How has the quest for better health in 2020 been going so far?
I’m finding this year fascinating in so many new and amazing ways.
Over the years I’ve been on several different quests to improve my daily health habits; but this year feels different.
Setting aside fifteen minutes each day just to listen to what God wants me to pay attention to has really helped my focus.
How about you?
Have you been using your fifteen minutes a day to listen to God?
Have you been keeping a journal full of notes of the things He is telling you about maintaining a good, healthy and whole lifestyle during 2020?
FOCUSING ON THE HEART
Since the month of February is just about to happen; (where has the first month of this new year already flown away to?) I thought we might as well start with a February tradition and begin this new focus by discussing the health patterns for our hearts.
No; I do not mean your Valentine’s plans. I mean the plans for maintaining a healthy heart.
All of life actually revolves around the condition of your heart; and that can translate physically, mentally and spiritually.
Do you understand that your heart is a holy place that belongs to God?
2 Corinthians 6:19 says: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.
Whoa!
Did you get that?
We are not only walking around on this earth in temples; they aren’t even our own temples.
They belong to God!
That surely puts things in a different light. Are you doing anything with your body that God wouldn’t do with it? Better be careful to consider these things; because He cares about His property.
COMPARABLE TO THE HOLY PLACE
I went on a little further into that illustration this week and began to consider how our hearts are comparable to The Holy Place within the wilderness tabernacle.
Did you know that?
At first these things may even sound a little arrogant or sacrilegious; but that isn’t the case, believe it or not.
God actually WANTS us to be His temple; go figure that one out.
He must REALLY love us because He could have anything that he wants – and for some strange reason – He chose us. Let’s just stop and be very thankful for that and try not to give Him any reason to change His mind.
NOTICING A PATTERN
Actually I’ve come to the most amazing realization while studying the Old Testament and presenting articles for a weekly bible study group that has been functioning now for over seven years. During this study; God has pointed out some pretty amazing facts for the articles that He has allowed me to write down and publish and share with others. I’ve been writing and blogging about these things on Thursdays for a while now.
The study is mostly concerning facts in the Old Testament and the ancient people; but we have dwelled a long time discussing those things that God established when He gave Moses the plan and pattern for constructing and using the Wilderness Tabernacle.
In further studies, I’ve also come to realize that these same patterns given to Moses in the wilderness continued later through out the life of David with the very same pattern that God gave Moses now applied by David for the construction and eventual use of the Temple, which was erected by Solomon (David’s son.)
Then; after Our Messiah came and died on the cross in order to give us eternal life, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit; our own bodies actually became individual living and walking tabernacles.
All of our individual bodies/tabernacles make up One Body; that being The Body of Christ.
A WALKING TABERNACLE
When I began to pray for how to focus on better health for this coming year; God opened my eyes to how many ways the tabernacle in the wilderness and all of its purposes and functions actually relate to the same patterns used by our physical bodies.
Both places are the dwelling place of God.
Each of these places are designed and meant to be holy.
Both places are where all good things from God originate.
God directs us through the use of both sacred places.
Almost every part of the human body falls into a comparative correlation to the use of the Wilderness Tabernacle and then later; the Temple.
Both of these two places of worship (tabernacle/temple – our bodies) were designed by God. He used the same patterns of design for each. They are actually patterned after God’s attributes, which means the pattern mentioned here was first God, then a tabernacle, then a temple, then The Body of Christ.
GOD GAVE MANY SERVANTS THE VISION OF THIS SAME PATTERN
When Moses went up on the mountain to receive the commandments; God gave him a clear vision of this pattern for the tabernacle. This vision is spoken about in the scriptures; but it is spoken of in such a way that it takes spiritual eyes to actually grasp all of these amazing facts.
Moses spent 40 days up on that mountain.
The first six days were spent with God describing to him how He created the Universe and all that is within it.
The seventh day was a time of rest. God and Moses rested and after this happened; Moses knew how God wanted us to spend Sabbath.
The other 33 days were all about God teaching Moses a pattern. It was a pattern of a heavenly tabernacle which God wanted Moses to design on the earth.
The earth; through these designs and patterns of God, was to learn to reflect the things of the heavens.
The ways of mankind on the earth were also to learn to reflect the ways of God.
That was how God designed humans to be. He created us with a design patterned after His very own nature and being; even giving us some of His very own attributes.
Later in time; God gave the same vision that He gave to Moses to David, and later still, the same visions of Moses and David were passed on to the disciples of Jesus, specifically John, Paul and Peter; only the visions of these disciples were given in light of eternal life (as opposed to the temporal life we have here on earth.)
We have inherited this eternal life because of the fact that our Messiah (a part of God) actually came, lived and died to save our souls. The patterns of the tabernacle, the temple, and all that went on inside them actually taught us about Jesus. He was the heart of every pattern. From the pattern that is him; we learn how to keep our own hearts.
