You can’t take it with you into the presence of God

All the things of our old nature, all of our false self and all that pertains to it, has to be left behind when we meet with God in prayer. Silent prayer makes this fact more obvious than regular word-prayer, simply because there are no words. We can’t take our old, false self, its selfish agenda, or its misguided, deception-based thoughts and words with us into the Holy of Holies; only the true self can enter in. It requires being stripped of everything, and the silence of contemplative prayer helps us with the process of becoming nothing before the All-in-All.

I don’t know what all was involved in the High Priests’ preparation for going into the Holy of Holies on Passover—Leviticus only gives us a physical description—but I don’t think they just nonchalantly showed up and did the job. I have to believe they spent a lot of time waiting on God in prayer, reflection, and silence first, making sure they weren’t carrying any of the old nature’s baggage with them, even inadvertently. We have to do the same, and the process of waiting on God in silence is the process of becoming unattached to everything else but God. At some point in a centering prayer session, letting go of thoughts, memories and other attachments, we often find ourselves in a place where we hear bits and pieces of thoughts – what I call the confetti-mind state. At that point we have let go of things enough that we are on the brink of silence. That is God’s invitation to enter the Holy of Holies, the place where we do nothing but be in his presence. Before Christ, the High Priest would bring the blood of a lamb there to atone for the sins of the people, but since Jesus took care of that once and for all at the Cross, we don’t have to do anything but come and be in God’s presence. Before Christ’s appearance in humanity, it was a solemn place, forbidding and foreboding, overshadowed by the weight of glory and holiness. Now, it’s inviting, gracious, and loving—and we are invited, graced, and loved. 

Standing in the presence of One before whom the seraphim atop the Ark of the Covenant bow in reverence—and all heaven with them—we can’t help but bow down, yield everything, and worship from the heart. Encountering the One who sits on the mercy seat where the blood of Christ cut the final covenant—where, once and for all, mercy triumphed over judgment—it’s the place of healing, the place of freedom, the place of laying down all our own judgmentalism. On our faces before the Living God as represented by the bowl of manna inside the Ark of the covenant, it’s the place of coming face to face with the Living Bread without whom we can’t survive. Being there with the Word written with God’s own finger, we meet with the Word of life who writes his new covenant on our hearts. Being there with Aaron’s staff that budded, we are in awe at the One who brings new life out of death—and we want to be dead with him so we can be resurrected with him. 

More than anything else, entering the Holy of Holies is a place of the deepest possible intimacy and connection with God. But make no mistake about it: any work that is done there is done by God, not us. There is plenty of work being done in us at that point by God, but we aren’t aware of most of it. It’s only later that we see or at least glimpse what he has done in us during that time. That’s where thoughts just get in the way – we want to help, but only God can do in us the work of healing, freedom and love that must be done.