The Gathering, the Tabernacle, and the Golden Setting

Led by Apostle Chris Gbedemah before the main sermon.

• Faith requires corresponding works. Faith is essential to access grace and please God, but faith in word or heart alone without corresponding action profits nothing. True belief is demonstrated through tangible obedience rather than talk.

• Believers must seek spiritual power — healing, prophecy, raising the dead — alongside financial empowerment to support family life and kingdom assignments.

• Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness so that these things are added. Walking in financial prosperity requires adhering to biblical covenants, including the tithing model of Abraham.

• Maturing beyond spiritual childhood. An heir, as long as he remains a child, is no different from a servant. Believers cannot rely solely on the claim of grace without spiritual discipline, training and sacrifice — just as Usain Bolt added heavy weight training to bodily exercise to become an Olympic champion.

• James 2:14
• Matthew 6:33
• Galatians 4:1

• The Festal Gathering is a divine feast established around the King, His household, His elders and His servants. Believers are called to enter the King's presence and partake of what is served at His table with reverence.

• “Our gathering together unto Him” is not achieved by human strength or fleshly might, but strictly by the Spirit of God.

• Divine order. The assembly of God is organised into tribes, clans, households and family units. Each level carries appointed heads and responsibilities to govern and protect the flock.

• Jacob fathering twelve sons through four mothers, Moses leading the tribes, and Aaron serving in the tabernacle were physical shadows. Jesus did not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil their spiritual reality in Himself.

• 2 Thessalonians 2:1
• Matthew 5:17

• Rivers signify streams of populations, tribes and nations flowing across the earth — waters represent peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.

• While three rivers watered regions of earthly nations, the river Pishon skirted the land of Havilah, a place marked by pure gold, bdellium and the onyx stone.

• That stream culminates in the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

• Genesis 2
• Revelation 17:15
• Revelation 22:1

• Signs alone are not enough. None of the signs, plagues or wonders in Egypt broke the power of darkness until the blood of the lamb was applied to the doorposts and lintels. Miracles alone cannot grant eternal salvation; translation into the Kingdom occurs through the cleansing of Christ's blood.

• Believers enter into Christ through the blood and must travel along the line of faith toward the final gathering — walking between Alpha and Omega.

• Trials. Ordained by God to test and refine character and capacity before advancing to higher spiritual dimensions.

• Temptations. Originate from internal lusts and demonic entrapments — the pleasures and entertainment of Egypt. Fix your gaze on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, rather than being diverted.

The core revelation of the message.

• Moses received the divine blueprint of the tabernacle and the priestly vestments from the heavenly copy. Aaron's ephod carried two black onyx stones on the shoulders — governance and the two priest-witnesses — and twelve precious stones on the breastplate representing the tribes.

• Every stone had a setting. Every stone on the ephod and breastplate had to be mounted in a setting of pure gold.

• Christ is the golden setting. Believers are the precious living stones, but their foundation and base is Christ Himself. Believers live, move and grow up into Christ, who knits the whole body together.

• Detached stones. Any stone detached from the golden setting has no life, light, or part in the body. If your finances, charisma or ministry are not rooted in Christ's pure golden setting, they remain baseless and void.

• The sparkle. A rough diamond or pearl does not shine naturally until it is cut, finished and refined through the furnace. The sparkle that emanates from a believer is the life and light of Jesus shining through Christ-like character, integrity and righteousness.

• Exodus 25
• Exodus 28
• 1 Peter 2:5
• Galatians 2:20
• Ephesians 4:15-16
• Psalm 12:6
• John 1:4

• The outer court is finished. The outer court contained the bronze altar, which dealt with sin, flesh and judgment. Because Jesus offered His own body as the final sacrifice — tearing the veil of His flesh — the outer court has been completed and left to the realm of the natural.

• Believers are called into the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, where every surface, wall and vessel is overlaid with pure gold. In the New Jerusalem there is no physical temple, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple.

• The badger skin coverings. The tabernacle was draped with four layers culminating in tough badger skins — spiritual armour against demonic snipers. Harbouring offence, bitterness and unforgiveness creates blemishes or cracks in a believer's garment, providing an entry point for arrows of sickness. Meditating on and obeying God's Word forms an impenetrable barrier that neutralises spiritual poison.

• Revelation 21

• The lion and the eagle. In governing and guarding God's house, leaders must exercise the characteristics of the lion — ruling authority — and the eagle — keen, elevated spiritual vision to perceive true motives.

• Beware of hybrids. Guard against spiritual mixtures: individuals controlled by prideful or serpentine spirits who display false humility to infiltrate assemblies and marriages.

• As with the angelic watchers at the gates of the New Jerusalem, the church must maintain spiritual boundaries, ensuring that only what is holy and aligned with Christ enters the house.

• “I live in Jesus, and Christ lives in me.”

• “I am a living stone, established upon the golden setting of Christ.”

• That their lives were created by Him and for Him, and that their households would be gathered securely into Christ.

• Colossians 1:16