil from?

Well, the Bible speaks about, um, uh, that it was then the people had to get and beat the olive, um, Olive, grape buds, whatever they were, you know, they had to crush and get the oil, and it was true the people that they provided to the, the priest that, um, you know, the, the oil,

That was replenished day and night.

Because it was, it was the, um, it was the high priest, Aaron's responsibility, uh, to to be doing that.

And I'll talk about this in a second, but, but, you know, the whole thing, it speaks about the church, it being lit on the day of Pentecost.

We see flames of fire, tongues of fire come down, church was lit, but now it's up to the people to keep that fire burning.

through, you know, it's our responsibility to, you know, to, for the divine oil upon us in prayer and through worship and seeking God, you know, to have a continual supply of the, of the divine oil.

And so to keep our lamps, you know, we wear lamps, uh, the lamp of the church burning, the lamp individual lamps burning.

It is our responsibility.

Otherwise, we're not, you, you look and, and you could go and open up the, the, uh, Matthew 25, uh, end time parable.

The wise had oil in their lamps, but then they had extra oil.

The foolish only had oil in their lamps.

The bridegroom was delayed, which is a common practice in Eastern, um, Eastern weddings.

They're totally different from Australian wedding.

Apartment, you know, in an Australian wedding, it's usually the bride that delays herself, so to speak.

But in Eastern weddings, that it was the bridegroom that delayed.

So in his delay.

You know, and the time.

And because of the time they, the foolish never had the extra oil.

So their lamps were going out.

They were running low in oil and and so they were asking, hey, give us some of your oil.

And they said, the wise one said, no, no.

And it wasn't that, because we wouldn't have enough, maybe, for ourselves and for you.

Ah, we don't, we don't know how much time and, and so they were then going told to, you go, you go to the place and buy for it.

There's a cost for the oil of the Holy Spirit.

There's a cost in your in relationship.

There's a cost in prayer and seeking.

I've never seen people that are really anointed, that haven't paid a price in that, in, in their devotion, in their prayer, in their commitment, in fasting, praying, and seeking God.

There's a cost to it.

And so there's this God lit the fire, but it's also human responsibility now to keep that that fire burning and the oil is the thing that keeps the fire burning.

And it becomes our responsibility to, um, you know, to keep that fire burning, to keep that, that, um, light shining.

And just as we finish off here, the trimming of the lamps, which is another process, each lamp had to be maintained by the high priest daily.

It wasn't a weekly thing, it was a daily thing, both morning and evening.

As he ministered, now this is an interesting thing.

He had to tend the lampstand and do all his work in the lampstand while he was ministering at the golden altar of incense.

Very simply, the golden altar of incense speaks of prayer, praise, intercession, worship.

Just, you know, interesting there.

So whilst he's and it's the high priest, it's not just any priest.

It was the high priest that tended the golden altar and also the lampstand.

So as he's ministering at the golden altar, he's also then doing some stuff with the golden lampstand, which 2 things that he had to do was the trimming of the wicks and the resupplying of the oil.

Now the trimming of the wick speaks of the cutting away the dead burnt out areas.

Of the wicks.

You know of any wicked?

It starts.

The reason that they do that is because the more that, um, uh, the wick is burning out of its dead areas, the more smoky it gets, so it dulls the light.

That talking of repentance?

Um, it can.

I'll give you some couple of clues here.

You know, in a minute.

But yeah, so, so in the area of the, the operation of the high priest, he's there in his, in his intercessory role, his prayer role, he's mediating the role, but now he's dealing with the, with the candlestick.

He's trimming those dead, those burn out portions of the weeks. And so that there's a good clean light.

Now again, who is the high priest today?

Jesus Christ, our high priest.

Bible says in Hebrews 7, verse 25 that he's always making intercession for us.

So in these intercessory mediator role, he's also going to be working upon our lives.

And he's going to be dealing with, you know, the dead and the burnt out areas of our lives.

Which he uses tools to do.

The tools that he uses are snuff dishes and tongs.

And so what the priest used to do, the snuff dishes means that the light was put out.

Then he could trim the wicks, and uh, they could, uh, he would, um, you know, replace the oil, fill that, fill the little bowl up with with oil again, and then he would relight the fire again.

Now, within this, The whole area of the snuff dishes, what he's doing and the tools that he do, he's using and points us to the different tools God uses to cut away the dead and the burnout areas of our lives.

One of the areas speaks about it in Hebrews is um, you know, the discipline of God.

Why does God discipline us at different times?

You know, he's making intercession for us.

He's pleading our case on behalf.

We've got an accuser that's trying to pull us down and he's there in our place.

