GodRules

Ezekiel tells us about the outer court and the inner court in his book. We will think about this in a couple of ways, revolving around our relationship with God. More about that later.

We know that a person comes to have a personal relationship with God through receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This results in the new birth. You’re saved but as of yet, there is no real intimacy of fellowship. You’re in the outer court of the Temple, which is not a bad place to be. Thank God that by His saving grace, you’re there. From there, we come to know about God through His Logos Word, through reading it for ourselves and through the teaching and preaching of it through others.

Through these avenues, we gain knowledge of the mind and that is also good because Romans 12:2 says, that our minds need to be renewed by the Word of God. Our minds have to be restored back to thinking in line and in agreement with the Word. Our minds have to be conformed to the perfect will of God that produces the good fruit of righteousness in our thoughts, speech and actions. It is here in the outer court that you not only begin having your mind renewed to God’s Word but you also learn to pray and communicate with God. We must never become satisfied to remain here in the outer court because God desires that we move up higher in Him. Therefore, it is here that you’re faced with a decision to go on deeper with God, or remain in, as it were, in the shallow, water of religion.

It is also here that you often come to God with your prayer list in hand and you begin telling God everything you want Him to do for you. We so often, in this place, do all the talking and we don’t give God a chance to communicate to us what is on His heart concerning our lives and destiny. The Lord said, “I don’t hand select a certain few to talk to. I desire to talk to all my children, but they’re always busy doing all the talking and they listen little. Yea, I say, get still before Me and know that I am God.”

To sit at His feet and know that He is God is our priveledge. There are times when God desires and requires nothing more of us than to just sit quietly before Him and wait. Is this for nothing? Just wasted time? No. We are being taught, not only in developing patience, but also in learning to still our souls before Him. To bring every wandering thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, We are learning obedience.

We’re learning in these times, to shut down everything else and focus on God and Him alone. We are also learning to silently worship Him from our spirits in this non-verbal intimate communion with our wonderful Lord and Savior. It’s in these times that you begin learning to see Jesus more clearly and behold His glory through the eyes of your heart. This doesn’t happen all at once. We still only know God as Savior. This translates to merely knowing about God. Jesus said, “Learn of Me.” You learn of Jesus:

think about this:
1-Through the reading and meditating on the Word as its revealed by the Holy Spirit.

2-Through intimate fellowship with Jesus. Praising Him.

3-Through prayer and intercession.

4-Through more thanksgiving and praise.

5-Through worship of Him in Spirit and in truth.

6-Through spending quality time in His presence, allowing Him to communicate His heart to you.

Remember He taught the apostles to pray: Our Father who are in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

FIRST you give Him praise, then go to your request.

LIKE the feast, first give an offering to the Lord, then a sin offering for yourself.

God, your heavenly Father desires to have you come before Him in prayer, praise and worship to have fellowship with Him. And in order to do this, the first thing you have to do is throw out your prayer list and come to get His. Throw out your agenda and come to get His agenda for your life. When you do this, you’re beginning to move into something so wonderful and so rewarding as a child of God that your imagination won‘t stretch far enough to understand it.

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 THE INNER COURT:
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When you begin your journey with Jesus after you’re born again, it is a journey that will move you from the outer court and into the inner court of the Temple of God. Once you come to the inner court, this is the place where you begin desiring to know more of God’s heart. It’s the place where you begin asking your Father to reveal to you what is on His heart. Not just about you and your life but concerning all matters of importance to Him. It is the place where you begin looking beyond self and become more “God-minded” and “other-minded.”

The inner court is the place where you desire to please your heavenly Father to a greater degree than ever before. While in the outer court, you thought little about pleasing God. You were more concerned with pleasing yourself. After all, you had your prayer list and you told God what you wanted Him to do for you. That was enough. You could then leave your prayer time and go about your business. And God had His business to do---grant all your prayer demands. While He did all of that, you could go on and not give God too much more thought for the remainder of the day or night.

It is true that we’re to come before God with our petitions, making prayers of supplication and asking in prayer that His promises would manifest in our lives concerning a need.  We are to come to God’s throne with boldness---with confidence in Him and in the promises of His Word, believing that He hears and answers our prayers of faith according to His will, not ours.

When I saw that I was guilty of this very thing, I was deeply ashamed and repentant of my irreverence to God, my Father. As a parent I know how I would feel if my own child was to come to me in this same fashion, never saying I love you, or thank you and then after making their request, leave my presence. I would feel taken for granted and very hurt. Even though my child’s behavior wouldn’t change my love for them. It would be because of my love for them that I would feel the hurt. Our heavenly Father feels these things beyond what we can understand because of His great love for each of His children whom He delights in. Let us take care to give Him, Who gave to us so great a salvation through His Son, the honor and reverence He is due.


It is here in the inner court where you will find yourself in a place of separation, being stripped of everything fleshly and carnal. There must be a separation between spirit and soul, and soul and body with the end result that your spirit, in agreement with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, takes over rule. “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb.4:12). Simply broken down, the Word of God is powerful and sharp enough to separate us from sin. On the flip side, if we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to do this stripping and separating in our lives then the sin we’d rather hold on to will separate us from God.

Here in the inner court is the place of conflict (war) between the spirit and the flesh because the flesh, the carnal mind is at enmity with God (Romans 8:6) as well as being at enmity with our own spirits that have been quickened unto life by the Holy Spirit. This is a place of mixture, fleshly desires vs desires of the spirit. At times, you may experience such frustration that you begin to doubt whether you can go all the way from the inner court to the most holy place, and quit trying to get to that land flowing with milk and honey, the holy of holies when it‘s only a step away.

There will be periods when the struggle here will be most intense. You will be confronted with temptations of the flesh that arises to distract you away from your real heart’s desire. From the real joy of your heart, the Lord Jesus Himself. But remember, God always makes a way of escape when faced with temptation. He’s given you authority in Jesus name to say, “no” to the enemy working through your mind, will and emotions, pressuring you to give up because the journey is too hard.

You can also rest assured that God is well able to keep that which you’ve committed unto Him against that day. When you truly believe this and accept it by faith and act accordingly, you can cease from struggle. You can rest in Him, knowing that the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to help you pass-over from the inner court and on into the holy of holies. It is by your will in agreement with His will and heart, it is by His strength empowering you that you will be able to take each step required on this journey toward the fulfilling of your destiny. Your part is to yield to the Holy Spirit, Who will lead you right on in where you desire to go. To your Father-God, Who eagerly awaits your presence.

The inner court is also a place where you’re faced once again with a decision. You’re here in the inner court because God, by His Spirit, is calling you to that higher calling, the holy of holies. The Holy Spirit is drawing you and wooing you to come closer, but at the same time, because the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, He won’t go against your will. Thus, you find yourself in the “valley of decision.” This is because, with each new level of faith and glory God calls you to, there is a price to pay. Many will be willing to pay the price and many will decline and choose to remain where they are at the moment. They will never grow beyond their present existence to touch and know the living God on a level of intimacy that’s astounding and glorious.

 Everything we accomplish is by and through God’s (amazing) grace and power operating in and through us as we yield our lives totally to Him to be used as a vessel of honor for His glory.

 The Lord God is our refuge. Where do we find Him? In that most holy place. In the safety of His awesome presence---under the shadow of His wing, “He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91).