As the Lord searches our hearts, we look to Him concerning our dedication. We see those who fall away from the faith, and always in our hearts is this unspoken fear: “Maybe I could fail too. Maybe I could be one of those who draws back.” We wonder, “Could the persecutions Satan brings be so convincing that I could be swept away? Or could I draw back because something that the Lord Himself spoke to my heart would be too difficult for me to accept? Could I be like the Jews who turned away from the Lord when He told them, ‘Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you’?” (John 6:53.) The Jews had been conditioned for centuries against partaking of blood; and because of that, they could not receive the truth.
It is strange how the Lord can take those things which we feel so deeply, but which are not really the truth, and use them to shock us. When that happens, we either walk on by revelation, or we revert to our conditioning. I do not want to revert. I have been struggling a lifetime to get away from conditioning which would cause me to be a religionist. Perhaps I have gone too far in the other direction and have done things I will have to correct, but I do not want to be a Pharisee. I do not want to miss what God is doing. I know what it is like for a person to be so conditioned by religious traditions that when a revelation comes from God, he cannot receive it. I do not want Christ to say to me as He once said to Jerusalem, “How I would have gathered you under My wings, but you would not” (Matthew 23:37). I do not want to be in that position, and neither do you. We do not want to be so religious that we walk away from God. We must be able to take the truths God brings in the Word and not let them become a religious stumbling block to us, a ritual that blocks out reality. God forbid that we do anything or create anything in the way of a ritual, and thus block out what He is trying to do.
We are reaching for an irreversible dedication. Is there an irrevocable decision we can make which will exclude the possibility of our reversing it? Can we give to the Lord a dedication so total and complete that we cease to sit upon the throne with the ability to reverse it? We have the fear that somewhere down the road, forces might be put against us which would cause us to reverse what we believe and know now and what is real to us now.
Would you like to have an irreversible dedication? a dedication so great that even if it meant your death, you would never turn back? Have you ever wondered whether you would deny the Lord if you were being tortured in some horrible way? Have you ever thought of that? I have. I sought the Lord about it and He said to me, “If that time ever comes, I will give you grace.” It became a very real revelation to my heart, and so I do not worry about it anymore; but I know that this is a common concern. We fear that our dedication is not adequate because something of ourselves still sits on the throne and says, “I can change this. I can reverse it. I can turn away.” Can we bring God into our commitment to such an extent that our dedication becomes irreversible? I believe that we can.
It is your prerogative to choose, “I will stay with this walk with God as long as it fits my ideas; but when it reaches the place where it is not what I want, or it is not pleasing to me, or it is not according to my plans and my concepts, then I will leave.” You have that privilege. But you can give that privilege over to God, saying, “Yes, God, I know I have the privilege of turning away, but I refuse it.” If the truth you embrace comes by revelation from God, it should be irreversible.
I Kings 8:5–8, which tells about the dedication of Solomon’s Temple, shows us a symbolic picture of the irreversible dedication we want to make. And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark (the ark of the covenant, which in the Old Testament represented the total presence of God in Israel), sacrificing so many sheep and oxen they could not be counted or numbered.
Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim made a covering over the ark and its poles from above. But the poles were so long that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place before the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen outside; they are there to this day. A more accurate translation of verse 8 reads, And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place … and there they are unto this day (King James Version, also Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible).
This message has to do with the ark of the covenant, but in order to understand the message, you must first understand a teaching about the ark and its history. The ark was a physical object—a chest about four feet by two feet by two feet, overlaid inside and out with pure gold, with cherubim of pure gold cast over it (Exodus 25:10–22). On top, under the wings of the cherubim, was the mercy seat where the priests sprinkled the blood on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:14–15, 29–30). On each of the ark’s four legs was a gold ring, through which poles overlaid with gold were placed so that it could be carried.
When the ark was placed in the Temple, it contained only the tables of the Law (I Kings 8:9). However, Hebrews 9:4 tells us that earlier it had contained the tables of the covenant, Aaron’s rod which had budded, and a golden jar of manna which somehow never spoiled, although the manna in the wilderness always spoiled the morning after it had been gathered (Exodus 16:19–20). These objects, which had much spiritual significance, show that the ark represented the presence of God. It was holy, and no one was to touch it.
