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The Prophetic Voice: God’s Gift of Last Resort

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The sinful world is famous for rejecting God’s prophets. Unfortunately, the church today often sides with the world in marginalizing the prophetic voice. Morally and spiritually, our culture is drifting dangerously toward the point of no return, and more than ever it desperately needs to hear what it desperately tries to avoid—the call to repentance. As believers, we must decide, and decide today, if we will stand with the world or behind the prophets. That will be a tough choice if you have grown accustomed to coddling what God is condemning.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 14:4-7

Jeroboam’s wife went to Ahiujah’s home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see. But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife will come here, pretending to be someone else. She will ask you about her son, for he is very sick. Give her the answer I give you.” So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called out, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?” Then he told her, “I have bad news for you. Give your husband, Jeroboam, this message from the Lord, the God of Israel…”

Thank God for the prophets! No really, thank God for the prophets—they are his gift of last resort.

Prophets with harsh messages never fare well in popularity polls. They deliver bad news—bad from the perspective of those who are being called to account for their sin, and those who stand with them, either actively cheering them on or silently disapproving but going along to get along. Bad news prophets are usually not all that lovable anyway; they are not the warm, cuddly types. God has called them to a difficult assignment, and to pull it off, they best develop a thick layer of skin.

We need prophetic voices like that in our day—men and women who will fearlessly declare God’s truth about the condition of this culture of ours that has drifted far from God. And just as importantly, we who call ourselves people of faith must quit rejecting the words of the prophets out of hand—as if the Lord doesn’t’ speak through the prophets today. Of course, there have been so-called prophets who are anything but, who have blown it for the good prophets by offering dates for the Lord’s return, who traffic in books that make boatloads of money for themselves, who flock to the Christian airways with hairdos like Elvis and suits like Liberace. But the all-too-public showmanship of the faux prophets must not condition us to reject the message—and the messengers—of the true prophetic word. God still speaks today. And given the drift from biblical morality of a nation that was founded upon scriptural values, God is probably speaking with increasing urgency through the prophets.

In 1 Kings, God began to call the nation to account for their spiritual and moral drift. He allowed much time to go by—which totally frustrates those of us who would prefer that God show up and out an immediate end to evil leadership and corrupt culture. In the present chapter, wicked Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years in Israel and wicked Rehoboam ruled for seventeen years of Judah. They were followed by mostly evil kings who led the two nations into greater and more inventive ways of evil for decades, even centuries. Graciously and mercifully, God gave his wayward people more time than we would have to see the error of their ways, repent, and return to him. But he never left them without prophetic voices that courageously spoke his word.

Yet the kings and the people continued into deeper expressions of rebellion. As a result, they began to suffer the natural consequences of the law of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:7) as well as the divine insertion of judgment from time to time to get the nation’s attention. In the case of Jeroboam, the young son of this wicked king became deathly ill, so the king who had rejected God sent his wife in disguise to the man of God who has prophesied that he would become king. Even in the depths of his sin, the king knew the truth—and he knew Ahijah the prophet was the truth-teller. Yet, absurdly, he thought he could maneuver the word of God about his sick son by manipulating the man of God.

Before the king’s disguised wife arrived, the Lord had already given a word of knowledge to the prophet. So he exposed her false intentions right away, and quickly followed it with the hard word the Lord had given him for evil king Jeroboam. Sadly, there was no repentance on the part of the boy’s mother when told her son would die, nor did the king turn from his wicked ways. They, along with the nation, were hell bent on doing evil.

Sadly, so is our culture—or so it seems.

And God is sending us prophetic voices to call us—the culture and the church within the culture—back to his heart. He is calling us to acknowledge our evil, repent of it, and return to the ways in which he has called us to walk. These voices are not well received by our culture—sinners stop their ears and kill the messengers, so to speak. But even more concerning, much of the church sides with the culture in rejecting the prophetic word because we fear guilt by association—that is, few hear that our culture will be uncomfortable with the church because of the church’s messengers.

