LET GOD BUILD
IN YOU!
By
Pastor Dick
The first temple built in
Jerusalem was often referred to as "Solomon's Temple" because he is the one who
built it; but King David played a greater role, for he first had the vision to
construct it—he was the architect who drew up the blueprints. One day, in his
latter years, David told Nathan about a great desire he had to build a palace
for the Ark of God. The prophet's quick reply to him was, "Do all that is in
thine heart; for God is with thee." But later that same night, the word of
the Lord came to Nathan, saying, "Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith
the Lord, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in . . . I took thee from
the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over
my people Israel. And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked . . .
Furthermore I tell thee that THE LORD WILL BUILD THEE AN HOUSE" (1
Chr.17:1-10).
The house the Lord said
He would build for David is the same house He wants to build for us. It is one
that will never perish; it is secured in His kingdom; it is sealed by the Holy
Spirit in the Everlasting Covenant of God. Its foundation is
Christ!
Do you want to struggle
in the flesh to build your own house when you can let the Master build it? Don't
you think the Lord can do it better?
There is a building work
of the Heavenly Father that is so precious to Him that only He can do it. This
work the Father is doing is the greatest of all the building work in the Kingdom
of God. It pertains to the interior building of His own Holy House, which is
made up of you and me and all others who belong to Jesus.
Even though Solomon's
temple was built by the hands of men, it was a magnificent structure that the
Lord had him make to use as a model to show us, through a physical building on
earth, a spiritual building that He is constructing within us. The building
material in Solomon's temple is highly symbolic. The amount of gold used in the
construction of it baffles the mind. Everything in the inner room—the Holy of
Holies—including the floor, ceiling, and walls was overlaid with fine
gold.
As we let the Father
build within us, we’ll see that the building material He uses in our inner lives
is more precious to Him than all the gold in Solomon's temple would be to us.
Some Christians think that when they go through a trial they are being punished;
others know that the trial is just the vehicle that brings more gold into the
temple! Job said, ". . . when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as
gold" (Job 23:10). Our faith, like gold, must be refined to be
pure.
Not only was the building
material used in Solomon's temple symbolic of what is being built into our
lives, but the manner in which it was built shows how God wants to build in us.
The Bible tells that ". . . there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of
iron heard in the house, while it was in building" (1 Ki.6:7). Have you ever
seen or heard of anything like this take place at a building site?
Satan will use every
device he can come up with to keep you from entering into quietness. The whole
world is geared to keep you from
being quiet. Even your church can hinder you from entering into it. But if you
want to let the Father build in you, you must take quietness very seriously;
because when He is at work in His Holy Temple within you, there must be a
quietness in your soul that exceeds the quietness in which the temple of Solomon
was built. The Bible defines a quiet spirit as being "in the sight of God of
great price" (1 Pet 3:4).
The reason your quietness is so loved
by God and hated by Satan is because that is where you hear the voice of God,
and hearing His voice brings life to your soul as surely as it brought the body
of Lazarus from the grave! (John 11:43, 44).
The choice is yours: you
may choose to block out the word of God with the noise of the world, or you may
enter into quietness of the soul and hear the voice of the Lord. If you knew of
the wonderful words He has for you, you would want to make the right
choice.
Being built up in
quietness is not just blocking out the noise; it is entering into the
righteousness of Christ, letting His righteousness work in us. The word of God
says, "And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of
righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a
peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places"
(Isa.32:17, 18), and "In quietness and in confidence shall be your
strength" (Isa.30:15). Righteousness, as well as faith, is the gold used in
building us up in Christ.
Oh, what a joy it is,
just to watch the skillful hands of the Father in the building of His Holy
Temple and to see Him overlaying the interior of His House with the gold of
faith, building everything in the righteousness of Christ, and flooding the
whole house with His grace. What a glorious sight it is! How tragic that there
are many of God's children so caught up in trying to build their own lives that
they miss the privilege of viewing the greater work God is trying to do within
them. What a difference it would make if they got close enough to the Father to
view His blueprints for their lives!
Christians are running in
great numbers to other human beings to be psychoanalyzed to see what is wrong
with their lives, when it is only the Father trying to sweep the images out of
His temple. When some Christians sense the nearness of the broom of the Father,
they cry out, "Oh God . . . please don't touch my nice image that I and others
have worked a lifetime to build," while others say, "Lord, please get that
wicked thing out of my life, for it is coming between You and me!"
The greatest image we
have allowed in the temple is a false concept of God. We have not listened to
the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, testify of Jesus to reveal to us the true nature
of God. We have heard the devil tell us that God has lied to us. We have
actually given our attention to the legalists as they tell us that our Heavenly
Father will cast His children into hell if they do not obey the law. We have
listened to our own deceitful hearts tell us that God is not big enough to love
us as we are, because we cannot love ourselves. (That is when we view ourselves
other than through the sacrifice of Christ.)
The good news is that the
broom of God not only sweeps away the false images of ourselves, but, also, our
false concepts of God! Hallelujah!
If we hear and respond to
the voice of the Father when He says, "COME, LET ME BUILD IN YOU," we will have
a privileged view of His Holy Temple as it is being formed in His Hands. It is a
wonderful sight to see the healing and the freedom that takes place in our life
after the images are swept from the temple and are replaced with the gold of the
Lord's faith and righteousness. And when we are close enough to our Heavenly
Father to let Him work in us, we behold the glory of the Masterbuilder Himself,
and simply want to rest in His love!
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