The ark of the covenant was unique—it carried the presence, the power, and the glory of God. The Jews use the word “Shekinah” extensively when they speak of those ancient times. It comes from the root word shakhan, meaning “to dwell or reside,” and it indicates the glory of God dwelling with His people—the same glory which led them through the wilderness and appeared over the mercy seat. It could not be approached or touched. Nevertheless, this was not comprehended by the people, not even by David. Fear was upon him after God struck down Uzzah for touching the ark as it was being brought to Jerusalem. David said, “How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?” For three months he left it at the house of Obed-edom; but when he saw how God blessed Obed-edom, he finally brought it to Jerusalem (II Samuel 6:6–12).
To Israel, the ark represented the presence of the Lord. They could not touch it, and for that reason God had instructed them to make rings on the sides of the ark and put staves through the rings, so that the Levites could carry it on their shoulders. The ark preceded Israel in the wilderness wanderings and into their battles in the land of Canaan. When the Lord ordered them to do something, they were aware that His presence had to go before them; He had to lead them. An excellent illustration of this is Joshua chapters 3 and 4.
It is significant that when Israel turned their hearts away from God, the ark was taken into captivity. In the days of Samuel, the ark was captured by the Philistines who put it in the house of Dagon, the fish god—half fish and half man. To them it was a trophy—Jehovah had been captured by Dagon. When they came into Dagon’s temple the next day, the idol had fallen before the ark. They put it back on its pedestal; but when they came back the next day, it had fallen again and its head and hands had been cut off (I Samuel 5:2–4).
It was true that the Israelites were subjected to the Philistines, but God was not. In fact, it was not long until the Philistines wanted very much to be rid of the ark. Everywhere they tried to keep it, the people started breaking out with boils and tumors, and many of them died. The presence of God was such a problem to them that they decided they had better get rid of the ark. They put it on a new cart, along with a guilt offering, and harnessed two milk cows to it. A milk cow wants to stay close to her calf, but the Philistines took the calves away and turned the cows loose. If it really was God who had struck the Philistines, then the cows would go straight back to Israel with the ark. If it was not God, then they would return to their calves. Those cows may have had bursting udders, but they did not hesitate—they went straight down the road to Israel (I Samuel 5–6).
The ark represented “God among us, Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23). Yet Jeremiah prophesied that a day was coming when no one would remember the ark, or even miss it. “And it shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Lord, “they shall say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made again.” Jeremiah 3:16. Why? Because the presence of the Lord will make you the ark of the covenant. It will make you the chest in which God resides. God will make your heart the mercy seat. Every day that you live will be a day of atonement. Every day that you live, you will carry God into it (I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19–20; II Corinthians 6:16–18; Ephesians 2:19–22; I Peter 2:4–10).
That is what we do when we assemble together. We do not need to come to a certain place which contains the presence of the Lord in order to meet Him; instead, we bring Him with us. We do not go to “church”; the church comes into the meeting place. And there will be just as much of God in our services as we bring into them. There is no mystique about this. There is no ritual we can go through which suddenly makes God a part of a particular place; instead, we bring Him into the place.
In a sense, we are the temple of the Lord (II Corinthians 6:16). That is scriptural. Ephesians 2:20–22 says that we are built together for a habitation of God by the Spirit. In light of this, let us look at what happened at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple, recorded in I Kings 8:5–8 and also in II Chronicles 5:7–9.