But whilst he's doing that, he's also going to be working on our lives.

He's going to be, he's going to be cutting out the dead, the burnout areas.

There's some disciplines that got.

You ever been disciplined by God?

I have.

Yeah, different times.

It's not a common sort of thing, but on the other side, it might be just a little word.

Just over the last couple of weeks, God is just highlighted, just little words that just, if you did, if I wasn't aware of them, I would have missed them.

But just he spoke just this, the Bible talks about the, you know, the still small voice of God.

That, what it was.

But just of flint.

Oh.

dealt with the way that I was thinking, dealt with some attitude, some some faith areas in my life.

They were dead burnt out areas.

They were stopping a light shining in my life when I look back at them.

And so he, you know, there are all different things.

Why do we go through trials?

James talks about rejoice when you go through trials because this is what it's doing in your life.

What's he doing?

He's trimming the wig.

He's doing something in your life and he uses these tools, all sorts of different tools.

And it can just be a word.

Out of him, and, and, you know, the thing that he spoke to me, it came back into the word, and he speaks a lot to me through the word, and I, oh yeah, I got that wrong, man.

I miss that.

Yeah, I've allowed that to come into myself and so he, what was he doing?

He's trimming the weeks.

Because, hey, you're not you're not shining bright in that in that area of your life.

So all of these tools that are used, John 15 and verse 2 talks about what, the trimming of the vine?

What is he, he cuts away.

Even when you're bearing fruit, he cuts away so that you will bear more fruit.

That's letting your light shine.

That you're you're producing, you're bearing more fruit.

Out of that.

So, so this was a, you know, don't get worried if God is on your occasion, you feel, 0 my God, you know.

Seems like morning and night, God's on my case.

Well, what's he doing?

Trimming some wigs.

He's replacing some oil and he's working on you because he wants his light to shine, you know, so much before man.

So the church of this day is to be the light and the mist of a perverse generation.

We must yield ourselves to God so that our light shines brightly.

Now that's the whole thing.

We're not shining, you know, and it's in who we are and what we do.

That's the 2 key things and who we are, what we do.

We're being conformed to his image.

So all of that, our whole, you know, character would speak last night about the love, allowing the love of God to, you know, to flow through us.

But it's not all love, you know, there's, there's some actions you can, if you, yeah, you can, you can be the most loving person, but if you can't do anything, what's the use?

You're just a loving person.

You know, sometimes people need more than love.

They need they need a touch.

from God from you.

So the love motivates you to touch.

Jesus was moved with compassion.

And he saw the people, sheep without a shep, and he was moved with compassion.

Right?

He was trying to scrape the crowd, but the crowd were running after him.

He was, he was, he was going up in the mountain, but the crowd found him and gathered round, but he was moved with compassion.

He could have said to the crowds, can go away, I'm tired.

Then I've been ministering all day, 1000s of people.

But he saw them through his heart, his love, his compassion.

But it wasn't only that, right?

Then he then ministered to them.

He healed them.

He prayed for him. He worked through him.

So, you know, we are to have both of those things.

Our light is, you know, our light is, is who we are.

We have the compassion, we have the love.

We look out on Rockingham and are broken and, and uh, and, you know, and the other side of it too.

We talk about a lot about the brokenness of people. And I was speaking to Katie the other day and I said, you know, one of the other things that we we don't pray enough about is the successful people.

The ones that have got good families, got a good job, got the money, living well, all of that sort of thing.

But they're without gone.

Now, we're oftentimes we're always praying about, oh God, those that are going through hard times, God, those are the wreck on those and that.

But equally, we have so many successful people, but their success has moved them away.

Oh well, I don't need God.

They're just as bad as what they they're hurting and that is those are.

So it's just in that balance in there.

So that is, in a brief way, the golden lampsting.

Very, thank you.

Thank you very much.

So...

Any question?

Revelations where we were with the seven lampstands.

Yes.

Was it seven times seven? Or was it just seven?

Um, I don't, I couldn't probably answer that. It's 7, 7 lamp stanzas, you know, you could probably read too much into it, but 7 lamp stands were basically in the context of what it was.

It was the 7 churches that Christ was speaking about and each one of them.

And each one of them relates to an aspect of us, like dealing, you know, when these things I have against you.

So, uh, you know, from from moving away from your 1st love, a lot of people say that, um, the lad to see in church was, uh, you know, it's the church of our age.

It thinks it has everything, but it has nothing.

You know, it's blinded and um, and and they, you know, in the lab you see in church too, you know, I'd rather you hot or cold and a lot of people read into that.

Well, you know, hot is good, but cold is not.

