Wow there was a lot of good posting done on this thread - I like the way you think. You are on track 100%.
I spent 2007 studying the Temple, Tabernacle, and Jewish law among other things. The study is far from over. I learned that the veil that was torn on the day Jesus died was not the one to the Holy of Holies like I was taught all my life. It was the huge 80' X 26' veil that was hung in front of the Holy Place. This veil was symbolic of the body of Christ - according to Hebrews.
Once you walk through the torn veil by way of Gods salvation - you are symbolically in the Holy Place - this is where the Priests ministered. However, the veil to the Holy of Holies was a much smaller double curtain. The priest entered on one side and walked between the two curtains and exited into the Holy of Holies on the opposite side. The curtains did not run to both walls but were staggered. By using this zig zag procedure no one could see into the Holy of Holies while he was entering.
I said all of that to say that anyone who entered the Holy Place could just simply walk into the Holy of Holies - if they wanted to. Most of us don't take this step, but remain in the Holy Place. Here we can do pretty much as we please and can retain most of the control over our lives.
Everything God does is by our own free will. God gives us invitations to walk into the Holy of Holies. All we have to do is walk through the curtain. It means total surrender and death to self. It is painful to be consumed by the fire of God. He burns off all of our old nature. He prophesies this in Zechariah.
I believe that Zechariah 9-14 is a picture of the very important agenda of God on the day of the cross when God judged the evil and rebellious world that had fallen into sin as he foreknew. Symbolically, The whole world came against him on the day of the Cross. His great goal was to save them and clean them up.
Out of all the people in Israel who looked to Jesus as the Messiah, two thirds of them fell away and a third of them were brought through the fire. This is what happens to you when you enter the Holy of Holies. You are totally destroyed to self, ambitions, and agendas not to mention all of the sins that we entertain in our daily lives. This fire is very painful but it doesn't last long from what I hear.
Zech. 13:9 (KJV)
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
Consider the following verses...
1 John 2:16-17 (KJV)
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. [17] And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Zech. 14:12 (KJV)
And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, [lust of the flesh] and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, [the lust of the eyes] and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth [the pride of life].
All of the world has emnity against God and has fought against him. When we voluntarily enter the Holy of Holies this is what will happen to us - our lusts and pride will be consumed in the fire of Gods cleansing.
The remaining cinder that is left after this process is a person who is truely humble and a servent or slave who follows wherever his Lord leads. This is where the Lord wants us to be, but it will be by our free will.
I have received several invitations to enter the Holy of Holies. Obviously if I get an invitation it means that I am not there yet. One invitation I posted previously - I will post it again because this is a very essential theme in the Christian life.
The Golden Door Dream
[FONT=Comic Sans MS, cursive]4/20/03 1:30am[/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS, cursive]The scene was in a drab dimly lit commercial rectangular room much like a doctor’s waiting lobby – I was the only one there. There was a closed ordinary looking passage door on the side wall. Somehow I knew that the Lord was in the adjacent room behind the closed door. After sitting there in this lobby for sometime, I worked up some courage and decided to listen at the door. I don’t know what my original purpose was in being there. His being there seemed to be happenstance. My attitude was to maybe open the door a crack to peer in to see if he would notice me and recognize my presence. If not - I would just close the door quietly and withdraw. I did not know what he would say or do. Knocking on the door was out, as it seemed to be too intrusive. [/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS, cursive]I finally got up out of the red leather Queen Ann chair that I was sitting in on at the far end of the room and slowly ventured toward the passage door to the adjacent room. Inside the adjacent room I expected to see the Jesus of Nazareth in human form like we always imagine him. As I walked toward the door it began to change from the dark dingy door that it was; and become much larger the closer I got to it – much more than normal perspective. I could see that it was transitioning into a solid gold door and it began glowing. The closer I got to the door the brighter the light became emanating through the door from the inside. This was surprising because gold is a very dense material, so how could light pass through it being probably around maybe three inches thick? The door was becoming transparent. The Lord said something in a loud voice through the door, but I don’t remember what he said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS, cursive]The closer I got to the door the larger it became, and the more intense the glory of the anointing became. It was very real in the dream just like in real life. The brilliant light was all around by the time I stepped in front of the door; and the drab room I was in previously had disappeared completely from sight. The anointing was brilliant and overpowering and the last thing I remember before I woke up was that I was clutching the thick edge of the cracked open, solid gold door with both hands. This was because my legs were failing under the anointing and I suddenly realized that if the door were opened fully - I would be totally consumed and destroyed by the warm, brilliant, consuming glory. All I could see at that point was the brilliant light and a small visible section of the glowing door at its edge that I was so desperately clinging to. It was at this point that I woke up.[/FONT]
Of course the door here is the door to the Holy of Holies. It is a consuming fire and you can't stand in its anointing. You probably have had the same invitation in some form of communication - if you think back - or maybe you are already in there - standing in the flames. Rick Joyner had a vision that has the same identical message - it's just in a different format.
Joyner had a vision where Jesus was at the head of a long line of people and as each stepped before him he asked them all this question. I died for you - will you die for me? If they answered yes - then he thrust them through with a long sword and they fell down dead. They were carried to a graveyard behind him and buried. They immediately resurrected and joined the others in the structure of a building. They became the living bricks in the Holy of Holies.
The word is getting around that hard times are coming in the future to precipitate the greatest harvest ever and without being dead to self it's going to be very difficult to function without this change.
It's been really hard for me to give up everything and to let go of control of my life, but I know I have to go in that direction. Who wants to be a servant of all? - who wants to wear a cloak of humility? - a lot of things there that are really negative and repulsive to our old nature.
So are these people the true Bride of Christ? That was the question.
Brother Banarenth’s post indicates that the second coming is likened to the groom coming for the bride. If this is the symbolic of the second coming, I’m sure that he is coming for the people who are just living in the partially committed Holy Place as well as those who are in the Holy of Holies.
That seems to have answered my original question.
Larry II