Promise 2 from Leviticus 4:20c, 26b, 31c, 35d, 5:10b,13a,16b

Lev. 4:20c, 26b, 31c, 35d, 5:10, 13a and 16b - "So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin which he has committed, and it will be forgiven him." - The sons of Israel were instructed by God, through Moses, to bring their sin and guilt offerings to the priest so that he could bring he and she who has blame back to "oneness" with Him who is blameless, through the shedding of blood and the lifting up of a fragrance of that which is the sacrificial offering. There is a clear picture of the parallel between the animal sacrifices and Jesus' death. Jesus' blood was spilt and then He Himself became the fragrant aroma of sacrifice that rose up to the Heavenly Father, so that we who are at blame may become at "one" with Him who is blameless. I love the fact that God has always provided a way for His People to be restored to Him in righteousness. He made the way easy for man to be connected with Him. His promise has always been, "If you give yourself to Me, 'you shall be forgiven!'" He delights in being "at one" with His children.

Promise 1 from Leviticus 1:3

Lev. 1:3 - "If this is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord." - God is speaking to Moses from the tent of meeting (vs.1), He is instructing Moses to tell his people that when they bring their burnt offering, to bring it straight to Him, to the tent of meeting. Up until this point the sons of Israel have had to stay at a distance; a distance from the mountain and a distance from the tabernacle, they would watch God interactions take place between Him and Moses from their tents. Without the sacrifice of offering themselves to holiness and righteousness, they couldn't approach God, but with the sacrifice in hand, God says, "Hand it to me, place it in my hands so that I can receive personally what you are offering to Me. I want to see your face as you offer yourselves to Me." Verse 3 doesn't say "so that the burnt offering will be accepted before the Lord". It says, "So he (the son) will be accepted before the Lord." It's easy to give things to God from a distance. It's easy to go to church, its easy to sing the songs, its easy to hear someone preach the Word, its easy to listen to others give testimony of what God has done in their lives and its easy to think that we've fulfilled our part by "showing up". God desires so much more from us. Staying in the fringes, outside the borders of His presence is not enough for Him. He wants to see us offer our hearts, our minds, our souls to Him. He wants us to put those things right into the palms of His hands so that He can look into our eyes, smile at us and say "Thank you." He wants us to be intimate with Him, to share that moment of giving and receiving one on one, just you and Him.

Promise 96 from Exodus 40:34,38

Ex. 40:34,38 - "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle... For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel." - There is great anticipation of great things to come while reading the details of the building of the tabernacle. God was so specific in giving Moses the details of the materials, who would make things and even where items were placed. THEN after wall was completed and Moses did all that the Lord instructed him to do, the fulfilment of anticipation came. Verse 34 starts with the word "then", and here it is, all that we've worked for, all that we gave toward, all that we sacrificed for, has arrived. THEN the cloud descends, can you imagine the scene? Moses and all his people are gathered, thousands of them all gathered with eyes fixed on the tabernacle. You can hear the stirrings of the crowd and fingers begin to point in the air as various people spot the coming of the cloud and as it grows larger the closer it gets, the crowd gets more animated, as the cloud stops over the tabernacle and thunderous sounds rumbles out of it, lightening flashes through the cloud, the people hush in silence and begin to fall to their knees, one by one. And then the moment comes .... GLORY! Glory blasts itself into the tabernacle from the cloud and all faces hit the ground in one synchronised wave from the front of the crowd to the back. The presence of God's glory forces all to fall to the ground in abandoned worship. The weight of His glory fills the camp and they dare not depart from it. Verses 36 and 37 say, if the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle they would set out, but if it wasn't they would stay until it was taken up. Who could move from Thy presence O Lord? Hebrews 8:1-2 says, "We have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." Jesus sits in the true tabernacle, the kingdom of heaven. Eph. 2:6 says, "God in His great mercy and love made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus." We are surrounded by God's glory! When we reside in the realms of His kingdom, there the weight of His glory draws us into holy worship and oneness with Him. That which once could not be touched by man has come to dwell inside each of us who walk in obedience to the Lord's instructions. He fills us with His glory as Kingdom reality becomes ours, we too experience all that Jesus experiences as we are seated with Him.

