You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
12 When ye
come [bow'] to appear [ra'ah] before [paniym] me, who hath required [baqash] this at your hand, [yad] to
tread [ramac] my courts [chatser]? KJV-Interlinear
12
"When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of
My courts? NASB
In Old Testament times, in David's day, the dwelling place of God was identified by the term, 'shakinah,' or the visible dwelling place of God. This rested on the Ark of the Covenant and remained there until the Feast of Pentecost which occurred fifty days after the Feast of Passover, the real one, wherein Christ paid for mans sins on the Cross.
From that time forward, Pentecost, when people believed in Christ the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all indwell each believer within their soul. Your soul is now the dwelling place of God within this world, for the time being.
In ancient times people looked to the Ark for communion with God. In our day, we look to God by means of confession and therefore residence in the fellowship sphere, for communion with God. All communication with God must operate within the sphere which He has established.
To tread Gods courts, is an expression for the spiritual life.
Back then, people entered the temple grounds or approached the Ark, in order to offer their sacrifice. However, they came with hypocritical attitudes, superficial attitudes, etc. They did not come with legitimate worship intentions. It was all for show.
Today, people come before God in show and words, but not in fellowship. Therefore this is a false approach.
When people use God for some ulterior motive, perhaps to impress others, then they trample, disrespect, His sacred ground.
Living in fellowship, means that you stand on sacred ground (within your soul), and therefore have direct access, legitimate access to God. In fellowship, your spiritual life functions properly.
Out of fellowship, your spiritual life does not function, and anything you do is disrespectful toward God and unproductive for your own spiritual life.
And this is what most believers do, for this is a reference toward believers only. Unbelievers do not possess salvation, and therefore do not have any form of access to God.
Believers who are indifferent toward God, Christ, doctrine, their spiritual life and so forth, will not study, will not obey Gods mandates and so forth.
They instead approach God in a manner of their own choosing. They presumably have a better way of dealing with God. And that of course is a fools lie.
There are two sources of effort, that from within the spiritual sphere, and that from without it. Out of fellowship is operation in the energy of the flesh, arrogance, and the dysfunctional spiritual life.
In fellowship is the operation of divine energy. For it is God who controls the spiritual life, not you. It is God who gets the credit, not you. You benefit by means of His grace, and not your effort.
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