Guard Your Temple

Are you guarding your temple?

“The construction of the Temple of God began in midspring, during the second year after they arrived in Jerusalem. The work force was made up of everyone who had returned from exile, including Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jehozadak and his fellow priests, and all the Levites. The Levites who were twenty years old or older were put in charge of rebuilding the Lord’s Temple. When the builders completed the foundation of the Lord’s Temple, the priests put on their robes and took their places to blow their trumpets. And the Levites, descendants of Asaph, clashed their cymbals to praise the Lord, just as King David had prescribed. With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord: “He is so good! His faithful love for Israel endures forever!” Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had been laid.” Ezra 3:8, 10-11 NLT

When we allow ourselves to be conformed to this world and begin to allow things to enter our mind and hearts or our environment, it begins to take root and taint our temples. Our bodies are our temples and we must protect and preserve them. Why? Because God created us and gave us these bodies for our good and His glory. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God instructed the children of Israel not to turn away from His laws but they chose to do so anyway. Their disobedience caused them to be easily persuaded by the wicked ways of the foreigners around them. They began to worship other gods, stars, moon, idols, etc. The worship of these things led to more evil acts. This angered God because He warned them not to do so yet they did anyway. We must remember that our God is a jealous God and we should not worship no other god but Him.

God allowed them to be overthrown by their enemies who captured them and put them back into slavery. While they were being exiled from their home, the temple of the Lord was vandalized and destroyed. All of their gold and silver articles from the temple were taken. The precious building where they worshipped the Lord and where His presence filled the place, was no more. Their disobedience, waywardness and lack of self-discipline caused them to go into captivity and to lose the sacred place where they went to commune with God. They didn’t guard their natural temple which led to them losing their structural temple.

Once the prophecies were fulfilled, the people were freed from exile and brought back to their homes. During this time, they had to rebuild the temple of God, repair the walls that protected them as well as be refreshed with the Word of God. This took time and discipline. Though they faced adversity, they were able to persevere and accomplish the task. However, you can prevent yourself from having your natural temple being distracted, defiled and destroyed.

1. Guard your mind: The enemy normally attacks our mind with lies which distorts our thinking and distracts us. We become enticed by the things we see, hear and surround ourselves with which affects our thoughts, perceptions and reasoning. To protect your mind, you must allow the Holy Spirit to renew your mind daily. Each day submit your mind to the Holy Spirit and claim that you have the mind of Christ. Jesus faced the same temptations we do however He did not sin. He knew the truth and didn’t allow His mind to be toyed with by the enemy. We have the same power to block mental attacks as well. Meditate on the Word of God to know the truth and you won’t be deceived by false things.

2. Guard your heart: Jesus tells us that out of hearts come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander (Matthew 15:19). These things enter our hearts because they first take root in our mind. That’s why protecting your mind is so important because once it enters your heart, it becomes defiled. To guard your heart, ask the Holy Spirit to create within you a heart clean and renew a right spirit within you. Also, ask Him to help you guard your heart with His peace so you can be aware of what you’re feeling within. If you start to feel anger, bitterness, envy, jealousy, lust, etc then you know that is NOT of God. The Holy Spirit can help you to produce His fruit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Our hearts can be cleansed, purified and refined to walk boldly in Christian character because our hearts have good fruit.

3. Guard your will: Your will is your actions and behaviors. It is the choices and decisions you intentionally and unintentionally make. You can intentionally make good decisions as well as unintentionally make bad decisions. Our will is freely given to us by God to choose to do right or wrong. We cannot allow our will to be driven by our flesh because it is evil. We have to allow our will to be guided by our spirit. Our spirit is joined with the Holy Spirit who leads us to do the things God has planned for us. Don’t allow your will be tainted, misconstrued, or warped by the enemy. If so, your temple can be destroyed. Maybe not always physically but spiritually because the wages of sin is death. To protect your will, you have to walk humbly with the Holy Spirit. Submit your will to Him in worship (bow down, yield, let go) and He will lead you along the best pathway. He is there to help but we must allow Him to help us as He helped Jesus and countless others.

Throughout the history of Israel, the people of Israel had a pattern of neglecting the temple of God and it always needed repairing or rebuilding. Today, our temples are still neglected and still need constant repairing or rebuilding once we choose to turn back to God. However, if we remain steadfast to Him, we wouldn’t need to be repaired all the time. It wouldn’t have been abandoned to the false and short-lived pleasures of this world. If we made a commitment to serve the Lord with our whole heart, our temples would be constantly filled with the Spirit of God who continuously renews our minds, prunes our fruit and sanctifies us.

God has called us to be holy and live holy which is set apart lives. God does not want us to adopt the evil ways of this world because He knows where it can lead us. We must take heed to guard our minds, hearts and wills aka our soul. The enemy wants our soul but if we belong to God and live holy like God instructs us to then we can’t be taken out of God’s hands. You only have one temple, take care of it.

Building Blocks of Christianity

Building Blocks of Christianity

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:3-5 NLT

As a child, I loved playing with the multi-colored blocks in school. I would use those blocks, combined with my imagination, and build whatever came to mind. Usually, it was some sort of Zord from Power Rangers. Yet, I enjoyed building upon each block to create my masterpiece. Every masterpiece needs a foundation. Something strong, reliable and dependable. It must be able to withstand the test of time. Thankfully, in our lives, we have the greatest foundation known to man whom is Jesus Christ. Jesus isn’t just our Lord and Savior. He’s so vast and interchangeable. Jesus is also our chief cornerstone. And upon Him, we are built. Our lives are built upon the solid foundation of the pure sacrifice, living example and undeniable truth of Jesus Christ.

