And The Curtain Was Torn
Have you ever felt like God was speaking to you? Our Editor Dan shares a story of how finding the perfect verse at the perfect time increased his intimacy with the Lord.
A few weeks ago God totally bailed me out. The leader of our house church had asked me to prepare a message for a special Good Friday event we were hosting at my house. I was meaning to spend time in prayer and in the Word to find the perfect lesson plan. But as often happens, I got caught up in all the worldly details of our event. I cleaned the house, bought chairs for everyone to sit, coordinated food for the night, emailed people to attend, but by the time 6:30 rolled around, I was panicked. It was only an hour before we were scheduled to start - and I had no message prepared whatsoever. So I went upstairs and started to pray…[click “Read More” below to continue]
“God,” I remember praying, “I know I’ve totally dropped the ball here. There’s so many people coming tonight for Good Friday, and I was supposed to prepare a message for everyone about what Good Friday means, but I’ve failed. I’ve totally failed you. I kept putting it off, and now I’ve prepared nothing. In an hour or so, everyone’s going to come. I deserve to look like a fool, but I ask Lord that you bail me out - yet again - and give me something to talk about tonight with everyone. Lord, what would you want us to know about Good Friday? Please show me.”
Finishing my prayer, I looked for my red-leather bound Bible and flipped it open on my dining table. I must have still been praying in my mind because at first I didn’t even realize what page it had opened to. But when I came to my senses I realized that I had just seen a miracle. God had answered my prayer. Out of ALL the pages in the entire Bible - over 1,000 in my version, the ONE PAGE I had randomly opened to after my prayer was the passage in Luke where it talks about Jesus’ death. I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe how perfectly and immediately God had answered my prayer - we were supposed to talk about Good Friday, and there it was - the Good Friday story right before me.
If that wasn’t enough, there was only one verse highlighted on that page: “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Normally, for those who’ve seen my bible it’s highlighted and underlined all over, in multiple colors, but for some reason, when I had read this chapter before, all I did was highlight that one verse on this entire page.
And somehow, as the Holy Spirit led me to this page, that highlighted verse spoke volumes to me, volumes and words into my spirit. I immediately knew what God wanted me to say. He wanted me to talk about how Jesus’ death allows us to have intimacy with the Lord, and how it took His dying for the curtain in the temple to be torn.
You see, the curtain of the Jewish temple was what enclosed the “Holy of Holies” - the innermost sanctuary where only the highest of high priests could go and meet the Lord face to face. At the time, God Himself dwelled in His temple, and the Holy of Holies was where His presence was strongest. It was at the center of the entire temple, and it was such a Holy place, that the high priests could only go once a year to present the people’s prayers. In order to go, they had to ritually cleanse themselves and rid themselves of all impurities before they could be in God’s presence. The custom was that they would even tie a rope around the high priest when he entered, in case he was immediately struck dead when encountered with God’s holiness and perfection.
With all these thoughts rushing into my head, I knew exactly what needed to be said that night. So I closed the Bible and thanked the Lord for how He’d spoken to me. I had no fear, no anxiety despite my lack of preparation. I knew that He was with me, and that He would give me words to speak just like He did for Moses in Exodus 4:10-11.
Later that night, I spoke and preached with an unusual authority. It’s as if I was there watching myself and watching the words come out. Like each word was destined and intentioned for our community to hear. And from what I heard after, it spoke to people when they needed it. One girl who was visiting from China even accepted Christ later that night.
What really strikes me about what happened was how perfect it was - not just as a lesson for everyone who was gathered for Good Friday, but more importantly as a lesson for me. That the very topic I was going to teach about was something God was teaching me in that very moment. That intimacy means that if you pray with faith and ask God to speak, He will. And that if you listen, all things are possible. He will answer you, get your attention, speak to you in a way you will understand, and even give you the words to speak.
