How's your temple?
We are in Holy Week on our way to Resurrection Sunday. Today marks the day in this timeline that Jesus entered the temple, drove the traders out and cleansed the Temple. (Matthew 21:12-13) The Lord reminded me of something He showed me last week and wanted to share it with you. He took me to Matthew 21 and gave me a mental picture of Jesus going through the temple, overturning tables and driving out the money changers. I was picturing the physical temple and Jesus’ response in my mind’s eye when the Lord said you are My temple.
“You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16 The Message)
I was overwhelmed by the thought that I don’t want any unholy trading going on in my temple. What is unholy trading? Whenever we do not seek first God’s kingdom, we are trading for ourselves. Here are a few ways people participate in unholy trading:
Money & Materialism
Fear, manipulation, control & dominance
Anger, unforgiveness, bitterness & resentment
Approval and affirmation from anyone but God
Pride, self-promotion, and self-sufficiency
People trade on these things all the time in the world’s trading system. The Lord reminded me His currency is faith, hope and love. He challenged me to look internally and see if I had partnered with any of these things. To be honest, He revealed some things which led me into a time of repentance and then asked Jesus to throw out any negative thinking and replace it with His truth. While all of this was going on, I noticed the song You are Holy by Nic & Rachael Billman was playing in the background. This song is powerful and describes Isaiah 6:1-3:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”
As Christians, we have the honor and privilege to be God’s temple on the earth and we don’t want anything to stand in the way of His Presence filling every part of us. My hope for you this week is to spend time dialoguing with Jesus about your temple. I pray you will ask the Lord to uncover any unholy trading, allow Him to clean house then ask Jesus for a fresh baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire. (“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matthew 3:11)
As you seek Jesus, He will meet you with His perfect peace and love and use you to make a Kingdom impact everywhere you go. May you experience His sweet Presence this week like never before.