The Gates
Before you can enter into God's Presence, you must first,
experience the gates.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving
and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His Name.
Ps 100:4 NIV
The courts are just between the gates and the altar.
The gate speaks of Jesus and His fullness; that’s
the gates of thanksgiving.
At introduction, He is the Man we identify with, this
is the reason why Jesus was baptized in the river; the minute He was baptized
by John the Baptist, He identified with sinful humanity.
When you got born again, you met the Lord at the
gates, as the Savior of your soul; you met Him as the King of Glory, the Son of
Man and as the Son of God.
At the point of reconciliation the Holy Spirit
reveals Him to us as our Savior (signified by scarlet); and the perfect Man who
is our High Priest (referenced in the white); then, we experience Him as the
Son of God (represented by the color blue); and then, as the King (represented
in purple).
If you had not experienced Him in all four
revelations, you could not have been saved. Salvation is impossible, until you
understand the 4 offices of Christ. That's why there were four colors of fabric
at the gate of the tabernacle. These four colors represent Christ in His
fullness at Salvation. But beyond the point of Salvation, are other colors of
His other divine offices.
There are 7 revelations of Christ before you can
experience the Presence of God.
The first is: His four offices; represented by the
four colors.
The second: His Cross; of His sufferings, and death.
The third: His Word; which has been from the
beginning, that was made flesh, and is God.
The fourth: His Life; He is the Eternal Life—the
gift of God to us.
The fifth: His Spirit; with Whom we are baptized.
The sixth: His Power; which we encounter and receive
through prayer.
The seventh: His Presence; which manifests to us when
we receive a revelation of Him, and this causes us to worship.
Praise alone cannot usher you into His Presence, but
worship is related to the Presence of God. You can thank the Lord without a
revelation; thanksgiving is the utterance of the mouth. You can praise Him
without receiving a revelation; praise is an utterance of the mouth. But you
cannot worship Him without a revelation. So, something happens between the gates
and the altar. Between the gates and the altar, there comes a revelation. And
without that revelation, nobody can come any closer.
You can't really praise God until you have received Salvation
and known Jesus in His four offices.