Romans 12:1 (AMP) Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.
{vision} I saw a woman waving her arms up and down in worship. Her eyes were closed, and I could sense she was fully enraptured and focused on God. I got the sense that as the motion of her arms was meant to symbolize the rising of incense, I could sense her soul ascending in some way and recognizing its oneness with God.
This vision came to me as I was meditating on the subject of aliyah, the immigration of the Jewish people in the diaspora to the Land of Israel. In Hebrew, “aliyah” means “ascent.” As I shared in my post, “Our Songs of Ascent,” my studies of Scripture through a Hebraic lens have given me a deep appreciation for God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants. And while I, along with many others in Christ, eagerly await the fulfillment of God’s promises to manifest in the earth, I always find there’s much to learn about our spiritual pilgrimage through events in the natural.
As my friend author Meghan Williams often says about the story of Scripture, “All along God has only wanted one thing: that He would be our God and we would be His people.” From Genesis to Revelation, we see the lengths that God has been going to in order to restore humanity to oneness with Him. He desires to make His dwelling place with us. Humankind sins, yet again and again, God makes a way to redeem us; He makes a path for us to return to Him.
Much like the Jewish people’s return to the Land of Israel, our spiritual return to God is an ascent. Through Christ and the path of holiness and righteousness, God lifts our lives out of the captivity of sin and into His marvelous light of freedom. Yet this ascent to the Jerusalem Above is a daily process, a walk that is paved with grace. Like the children of Israel in their cycles of captivity, our aliyah requires consecration. As Psalm 24:3-4 says:
Who can possibly ascend the mountain of the Eternal? Who can stand before Him in sacred spaces? Only those whose hands have been washed and hearts made pure, men and women who are not given to lies or deception (VOICE).
What I sense from my vision of the worshipper about aliyah is our need to continually consecrate our lives to the Eternal. The worshipper symbolizes what it means to be a living sacrifice. We must close our eyes to the physical realm in order to realign with what is true—the fact that our lives are hidden in Christ and He now lives through us. Like the worshipper lifting up her arms, we willingly give our hands (our everyday actions) to the service of the King.
Many Jewish scholars share how keeping the commandments are meant to elevate the mundane activities of life and make them spiritual. When Israel sinned and was carried into captivity, their return back started with a return to the covenant of God. We too can see that, through our own repentance and redemption, we receive the Holy Spirit, and God writes His commandments upon our hearts. Our actions, great and small, suddenly become elevated as we are led by the Spirit. We become pleasing in the sight of God.
Yet, in order to be led by the Spirit, we must make room for the Spirit. There are always new areas where God desires to redeem us from captivity and cause us to return to Him. Therefore, we must clear our minds, turn our focus upon the King, and expand our hearts so that He can write more of His Word upon it. Much like the children of Israel before Mount Sinai and the followers of Christ before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, there is a call to consecrate and prepare ourselves to come up higher in the things of the Spirit. God desires to flip our perspective so that we come to see our everyday lives through heaven’s eyes.
Beloved of Christ, God desires to enlarge your heart to receive more of His Kingdom. This paradigm shift will elevate the mundaneness of everyday life onto the level of the holy. For He has called you to be a king and a priest, to live a life that is set apart and pleasing to Him. Receive the fresh revelation the Spirit is pouring out. Allow Him to write His Word upon the tablets of your heart so that His ways become your ways, your hands become His hands, and your actions become His actions. Allow Him to flow through you, move you in a new way so that you act as one. Tarry and make room to receive more of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Exodus 19:10-11 (NKJV) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Luke 24:49 (NKJV) “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Acts 2:1-2 (VOICE) When the holy day of Pentecost came 50 days after Passover, they were gathered together in one place. Picture yourself among the disciples: A sound roars from the sky without warning, the roar of a violent wind, and the whole house where you are gathered reverberates with the sound.
Revelation 21:2-3 (NKJV) Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them [and be] their God.
I can’t love this enough!