EMPTY OR FULL SANCTUARIES?
I would like to testify quickly before the message is given. Last week on Sunday, God preached to me a message... personally from one verse in Psalm 150:1. In fact, He told me to turn there and gave me something that I had never thought of in all the years I have been a Christian and in all the times that I have preached from this Hallelujah Psalm. I have preached from Psalm 150 probably 20 to 30 times over the years. And in all that time, I had never seen verse one the way that God showed me that Sunday.
I have been sick... worse off than most people know, and yet God laid this on my heart to preach. I mentioned it to my pastor and he scheduled me for this last Sunday (Aug. 1). Honestly, I agreed to it by faith. I have not felt like getting out of bed the past weeks, let alone preaching... but I agreed.
GOD moved... I mean, GOD moved... people were repenting... and falling out in the Spirit when we prayed with them... had a prayer line... and God gave me more strength than I have had in a very, very long time. God gave me the power and strength to not only preach this, but to minister in the altar afterward.
I am so thankful for the move of God. The last few days, I have been kind of weakened from the exertion of being more active than I have been in a long time. My heart is tired, but I believe that the infection is on the run now. So, I wanted to share this with you... and the world... and ask the question...
is your Sanctuary Empty, or is it Full?
This is the highest worship that can be given vocally… it is using God’s name that He gave to us… Yahweh, the pre-existing I am, and giving light and glory and love and the highest praise to Yah!
There are two realms that are to be filled with this praise. One is in the firmament of His power, or the powerful atmosphere of God! God inhabits the praise remember, and we are to fill the atmosphere of God with praise… give love back to the one who is literally LOVE and has given us love and given His best, the Lord Jesus Christ to die in our place because of that love.
We are to fill that powerful atmosphere of His power and presence with our own praise. God made us in His own image… in the reflection of His person so that we could know His love and love Him back. GENESIS 2:7 (KJV) “ AND THE LORD GOD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE; AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL. “
The purpose of our lives is to worship God… to give praise to Yahweh the Creator. It is not to give worship to some lower creation which is not only a slap to our God, but a dehumanizing of ourselves. We are made and formed to be the friend of God and to enjoy and give back that love that He desires to fill us with.
We are made higher than that… we were formed to be THE FRIENDS OF GOD. ARE WE? ARE WE FULFILLING THE CALL OF OUR LIVES?
JOHN 3:16 (KJV) “ FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. “
COLOSSIANS 1:16 “ FOR BY HIM WERE ALL THINGS CREATED, THAT ARE IN HEAVEN, AND THAT ARE IN EARTH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE, WHETHER THEY BE THRONES, OR DOMINIONS, OR PRINCIPALITIES, OR POWERS: ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM, AND FOR HIM: “
When we refuse to worship the Creator, or we worship some other god or ourselves (for we are all worshiping something or someone), or money or some person, then we are DEGRADING ourselves from the human call. See, humanity as a whole is called to a higher calling… and we degrade ourselves when we REBEL AGAINST GOD and serve the creation instead of the CREATOR.
I want to concentrate on the first part of Psalm 150:1. I will tell you that in the firmament of His power… in the heavens, God receives the glory. But how about here where man, who was made in His image or in other words, made to reflect the glory of God, how is He praised here?
We are COMMANDED to praise Him in the sanctuary! I want to talk about that. A sanctuary in the original meaning was a place in the Temple made for pure worship and communion with Yahweh.
It was not just a place for religious ritual or traditions, but it was a place totally dedicated to the worship of God where the presence of God would meet with man as man gave his love to the Lord.
The sanctuary is the qodesh, or the holy place. It is the Holy Place including the Holy of Holies in the Temple originally where the glory of the Lord would manifest and worship and sacrifice would be given unto God. It is where God and man met together and had communion. It was the most holy place because God’s presence made it so. PSALMS 22:3 “ BUT THOU ART HOLY, O THOU THAT INHABITEST THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL. “
When Israel truly got past the ritual and truly worshiped God, the glory of God would manifest and His presence would move. They did not serve some dead idol god or some demonic Charlton, but the true and living God who breathed life on them when they worshiped Him.
Though man had cut himself from that friendship relationship with God through sin and rebellion, God still made a way because He loved us… and there was the Holy Place where God would meet with man and forgive him.