But in the context, if you study it, um, uh, that, that hot and cold are good.

There is some things that are beneficial, like in the healing of the body, you know, you apply, you know, heat to areas of your body and it can help.

But you can apply cold to your body, you can help.

So hot and cold. In the context of it, there were springs.

There were hot springs and there were there were areas of cold, but each of them supplied a beneficial.

But what Jesus was saying, his principal thing was about mixture.

That's why he said, if you look, well, what's lukewarm?

It's a mixture of hot and cold.

So, we can get into meat.

God with God has no problem, cold is not meaning in that context, it's not meaning that we've grown cold to God.

It's cold in and out of beneficial way.

That's why he says, I'd rather you hot or cold.

So he didn't have a problem whether you're hot or cold because they were both good.

He said, what I've got, the problem is, is when you mix them and you, you, you dilute, you, you dilute your hotness or you dilute your coldness, then you become, you make me sick when you do that.

That's pretty straight words.

You know, so God's not into mixture.

God's not into either bee hot or cold, whatever, you know, that aspect is.

But don't mix it.

Don't be lukewarm.

He said, otherwise you make me sick.

 

Yeah, yeah.

So he goes on, you know, everything that they thought that they had, then he says, now that you need to.

You know, if you're this, if you look warm, you make me sick, then you go and you buy.

There's that same thing.

There's a cost.

There's always a cost.

Salvation is free, but, you know, there's a cost in working out our salvation and growing closer to God.

There's always a cost, and that cost is, we make that choice.

What are you choosing to do?

People choose to stay in the outer court, I believe.

People would choose to stay in the most holy place.

That's where they're comfortable.

They don't want to pay the cost.

God is always, you know, draw near to me and I'll draw near to you, but you make the choice of how close you draw near to God, your choice.

I've said before you, blessing and cursing.

I've said before, you know, blessing and cursing, right way, wrong way, 2 parts.

Wide gate, narrow gate.

You choose.

Had an interesting, and do some study during the week on that, on the, um, on the narrator, because we've, we, we touched it in that, in when we're doing the entrances and how that, you know, went for a wider get into the outer court, but it, it, everyone came in, then we came to the holy place, and it was only the priests and the high priests that they were in the holy place, and then, you know, each, each progress, and it sort of narrowed, narrowed down more.

And uh, yeah.

Interesting concepts that I've never seen before in the areas of the Whitegate and Narragate.

Um, isn't it, um, amazing how The ultimate is the holy place, isn't it?

Absolutely.

That's the ultimate.

Why would I don't understand why would people not want to go straight to the like to the holy place?

Because they do they feel they're not good enough or?

Some. That could be, it could be a number of things.

Yeah, they may have feelings that they're not worthy to go in there.

Sometimes they're just comfortable.

Where they are.

People, you know, it's like I shared at a couple of weeks ago.

Uh, about Tira.

He was on his way to the, you know, to the promised land, Abraham's father.

And he was on the way to the Promise Lane.

He came to a place, Haran.

And he stopped there.

Something, something grabbed a hold of him that he stopped there and then next minute you find he settles there.

What caused him to stop?

What caused him to settle?

On a Christian walk, we're aiming.

Yeah, we want the most holy plan.

We want the very presence of God, but on our journey to that, there can be things that cause us to stop and cause us to settle.

And, you know, then, you know, God spoke to, spoke to Abraham, and you got to understand the culture, you know, why did God say to him, get up, get out of this, this, he spoke to him about getting out of his land, getting out of his, I'll be out of his family.

There was 3 things that he actually spoke of him to do in their culture.

He was he was leaving behind the familiarity he was leaving behind the security.

He was leaving behind the protection.

He was leaving behind the provision, because in the culture of that day, that's what the family provided.

They were big families, you know, they were all together.

And so within the family was all, you know, the land that they were in was the familiarity.

You know, if you go to a different lane.

You go to, you get away from your family when we, we left, you know, Queensland came over here.

We were leaving all our family and into a place that we'd never been before. We knew a couple of people, but it was a whole new thing.

So we're leaving some security.

Well, and stuff.

So in those days, yeah, that's why God said to him, you got to leave all of this because then God then becomes a trust.

Some people can't leave it.

So, does that mean that God thinks any different of them?

If they're in that place or not?

I, I don't, I don't think God never, yeah, God is, God has a,

He has a heart, yeah, for the for the people and and um, God respects, God respects our choice.

I think that you got to understand, doesn't think any less of us, but he also respects our choice, the choices that we make.

That he's given us the power of choice.

That is probably one of the best gifts that we have, that he's given us the power of choice.

