Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today – what God rips no one should try and repair. The way into God’s presence is completely open, don’t try and reestablish barriers to entry.
Luke 23:44-46 TPT
[44] It was now only midday, yet the whole world became dark for three hours as the light of the sun faded away. [45] And suddenly in the temple, the thick veil hanging in the Holy Place was ripped in two! [46] Then Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, I surrender my Spirit into your hands.” And he took his last breath and died.
Observation
What an illustration and declaration of intent. The “thick veil” that separated people from where the presence of God was in the temple, the Holy place, gets ripped open. Now everyone can come into the intimate presence of God. The death of Jesus opens the way for all. Once only priests entered on specific days after, ceremonial cleansing of sins had been performed, but now, it’s all changed, anyone can enter. No preparation, for sin, has been totally dealt with for all people for all time. The declaration is loud, clear, and miraculous – Nothing now separates us from God.
The religious elite who organised the crucifixion to protect their position, and their power, were in one rip totally replaced for all time. They were no longer required to be representatives before God, all could come just as they are and enjoy his presence. It is amazing that in the name of religion, in the name of God, sometimes (often) we try and sow back up the curtain. We try and put barriers between God and her people. We try and say who can enter how they can enter and what they need to do to be respectable for entry. We must have missed that God just ripped open the way and left it that way. It was no accidental rip, it was very deliberate.
There is only one truly transformative place, when you enter into the Holy place, when you enter into the intimate presence of God. That’s why God rips it open. It’s not be transformed to come, it’s the way is open to come so you can experience the only true transformative presence there is, Him, His love, His presence, His embrace. And if you come you don’t have to be transformed, for the lover God just wants you to come, that’s his agenda, it’s just that transformation happens when you get close to a new way of being, holy being.
Application
Know the way into the intimacy of God has been ripped open for me for all time. Nothing I do, nothing others try and place upon me as prerequisites, will ever sow back up the curtain, it’s ripped for good. God came for this, that’s the point of the incarnation. To open the way to Him, to know Him, to be with Him, don’t change the greatest reason of incarnation. Jesus breathed his last so we could have this privileged place of intimacy.
Response
Thank you that you want me in your presence. Thank you that you remove all that would separate me from you. Thank you that you place crazy worth upon me, it is extravagant. Thank you that your intention is always presence, to be seen, to be known, to be experienced intimately.
Meditation
Meditate – the thick veil hanging in the Holy Place was ripped in two.
Consider:
Do I sow the curtain up and keep me and others from entering?
Am I enjoying the invitation of the ripped veil?
JOURNEY DEEPER