The Lord Welcomes Us into His Throne Room by David Nelson

Posted: 2007-04-30 11:47:18

The Lord Welcomes Us into His Throne Room by David Nelson     3-23-07

Do you remember in the Bible when Queen Esther risked her life to approach the king, into the inner court as he sat on his throne? If he raised his scepter to her, her life would be spared and she could talk with him, but if he did not raise his scepter she would have to die. She could only approach the king into the inner court as he sat on his throne if he requested for her to come.

The Lord is calling for us to come into his throne room, the highest holy of holies ever. We are even free to come if we are not sure he has requested us. It is the time to come into His holy place to be near Him. Yes, one day we will enter into heaven in a more final sense and that will be a most wonderful day. But even now, when we are ready to enter in, He is ready to welcome us into His place with open arms.

Where are we supposed to enter in? Do we really want to enter in? Where does God want us to go? What are we talking about here?

There is a secret place, there is a rest, there is a place of safety, where we will feel safe, forgiven, guilt relieved, peace, rest, comforted, accepted, all that we hope to feel when we finally get to heaven, accept that we can enter this place now. Joseph tasted of it when God brought him forth from prison to experience his dreams come true. Mephibosheth tasted of it when, even though he thought of himself as a “dead dog,” king David brought him into a place of honor and complete, future security, into his royal family. King Jeconiah tasted of it when he was brought out of prison after 37 years and was given a throne of honor and a seat every day at the great king’s table. He was also given a daily allowance from the king for the rest of his life. The younger brother (prodigal son) tasted of it when his father ran to greet him, kissed him, outfitted him very handsomely and celebrated his return home with food, family, friends and music.

In the recent movie “One Night with the King” a love story unfolds where the King (the king can symbolize our Lord and Father) takes delight in one woman named Esther and falls in love with her. The King (the Lord) wants you as his one true love as if you were the only one for him. He sincerely and truly wants to woo us, betroth us to himself and draw us into his chamber. And he wants us to delight in Him as He delights in us. All that He is allowing in your life now is to get you closer to Himself and to cause you to fall in love with Him more and more. He already is totally in love with us. But we don’t realize or trust His love fully yet. We are not sure how much He is for us, we’re not sure how much we can trust Him, rely on Him, or rest in Him yet.

We are in a learning process now to learn how much he loves us and learn how much we are willing to give ourselves over to Him. This learning process will culminate as He becomes our place of rest, though we may go back and forth for a while, up and down, until finally we become convinced and sold out that he is completely for us.  Even now we are not sure if His plans for us will be fulfilled or not? Will He come through for us?

One day it will sink in, I don’t have to be afraid any more, I’m not alone any more, I don’t have to wonder will He raise the scepter and accept me this time even though I have failed so miserably and disappointed Him so much? The point will finally come when we realize He will never turn away when we come into His throne room, He will always accept us (if we come humbly by the blood of Jesus and with a true heart). He will always raise His scepter to us and give us life. He will always run to meet us and kiss us. Why? Because of the blood of His Son Jesus and because of His perfect love for us.

For sure, we may all be at different places in this love story that is unfolding, and we may all be at different degrees of rest, with still some ups and downs ahead, but the King is betrothed to us, each one of us personally, and He is working out His plan to have us be His completely, and His plan will continue to unfold and we will get closer to Him.

How do I know this is true? Listen to these verses: “Him who comes to me I will in no wise (no way) cast out (turn away). (I will always raise the scepter, I will always love you). There is no way, I will in no wise turn you away. (Jn. 6:37) Nothing shall separate us from the love God has for us, neither things present nor things to come. I (the Lord) will keep you from falling, will cause you to stand and I will present you without blemish with great joy before His throne. (Jude 24) The work that He has begun in us He will complete. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. I know the plans I have for you, plans for success, to satisfy you and fulfill your dreams (dreams that even I have put in your heart for your happiness and my glory). I will bring you to your desired harbor (end or completion) (Jer. 29:11) “We have therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest (place with Him) by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, through his flesh (when Jesus flesh was broken the veil was rent by God); And having a high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb. 10:19-22)

