This week we were given a reminder of how powerful and grand our God is. The fact that He created the entire universe and all that exists within it expresses that He is unable to be contained by it. Yet, as people who believe this to be true, we can often limit Him and attempt to try and fit Him inside structures we’ve built with our own human hands. This can also cause us to suggest the way He should operate and place Him within a template of services as though we can instruct Him. God has personally voiced that this is far from true. He has declared through His word that He does not live in temples made by human hands. His truest desire is to reside in the temples He’s created for Himself; our bodies.
Being that God is holy, the temples He desires to use should be holy as well. So then, we being temples that have been filled by the world and its objectives, we must be cleansed. To become holy is impossible without the assistance and direction of the Holy Spirit. Unless we have entered into a true relationship where we yield and cooperate with the Spirit of God, Holiness is not obtainable.
When we live in agreement with the world around us and walk in the way that it advises, we walk in a relationship with its ruler who Christ said had nothing to do with Him. To be in a relationship with Christ, yet go to the world for insight and counsel. To proclaim we are committed to Him yet live dependent on His enemy is considered adultery in His eyes. As His temples, there should never be shrines set up for idols of false gods inside. Being that we are temples, we have to understand that we have been dedicated and consecrated to serve one purpose, and that is God’s.
In doing so there are a lot of things that need to be cleaned up and removed. There is so much we have to become disassociated from to serve His purpose. When it comes to our cleansing and transformation we must understand that it is not just for us alone. It is just the same for those God will use us to pour into as His vessels.
This is why we can’t be temples full of things that are not useful. Otherwise, we become useless for our Lord’s Kingdom.
The one thing we have to remember is that what is more important than cleaning the outside of the building is to make sure that the inside is clean because that is where our true service takes place, in our hearts. We have a highly active enemy that is something like a house inspector checking our temples in the hope of shutting us down. He does this by accusing us in front of the owner of our temples declaring our misuse of property.
Overall, we have to understand that when we offer our lives to God and His purposes; our life is no longer our own. For that reason, we have to be willing to inspect our temples so that we become aware of all the problems we can submit to the property owner. We do not have the know-how nor the power to sustain all that is needed for a holy temple. However, the closer we get to God, the closer He will get to us. It is in genuine intimacy that the Father will show us the steps to cleaning and purifying our hearts.
**Audio for this recap can be listened to here
https://open.spotify.com/episode/518Vc8MW8SeyIFm0BxjZtl?si=e51b994416f249b3
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/living-temples/id1740279389?i=1000655976180
Scriptures from this week
Acts 7:44-50
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
1 Corinthians 6:15-20
James 4:4-8
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
2 Timothy 2:19-26
Matthew 23:23-30
James 4:7-10
