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The Importance of Meeting
(Overcomer Wu)

" And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory.” Exodus 29:43

While it is true that God is omnipresent and meets with us wherever we are, even when we're alone in the silence of our private devotional time, He desires to meet with us and pour out the riches of His grace to us in greater degrees when we meet together as the Church. Moses understood that the place God chose to dwell was the Tent of Meeting or the Tabernacle, which is a type of the Church. He told the people, "There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you” (Deut 12:7). We are also distinctly told in Exodus 29:43, “And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory.” Here Lord God stated in no uncertain terms that the Tabernacle, the Church today, is the appointed place where He will meet with His people. And we are practically the Church only as we meet together.

When the temple was built in Jerusalem, God’s people connected with His presence there. Read Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the temple: "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain You. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to Your servant’s prayer and His plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying in Your presence this day” (1 Ki 8:27-28). As with the Tabernacle,we are told in 2 Chronicles 5:14 that God's glory filled the temple when it was erected and the ark was brought into it.

God still has a temple today, but its location was changed on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church. The Shekinah glory of God that originally came to rest upon the Tabernacle and the Temple, had now come to be with among the believers of Christ whenever they meet in His Name. It is amazing to realize that He now dwells, not in a building, but in and among us! For this reason, we collectively as the Church is called the House of the living God (1 Tim 3:15), God's holy Temple and His Dwelling place (Eph 2:21-22). This is indeed a great mystery that has been revealed to us that God has to dwell in and among us! Christ lives in us (2 Cor 13:5, Gal 2:20, Col 1:27), and God dwells in His Temple – the Church!

God's Word tells us: “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (Jam 4:8). If we sincerely and practically come to meet with God among His people in the Church and He will also draw nigh to meet you, just as the father whom Jesus tells about ran to meet his erring son when that weak and wayward young man returned back home (Luk 15:20). Yes, we do not come to the Church meeting to meet with our friends, or some famous people, or even to hear a good sermon from an eloquent speaker, we come together primarily to the Lord God Himself and to receive of His supply of the Spirit and the Word in our midst. We are bound to be spiritually weak and impoverished when we neglect the assembling of ourselves together. In fact, we are exhorted to “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is... and so much the more as you see the day approaching” (Heb 10:25). As the day of the Lord’s coming draw nigh, we need all the more to meet for us to be encouraged, strengthen, supplied, and press on towards the goal of our high calling together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim 2:22).

Certainly, God is well-pleased when His children choose to spend time with Him, especially corporately. Here are just a few of the things He offers to us:

• He will give us His protection: "In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from the intrigues of men; in Your dwelling You keep them safe from accusing tongues” (Psalm 31:20).

• He will give us His Grace, His Glory and all good things: “For the LORD God is a Sun and Shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). Though this is commonly quoted, it should be taken together with the context which clearly shows that it is referred to what we enjoy of the Lord when we are in His Court and in His House (verse 10, and the entire chapter 84 of Psalms).

• He will pour out His blessings: “Like the dew of Mount Hermon and the dew that comes on the hills of Zion (where God's Temple is); for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.” (Psalm 133:3).

• He will give His promised Presence: "The children of Your servants will live in Your presence; their descendants will be established before You” (Psalm 102:28).

• He will fill us with joy: "You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand" (Psalm 16:11). "Surely You have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of Your presence" (Psalm 21:6, Acts 2:28). "…I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence, rejoicing in His whole world and delighting in mankind” (Proverbs 8:30-31).

• He will strengthen our hearts: "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones” (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13).

• He will give us His mighty power to stand against the enemy and his schemes: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God (-- the Church) so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes” (Ephesians 6:10-17).

May we have the same longing as the Psalmist who saw the preciousness of the Lord in His Dwelling Place: “How lovely is Your Tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psa 84:1-3). Hence their love is directed towards the Lord's House: “I love the house where you live, O Lord, the place where your glory dwells” (Psa 26:8). Thus, king David declared, “I was glad (or rejoice) when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord'” (Psa 122:1). Do we rejoice to go into the House of God? If not, it is perhaps we are going there for the wrong reason; otherwise, our longing will simply be that “I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life” (Psa 27:4).