And right through from Genesis, you know, through to Revelation, you see the choices, you know, either the choices that we make are detrimental to us or they move us on.

But God respects that.

People, you know, people get up and say, oh, God sends people to hell.

No, he respects the choice of people rejecting him.

And it, it, it, you know, God wants no one.

to go to hell.

But he knows, he knows that there are ones that um, that will reject him.

And he respects, he respects that choice that they've made.

He's done everything that he can to try and change their joys.

But he also respects their choice.

So when people are walking with God, you know, if people choose to, you know, to stop and then to settle.

God respects that.

name might move on those to encourage them and bring along people.

But it's still then the choice of the person.

We are involved in, um, God can, God can do all sorts of things, but it comes back to us in, in how far we go with him.

How far we're prepared.

Matthew, you know, if you're prepared to go to war, then you better weigh up the cost.

you're going to build something better way up the cost.

The whole principle is, you know, if you really want all this stuff, you know, weigh up the cost.

Like there's a cost.

There's a, we're looking, we think, 0 man, wouldn't that be great to move in that power or wouldn't it be great to have that inside, that prophetic insight or that, those gifting moving in, but there's a cost.

I haven't, I haven't,

I've read the, you know, I've read the testimonies of people and even my own pastor back in Queensland that, you know, he started the movement, just what he went through to achieve some of the stuff.

And I'm thinking, am I prepared to pay that cost?

Am I prepared? Like, I'm thinking, oh, my God.

But then we, we, we, because he was prepared to pay the cost, we sit back, oh, wow.

You know, we see the results of the cost.

We don't see all the benefits.

Yeah.

We don't see how much he paid to get that.

Like, you know, it's true.

All sorts of things. And, oh, yeah.

Can I just share something?

Yeah.

You ladies might want to go, or I'm gonna be in trouble with my wife.

Yeah, hang on, just listen to me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, don't bring it.

Say it to in it.

Edith, start to share testimony and we had to stay there and listen.

So it gets me off the hook.

I just, yeah, felt that I should share this while you were talking about the candlestick.

Uh, was divine neglect.

When you were, when you were cool.

I got a whip of smoke.

Oh, right.

Yeah, and as you spoke, and then I saw a fire.

What? Wow.

Yeah, been a burning.

Wow.

You could smell the smoke.

Yeah, I just thought I'd cheer that.

Yeah, wow.

That's awesome.

Fire on the altar.

Yeah.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

Wasn't going to, I was thinking all about sound early, but, you know.

Some people, hey, we better go.

That's good.

Katie was at a meeting somewhere.

I don't know.

I think I was with her and she was just, she was just saying, do you smell that?

Yeah.

Yes, man.

There was a fragrance or something that was coming through.

Some people, yeah, pick that up.

I'm hopeless.

I've never had

Never...

Awesome.

That's good.

Oh, that's really good.

God lighting the fire.

You didn't go into the story of the bridesmaids, you know, with the trimming of the lamps.

Yep.

So you got two different sets.

There, one that makes a choice not to do anything but carry on.

Yeah. And the other ones that trim their lights.

Yeah.

Yeah.

These are deeper.

Um, I'm just sort of restudying them from a different aspect and, you know, the specifics of the, of the the 10 and the 5 and, you know, all all of that. And I would, we've, we've mastered on the areas of the, of the oil.

Um, but yeah, there's a, there's something, there's something different with the, um, the emphasis not being quite on the oil.

Yeah.

It's an important part, but there's, yeah, there's more to when you study a bit more of the culture that day.

Yeah, why the number?

You know, we've mentioned it here in at different times.

Why the number 10?

Why, why did he split it down the middle and say 5 and 5?

Why not 7 and 3?

Why not?

Yeah, it says, I'm sort of, yeah, studying that at the moment.

And the other one I'm studying is where Jesus comes walking on the water.

And the big emphasis has been on the area of Peter walking on the water.

But the whole of that is not so much around Peter, but it's around Jesus.

It's around some things that he says and he reveals, yeah, to them, how he uses all this.

Yeah.

Well, he put him in the boat in the 1st place.

Yes.

Why did he put him in the boat?

After feeding him, the 5000, he constrained him. And the word actually means that get in the boat and go over the other side.

You know, he was giving them a command to hop in the boat.

Did the, did they?

You know, did the storm catch him out?

Did he know that they were going into a storm?

What does that even speak of?

He was up, you know, he was up on the mountain.

the Bible says that he saw them, you know, rowing against the storm and struggling against the storm.

Jordan, FaceTime Benny.

And then?

And then, you know, he leaves it to the... Jordan.

I think you'd better go.

Yeah.

Then he goes, and then he says...