Sun.’s Devo - Enter Into the Presence

Read: Ezekiel 44 - 46
In Ezekiel’s vision he saw the glory of the Lord enter the Temple through the east gateway. He was seeing the future return of Christ but since God is not in time, he was seeing it as if it had already happened. That is how faith works. We believe in things that have not been manifested as if they had. Since this glory entered through the eastern gateway, it was to be shut so no one else could enter it. Only the prince could sit inside this gateway to enjoy the presence of the Lord. The prince was to represent a son of the king which makes all son’s of God princes in the spirit.
God told Ezekiel to take careful notice of the procedures for using the Temple’s entrances and exits. This is important for us to know. They were to exit the opposite door they entered. We should never leave the Lord’s presence the way we entered. We should be totally changed.
They were to be circumcised and have a heart for God. In Romans 3 and 4 we learn that circumcism is our conscious decision to rid ourselves of the sin of this world and be joined to God. It comes by faith and makes us righteous before God. But if we consciously abandon the Lord like the Levites did, we will bear the consequences of our sins. The family of Zadok remained faithful which shows us that we can remain faithful to the Lord when everyone around us doesn’t. Zadok means “to justify” which means to be made righteous as if you had never sinned. We have that promise.
The priests had to wear linen only which stood for purity and grace. They were never to sweat which speaks of our works. In God there is no toil: only rest and trust. They had to change their garments before they went out to the people lest they transmit their holiness onto the people and the people be responsible for something they couldn’t carry. This speaks to me of not sharing everything the Lord gives you to people that can’t spiritually understand it because they will be responsible for something they can’t hold. Deliverance is one of those things. We can’t go casting out demons from people who have no way of keeping it. They will be worse off in the end.
The priests were not to shave their heads but they were to trim it regularly. Sin is a process that we work on daily. If we were delivered of all our sins at once we would be open for attack.
I’m running out of room but I want to bring out one more point. Priests were not to own any property or land, yet God portioned them off land to live in, so there is more to this than natural. We own things on this world but none of them are to own us. It is all the Lord’s and He is our possession.
Lord, may we enter your presence and rest and be changed.