We need true prophetic voices more than ever as we see our culture approaching the moral-spiritual point of no return. God has never lifted judgment from a non-repenting people, and we, too, are headed there without national repentance. So it is time we open our minds to the prophets, be willing to do the hard work of separating the false and fake voices from the authentic, then stand behind the real ones as they deliver God’s loving rebuke to a wayward nation.

Perhaps if we get behind the prophets in large enough numbers, our culture will be forced to take notice. Maybe not, but I think we owe it to the nation we love and the God we serve to give it a try.

Going Deeper With God: God is sending us prophetic voices, but we will have to distinguish them from faux prophets. So pray for the gift of discernment. Then nurture it: know the Word, be constantly prayerful and alert to the times, ruthlessly look at the motives of the prophet (if it is for money, power of fame, reject them) and quit hoping the world will like us. They won’t. Our calling is not to get the world to embrace us; it is to persuade them to listen to our God.

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Demons of Darkness As Messengers of Light

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Since loving obedience is the key to our relationship with God, it should come as no surprise that Satan will do everything in his power today to sidetrack you from full and continual surrender to the Lord—inclusive of sending well-intentioned but misguided friends to tempt you with justifications for fudging on total allegiance to the command of God. Obey God—not out of fear or duty, but out of gratitude and joy—it is the most beautiful and loving sacrifice you can offer God today.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 13:20-22

Then while they were sitting at the table, a command from the Lord came to the old prophet. He cried out to the man of God from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: You have defied the word of the Lord and have disobeyed the command the Lord your God gave you. You came back to this place and ate and drank where he told you not to eat or drink. Because of this, your body will not be buried in the grave of your ancestors.”

This story is strange in so many ways, as we have come to expect from the Old Testament: a man of God is divinely called to announce judgment on King Jeroboam. He is to pull no punches—God is angry with the evil ways of this king, and he must deliver the harsh word precisely. He is to speak with no one; he is to just deliver the message and then get out of Dodge. He obeys God initially—and the judgment of God that befalls Jeroboam is immediate and as dramatic as it gets—but then as he is returning home, he gets sidetracked by an old prophet’s invitation to dinner. By the way, the old prophet lies to get the man of God to come to his home. While he is eating, the Spirit comes on the old prophet who rebukes the man of God for his disobedience in accepting the duplicitous dinner invitation. As the man of God leaves, a lion attacks and kills him in fulfillment of the prophetic judgment. Then the old prophet retrieves his body, mourns over it, buries it in his own sepulcher, and instructs his son to bury his old prophetic bones in the same grave, next to the man of God’s remains, when he dies. Weird!

Now as we read these strange narratives from our twenty-first century perspective, we must keep in mind that the people we read about were from an ancient world. They were also uniquely God’s chosen people, and God gave them special rules to follow that would not only honor his holiness, but keep them as his holy people. They were not a modern, pluralistic American democracy with the rights of freedom of religion. They were a theocracy, obligated to follow God’s law; they were not free to do as they pleased. They were servants of the Most High God, and with that privilege came the imposition of very high standards upon them. When they obeyed, the divine blessings that came upon the nation were beyond belief, but when they stubbornly disobeyed, divine punishment was unleashed upon them, often in the most severe way.

So does the Lord still deal with people today like he did with Israel, like he did with this disobedient man of God? Not usually. If he did, every church would need a morgue in its basement. Rather, we have these stories to teach us about God’s character—his grace, mercy, generosity, and yes, justice. They also teach about the seriousness of our sin before a holy God. And often in the Old Testament, this story being one of them, God really knows how to get our attention. When he does, there is a point that he is making that we would do well to discern.