Here is how we are all coming to new levels or new plateaus with the Lord (and I am sure there are future levels and plateaus that we cannot even fathom or imagine as yet). I have been experiencing for some years now the ups and downs of learning how to enter His rest, how to rest in His love, know His love, and truly love Him with all of my heart and strength as best I could. Recently I read the following article by Art Katz (this article will be posted in its entirety at the end of this writing) which helped push me to a new level in my walk with the Lord. Maybe it was brother Katz’s honesty or maybe what he said or the way he said it. Here is what struck me from his article: Yes, I want to enter the Sabbath rest of God, within the veil. But it is not on the basis of my qualifications but on the basis of His agape love and my complete pardon and acceptance through the blood of Jesus Christ. I choose now to enter into the holiest place of all within the veil that has been rent. Religious acts and works that you feel obliged to do may be dead works. God is requiring for this time, now, what is to be done will be a fulfillment that can only come from this place within the veil. Have faith to enter this place with a true and sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

Each person is moving along on his/her own journey but the end result will be a kindred people, a Bride, who are learning to love their King (and husband), who will more and more take on and reflect His holiness, and who are also learning to love one another as Jesus prayed that we would. There is a beautiful love story unfolding. The Lord is calling you and wooing you into His place.

What HAPPENED
-by Art Katz.

Within the Veil
(Entering the sabbath rest of God)

I had waited a long time for such an entry, because I thought I had
to qualify spiritually. As much as I am at war with the secular
world, something of its concept of evolution yet lingered with me,
so that I thought that I had to 'evolve' into a higher spiritual state,
by virtue of which I would then be able to enter into this holiest
place. I 'stumbled,' however, upon a series of teachings that were
entitled: "Within the Veil," and something in my inner man went
click, and I could not rush fast enough to hear them.

I put the first tape on with great expectations. Something in my
spirit was rising to the mystery in this, and as soon as I heard the
first few statements, I was tempted to shut the machine off. Some
'hillbilly' American was speaking. He was coarse and
ungrammatical, not my style at all, but as my finger went to the
stop button, I hesitated, because something now began to reach
me through his accent. It was beyond nationality, beyond culture,
beyond time, beyond father or mother or beginning or ending of
days. I continued to listen, tape by tape, of a man whose
frustration was much like my own. He had the same risings and
fallings of the spiritual life, the good days and the bad days, that
render us incapable of saying with Paul, "You yourselves know,
from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the
whole time" (ACTS 20:18B).

As I followed him in the Scriptures through the book of Hebrews,
he showed that the Law was only a shadow of the good things to
come, and not the very form of those things, and that it could not
make perfect those who draw near. He went on to explain that
there was One who came in point of time who could. His blood
was better than the blood of bulls and of goats and of sacrifices.
He had entered by His own blood into the heavenly place, and
entered once and for all. In all of our impressive, spiritual
'sophistication,' we have not allowed these words to impact upon
our souls. He entered once and for all, and He bids us enter also,
and to enter boldly. It is not on the basis of our natural qualification.
We must enter the holiest place by the blood of Jesus. We have
come to think of His blood only in terms of our atonement, and
indeed it is sufficient to wash away sin and guilt, but His blood
has done something more. It has opened a new and living way,
inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. Since,
therefore, we have such a Great High Priest, let us draw near with
a true heart in full assurance of faith.

