The Word Works!: GOD LIVES IN US III

This inner room was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high, all covered with pure gold. The altar was covered with cedar panels. The inside of the Temple was covered with gold, and gold chains were placed across the entrance of the inner room, which was also covered with gold. The whole interior of the Temple was covered with gold, as well as the altar in the Most Holy Place. Two winged creatures were made of olive wood and placed in the Most Holy Place, each one 15 feet tall. Both were of the same size and shape. Each had two wings, each wing 7 1/2 feet long, so that the distance from one wing tip to the other was 15 feet. They were placed side by side in the Most Holy Place, so that two of their outstretched wings touched each other in the middle of the room, and the other two wings touched the walls. The two winged creatures were covered with gold.

The walls of the main room and of the inner room were all decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. Even the floor was covered with gold. A double door made of olive wood was set in place at the entrance of the Most Holy Place; the top of the doorway was a pointed arch. The doors were decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers. The doors, the winged creatures, and the palm trees were covered with gold. For the entrance to the main room a rectangular doorframe of olive wood was made. There were two folding doors made of pine and decorated with carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees, and flowers, which were evenly covered with gold. An inner court was built in front of the Temple, enclosed with walls which had one layer of cedar beams for every three layers of stone.

The foundation of the Temple was laid in the second month, the month of Ziv, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign. In the eighth month, the month of Bul, in the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, the Temple was completely finished exactly as it had been planned. It had taken Solomon seven years to build it. So it came to pass, that Solomon built the Temple building and finished it (1 Kings 6). You may ask, “Why did you take the time to type these information, even though they are in the Bible?” Do you know that God knows what’s beautiful and loves nice and precious things? Do you know how God’s home looks like, and how it’s been prepared for us? John had a revelation of it, and he shared it in the book of Revelation. An angel carried him to the top of a very high mountain. He showed him Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down out of heaven from God and shining with the glory of God.

The city shone like a precious stone, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels in charge of the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel. The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself was made of pure gold, as clear as glass. The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each gate was made from a single pearl. The street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass. (Revelation 21:10-12, 18, 19, 21). Gold to us is as asphalt to God; Papa God is not cheap! Now this is the reason why I had to state all the materials that Solomon used in building the house of God. He used rare and very expensive materials in high quality to set up things.

Take time to find out why the Lord had special interest in some Bible characters. They had so much love and respect for God that they always gave Him the very best they could possibly offer. If I knew this, why would I complain so much when a local church is organising fundraising or some sort of thing to get something done in the house of God? Do you just know how God feels when we do such thing? He deserves the best from us! After all, all what we have belongs to Him, including ourselves (Psalm 24:1; Psalm 50:10-12; Haggai 2:8; 1 Chronicles 29:11-12; Job 41:11; Psalm 104:24). Just consider the testimony of a few people that faithfully served Him: Abraham was rich and loaded (Genesis 13:2); God had prospered King Solomon so much that the Queen of Sheba testified of it (1 Kings 10:7). In fact his riches and wisdom exceeded all the kings of the earth (1 Kings 10:23; 2 Chronicles 9:22).

During the reign of King Solomon, silver was as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedar was as plentiful as ordinary sycamore in the foothills of Judah (1 Kings 10:27). Can you imagine! We all know how Job was a rich man (Job 1:3). He later lost everything, but the Lord restored to him twice what he had lost (Job 42:12). King Hezekiah was so rich (2 Chronicles 32:27-29). As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him prosper (2 Chronicles 26:5). Don’t feel too big to give to God; He deserves our best! Someone would say, “But the pastors are using our resources to build their church.” It’s the Church of God they are building, not theirs. Let’s continue. Solomon had finally built a house for the Lord. Then King Solomon summoned all the leaders of the tribes and clans of Israel to come to him in Jerusalem in order to take the Lord’s Covenant Box from Zion, David's City, to the Temple.

They all assembled during the Festival of Shelters in the seventh month, in the month of Ethanim. When all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the Covenant Box and carried it to the Temple. The Levites and the priests also moved the Tent of the Lord’s presence and all its equipment to the Temple. King Solomon and all the people of Israel assembled in front of the Covenant Box and sacrificed a large number of sheep and cattle – too many to count. Then the priests carried the Covenant Box into the Temple and put it in the Most Holy Place, beneath the winged creatures. Their outstretched wings covered the box and the poles it was carried by. The ends of the poles could be seen by anyone standing directly in front of the Most Holy Place, but from nowhere else. (The poles are still there today.)

There was nothing inside the Covenant Box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel as they were coming from Egypt. As the priests were leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud shining with the dazzling light of the Lord’s presence, and they could not go back in to perform their duties (1 Kings 8:1-11). Anywhere the Ark of God was taken, His presence was felt. Take notice also that King Solomon and all the people of Israel made an innumerable sacrifice of sheep and cattle unto God; why wouldn’t God bless him? We can say that the Ark of the Covenant was the Oracle of God. It was Holy; It sanctified its resting place (2 Chronicles 8:11). The Ark was sanctified (Exodus 30:26). The reason why sometimes people were struck dead was because the Ark of the Covenant and other items in the Tabernacle were holy.

