Building Up The Temple

“So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God,”

Haggai 1:14

 

 

I believe the church for too long, has been held captive to our culture.

 We are now being released and can choose, as the nation of Israel of old had, to continue to build our own houses or to build His house – His temple in us.

I also believe God has been stirring up the hearts of the church to

works of service motivated by love for Him.

He has challenged, and will continue to challenge, each of us to move more and more to a greater dependence on the leading of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives in order that we might see those opportunities to love others and do good works in His name.

We are ‘building up the temple’ as we continue to grow in our ability to hear and respond to the Holy Spirit in these areas.

In order for this to truly become a lifestyle for us it must become like

 second nature so that we are spontaneously responding in love and doing good

whenever the opportunities are presented by the Holy Spirit.

We all should be ‘maturing’ from leaning on others to lead to

leaning on the Holy Spirit to lead from day-to-day.

Am I saying we do not need leaders?

Of course not!

That would be unbiblical, unwise and just plain foolish.

God sets and establishes leaders in our lives.

But we cannot be so reliant on leaders that we fail to cultivate our own relationship with the Lord.  

I cannot effectively spur someone else on if I am not able to recognize

 what love and good works are.

The admonition to do just that is found in Hebrews 10:24

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,”

Have you encouraged someone to do that today?

Have you spurred them on?