THE MOST AMAZING FACT OF ALL
Hence; we are now all walking around in physical bodies that should be acting as little individual tabernacles where God dwells.
Please let that astounding news sink in for just a few moments; because it is probably one of the most amazing facts that a human being could ever know.
No one should ever take any of the above for granted.
This means that those of us who have neglected the care and maintenance of our earthly bodies; though most of us were unintentional in doing so; have sinned.
All men sin, and many men actually die in their sins.
There is a way to change this though; if we turn around and allow God to show us a better way to live.
We can do that by following his patterns; the ones He gave to Moses and David and the disciples with the instructions that speak of Jesus that God clearly spelled out for maintaining a tabernacle.
WE MUST CARE FOR OUR BODIES
In doing this turning from sin; we have to learn to pay attention to our physical bodies.
I am probably the guiltiest of all.
As the days of the calendar tick off I am approaching the time in my life of being called “elderly” and up unto this point, I have spent most of my life totally ignoring my physical body.
To my sad defense, I was actually thinking that I was trusting God to handle everything; and trying not to be so obsessive about physical things.
In the end, I was really only being hypocritical to myself by claiming to be paying more attention to the spiritual things; but how could that fact be true or totally correct if all I said in the beginning of this article is true?
The patterns of the ancient tabernacle make the knowing that our bodies are actual temples of God sink in and become real.
It also tells us that God cares about our bodies and we must care about them too. We no longer are tending to our physical well-being for our own sake; but as a way to honor God.
This promotes the notion that our bodies are sacred; and we suddenly understand in a much clearer way why God commands us to keep them holy.
FACING THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Holy sanctuaries need careful maintenance; and we must supervise what we do with our bodies in order to keep them holy and acceptable places for God to dwell with mankind.
If we are going to be careful with the maintenance of our bodies; we must first think of and care for our hearts.
Our hearts are set into our bodies similar to how The Holy Place was set into the wilderness tabernacle.
Much like the details God gave to the priesthood for caring for The Holy Place of the Sanctuary in the wilderness; our hearts must be cared for by these same types of instructions from God.
As the two places are similar in nature; so are the instructions for their care.
THE UNIVERSE VERIFIES HOW MUCH GOD CARES FOR US
The whole universe and all of the forces that make it up and hold it together also tell our souls the obvious facts; that we are made in the image of God and that God cares for us.
Do you understand that the universe is made up of invisible atoms and all atoms are fashioned after the triune nature of God?
Atoms have three parts that make up the whole of their substance.
So does God.
Just as there are three entities within the Godhead; there are also three main entities that make up the cellular structure of our physical bodies.
Even the millions and millions of tiny little cells that make up all of our body parts are patterned after the nature of God; and they scream out to each of us that He is our Creator and that He has existed eternally.
In the middle of this whole vast universe, God placed mankind’s spirit inside the tabernacle of his body. The body with the spirit inside is there for the same reason that the wilderness tabernacle was there among the nation of Israel; it is for a place for God to dwell and a place for us to worship and to give glory to God. That is the whole purpose for humanity’s existence.
God created us and He ordered the tabernacle of the wilderness which was patterned after all that made up God; and then, wonder of all wonders – it was also made up of many of the very same patterns of our own physical bodies.
SO MANY FASCINATING DETAILS
Does this all sound a bit strange?
Where am I going with all of this anyway?
It seems very possible that all the secrets for maintaining the good health of our physical bodies are tied in with all the things that God told Moses about the care and maintenance of the wilderness tabernacle.
Today; I simply want to elaborate on part of those things.
I want to talk about the wonder and majestic care that was used by God in forming the amazing muscle inside our bodies called our heart.
Our bodies are composed of three layers; skin, tissue and muscle.
With the makeup for our skin first then the whole body actually; these three layers of our bodies compare to the three layers of the tent of the tabernacle that were made of goat’s skin, ram’s skin dyed red and badger skin.
Our skin actually compares to all three layers of the coverings of the tabernacle.
But also; our heart is comparable to the second layer of the coverings for the tabernacle. This second part within our body is the muscle part, and it is similar in nature to that layer of the tabernacle that was made up of the Ram’s skins dyed red.
Of course, you will immediately recognize and identify the “red” part of this comparison; but the red of the heart pumps the miracle of the blood; which is also red. Over and over the scriptures tell us that the life is in the blood; and the heart maintains the blood’s flow.
In so many ways we could say that the heart is the most important muscle of the body. Without it’s vital and purposeful work nothing else in our body would be able to function properly.
THE HEART REPRESENTS THE LOVE OF MESSIAH
Did a picture of Jesus Christ form inside your mind’s eye as I described our hearts and how they are similar to the layer of the tabernacle where the Ram’s skin is dyed red?