That was under the Old Testament. In Ezekiel, you actually see the glory of the Lord departing from the Temple in his day. But the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of a greater spiritual reality in the New Covenant. Through Jesus Christ, we now have the Holy Spirit not dwelling in a Temple made with flesh and bone, but in human beings made by God! WE ARE THE LITERAL TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT NOW!
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16 “ KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLETH IN YOU? “
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20 “19 WHAT? KNOW YE NOT THAT YOUR BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST WHICH IS IN YOU, WHICH YE HAVE OF GOD, AND YE ARE NOT YOUR OWN? 20 FOR YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE: THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY, AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD'S. “
2 CORINTHIANS 6:16 “ AND WHAT AGREEMENT HATH THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITH IDOLS? FOR YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD; AS GOD HATH SAID, I WILL DWELL IN THEM, AND WALK IN THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “
Understand this… God literally formed us in His image to fellowship with Him. He breathed into us His own Spirit or breath… ruach… to make us living souls that would live forever. He made us so that we could literally reflect His glory and be His friend and make a stand for Him on this Earth.
Although sin stripped us of much of that and brought a curse, Jesus Christ bore that curse upon Himself though He had no sin himself, He became sin… and set us free so that we could know the glory and love of God again. He made it so that the Holy Spirit or God’s Spirit would be able to fill us again as we were meant to in the beginning.
We are to PRAISE GOD IN THE SANCTUARY!
BUT… where is the sanctuary of God now? WE ARE! Our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, and we should be filling our lives with worship and praise. We are in fact commanded by the Word, to praise God as long as we have breath!
SEE… God inhabits our praise still, and now instead of filling a sanctuary of stones and gold and silver, He fills sanctuaries made of flesh and blood with His presence when we ACTUALLY AND IN TRUTH FULFILL OUR CALL TO WORSHIP GOD.
Jesus makes us holy, and as we worship God, He fills us more and more with His presence and we go from glory to glory.
2 CORINTHIANS 3:17-18 “ 17 NOW THE LORD IS THAT SPIRIT: AND WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY. 18 BUT WE ALL, WITH OPEN FACE BEHOLDING AS IN A GLASS THE GLORY OF THE LORD, ARE CHANGED INTO THE SAME IMAGE FROM GLORY TO GLORY, EVEN AS BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD. “
HEBREWS 13:15-16 “ 15 BY HIM THEREFORE LET US OFFER THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE TO GOD CONTINUALLY, THAT IS, THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS GIVING THANKS TO HIS NAME. 16 BUT TO DO GOOD AND TO COMMUNICATE FORGET NOT: FOR WITH SUCH SACRIFICES GOD IS WELL PLEASED. “
2 CORINTHIANS 4:6-7 “ 6 FOR GOD, WHO COMMANDED THE LIGHT TO SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS, HATH SHINED IN OUR HEARTS, TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST. 7 BUT WE HAVE THIS TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS, THAT THE EXCELLENCY OF THE POWER MAY BE OF GOD, AND NOT OF US.”
• PEOPLE CANNOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• IN THE END, FLESH WILL FAIL YOU.
• MONEY AND POWER WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• IF YOU CRAVE IT, THEN YOU ARE FULL OF FEAR AND TRYING TO OVERCOME IT.
• LUST WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• BEING DRUNK WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• BEING HIGH WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
In the end, it takes the presence of God filling us and making us what we were always meant to be for us to be truly happy and be content in the Lord no matter what our circumstances might be.
Understand that it is more important than that. Without Jesus, our sin will condemn us to a real and literal Hell that God wants us to avoid. Sin brings death always, and without Jesus, that sin will damn you.
But even past salvation, God wants you to be more than “just saved”. He wants you to fulfill your destiny and be filled with His presence in this life and give Him glory, so He can fill you with His glory.
AS YOU PRAISE GOD, THE LORD FILLS AND INHABITS YOU! MORE AND MORE, GOD WILL FILL YOUR LIFE AND LET HIS LOVE AND GLORY BLEND WITH YOU.
SO, are you taking the time and energy to praise God? Is your sanctuary filled with the Spirit?
There are two choices with someone who has been born again… to walk in the Spirit and become more and more filled with God, or to go the way of THE PRODIGAL SON and compromise.
Prodigals walk a miserable path… an empty path. See, when we fill our lives with other things and push God out, then the light goes out… and darkness overtakes us. We get FULL OF MISERY.
