A daily devotional moment by Chris Garcia
The temple God is after is not one made of stone. It is one made without hands. But with the hands of the Lord. We are the temple presence of God now. Jesus brought us the way in the old testament. The Glory of the Lord would manifest in very powerful and unusual ways. The first time that we see God's glory is in the Old Testament when Adam walked in the cool of the day with God. God's presence was with Adam. God's presence was in creation. But then what happens? He rebels. He directly sins against the Lord and God out of His love and His grace for him and did not want him to be condemned for eternity in a fallen state. So He banishes him out of the garden. Leaving two angels with flaming swords and the cherubim placed there to guard the entrance back into Eden. He banishes him out of the Garden and then a man dying returns to the dust of the ground from which he came. If Adam would have stayed in the garden, he would have eaten the fruit from the Tree of Life and then live forever in a fallen state without hope of redemption. So out of God's grace and love, He banishes him from the garden. He removes him because He does not want a man to fall eternally without any redemption. Jesus had already provided, before the foundations of the earth, the salvation of humanity. And then we see the glory of God begin to descend in the life of Moses. We see this in the burning bush that was not consumed. Moses understands the presence of God is near. He looks to see the presence of God. God waits for him to see and then out of the presence comes the voice of God. Some of you want to hear the voice of God. Some of you are looking for God's voice. Look for His presence and you see, and you will hear His voice. In Genesis 1 it says, “The Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the deep and God said, 'Let there be light.” Out of the Presence comes the Voice out of the Spirit comes the speaking. And we see that God says to Moses, “Take your sandals off your feet for the place for which you stand is Holy ground.”
Later on, we see that the glory of God resides in the Arc of the Covenant. Where the priest would carry the Glory of God. The Temple of God. The heavy weight of God's glory was upon the Arc of the Covenant and then they put it in a tabernacle. Where the priest would go into the presence of God and make intersession and atonement on behalf of the people and themselves. Then later, David establishes the kingdom and Solomon builds the temple that later gets destroyed and then another temple appears during the time of Herod. What made the temples so special was the presence of God. God's presence separated Israel from the rest of the earth. This is why we are a people that are of the presence of God. Did you know that the word presence is not in the Old or New Testament? The word presence means the face of God which was translated into the word presence. The face of God is the attention of the Lord on a particular person or people. His face gives His attention, His presence. You give Him your presence too. You give Him your face as you seek His face. There is a livingness there because His face shines upon you and so we see the Glory of God in the Temple and Jesus comes in and speaks of a new Temple which is His body and while people were caught up with where we worship this temple or that mountain, Jesus says, "Listen the hour is here where we will not worship on this hill or this mountain." The hour is here now when the Father seeks those who will worship Him. The Bible calls us living stones. Living stones of what? Of a holy sanctuary, a holy temple that is not made with hands and the purpose of the temple is the divine residency of the presence of God. This is why I say, “The presence of God is in you.” In the temple, there was the outer court, the inner court, and the Holy of Holies. In our temple, we have the outer court of our physical bodies. An inner court of our soul and then the Holy of Holies where God resides. It is where the spirit of man is joined with the Spirit of God.
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