I remember the night I heard the last tape. I was in bed, my Bible
open to these Scriptures in the book of Hebrews, and he
described in the last tape how he came to a Sunday morning
service as a minister, weary and defeated, in that kind of terrible
monotony and predictability that our churches can so easily come
to. But there was a woman that morning in the service who was a
very bright light. She could hardly contain herself, and she was
waving her arm in the air, wanting to give a testimony. "Yes sister,"
he said. And she replied, "I just want to say that I have entered
within the holiest place of all." He was quick to correct her, "You
mean to say that you hope to enter." After all she was only a
housewife, he thought. "No," she said, "I have entered." "By what
means?" he said. "By faith in the blood of Jesus, and the veil that
was rent by His flesh! I simply drew near with a true heart of Art
Katz 1 faith, and I confessed that right now, in Jesus' name,
without any acknowledgment of qualification in myself that I do
enter into the holiest place of all by the blood of Jesus," she
replied. She said that something had happened to her, and that
she had entered into a 'new place'-and it was visibly true of her.
Before that service had ended, one by one, people were getting
up in the congregation and making a simple confession of their
'entering right now' on the basis of the blood of Jesus into a new
and living way. The pastor himself entered, for which reason I was
now hearing his tapes. A new kind of enablement had come to
him of an enhanced and deepened quality of apostolic faith. There
was a fresh source of creativity and originality that one receives in
a place of communion with God in the holiest place of all.

At about this point I shut my tape machine down. I took my
glasses off and thought for a moment, reflecting upon my years in
Christ-the frustration, the rising and the falling, and I just simply
breathed a prayer, flat on my back. I said, "Lord, right now, not on
the basis of any qualification, I do enter into the holiest place of all
by the blood of Jesus and the veil rent by His flesh. Amen."
Something in my deepest inner man went click, and I believe I
have been in that place ever since, holding fast the confession of
the faith. A new kind of freedom from the torment of wrestling with
flesh commenced.

Something happened when I entered in through the veil of His torn
flesh that dealt with my flesh in a way I can hardly understand or
communicate. It is certain that every power of Hell will seek to
steal this from us: "Oh, this is only a play on words, just a kind of
Biblical rhetoric. There is no real, actual place of entry. This
heavenly thing is only a vapor. It is an intangible thing. You have
all that you need by virtue of your new birth. This is only a conceit
on your part. Look, you are still the same!" Hold fast the confession
of your faith. This is far beyond mere Christian respectability, far
beyond any kind of 'nice- guyism.' This is having a conscience
void of offense with God and with man. Let us therefore draw near
with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy
and may find grace to help in time of need. (HEBREWS 4:16)

If we shall not receive it and if we shall not find it, then how shall
we give it? We are therefore bidden to enter. It is the Sabbath rest
that God has prepared for His people. Religious acts and works
that stem from a bad conscience, that is to say, something that
you feel obliged to do, are called dead works by God. The work
of God comes always and eminently out of the rest of God, and is
always performed on the Sabbath day, and no other. It alone is
that act which brings sight to the blind.

When the Jews of Jesus' time were antagonized and stupefied at
this bewildering Man, who performed these glorious things on the
wrong day, He could say to them in utter simplicity that it was the
Father who was doing the works. You will know when you are in
the rest of God when you are at peace. This does not mean there
will be an absence of trial or tension. Even in the midst of the
turmoil of it, you are in the Shekinah place, the holiest place of all,
independent of the circumstances that are flurrying everywhere
about you. God is not cruel to set before us such a calling, and to
think that we shall be able to fulfill it on the paucity of our own
human enablement. There is yet a deeper place, an ultimate place,
and an absolute place. It is the holiest place of all, and it is for all
those who are called to that which is apostolic and high-priestly.
Consider Jesus as you have never before considered Him-the
Son in whose image we also are called.

The one who is joined to Him is one spirit with Him. We can
understand Paul better when he says that he lives and moves and
has his being in Him. Where are we and where do we desire to be,
and where have we the faith to be? Do we desire an apostolic
participation in the eternal purposes of God? Will we be able to
stand against apostolic persecution and suffering? We have got to
come into a certain priestly place without which there cannot be
an apostolic fulfillment. Jesus has rent the veil and bids us come,
not on the basis of our qualification, but on the basis of His blood.
God is calling us to an unusual involvement and participation.
There is a high- priestly place available for us as a life that flows,
and which is indestructible. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. This is not some fanciful play on words, but
something to be earnestly considered. Faith is now, and the hour
has struck and the time is short, and God is requiring a fulfillment
that can only come from this place within the veil. Have the faith
to enter with a true and sincere heart in full assurance of faith.