Are you full of misery or the Joy of the Lord? It is one or the other.
There are TOO MANY MISERABLE CHRISTIANS who have not filled their sanctuaries with worship.
You can be standing in a peaceful place physically, and be full of misery because your light has gone out… as you have quit being an instrument of praise to God. Your sanctuary and life is no longer praising God… and darkness has taken hold.
You can be in a place where you should be happy, and you will complain… be miserable… empty… because you have gone your own way like the Prodigal… and you are eating the filth of the world instead of the good things from God. YOUR SANCTUARY IS DARK AND EMPTY.
OR, you can be in a terrible place, and take time to pray and sing praises to God like Paul and Silas, and the glory of the LORD will fill you and shake where you are at! God will deliver you because you took the time and energy to praise Him with your life and fill your Sanctuary with Praise.
JOHN 14:23 “ JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HIM, IF A MAN LOVE ME, HE WILL KEEP MY WORDS: AND MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, AND WE WILL COME UNTO HIM, AND MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM. “
JOHN 15:8-11 “ 8 HEREIN IS MY FATHER GLORIFIED, THAT YE BEAR MUCH FRUIT; SO SHALL YE BE MY DISCIPLES. 9 AS THE FATHER HATH LOVED ME, SO HAVE I LOVED YOU: CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE. 10 IF YE KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS, YE SHALL ABIDE IN MY LOVE; EVEN AS I HAVE KEPT MY FATHER'S COMMANDMENTS, AND ABIDE IN HIS LOVE. 11 THESE THINGS HAVE I SPOKEN UNTO YOU, THAT MY JOY MIGHT REMAIN IN YOU, AND THAT YOUR JOY MIGHT BE FULL. “
God wants to live in us!
Is the light shining in you? Is your sanctuary filled with praise? Praise Him in the sanctuary… in your very life!
If you turn the light out in a dark place (and this sinful world is dark indeed), then it gets dangerous. It gets scary… because there really is reason to be concerned without the light. Jesus Christ is that light of life, and without Him, you walk in darkness.
EPHESIANS 5:5-9 “ 5 FOR THIS YE KNOW, THAT NO WHOREMONGER, NOR UNCLEAN PERSON, NOR COVETOUS MAN, WHO IS AN IDOLATER, HATH ANY INHERITANCE IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND OF GOD. 6 LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU WITH VAIN WORDS: FOR BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS COMETH THE WRATH OF GOD UPON THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE. 7 BE NOT YE THEREFORE PARTAKERS WITH THEM. 8 FOR YE WERE SOMETIMES DARKNESS, BUT NOW ARE YE LIGHT IN THE LORD: WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT: 9 (FOR THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS IN ALL GOODNESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS AND TRUTH;) “
He wants to live in us… he wants to fill us with LIGHT… His love and presence!
Is your sanctuary filled with praise? If your life is a life of worship to God, then He inhabits you! You… the sanctuary of the Lord will be filled with the Lord… and the joy and peace and goodness and faith and love of the Lord will fill you!
You will not have to be afraid for His love will fill you and perfect love casts out fear!
See… there are too many who have been saved, but not become worshipers. Too many compromised Christians are still seduced by the world like the Prodigal.
See… we forget sometimes that the world is going to Hell… that its true lord is Satan. The world is used to eating trash and walking in darkness, but we are not darkness any more… we are light, and we are to walk as children of the light.
The children of the light give God the praise… and God fills us with His light… the light of life!
SO, THE QUESTION IS THIS… ARE YOU WHAT YOU ARE CALLED TO BE?
Are you a walking sanctuary of praise and worship to the Lord? Is your life full of the love and light of God? ARE YOU WHAT YOU ARE CALLED TO BE?
Or are you walking empty and in darkness?
Ministered at the Dressen Church of God on Sunday Night, August 1, 2010 by James Coldiron
© 2010 by James Dale Coldiron
Will anyone hear the Voice of the Watchman?
Voice of the Watchman Ministries
Warriors of God Christian Forum Community
I would like to testify quickly before the message is given. Last week on Sunday, God preached to me a message... personally from one verse in Psalm 150:1. In fact, He told me to turn there and gave me something that I had never thought of in all the years I have been a Christian and in all the times that I have preached from this Hallelujah Psalm. I have preached from Psalm 150 probably 20 to 30 times over the years. And in all that time, I had never seen verse one the way that God showed me that Sunday.