Moses had to anoint and consecrate those who would be in charge of the tabernacle. Otherwise, anyone who touches them dies! Someone touches something and he’s struck dead. Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu were struck dead for offering strange and unholy fire before the Lord (Leviticus 10:1-2). Even for Aaron the High Priest, God had to give a an instruction to be given him: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:2). There were several instances that people became sick and lost their lives because of the Ark of God. That’s why I had to chip in these stories in order for you to see how grateful you should be to God for such a time as this.

The dispensation of the old covenant was that of distance. Anything the presence of God came upon was holy. When the Lord appeared even to Moses His servant in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, He said, “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). When the Lord manifested Himself upon Mount Sinai, to His own chosen and separated people, one of the commands was, “…thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live…” (Exodus 19:12-13).

Both in the sacred worship of the tabernacle and the temple, the thought of distance was always prominent. The mass of the people did not even enter the outer court. Into the inner court none but the priests might dare to intrude; while into the innermost place, or the holy of holies, the high priest entered but once in the year. I even learnt that the feet of the priests were tied as they entered the holy place. This was done so that in case they missed something and were struck dead, they could be pulled out, since none of the people could enter. It was as if the Lord in those early ages would teach man that sin was so utterly loathsome to Him, that He must treat men as lepers put without the camp (Numbers 5:2); and when He came nearest to them, He yet made them feel the width of the separation between a holy God and an impure sinner.

This is the Good News: When the gospel came, we were placed on quite another footing. The word “Go” was exchanged for “Come”; distance was made to give place to nearness, and we who aforetime were afar off, were made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. Incarnate Deity has no wall of fire about it. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), is the joyful proclamation of God as He appears in human flesh. Not now does He teach the leper his leprosy by setting him at a distance, but by Himself suffering the penalty of His defilement. What a state of safety and privilege is this nearness to God through Jesus! Do you know it by experience? If you know it, are you living in the power of it? Marvellous is this nearness! The Lord told Moses to warn Aaron that he should only enter the most holy place at the right time because he would appear in his glory.

When he dare sees the glory of God, he’s as good as dead. That’s why a very thick veil curtained off the Holy of holies or the most holy place. When Jesus hung on the cross, the Bible records that, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:50-51). Glory to God! It is very significant that the veil in the Temple was rent in two from top to bottom – very significant. Under the Old Covenant or Old Testament, that veil curtained off the Holy of Holies in the Temple. Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, said the curtain was 40 feet wide, 20 feet high, and 4 inches thick. That means that 20 feet in the air, an angel or similar emissary of God took hold of it and ripped it apart, signifying that the way into the Holy of Holies was now open.

Before Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, no one but the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and he had to take great precautions as he entered and made sacrifices for the sins of the people. The Shekinah glory – the visible presence of God – was kept shut up in the Holy of

Holies, but on the day of the Crucifixion, it moved out. Oh, the Bible says that, “…the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands…” (Acts 7:48). Isaiah prophesied concerning this long ago (Isaiah 66:1, 2). God no longer dwells in an earth made Holy of Holies; God now dwells in us. The glory of the Shekinah presence of God now dwells in our hearts! The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16). That’s why Paul tells us to walk right up to God and get what he is so ready to give; take mercy (Hebrews 4:16).

People died for just seeing the glory of God; this same glory lives in us today. Think of your worth! Jesus prayed to the Father for us: “…the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:22-23). Glory!!! Hallelujah! We are the glory of God. If God is in Jesus, and Jesus is in us, then we have both the Father and the Son in us. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit live in us. What an honour! Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). See carefully, how the Lord ordered Moses and the children of Israel to build the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. That means God dwells not in cheap things! What does this mean? It means you’re are not cheap! If the Lord found you worthy to live inside you, then you are somebody so special.

Concerning Jesus, the Bible says that, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10). Anything Moses anointed became holy. The Bible tells us about Jesus of Nazareth and how God poured out on Him the Holy Spirit and power. He went everywhere, doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, for God was with him (Acts 10:38). As new creations we have the Holy Spirit living in us; we are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19) and the body of Christ (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; 12:12, 27). The temple is now all Christians together as one. Just as God lived in temples back in the Old Testament, God lives in us today. We are anointed like Jesus was. Jesus did great and extraordinary things when He received the Holy Spirit.

He then says to us, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Act 1:8). “Power”, as rendered in this verse is the Greek word “dunamis”; It means “inherent power; the dynamic ability to cause changes”. It is from this word that we get the English word “dynamite.” The Holy Spirit is power Himself. So we’re anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. We can go everywhere, preaching the gospel and expect to experience the kind of ministry that Jesus enjoyed. No wonder the Lord Jesus said, “…these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17-18).

We could even experience greater things in our ministry than He did (John 14:12). Jesus is the Son of God. When He walked on earth, He exercised His dominion as a Child of God. Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:14). He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1). Everything was created by Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16). But did you also know that we’re born by the Word of God? We are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten (John 1:13). The moment you received Jesus as your Lord and personal Saviour, God’s life was exchanged with that which you received from your parents. Your old life’s been supplanted by the very life of God: “You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God” (1 Peter 1:23, AMP).