As some who read this may know, back during Pentecost the Lord told me to take the tent down. He did not give me a reason, just to take it down. Little by little we took equipment, chairs, rugs, woodstove, and everything else out, cleaned it up and took it down. It was completely down and stored away towards the end of July.

Ever since that time, I have been asking the Lord what now? He kept giving me bits and pieces on all of our comfort zones, but never really spelling things out. From the beginning of September, I started pressing on our Father “what do you want us to do about Sukkot?”, “Are we to celebrate it here on the Grounds?” All He ever told me is “You will celebrate the Feast”. But He did not tell me where.

This whole time since Shavuot/Pentecost the Lord has been speaking to me about the “comfort zones” we all get into. In relation to the tent I said “Father, the tent was out of many people’s comfort zone, they are used to buildings and such.” But He said “In the tent you had many comforts; padded chairs, rugs down, pillows, and even heat from a woodstove”. I never really thought of these things as comfortable, but I guess they are.

We have all been in a place of worship where we were physically uncomfortable. I remember going to my mother’s church many years ago where they have had the same pews from well over 100 years ago. There were no cushions and it is very hard to sit on. Talk about being out of a comfort zone, I was there. Later I said to my mother “no wonder you have so little people in your church, it’s those hard pews!”. That is not at all the reason, but at the time, I was convinced it was.

How often do we insist that everything be just right for us to be able to go somewhere to worship our God? We complain if the church is too hot or too cold, if the seats are uncomfortable, even if the snacks they may serve are not to our liking! Some decide not to go worship if they may get wet from the house to the car! The list goes on and on. How many times have you thought about your comfort when you were somewhere to worship our heavenly Father? You can probably think of at least a couple.

Does He want us always to be uncomfortable when we worship Him?, no, but He does not want our physical comfort to be a prerequisite for our worship to Him. We should not look at the conditions of the area where we going to worship to decide whether we should worship our Father there or not.

Finally the answer came last week about Sukkot 2012; it will be a closed event for Lydia and I on the LOJW Grounds. The Lord instructed us to get totally out of the norm and an area of comfort we are all very familiar with; He told us to shut down power on the Grounds except for the refrig and freezer for the whole of Sukkot. No lights, no stove, no hot water, no computer, no fans or AC, and the list goes on to include anything that is powered by electric! All you need do is think of your own life and what you use that uses power; that will not be for us. We will use wood in a wood cookstove to cook with and heat our water for baths. We will use kerosene lamps and candles for light.

As I you sit there, consider all the things we use today that uses electricity. How much time would we gain without the use of it? I know the computer is a biggie with me and TV when I sit and eat. All this “extra time” will be used to tabernacle with the Lord, to focus on Him even more than we do now.

Why “closed”? It will be very hard to go through this just on our own. This is something we have never done before and it will be quite the ordeal heating water for baths and dish washing just for us two.   More wood needs to be cut and split to fit the cookstove and there are not enough kerosene lamps to light up everywhere. There may be another reason for “Closed”; it just may be the Father wants Lydia and I to go through this alone with Him during Sukkot. It may be another place we need to step out in faith in with only our Father to rely upon and commune with.

We will worship every night with guitar, flutes, drums, and when we get one soon, a non-electric piano. This will not only be Raw Spontaneous Worship, but now it will be Primitive Raw Worship. While we worship, we will be praising God for the comforts we still have, like the soft bed to sleep on and furniture to sit on. There is so much more to praise Him for, but those two were the first things I thought of. 🙂

Another note before I close out; the tent will be going back up again in the near future, but am not sure exactly when. He has only assured me that it will be raised again.

We pray that when you tabernacle with the Lord this year during Sukkot, that you will truly take that one-on-one time with Him and that you do not have any predetermined prerequisites set determining how, when, and where you will meet with Him. Let our Heavenly Father decide how, when, and where He wants you to meet up with Him for your intimate time together. You don’t tell the King what you want, you submit to the King and comply to His will, no matter what it is. Even if it takes you out of your comfort zone. He IS our comforter and wherever you are, He will bring comfort.

I will go more into the comfort issue in another Blog.

Many Blessings,
Aslan