One of the points that I take away from this story is that when God gives us a word, he expects nothing less than our complete obedience to it. Commenting on this, Charles Stanley insightfully writes,

When we know we have heard from the Lord, we cannot let anyone convince us that He has changed His mind—regardless of the source of the supposed new revelation. Remember the warning of 2 Corinthians 11:14, 15, “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”

Do you think there is a fair amount of that going on in our land today, especially in light of some of the cultural issues that church is wrestling with? Far too many churches and denominations are twisting themselves into knots over a response to these issues that they hope our culture will find acceptable. That itself is curious given what Paul said about Satan disguising himself as an angel of light and the servants of Satan disguising themselves as prophetic voices.

God had clearly warned the Israelites, “Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles. and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’—gods you have not known before—do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul. Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4) That Old Testament word is as valid today for the people of God as it was back then.

The Apostle Paul sternly warned us in Galatians 1:8, “Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.”

Let me reiterate the point: God is divinely serious about our obedience—corporately as the community of faith and as we stand individually before him. Will he send a lion to attack you if you disobey? Not likely. But disobedience does unleash death in our lives—we begin to spiritually decay. We open the door to Satanic intrusion and forfeit the protective covering of the Lord. Since loving obedience is the key to our relationship with God, it should come as no surprise that Satan will do everything in his power today to sidetrack us from full and continual surrender to the Lord—inclusive of sending well-intentioned but misguided friends to tempt us with justifications for fudging on total allegiance to the command of God.

Bottom line: obey God—early, often and every time! Obey out of love. Augustine said, “Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.” Obey God, for it is the most loving thing you can offer him and the most benefiting thing you can do for yourself.

Going Deeper With God: Meditate on Jesus’ words from John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Demonstrate your love for God today through full obedience to his commands.

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Good Advice for Great Leadership

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

This is the essence of the kind of leadership that God blesses: If you will position yourself to be a servant of the people, the people you serve will always serve you. Unfortunately, most leaders don’t grasp the brilliance of God’s logic. Humanistic thinking leads them to see the people as their servants, and once they attain power, their overriding effort is to retain it—on the backs of the people. Ultimately, that philosophy of leadership always fails—either in a shortened shelf life of that leader’s administration, or in the negative consequences of future administrations. Rare is the leader who understands that his or her divine mandate is public servant. When a leader truly understands that at an organic level, there you have the making of a leader for the ages.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 12:6-11

Then King Rehoboam discussed the matter with the older men who had counseled his father, Solomon. “What is your advice?” he asked. “How should I answer these people?” The older counselors replied, “If you are willing to be a servant to these people today and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your loyal subjects.” Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and were now his advisors. “What is your advice?” he asked them. “How should I answer these people who want me to lighten the burdens imposed by my father?” The young men replied, “This is what you should tell those complainers who want a lighter burden: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! Yes, my father laid heavy burdens on you, but I’m going to make them even heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!’”

What a contrast we find in this account between really good and really bad advice. Especially if you are a leader, or aspire to leadership, you ought to listen up on this one! What you will get here in just a few lines is better than anything you will get through years of education in the world’s best business schools—and a lot cheaper.

The story revolves around the transition of leadership from King Solomon to his son, Rehoboam. We don’t know for sure, but we can surmise that growing up in the luxurious living of his father’s kingdom had led to a sense of entitlement. His sense of reality was askew from all Solomon’s well-known kingly excesses—all the women and all the wealth. As the new king, Rehoboam wanted what his father had amassed, and them some, without doing any of the hard work to get it. But his father had gained much of his wealth on the backs of the Israelites; the people had paid heavy taxes, endured the conscription of their sons for the king’s army and the confiscation of their property for royal use. And now that Israel had reached an unprecedented level of security and success, the people rightly asked for a little relief from governmental demands as administrations changed hands.

When the request for relief was presented to the new king, he wisely asked for advice, first from his father’s experienced counselors, then from his untested friends. But he unwisely rejected the former and heeded the latter. In essence, his posses of spoiled friends advised him to double down on the demands his father had made of the people, and it turned out to be a mistake of epic proportions. Of course, the spiritual forces for a national rebellion had been seeded during Solomon’s backsliding, but Rehoboam didn’t help himself by following the bad advice of his tin-eared buddies. As a result, the nation split apart—the north broke from the south, and Israel never again existed as a unified nation.