I have been sick... worse off than most people know, and yet God laid this on my heart to preach. I mentioned it to my pastor and he scheduled me for this last Sunday (Aug. 1). Honestly, I agreed to it by faith. I have not felt like getting out of bed the past weeks, let alone preaching... but I agreed.
GOD moved... I mean, GOD moved... people were repenting... and falling out in the Spirit when we prayed with them... had a prayer line... and God gave me more strength than I have had in a very, very long time. God gave me the power and strength to not only preach this, but to minister in the altar afterward.
I am so thankful for the move of God. The last few days, I have been kind of weakened from the exertion of being more active than I have been in a long time. My heart is tired, but I believe that the infection is on the run now. So, I wanted to share this with you... and the world... and ask the question...
is your Sanctuary Empty, or is it Full?
HALLELUJAH! That’s what the Hebrew says here… it is one of the Hallelujah Hymns.
PSALMS 150:1 (KJV) “ PRAISE YE THE LORD. PRAISE GOD IN HIS SANCTUARY: PRAISE HIM IN THE FIRMAMENT OF HIS POWER. “
PSALM 150:1 (CONCORDANT LITERAL VERSION) “ PRAISE YAH. PRAISE EL IN HIS SANCTUARY; PRAISE HIM IN HIS POWERFUL ATMOSPHERE.”
This is the highest worship that can be given vocally… it is using God’s name that He gave to us… Yahweh, the pre-existing I am, and giving light and glory and love and the highest praise to Yah!
There are two realms that are to be filled with this praise. One is in the firmament of His power, or the powerful atmosphere of God! God inhabits the praise remember, and we are to fill the atmosphere of God with praise… give love back to the one who is literally LOVE and has given us love and given His best, the Lord Jesus Christ to die in our place because of that love.
We are to fill that powerful atmosphere of His power and presence with our own praise. God made us in His own image… in the reflection of His person so that we could know His love and love Him back. GENESIS 2:7 (KJV) “ AND THE LORD GOD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE; AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL. “
The purpose of our lives is to worship God… to give praise to Yahweh the Creator. It is not to give worship to some lower creation which is not only a slap to our God, but a dehumanizing of ourselves. We are made and formed to be the friend of God and to enjoy and give back that love that He desires to fill us with.
We are made higher than that… we were formed to be THE FRIENDS OF GOD. ARE WE? ARE WE FULFILLING THE CALL OF OUR LIVES?
JOHN 3:16 (KJV) “ FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. “
COLOSSIANS 1:16 “ FOR BY HIM WERE ALL THINGS CREATED, THAT ARE IN HEAVEN, AND THAT ARE IN EARTH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE, WHETHER THEY BE THRONES, OR DOMINIONS, OR PRINCIPALITIES, OR POWERS: ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM, AND FOR HIM: “
When we refuse to worship the Creator, or we worship some other god or ourselves (for we are all worshiping something or someone), or money or some person, then we are DEGRADING ourselves from the human call. See, humanity as a whole is called to a higher calling… and we degrade ourselves when we REBEL AGAINST GOD and serve the creation instead of the CREATOR.
I want to concentrate on the first part of Psalm 150:1. I will tell you that in the firmament of His power… in the heavens, God receives the glory. But how about here where man, who was made in His image or in other words, made to reflect the glory of God, how is He praised here?
We are COMMANDED to praise Him in the sanctuary! I want to talk about that. A sanctuary in the original meaning was a place in the Temple made for pure worship and communion with Yahweh.
It was not just a place for religious ritual or traditions, but it was a place totally dedicated to the worship of God where the presence of God would meet with man as man gave his love to the Lord.
The sanctuary is the qodesh, or the holy place. It is the Holy Place including the Holy of Holies in the Temple originally where the glory of the Lord would manifest and worship and sacrifice would be given unto God. It is where God and man met together and had communion. It was the most holy place because God’s presence made it so. PSALMS 22:3 “ BUT THOU ART HOLY, O THOU THAT INHABITEST THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL. “
When Israel truly got past the ritual and truly worshiped God, the glory of God would manifest and His presence would move. They did not serve some dead idol god or some demonic Charlton, but the true and living God who breathed life on them when they worshiped Him.