If you remember, David had collected the materials and the wealth (I Chronicles 22:14) and, as a prophet of God, he had laid out the plans for the Temple. In some strange way, the Spirit of the Lord revealed to him how it should be built (I Chronicles 28:11–19). To build it would have been the joy and capstone of his life. But because he had been a man of blood (I Chronicles 28:3), God did not let him. Was it because he had fought troops and leaped walls (Psalm 18:29) and had slaughtered many people that God barred him from building it? Or was David called a man of blood because he was the murderer of Uriah after he had taken his wife? Whatever the occasion, David was not to build the Temple. Instead, his son Solomon was to be the one to build it (I Chronicles 28:9–10, 19–20). Even though David was a man after God’s own heart (I Samuel 13:14), whereas Solomon’s heart was often diverted from the Lord (I Kings 11:3–8), yet Solomon was still God’s choice. That Temple was a wonder of the ancient world, marvelously constructed with things such as intricately designed bronze pillars and carved walls and doors overlaid with gold (I Kings 6; 7:13–22).
When the Temple was finally finished and the time came for its dedication, animals beyond number were sacrificed. Then the glory of the Lord filled the Temple. But first, before the glory came, the Levites had to bring in the ark of the covenant (I Kings 8:1–11; II Chronicles 5:5–14). Notice that when they brought it into the holiest sanctuary and set it down, the poles were still in place; the Levites could still come back, pick it up, and take it away. In other words, their dedication to the presence of God among them was reversible at that point. But then they drew out the staves, at least part way, so that the ends were seen out in the Holy Place, thereby indicating that the ark had found a permanent dwelling place. Without the staves functional, they could not pick up the ark anymore, for if they touched it they would die.
This is a picture of the irreversible dedication to His presence possessing us which we must have. Our attitude must be this: “If I touch this dedication, may God kill me. I would rather be dead than go back upon this one holy decision I have made—that I dedicate my whole being to God, to live for Him.”
Is it possible for us today to “draw out the staves”? Can we fix our hearts so completely on the Lord that even in the heaviest moment, we cannot or will not reverse our dedication? I believe we have the prerogative that even now we can make decisions which cannot be reversed in the future. We can make a dedication to the Lord which we will never be able to reverse again. Have you ever come out of a difficult testing, thanking God for bringing you through it, but wondering all the time, “Will I stumble again? Will I allow the criticism of someone who is very persuasive to erode away the foundation upon which I stand?” Have you ever wondered that? Have you feared it? Do you have moments in which you explode with some emotional rebellion or withdrawal; and all the while you are crying out, “O God, what am I doing? This is the one thing I do not want to do. I do not want to go back on my dedication to You. I want You always to be my Lord.”
When the revelation is vivid, you seem so certain; but when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4), nothing seems real. Is there a way that revelation can sustain us? Is there some way that we can be like Paul? When he was an old man, with the scars of the whip on his back from the many beatings he had received, he stood before the magistrate and said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). Can we walk in such a way that we can say, as he did, “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith”? (II Timothy 4:7.) Is there some way we can be launched into these days of the Kingdom with that same dedication? It is the cry of my heart that I be able to say, just as the Lord Jesus said, “I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4). How do we complete the work that was begun? The Scriptures tell us, “He that has begun a good work in you is able to perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Do you believe that?
The days in which people waver and turn away from this walk with God must come to an end—for their own sakes. After having received so much from God, those who turn away will receive a heavy condemnation (Hebrews 6:4–6). There must be some way that we can reach into God and find that irreversible dedication—a dedication from which nothing, not even the threat of death itself, can turn us away. There must be some way that we can make a total commitment to the Lord, and also to one another. Without that commitment to the Body and to the leaders God has set over you, you can listen to the persecutors’ propaganda and possibly be led away. Perhaps you have a problem accepting and submitting to the authority of the leaders and being dedicated to pray for them. I will not put you down for that, but I will tell you quite frankly that years ago I faced this problem where you are concerned. And I became totally, irreversibly committed to love you and minister to you, no matter what you did. Now it is your turn. We will be one with one another, and one with God, because He has bonded us together. It is our faith in His Word and His will as it is revealed to us that will preclude our failure, our falling short, our drawing back.
