Imrah Ministries

By Sidharth Mohandas

While Jesus was with His disciples, He made it clear to them that the Holy Spirit would not come until He [Jesus] ascended back into heaven (John 16:7). He also said that when His disciples would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, they would be witnesses unto Him (Acts 1:8). In other words, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the waiting disciples was a proof that Jesus had ascended to heaven and had sat down at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33).

Here is a statement I would like you to consider: when you are born again, you become a witness to Jesus’ resurrection. However, you become a witness to the ascension of Christ only when you receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the gifts that accompany it.

“When He ascended on high, He led captives in His train and gave gifts to men”. (Ephesians 4:8)

When Jesus ascended to heaven, He gave the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom came many gifts. These gifts are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 and Romans 12:6-8.

I would like to draw your attention to 1 Corinthians, where it says “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1)

It is interesting that Paul was using the garment of the High Priest to explain using the gifts of the Spirit through the fruit of the Spirit [love]. Now, the High Priest’s ephod had two things at its hem: pomegranates and golden bells [Exodus 39:22-26]. The pomegranates symbolizes the fruit of the Spirit, while the golden bells in between them symbolize the gifts of the Spirit. This is why Paul alludes to clanging cymbals when describing those who use the gifts without love. Now in the Old Covenant, the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place once every year to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat for the atonement of Israel’s sins. In those days, if a High Priest came before the direct presence of God with sin in his heart, or with a displeasing sacrifice, that priest would fall dead on the spot. The only way for those who stood outside the Most Holy Place to know if the High Priest was alive or not was by the ringing of the bells on his ephod. In the New Covenant, Jesus is our High Priest, and according to Scriptures, He has ascended into the Most Holy Place. Therefore, when you and I operate in the gifts of the Spirit, we are being witnesses to the fact that Jesus is alive in the Sanctuary.

I encourage you today not to be ignorant about the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1), but to desire earnestly the best gifts (1 Corinthians 12:31), to be zealous for them (1 Corinthians 14:1), and to even pray for them (1 Corinthians 14:13). When you operate in the gifts of the spirit and excel in them by operating in the love of God, you are being a witness to His ascension. We need to ask ourselves today: “Are the bells ringing in my life?”

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!

By Titto Thomas

Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to Christ. [Colossians 2:16-17]

As a very young Christian I remember being asked to keep the Sabbath. The person who ‘commanded’ me had explained in detail and yes the whole package looked very convincing. At that point of time I was desperately trying to please the Lord and I thought if keeping the Sabbath would make him happy, I would be more than willing to try it out. Anyway I took it before the Lord and he led me to the above verses! But Sabbath is not a very light topic in the bible therefore I believe we need to look at it responsibly! Allow me to get to the question by explaining our position on the old testament.

The Old Testament

We all have this question. “As a new testament believer, how do I handle the Old Testament?” Paul answers this question in Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.

The things in the Old Testament were written for our ‘Learning or Instruction’. Therefore the implication is that we have a lot of things to learn from the Old testament.

An analogy that the Lord showed me was this ” If someone came and beat you up with a stick, who would receive the retaliation. The stick or the person?!” The realm of the spirit was concealed from the common man in the days of old! Now we know more realities, we know who our real enemies are. Not Assyria or the Hittites, But powers and principalities in the heavenlies!

It is fundamental that we realize the importance of the Old Testament and it’s implication for us. No we don’t swallow it, Hook line and sinker rather we learn things from it!

The Law of the Life

As we move on to the New Testament we come face to face with another reality. That of the Law of life. Now this is definitely going to shock some people, although there are instructions mentioned in the New Testament, we find not a single mention of right or wrong! Because Law (referring to OT) meant just that! Right or wrong! The important point here is that although God (through HIS WORK) abolished right and wrong he established a much higher law, The law of Life! Now this is much superior to right and wrong. For example when one person asked Jesus, on what to do with Soldiers who asked the Jews to carry their load, Jesus did not reply with right or wrong(as what the man wanted) but instead replied that they should go the further one mile!