Though man had cut himself from that friendship relationship with God through sin and rebellion, God still made a way because He loved us… and there was the Holy Place where God would meet with man and forgive him.
That was under the Old Testament. In Ezekiel, you actually see the glory of the Lord departing from the Temple in his day. But the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of a greater spiritual reality in the New Covenant. Through Jesus Christ, we now have the Holy Spirit not dwelling in a Temple made with flesh and bone, but in human beings made by God! WE ARE THE LITERAL TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT NOW!
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16 “ KNOW YE NOT THAT YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLETH IN YOU? “
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20 “19 WHAT? KNOW YE NOT THAT YOUR BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST WHICH IS IN YOU, WHICH YE HAVE OF GOD, AND YE ARE NOT YOUR OWN? 20 FOR YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE: THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY, AND IN YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD'S. “
2 CORINTHIANS 6:16 “ AND WHAT AGREEMENT HATH THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITH IDOLS? FOR YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD; AS GOD HATH SAID, I WILL DWELL IN THEM, AND WALK IN THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “
Understand this… God literally formed us in His image to fellowship with Him. He breathed into us His own Spirit or breath… ruach… to make us living souls that would live forever. He made us so that we could literally reflect His glory and be His friend and make a stand for Him on this Earth.
Although sin stripped us of much of that and brought a curse, Jesus Christ bore that curse upon Himself though He had no sin himself, He became sin… and set us free so that we could know the glory and love of God again. He made it so that the Holy Spirit or God’s Spirit would be able to fill us again as we were meant to in the beginning.
We are to PRAISE GOD IN THE SANCTUARY!
BUT… where is the sanctuary of God now? WE ARE! Our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, and we should be filling our lives with worship and praise. We are in fact commanded by the Word, to praise God as long as we have breath!
SEE… God inhabits our praise still, and now instead of filling a sanctuary of stones and gold and silver, He fills sanctuaries made of flesh and blood with His presence when we ACTUALLY AND IN TRUTH FULFILL OUR CALL TO WORSHIP GOD.
Jesus makes us holy, and as we worship God, He fills us more and more with His presence and we go from glory to glory.
2 CORINTHIANS 3:17-18 “ 17 NOW THE LORD IS THAT SPIRIT: AND WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY. 18 BUT WE ALL, WITH OPEN FACE BEHOLDING AS IN A GLASS THE GLORY OF THE LORD, ARE CHANGED INTO THE SAME IMAGE FROM GLORY TO GLORY, EVEN AS BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD. “
HEBREWS 13:15-16 “ 15 BY HIM THEREFORE LET US OFFER THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE TO GOD CONTINUALLY, THAT IS, THE FRUIT OF OUR LIPS GIVING THANKS TO HIS NAME. 16 BUT TO DO GOOD AND TO COMMUNICATE FORGET NOT: FOR WITH SUCH SACRIFICES GOD IS WELL PLEASED. “
2 CORINTHIANS 4:6-7 “ 6 FOR GOD, WHO COMMANDED THE LIGHT TO SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS, HATH SHINED IN OUR HEARTS, TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST. 7 BUT WE HAVE THIS TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS, THAT THE EXCELLENCY OF THE POWER MAY BE OF GOD, AND NOT OF US.”
• PEOPLE CANNOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• IN THE END, FLESH WILL FAIL YOU.
• MONEY AND POWER WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• IF YOU CRAVE IT, THEN YOU ARE FULL OF FEAR AND TRYING TO OVERCOME IT.
• LUST WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• BEING DRUNK WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
• BEING HIGH WILL NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY.
In the end, it takes the presence of God filling us and making us what we were always meant to be for us to be truly happy and be content in the Lord no matter what our circumstances might be.
Understand that it is more important than that. Without Jesus, our sin will condemn us to a real and literal Hell that God wants us to avoid. Sin brings death always, and without Jesus, that sin will damn you.
But even past salvation, God wants you to be more than “just saved”. He wants you to fulfill your destiny and be filled with His presence in this life and give Him glory, so He can fill you with His glory.
AS YOU PRAISE GOD, THE LORD FILLS AND INHABITS YOU! MORE AND MORE, GOD WILL FILL YOUR LIFE AND LET HIS LOVE AND GLORY BLEND WITH YOU.
SO, are you taking the time and energy to praise God? Is your sanctuary filled with the Spirit?