Promise 95 from Exodus 40:15

Ex. 40:15 - "And you shall anoint them even as you have anointed their father, that they may minister as priests to Me; and their anointing will qualify them for a perpetual priesthood throughout their generations." - When I think of any position of ministry leadership, I would see the purpose of that leader's anointing to be for the purpose of ministering to others. It is like a sealing of what God has put into them so that they can give to others what God had given to them. But this verse does not even mention other people. the purpose of the anointing is so that Aaron and his sons and all those who come after them can be Priests who minister in holiness to God. To have a position of ministering to God, one must be clean, must be holy, without blemish. To walk into the holy of holies is reserved only for those who have been anointed in purity, washed clean inside and out. Here God said this anointing qualifies them and all their generation to be as priests to the God Almighty. I believe the purpose of this verse in scripture is a prophetic one. Jesus provided the oil in the form of blood and water (Jn. 19:24) for our anointing. For those who step forward to Him and receive the anointing of His shed blood. His anointing qualifies us, purifies us through forgiveness of sins to be pure and holy so that we too may step into the holy of holies and minister to our Heavenly Father. It qualifies us to give of ourselves to Him, to serve Him and to give Him our unwavering attention. As we do that, then the results of our time ministering to Him flows out onto those who reap the benefits of our time with Father. 1 Jn. 2:20 says, "But you have the anointing from the Holy one, and you all know it." Let us accept the anointing given to us and live in such a way that it is evident we've been ministering to the Almighty in the holy of holies.

Promise 94 from Exodus 39:21

Ex. 39:21 - "They bound the breast piece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord, so that it would be on the woven band of the ephod, and that the breast piece would not come loose from the ephod, just as the Lord had commanded Moses." - Chapter 39 gives the description of how the priests' garments are made. Ten times in this chapter the phrase "just as the Lord commanded" is used. God gave very specific details of how everything should be made. This is such a good example of how He is interested in the details of our lives. He cares about all that we care about. He cares about how we are designed and develop, about what we decorate ourselves with, what we attach ourselves to and He is careful to give us instructions as to how we should function, react and respond. He doesn't leave anything out. He loves us so much!

Promise 93 from Exodus 36:7

Ex. 36:7 - "For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to perform it." - Back in vs. 35:21 we saw that it was those whose hearts and spirits were moved are the ones who contributed material for the building of the sanctuary. So much material was given that the craftsmen had to tell Moses that there was too much, so Moses had to ask people to stop bringing materials. When God stirs the hearts of people to give toward His work, there is abundance. When people allow the Spirit to stir their hearts, He provides an overflow for them to give. Two pence maybe an overflow for those who are used to living on one and a million pounds would be an overflow for the one that is used to living off of 500,000. What is overflow for one man will not look the same for another, yet God's working is still the same. The Holy Spirit provides extra for those who wish to give and therefore the receiver who needs the gifts gets more than needed. I receive this promise personally as I'm preparing for setting up the occupational therapy clinic in Gjilan. There are many items and resources needed, including manpower. The material barrel is low. As I receive this promise of God, as He, Himself has clearly made known through His word that this is His character, I can be assured that the One who stirs hearts of people to give, abundance will be received. I'm excited about how He is going to supply all my needs and then some!

Promise 92 from Exodus 35:21-35

Ex. 35:21-35 - v. 21 - "Everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the Lord's contribution for the work of the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments." v. 30 - "Then Moses said to the sons of Israel, 'See the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur .... (v.31) and He has filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge and in all craftsmanship... (v.34) He has also put in his heart to teach, both he and Oholiab... (v. 35) He has filled them with skill to perform every work of an engraver and of a designer and of an embroiderer ... and of a weaver, as performers of every work and makers of designs." - I just love this! God specifically told Moses back in 31:2-3 that He was calling Bezalel by name, He was filling him and others with His Spirit, in wisdom, understanding and knowledge and they'll be given the crafters gifts. When it was time to get down to work "everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him/ her" either did whatever the craft was and presented those things to the Lord and/or gave what they had to contribute (vs. 21,22,26,29). God not only filled Bezalel and Oholiab with His Spirit but filled many people. As Moses was watching all this take place He told them, "See... I told you so ... or rather .... God told us so "and then he recited once again the exact words that God told him to show the people that God did exactly what He said He would do. When we see God fulfill His promises, we should encourage those people who were a part of that promise, by showing them where it was that God gave the promise, show them how He carried it out and the final results. By doing this, their faith will rise as well as those who were on the outside looking in. There is power in testimony, when we see and hear what God is doing, faith rises which causes us to believe in even greater things from Him.