In the scripture captured in Romans 5, Paul’s letter to Rome encourages them in the arena of faith bringing joy. Faith is the key to Christianity that unlocks life and liberty to all those who have been held captive to sin. Paul uses a rather different perspective when it comes to tests and trials. Normally, when we’re facing hardship, we’re sad, anxious and feeling hopeless, however, Paul tells us to rejoice!

Now who do you know will be rejoicing whenever they’re dealing with loss, grief, anger, frustration, etc. I know that’s difficult to wrap your head around but allow me to break it down for you. Paul discusses 4 things major points or building blocks for Christianity.

1. Problems and trials produce endurance: Now endurance is the capacity to withstand the wear and tear of things. Being a Christian is not a sprint but a marathon. It’s a constant and consistent race toward the upward call of Christ Jesus. In this Christian walk, you will have trials and tests but we have overwhelming victory through Christ Jesus. This victory lives within us and has been given to us by Jesus when He died and rose from the grave. In our minds and hearts, we must remember that the same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in us. Therefore, we can withstand anything because of the power that is within us.

2. Endurance develops strength of character: Once you have an understanding of what was accomplished for you on the cross and in the grave, it develops you and your character. Our character of this world is evil and selfish but our character in the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Walking in the Spirit is also walking out the fruit of the Spirit. This nine-part fruit embodies the character that we should exemplify daily as a Christian. We gain this ability by our fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

3. Character strengthens our confident hope of salvation: As we’re walking in the Spirit and by the Spirit, we can rest assured in the hope of Glory whom is Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. We should have confidence in Jesus not only that He died for our sins, saved us from death, hell and the grave but also He will come back to us either raise us from the dead or meet us in the sky on that glorious day. Salvation yields cleansing of all sins by the blood of Jesus and forgiveness of all sins by the grace of God. And by being saved, we become sons and daughters of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs in Christ. We have new identities as well as the coming of full rights as God’s children once we go home to Him.

4. God loves us: As simple as that sounds, it’s so massive, indescribable, non-comprehensive and yet so beautiful, wonderful and amazing! God loves us! Not because of what we’ve done, but because of who we are to Him. We are His creation, His workmanship, and made in His image and likeness. To know God’s love for us, we gain that knowledge and understanding through salvation by coming to acknowledge, accept and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. And at that point, we receive the Holy Spirit living within us as He seals us until the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit, through our fellowship with Him, pours into our hearts the love of God. We experience His love through prayer, reading and meditating on God’s Word and worship. As we spend our time in Him, He reveals more of Himself to us. That perfect love casts out all fear and we embrace the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.

As Christ is our foundation to life and liberty, we utilize endurance, character, hope and love to become more and more into His image. This journey is tough and we must count the costs. But Jesus promises to be with us until the end of age. He asked the Father to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to be close beside us in this journey so we are never alone. We have God here in the earth with us and in us at all times. Let Jesus build you up by His Spirit and be able to withstand the storms in life that will come against you. But in that coming day, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. You belong to God and He belongs to you.

Divine Collaboration

Divine Collaboration

“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” Philippians 2:13 NLT

We all have a desire to fulfill a purpose here in the earth. That desire fuels and feeds us to walk in purpose. Living a purpose driven life is so essential to a person because it provides them a will to live. Without purpose, we are dead on the inside because thriving has ceased. We have no direction in life and we aimlessly wander finding our place here in life. Yet, God calls us to Himself to receive direction by submitting to His will.

Jesus commanded us to go out and preach the Good News as well as make other disciples (Matthew 18:19-20). We are all equipped for this task and all other tasks that are assigned to us by God. We are never working alone in the work of the Lord. Jesus asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to help us. The Holy Spirit aided Jesus in His three year ministry. As a matter of fact, Jesus didn’t perform any miracles until He was baptized with the Holy Spirit. So we know it is necessary that we have the Holy Spirit living in us in order to fulfill what God has sent us out to do.

God wants to partner with us to fulfill His will. God can do all things but He chooses to choose us to accomplish His plans. We are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. God enjoys partnering with us because we are His own. We belong to Him. In our relationship with Him, this allows us to draw closer to Him and He draws closer to us. It builds more of a trusting relationship. Remember if you are faithful with a small thing then God will allow you to be faithful with greater things. And the Holy Spirit is there to help lead us and guide us to do the things that God has purposed and planned. It is our responsibility to cooperate and co-operate with Him as He leads, guides, teaches, fills, sanctifies convicts and provides revelation, wisdom and power.

Cooperate means to comply. We must comply with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is a daily choice and submission. Submission meaning we choose to let go of our agenda and take on His. When we wake up and begin our day, it is encouraged that we submit our soul (mind, will and emotions) to the Holy Spirit so that He can order our steps and direct our paths. We shouldn’t be leading the Holy Spirit; He should be leading us. Whenever and wherever He leads, it is for God’s glory and our good.

Co-operate means to join together for a task. Co means joint or together in Latin and operate means to work. You and the Holy Spirit are joined together to work together in carrying out the purpose, plan and will of God. When you became saved, the Holy Spirit joined with your spirit. He now indwells you. The Holy Spirit is the One working in you, giving you the desires to want serve others in love and giving you the power to do it.

On our own, we will fail. We need the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We must invite Him in and be sensitive to the work He is doing in us and what He wants to accomplish through us. God created us for many reasons but one of His greatest joys is collaborating with His children to do the work of the Kingdom. When He sees us, He sees Jesus for He makes us righteous. And through His righteousness, we can come to the throne of God and be in His presence. In His presence, we receive Him and all that He has for us.

God called you to do something. Seek His Kingdom first to find out what He assigned you to, live righteously because of what Jesus did for you and all that you’ll ever need will be yours because of who you are in Christ and you belong to Him.