This is the day of the Passover experience. Israel left Egypt, but they never did get Egypt out of their hearts. Only three of them succeeded; the rest perished in the wilderness (Numbers 14:30). We must not be like Israel. We must not go into the Passover of the Kingdom murmuring along the way, grumbling and saying as Israel did, “We cannot bear all of this; let’s go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. Let’s pick another leader and go in the other direction” (Exodus 16:3; Numbers 14:4). The gainsaying of Korah, the way of Cain, the error of Balaam—all of these loom up as potentials of destruction in the end time (Jude 11). What will we do about it? Somewhere along the line we must make this dedication: “Lord, we know who You are, we know one another after the Spirit, and we are irreversibly committed and dedicated to walk together in Your revelation.” Can we do it? Can we be faithful?
What is faithfulness? “That is the quality which helps you hang in there and follow through and never fail.” Let us look at the aspects of faithfulness. If you have faith and exercise that faith it is like walking. Faith is taking a step, and faithfulness is a walk. Faithfulness is the continual exercise of your faith. You walk from faith to faith (Romans 1:17). It is possible to have a dedication that will never quit, and we can reach into that dedication.
The ark of the covenant was brought into the Holy of Holies, and the presence of the Lord remained there until shortly before the Temple was destroyed in Ezekiel’s day, when the glory departed from the Temple (Ezekiel 10:18–19; 11:22–23). To touch the ark meant death, and without the staves in place, there was no way to remove it. You can do the same thing with your dedication that Israel did with the ark. You can give to the Lord your prerogative of decision and declare: “From now on the mind of Christ, the rule of the Lord over my life, governs me. Because I am Christ’s servant I am determined that every decision I make, every action and every ministry I perform, will be at His leading, His direction.” To the extent that He is the sole Lord over your life, to that extent your dedication to Him is irreversible. He is the Lord, and this you must recognize in every area of your life. Step down off the throne. The throne is His! He must be exalted and magnified above everything else! There can be nothing in this world that you want more than for Him to be Lord!
It is not enough just to read this message—this Word must live in you. All of your dedications will be reversible until the day that His Lordship is complete in your heart. How do we see this happen? We bring Him into the inner sanctuary of our heart, and then we draw out the poles and throw them away. We break them so that there remains absolutely no way, short of death, for us to touch the dedication we made.
Be loosed into the fullness of this truth! Be loosed into the dedication that is irreversible, into the total submission to Him as Lord! If you have that, you can go through a thousand problems and still survive, just as Paul did. The Lord met him on the road to Damascus and revealed Himself: “I am Jesus whom you persecute” (Acts 9:5). After that, Paul experienced a whole lifetime of suffering in a little over thirty years; when he was about fifty-five years old, he was already calling himself Paul the aged (Philemon 1:9). When he made his defense before King Agrippa, he explained, “I was not disobedient to that heavenly vision. When He revealed Himself to me as Lord, that was it” (Acts 26:19). Through shipwrecks, through beatings, through every kind of difficulty imaginable, Paul prevailed (I Corinthians 11:16–33). And we can prevail through the difficulties too. We can make it if we have a revelation of Him as Lord and a corresponding submission to Him in our own heart.
Are you having trouble with vehement intercession? Forget it. You are not having trouble with intercession; you are having trouble with the fact that we are following the path God has ordered. And if you are submissive to Him as Lord, you will not have that problem. Do not be critical of anything the Lord leads us to do. You are not the one to judge it; you are the one to walk in it.
Many times people have been quick to point out my faults; but every time I try to make myself conform to what they think I should be, I end up falling short of it. I do not want to be religious. I have only this life that He has given me, and I am determined that it is all His. He is the Lord over my life. I do not know what I will do when people come against me in the future; I have lost the rights to myself. I do not have the prerogative of making any more decisions. My dedication is irreversible. I said, “Lord, I’m Yours,” and that means I am His bond servant. Regardless of what happens to me, I do not have that much initiative to do anything about it except to say, “Lord, I will serve You with all of my heart.”
At this point, you may not be able to make that total dedication, but you can at least take a step toward it. And you can determine to continue to move, step by step, until your dedication is irreversible, until your submission to the Lord is total and absolute. Pray: “Lord, help me. I will be just as dedicated to You as I possibly can, but I cannot do this in myself. You must help me, Lord! I want to say something that I can never take back. I want to say, ‘You are my Lord,’ and never be able to go back on it, in word or deed.”