If you know anything about the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah; or if you are a born-again believer in the saving power of Jesus; I know you got that comparison. That day in the story when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son, God provided a ram. His name was Jesus. Our hearts tell these stories by their color, their function, their placement in our body. God patterned a story in each of our hearts.
The heart is a holy place.
It has a million stories of God.
ONE OF THREE HOLY SPACES IN THE TABERNACLE
Note; I did not say that the heart was inside The Most Holy Place, so please do not misunderstand. I clearly said The Holy Place. They are not the same area in the Sanctuary. Each place has a different function and we will talk about our bodies and The Most Holy Place at a later point.
There are places at the top of our bodies which are in the area of our head, then there is a place in the middle of our bodies where our hearts live; and also there are places that make up the lower body; the areas below the heart.
All of these different spaces of our physical beings are holy, but all are holy in different ways.
This god-like pattern of three-in-One exists also within our bodies main spaces; and the heart rests right in the middle of all three. It directs and distributes the blood flow.
Isn’t our heart just like Jesus?
Life is in the blood.
Everything about the wilderness tabernacle compares to the nature of God and everything about both the nature of God and the Wilderness Tabernacle pattern given to Moses compares to our physical bodies.
THE PLACE OF THE BREAD OF THE PRESENCE
The Holy Place of the Wilderness Tabernacle (and later the Temple) is the place where the showbread resides.
Thus it is that The Bread of the Presence resides in the sacred space that relates to our hearts.
Good hearts require good bread.
Bread can be physical food or it can be spiritual food.
God provides us with both of these on a daily basis.
The place of the Shewbread represents or points to the Messiah.
He once said to us; “I AM The Bread of Life.”
This bread of life contains great powers for healing our bodies. It provides nourishment which heals and sustains our cells. Whoever eats from this bread will never be hungry or thirsty again.
We experience this place of the heart in a spiritual way whenever we take communion; and we experience it in a physical way whenever we take the good and proper foods into our body from the tables of our own homes.
Later in this series of articles about physical health, we will share some wonderful bread recipes. Today; we will simply consider the best bread, the sacred bread, the bread of life that is called Christ. He is the healer of our hearts and He will leave us completely satisfied and without want of anything else.
THE GOLDEN TABLE OF SHEWBREAD
Now; it would be very appropriate to realize how the place of Messiah is represented by our hearts as well as the tabernacle and the temple.
When the wilderness tabernacle was first being constructed by God’s pattern, God told Moses to prepare the place for the Shewbread to be placed within The Holy Place.
Moses obeyed God and built a golden table to hold the bread.
The more specific purpose of the golden table that held the Shewbread was to hold twelve cakes of bread that were made from the finest of flour.
These loaves, once baked, were placed in two rows of six, upon the golden table. Each loaf represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Lev. 24:8.)
THE GOLDEN CHAMBER
This golden chamber for the Shewbread compares in a very similar way to the four-chambered heart of our bodies.
The Table of Shewbread is strategically placed more to the left of The Holy Place; and in similar fashion or design; God placed our hearts more to the left of our physical bodies.
The four chambers of each of our hearts compare in nature to the four corners of The Table of Showbread.
Bread is placed on two sides of this table and it symbolizes the two sides of the heart; the right side and the left side.
THE GOLDEN CROWN
There is a golden crown that is designed to go around the Table of Shewbread and this golden “crown” correlates to the coronary vessels that circle the heart.
(Coronary means “crown.”)
It is by the constant beating of our hearts that life is sustained.
We also know that it is by the constant taking of our daily bread into our bodies that life is also sustained.
When the Bread of Life becomes a part of us it transforms our lives.
THE TWELVE LOAVES OF BREAD ON THE TABLE
What else do we know about this bread?
What is this bread placed upon this golden table truly about?
Within The Holy Place in the Sanctuary of The Wilderness Tabernacle, The Table of Shewbread was referred to as the Table of the Presence.
The Presence of God came down in that place and dwelled with mankind.
The twelve loaves of bread spoke of all of God’s people who were one with Him.
In the days of the old testament we think of the twelve tribes of Israel; and in the days of the new testament we think of the twelve disciples of Jesus. God’s people dwelled with Him. He came to them through the Bread of The Presence that was placed on The Table of Shewbread with the crown that covered it; and that crown stretched to all four corners; similar to the four corners of the earth which is a phrase often used to mean; all people.
THE BREAD PROVIDED THE SUSTENANCE
The very nature of the bread was to provide both spiritual and physical sustenance for those eating the bread. This sustenance came from The Holy Place; the place that compares to our hearts.
As the bread is eaten it becomes a part of the physical body.