There are two choices with someone who has been born again… to walk in the Spirit and become more and more filled with God, or to go the way of THE PRODIGAL SON and compromise.
Prodigals walk a miserable path… an empty path. See, when we fill our lives with other things and push God out, then the light goes out… and darkness overtakes us. We get FULL OF MISERY.
Are you full of misery or the Joy of the Lord? It is one or the other.
There are TOO MANY MISERABLE CHRISTIANS who have not filled their sanctuaries with worship.
You can be standing in a peaceful place physically, and be full of misery because your light has gone out… as you have quit being an instrument of praise to God. Your sanctuary and life is no longer praising God… and darkness has taken hold.
You can be in a place where you should be happy, and you will complain… be miserable… empty… because you have gone your own way like the Prodigal… and you are eating the filth of the world instead of the good things from God. YOUR SANCTUARY IS DARK AND EMPTY.
OR, you can be in a terrible place, and take time to pray and sing praises to God like Paul and Silas, and the glory of the LORD will fill you and shake where you are at! God will deliver you because you took the time and energy to praise Him with your life and fill your Sanctuary with Praise.
JOHN 14:23 “ JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HIM, IF A MAN LOVE ME, HE WILL KEEP MY WORDS: AND MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, AND WE WILL COME UNTO HIM, AND MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM. “
JOHN 15:8-11 “ 8 HEREIN IS MY FATHER GLORIFIED, THAT YE BEAR MUCH FRUIT; SO SHALL YE BE MY DISCIPLES. 9 AS THE FATHER HATH LOVED ME, SO HAVE I LOVED YOU: CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE. 10 IF YE KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS, YE SHALL ABIDE IN MY LOVE; EVEN AS I HAVE KEPT MY FATHER'S COMMANDMENTS, AND ABIDE IN HIS LOVE. 11 THESE THINGS HAVE I SPOKEN UNTO YOU, THAT MY JOY MIGHT REMAIN IN YOU, AND THAT YOUR JOY MIGHT BE FULL. “
God wants to live in us!
Is the light shining in you? Is your sanctuary filled with praise? Praise Him in the sanctuary… in your very life!
If you turn the light out in a dark place (and this sinful world is dark indeed), then it gets dangerous. It gets scary… because there really is reason to be concerned without the light. Jesus Christ is that light of life, and without Him, you walk in darkness.
EPHESIANS 5:5-9 “ 5 FOR THIS YE KNOW, THAT NO WHOREMONGER, NOR UNCLEAN PERSON, NOR COVETOUS MAN, WHO IS AN IDOLATER, HATH ANY INHERITANCE IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND OF GOD. 6 LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU WITH VAIN WORDS: FOR BECAUSE OF THESE THINGS COMETH THE WRATH OF GOD UPON THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE. 7 BE NOT YE THEREFORE PARTAKERS WITH THEM. 8 FOR YE WERE SOMETIMES DARKNESS, BUT NOW ARE YE LIGHT IN THE LORD: WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT: 9 (FOR THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS IN ALL GOODNESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS AND TRUTH;) “
He wants to live in us… he wants to fill us with LIGHT… His love and presence!
Is your sanctuary filled with praise? If your life is a life of worship to God, then He inhabits you! You… the sanctuary of the Lord will be filled with the Lord… and the joy and peace and goodness and faith and love of the Lord will fill you!
You will not have to be afraid for His love will fill you and perfect love casts out fear!
See… there are too many who have been saved, but not become worshipers. Too many compromised Christians are still seduced by the world like the Prodigal.
See… we forget sometimes that the world is going to Hell… that its true lord is Satan. The world is used to eating trash and walking in darkness, but we are not darkness any more… we are light, and we are to walk as children of the light.
The children of the light give God the praise… and God fills us with His light… the light of life!
SO, THE QUESTION IS THIS… ARE YOU WHAT YOU ARE CALLED TO BE?
Are you a walking sanctuary of praise and worship to the Lord? Is your life full of the love and light of God? ARE YOU WHAT YOU ARE CALLED TO BE?
Or are you walking empty and in darkness?
Ministered at the Dressen Church of God on Sunday Night, August 1, 2010 by James Coldiron
© 2010 by James Dale Coldiron
Will anyone hear the Voice of the Watchman?
Voice of the Watchman Ministries
Warriors of God Christian Forum Community