See the law of life goes much beyond right or wrong to a much higher realm or plane! Now once we understand these basic concepts we can look at our topic in detail.

The Old Testament Sabbath

The first occurrence of the Sabbath is in Exodus 16:23, when God asks the Israelites not to collect manna on the seventh day. He later includes it in the Ten Commandments, and even commands the death penalty for its violation. The Sabbath was also meant to be kept for all generations. The Sabbath day was by every means Holy! The Sabbath day signified rest. It was sign(Exo 31:17). And as is every sign, so was this sign, a pointer to something! The Lord says it was a sign of God resting from a work(definitely not because he was tired!). It just means he had made something perfect and stood back to enjoy it! But there was something bigger encapsulated in this. It was a pointer to something bigger, as was the whole Old Testament.

Sabbath: The Pointer

When we reach the Gospels we find that the Sabbath concept was totally misused. As with all scriptures, we humans had bent and twisted it. The perfect beginning for this was when eve replied to Satan. She said “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall YE TOUCH IT, lest ye die.” See God had never told Eve that she would die if she touched it!! She just made the whole command a bit spicier! The political and religious institution of the day had used it to their advantage! Just think about it, The WHOLE Old Testament is pointing to Jesus but only a handful of people really understood him, when he arrived! I am not just talking about a few verses but 39 books and 99 percent of the people missed out on it! Yes they were very dogmatic but they missed the point. Brothers and sisters, are we at that point too. Have we missed out on what the bible is trying to say?!

Jesus contradicted the Sabbath idea of the day by grossly violating it and declared himself the LORD over it. Just as every other ‘THING’, Sabbath too was a pointer to the man himself – “JESUS CHRIST”. That’s the ultimate reality!

Sabbath in the New Testament

Now in the New Testament we can be misled to think that God is contradicting Himself when He says things like Col 2:16-17. But no He is not. He just moved it to a higher plane.

He clarifies what He says in Colossians in Hebrews 4:9 “There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.” So there is a Sabbath for us. And it goes much beyond locking up yourself in your house on a Saturday. It comes in the light of resting from another work! A spiritual work which ended with a cry from Jesus on the cross! “IT IS FINISHED“. The work of salvation is over, we can now rest from our works! We don’t have to strive to work for our relationship with God. We can now stand back and enjoy Him. We all must see this in our lives. It is so pivotal. The breakthrough in my Christian life came when I saw this! (5 years after being born again of him and filled with His spirit!). I pray that God would open your eyes too to see this great truth. God has finished his great work and now (amen and amen) He is at work, through His Spirit, working it out in our lives. We just stand back and say YES( to Him). That’s it!!

Your response and the danger

Back to the question: Should Christians observe Sabbath? If we are looking for a yes or a no, we are barking up the wrong tree. Let me explain…as I mentioned above, the law of life in which we operate now does not involve good or bad. It has to do with what the inner life in you is swelling up for. For those who claim that it’s biblical, all I want to tell you is that we no longer need to observe it like the Old Testament. Yes there is a new testament Sabbath and it has to do, not with sitting home on a Saturday, but with a state of rest in relation to God (i.e. we no longer have to earn our relationship with God).

Two books Galatians and Colossians, were written because someone hinted about following the Jewish traditions. As you read through these books we see the fire inside Paul as he wrote it.(Gal 6.11). God wanted you and me to stay clear of legalism! And He was very serious about it (Gal 5.4). If you are ever lead to observe Sabbath because of a stand you need to make or other personal choices, Go ahead! But you are in serious error if you make it into a doctrine, or if you force someone else to do it! We are not called to stand at the sign, but to move on to where the sign lead us. Sabbath is perfected in Jesus. This is what the sign is pointing to. So don’t hang around the sign, run to where it points to!!!!