This table, of course, points us to Messiah, it also symbolized the covenant that His people made with Him; and the better way that we began to live after we took Him into our lives and made Him (by His power) a part of our own existence.
He is in God, and we are in Him and He is in us; and we all come into communion as One body in this way.
Like the taking of bread into the physical body; one substance dissolves into the other and they are all the same and become inseparable.
This describes the act of communion with God for Christians; and it also describes the act of needing God’s daily provision for the nutrition of our physical bodies; which are now also used as His tabernacle.
MAINTAINING THE HEART
In order to maintain our hearts (whether in the act of communion or simply the partaking of daily bread at our own tables) we must feed them the correct food.
The food of the tabernacle was given by God to the priests who served in the tabernacle.
Every seventh day they received new loaves of bread (12 of them.) This special bread made up of fine flour was baked correctly and carefully and set by the priests upon the Table of Shewbread inside The Holy Place.
Where did the people get the substance that they used to make this bread?
The people brought wheat and barley as gifts from the fruits of their labor and the best of their own possessions. They brought a first portion of the best of their best, and they presented these portions to God (through the priests) as an offering and/or a sacrifice.
The food for our hearts works exactly as the offerings or sacrifices worked within the tabernacle.
With this fact being true; perhaps it is good for us to consider that every bite of food we decide to put into our bodies each day is actually an offering or a sacrifice that we leave at God’s altar in The Holy Places of our hearts.
Are we bringing the right offerings and sacrifices?
Are our hearts true and holy because we feed them true and holy things?
Will what we bring to the Sanctuary of the Body be made up of true and holy elements; or will it be junk food, leftover ruins, or the wrong sacrifices which would be similar in nature to what Cain gave to God in the days when God only accepted the offerings of Able’s first and best. Cain’s offerings were not acceptable.
Let us not be guilty of putting the wrong foods upon the altars of God’s tabernacles.
DAILY OFFERINGS MATTER
At the proper time, the priests were given of this food to eat.
When the food taken into their bodies traveled through different parts of their bodies; it was digested, and this process called “digestion” is very comparable to how the sacrifices were burned on the altar.
The chemicals used in the incense for this part of the sacrificial offerings are the same chemicals that are found in our bodies when it digests our foods.
When you take in the bread of God’s Sanctuary it is then burned on the altar of your body. The good is retained by the body to satisfy one’s hunger and to provide the needed nutrients for the body, and the excess is burned up. Any waste is eliminated. This was the same procedure used in ancient times; only now it works inside our digestive tracks and other parts of our bodies. The results are the same; the acceptable part of the sacrifices are used for nourishment of our souls, the excess is burned up and the waste is taken out and eliminated. Read about the camps of Israel and hear the same procedures taking place with the sacrifices.
This process of burning up the excess after your body has absorbed all the good nutrients that it needs to stay healthy is the best process for consumed fat to be removed from our bodies.
This is one secret to heart health; and we will discuss this more as we go. Not every article here will be so full of spiritual analogies; but many will be filled with common sense facts about maintaining our health through diet and exercise and other ways.
What I’m hoping you see clearly today is how the physical and the spiritual flow together with the natural use of God’s patterns; and that those patterns were given to us for our own health and maintenance. They contain universal principles.
If the body is fed the proper food; it burns the excess fat instead of burning insulin; maintaining proper health for the altar of the heart.
ALL SACRIFICES MUST BE CORRECTLY DISCERNED
The heart requires the right sacrifices to be kept healthy and holy.
God gave Moses careful instructions about what was proper and what was not in the subject of sacrifices. The wrong sacrifices are detrimental to the health of the heart.
You must eat properly (your daily bread is one of your daily sacrifices before God in your life) in order to maintain good heart health.
EVERY DAY CONTAINS TINY RELIGIOUS RITUALS
Did you know that every meal in your day is actually a religious ritual between you and God and that the altar of your heart needs for this ritual to be carried out in the proper manner?
When this happens, God blesses us with heart health.
Nutrients all go to the proper places, excess fat is burned off and not stored away, and our hearts rejoice in their purposes before God, within the Sanctuary of our own physical body that acts as a tabernacle. The result is good heart health.
I hope you can see the comparisons here and do not think them too far-out or strange.
KEEP FOLLOWING WHAT GOD REVEALS TO YOU
So now that we have this total picture of the altar of our hearts; what is the proper way to make our daily bread and bring it before God at the altar of our hearts?
We will go into more detail on the actual maintenance of our hearts in our next AN APPLE A DAY post.
I wanted you to see the spiritual significance of the placement of the heart first.
Stay with us; God is revealing amazing things!
Keep spending time with Him every day.
Continue praying daily and journal His answers to you about how you need to maintain your health this year.
All of us have different needs; but One God is in charge of all of our outcomes.