Our Journey into the Throne Room

By Sidharth Mohandas

Very few people have learnt how to enter God’s Presence through prayer. They try praying for a few minutes, struggling to convince themselves of His Presence, but then they stop short and leave without entering His throne room. Before I take you into the different stages of entering the Shekhinah or the royal residence of the Lord, I would like to take you to the model prayer and show you some principles contained in it.

Here are some points I’d like to make:

(1) “Our Father [Abba]…”. This is where it all starts…a relationship. If you don’t have a relationship with Abba, then you’re not eligible to move on.

(2) Jesus goes onto say, “…Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name…”…this is the attitude of our entry: reverence. In spite of the fact He is our very own Abba, He is the King of the Universe. And therefore as we approach Him He requires our complete attention.

(3) “Thy Kingdom come…” Moving down the model prayer, you find that the entire focus of the prayer is not us, but the kingdom of God. And since we are citizens of His Kingdom…our complete well-being is also His interest.

With this in mind, I now take you into three stages in entering His Presence using the tabernacle of Moses as the outline. The Hebrew word for “tabernacle” is “miskhan” and it means “Place of Divine Dwelling”. It consists of 3 different places: the Outer Court, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Let’s start from the Gate of the Outer Court…

The Gate

There is but one gate to enter the tabernacle. This is the foundation. Jesus Christ is that gate. Your access into God’s Presence, no matter how spiritual you are, is Christ Jesus.

The Brazen Altar of Sacrifice

As we go forward we come across the Altar of Sacrifice. This is where our sins are dealt with. Scripture plainly tells us, “If you confess your sins, He is just and faithful to forgive you your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness” [1 John 1:9]. What does it mean to confess? The Greek word for confess is “homologeo” and it means to “say the same as”. In other words, you agree with what God says is sin. “Homologeo” also means “say a word in covenant”, so this is also a place of renewing our covenant with God.

I usually come to a place where I agree and tell the Lord specific areas where I had failed Him [without going into the details of it], and then move on. Many people never get past this altar. Mostly because they “feel” guilty even after they have confessed their sins. Friends, the moment you agree that you missed the mark, God pronounces you clean.

The Brazen Laver

This was a basin that was made of mirrors of the serving women.

Moreover, he made the laver of bronze with its base of bronze, from the mirrors of the serving women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. [Exodus 38:8]

James, the apostle, compared the Word of God to a mirror in his epistle. This is the place of submission to the Word, a place where you are sanctified by the washing of His Word. While instructing wives to submit to their husbands, Paul says this: just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word [Ephesians 5:26]

Very little is taught about preparation to enter God’s Presence in our day. People just slackly enter His Presence, no wonder they think prayer is dry and boring. At this altar, the priest usually looked into the mirror basin that had water in it and washed himself. What happens here? As you and I open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He will use the Word of God to expose sins that we were unaware of.

The Lamp stand and the Showbread

As we move on, we enter the tent. The Holy Place in contrast to the Outer Court is dark. Likewise as we go further into the Presence of God, we eliminate light from outside sources. The Bible may look dark and undiscovered, but this is where we learn to depend on the ministry of the Spirit. The Holy Place consists of two things…the lamp stand and the showbread. The light that comes from the lamp stand is symbolic to Jesus who said “I Am the Light of the world” and the show bread also symbolizes Jesus who again said, “I Am the Bread of life”. As you and I go deeper into God’s Presence, my friends, Jesus becomes a bigger reality. The ministry of the Spirit is very focused: revealing more of Jesus.

At this point, I would like to compare this triune tabernacle to our being: the spirit, soul and body. The body may be compared to the Outer Court, the soul to the Holy Place and the spirit to the Most Holy Place. As we spend time with God, our body may not cooperate. Sometimes during our prayer time, we may feel unusual drowsiness, dragging us into a deep sleep. When that happens, we need to ignore what our body says and continue to move on. As you do so, you reach the realm of the soul. In this realm, many of us experience the Presence of God. I experience His Presence in various ways…I’m sure most of us can relate to a warm blanket enveloping us, a gentle breeze, a tingling sensation all over your body like goose bumps, a refreshing river that flows within you, or like a burning sensation through your veins and so forth. However, the sad thing is that many of us stop, satisfied with these experiences.

God is calling us deeper into the place of the spirit, where He can fellowship with us.

The Altar of Incense and the Ark of Covenant

As we move deeper into the inner most part of the tabernacle…the Most Holy Place, we come to that place where we just merge with Him and are filled with this knowledge that He is all in all. To me this is a place of simplicity and “silence”. By silence I mean the voice of “self” has no place here. You reach a place where you are one with Him. His thoughts become your thoughts, His desires become your desires, His will becomes your will and so forth. You don’t go in with a motive to receive, you just want to give. And that brings us to the Altar of Incense. It just keeps burning and burning…offering worship to the King… giving Him every detail of your life so that He can make it His domain.

Finally we reach the Ark of the Covenant…it is a box that contains three things: The Ten Commandments, a Golden Jar with Manna, and the rod of Aaron that budded.

The tablets of Ten Commandments symbolizes God’s promise to write His law into the tablets of our heart, the jar of Manna is a promise of fresh revelation of Jesus for every day, and the rod of Aaron that budded when in the Presence of the Lord, is the promise of fruitfulness in areas that are barren.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. [Mark 1:35]

May we be encouraged to spend time with Abba like how Jesus did very early in the morning and align ourselves to Abba’s heart for each day!

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