Greetings,
We live in a New Covenant and we have been given access to God’s mercy and God’s grace. Mercy frees us from the judgments of the law and grace empowers us to reign in life with the transforming power of life. God’s grace invites us into a place of being part of the corporate community of Christ that brings the blessings of heaven into this world. We saw in Psalms 87 that God loves Zion more than the tents of Jacob. Zion is the city of God, the community of God. Jacob is a testimony to us as seekers of God, but Zion is a testimony to being the community of God. Jacob is a testimony to our love for God, but Zion is a testimony to God’s love for the community of God and the testimony of the inheritance of God made known in the earth. Zion is a mountain of God’s presence. It is the place of God speaking in the earth.
Hebrews 12:18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)
The law was given at Mount Sinai, but grace is given at Mount Zion. Only one man was able to come and receive the Torah/Temple plan and that was Moses. He experienced an encounter with God that gave him a testimony of the law, a shadow of the good thing to come, which is the power of Christ in us and the transforming testimony of God’s grace. The design of the tabernacle was given with an outer court, a holy place, and the holy of holies with all its furnishings. Everything was given to Moses was just a shadow of what God has always wanted in the earth as a reality among men. Zion is a place where God lives, not a place we go. It is a place we are. It is a place where God lives. It is a place where we hear God, we experience Him, and we experience the freedom of the life of Christ in all things. True revelation comes by God’s manifest presence. It is the place of eating the food of the Spirit and a place of experiencing the sustaining power of life that comes only from God. Zion is a place of receiving the boldness to be in God’s presence and the boldness that comes from being in His presence. Zion contains the fragrance and atmosphere of things that speak of spontaneity, depth, brokenness, and passion. It is the place of the presence of God that transforms us to become a tabernacle for God’s glory. These things were given on Mount Sinai in shadow form to Moses and Sinai was a place flesh could not touch or it would die. It was a terrifying sight. The writer of Hebrews says we have not come to that mountain. The Old Covenant Mountain was terrifying, in that it was a destroyer of flesh, but the New Covenant Mountain of Zion is even more awesome. It is not just a freedom from the Law, but a transformation of flesh. The church is not an easy place, but it is a place of greatness and destiny. Sometimes I hear people say or imply: Thank God it is not like it used to be. Thank you Jesus for getting saved. Thank you God for not being the Old Covenant God anymore. I am so glad you finally came to your senses God. We may not say these precise words, but the implication is often there. This is a misconception concerning the truth of God and the testimony of Zion. What can we expect in Zion?
Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
God did speak from the earth, but now He speaks to each of us from heaven to our hearts. He did shake the earth, but now He shakes the earth and heaven. He shakes the outside and the inside. He changes the outside and the inside. He removes those things that are being shaken. Things that are made are shaken so that we receive the things that cannot be shaken. We are receiving an unshakeable kingdom. That unshakeable kingdom is accessed by mercy and it is an administration of grace in a corporate body for His great glory.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
