Everyone Has A Place

(If you want to read more on this subject - check out this post too!)

Proverbs 27:8 “Like a bird that wanders from its nest Is a man who wanders from his place.”

Everyone has a place. It’s the place you’re designed to be - the place God calls you to be. It’s where you’ll find you’re greatest fulfillment. It’s where God expects you to be when He wants to use you. It’s the spot where you can be the greatest blessing to Heaven and humanity. It’s the place you belong.

Jacob found that place in Genesis 28:11 - it was first called the “certain place.” Later, Jacob realized that place was where God was. “Surely Yahweh is in this place and I didn’t know it!...How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God! This is the gate of Heaven!” Jacob found out that his place was Bethel - the house of God!

Later in life, Jacob was aimless and without direction. He just experienced a family tragedy. His only daughter was raped and his sons massacred the whole town where her rapist lived. Now Jacob feared for his life! He was feeling down, depressed, probably doubting the promise God had made to him. What was God’s answer for him? Genesis 35:1 “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there...” God’s response was to send him back to the place he started; that certain place, the awesome place, the house of God!

About 450 years later, after God had brought Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt, He gave them almost the same command. In Deuteronomy 12:2 God describes how the nations in Canaan were worshipping on every hill and under every tree - wherever they felt like. In verses 5-7 He says, “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.  And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.”

God declared that there was one place where He called His people to worship Him - and that’s where they would receive His blessing.

David understood this. When he was running from Jerusalem, from his son Absalom, The priests were going to carry the Ark of the Covenant with him. David stopped them and said, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place.” David knew that it was his responsibility to go to that set place - he couldn’t move it around with him!

When David’s son Solomon built the first temple, that was where God set His place. That was the place God picked to meet with His people. After the dedication, God met with Solomon and said, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.”

Can you see that it has always been God’s plan to emphasize certain places? For Jacob, it was Bethel. For Israel, it was the tabernacle and then the temple. But this place is always called “the house of God.”

Fast forward to the New Testament. Now we have believers who claim that they don’t have the responsibility to go anywhere. But we see in Hebrews 10:25 that we’re still called to assemble together. 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us where we’re supposed to do this - “in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” God still has a place where He calls His people to come to Him - the church!

There is a place for you. You were never called to be a loner or a spiritual floater. You were called to be rooted in God’s house! You need to send those roots deep. You need to decide right now that nothing (no offense, no lure of the world, and no trap of the enemy) can ever pull you out of your place! Here’s why: Psalm 133 says that God commands His blessing to a certain place - where brothers dwell together in unity!

Have you found your place yet?

A Glorious Church

2 Chronicles 1:3-4 Then Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for the tabernacle of meeting with God was there, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness. But David had brought up the ark of God from Kirjath Jearim to the place David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.

This passage gives us look at two different tents of worship:

The Tabernacle was the tent that God set up in the wilderness. Moses built it in the book of Exodus. Once he set it up, the Bible says that God's glory filled it. The priests weren't even able to go in at first, because of the glory of God. The Ark of the Covenant was there – a majestic symbol of God's presence. When Israel finally entered the Promise Land, the tabernacle came with them It was set up in Shiloh.

While the Tabernacle was at Shiloh, something devastating happened to it. 1 Samuel chapters 4-6 tells the story: A single, ungodly act by the Israelites caused the Ark of the Covenant to be captured. Although God brought the Ark back to Israel seven months later, it never entered the Tabernacle again. The Tabernacle still functioned though; and it moved from Shiloh to Nob to Gibeon – where it was in the time of Solomon. The priests still performed the religious rituals and ceremonies. From the outsiders point of view, it looked the same. But this tent of worship was missing the Ark, the very symbol of God's presence!

Enter David. God loved David and David loved God! When David became king in Jerusalem, his heart's desire was to have the symbol of God's presence (the Ark) close to him. At the time, the Ark was being cared for by the family of Abinadab in the town of Kirjath Jearim. David's desire was to move it to Jerusalem. After a three-month pit stop at Obed-Edom's house (while David learned a lesson on the proper way to usher in God's presence), the Ark was brought to Jerusalem. David set up a tent for it and appointed Zadok and Abiathar to be priests. A multitude of singers and musicians were there to constantly praise and worship God.

The difference between these two tents was striking. One was beautiful on the outside, the other was rather plain. One had all the religious traditions and customs, the other had heartfelt service and genuine worship. One had the presence of God inside it, the other was hiding its emptiness.

It's the same difference between churches today. One type is all about forms and customs, the other is devoted to God's presence. One can be found in 2 Timothy 3:5 “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” The other can be found in Ephesians 5:27 “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”

It's not about how relaxed or how formal your church is. God's presence was in the Tabernacle first, with all it's ceremonies and traditions. And then after staying in David's informal tent, the Ark went to the Temple, with its ceremonies and traditions. So being formal or casual has nothing to do with this. What it's all about is this; are you in a place where God's presence is?

But beyond the local church, are you personally housing God's presence? Or, like so many professing Christians, are you going through the rituals and traditions of “church” without ever seeking the presence of God? You could be in the most devout, powerful and sincere church on the planet and still be worshiping in an empty Tabernacle personally. If I were you, I would find out how to be a part of Jesus' glory-filled church and leave empty traditions behind!