So what is the leadership lesson we learn from Rehoboam? It comes from the rejected advice of the older counselors: “If you are willing to be a servant to these people today and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your loyal subjects.” (1 Kings 12:7). Don’t miss that—it is the essence of leadership that God blesses:

If you will position yourself to be a servant of the people, the people you serve will always serve you.

Unfortunately, most leaders don’t grasp the brilliance of God’s logic. Humanistic thinking leads them to see the people as their servants, and once they attain power, the overriding effort of their administration is to retain it—on the backs of the people. Ultimately, that philosophy of leadership always fails—either in a shortened shelf-life of that leader’s tenure, or in the negative consequences of future administrations. Rare is the leader who understands that his or her divine mandate is public servant. When a leader truly understands that at an organic level, there you have the making of a leader for the ages.

Are you a leader, or do you aspire to leadership? Serve your people, and your people will always serve you.

Going Deeper With God: Memorize the words of Jesus found in Mark 10:42-45, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

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Don’t Dance With What God Despises

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

The hardening that happened in King Solomon’s life toward the end, as close to God as he once was, can happen to us, too. How? When we began to love things that God hates, we have entered the danger zone of spiritual drift. When, like Solomon we insist on loving “foreign women”, whatever that is for us—questionable things that do not honor God or promote kingdom values—we will soon be giving our worship to their gods. Perhaps there is no greater exercise that you could do today than to honestly evaluate your own mindsets and practices, then courageously dump what you shouldn’t be doing.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 11:1-4

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been.

I would like to think that ultimately, Solomon made it to heaven. I hope to see in the eternal kingdom this incredibly wise man who is responsible for penning a good portion of the wisdom literature that we now enjoy from the Bible. And there in heaven, if speaking of the former things is even a worthwhile exercise (which I doubt, given that the focus will be on the indescribable glory of God and the unending joys of our heavenly reward), I would love to compare notes with the wisest man who ever lived on how God’s mercy rescued us both from our self-inflicted plunges (yes, the plural is correct since some of us do it early and often) from grace.

In Ecclesiastes, a book many evangelical scholars believe that King Solomon authored toward the end of his life, we find this very simple yet prophetically profound line: “Finishing is better than starting.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8) I just wish Solomon had heeded that advice the closer he got to the finish line. Solomon didn’t; his love for God drifted toward things that God despised. Over time, his fascination with foreign women turned into an addiction for even more women, along with the worship of their gods:

King Solomon loved many foreign women … He insisted on loving them anyway. (1 Kings 11:1-2)

Predictably, Solomon’s fleshly desires gave birth to sinful patterns which produced deadly results: he drifted from his faithful allegiance to the one true God, his heart hardened, and the forces that would ultimately remove the blessings that God had bestowed upon him (prosperity, power, impact for himself and the nation of Israel) were unleashed. (see James 1:14-15) Because of God’s loving patience, divine punishment would not afflict the nation just yet; that would come in the next generation which would take Solomon’s spiritual drift and plunge headlong into even greater rebellion against the Lord. (1 Kings 11:9-13)

So now the Lord said to him, “Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my decrees, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. But for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.” (1 Kings 11:11-12)

One of the practices of application to which scripture calls current readers is to consider stories like this as warnings to us. What happened to Solomon, as close to God as he once was, can happen to us, too. How? When we began to love things that God hates, we have entered the danger zone of spiritual drift. When we insist on loving “foreign women”, whatever that is for us—questionable things that do not honor God or promote kingdom values—we will soon be giving our worship to their gods. A generation or two ago, our forefathers who came out of the holiness movement referred to this as worldliness. Unfortunately, many from that movement became rigid and legalistic in their faith, and the next generation of believers reacted by going to the other extreme; we threw the holiness baby out with the legalistic bathwater. Today, the boundaries of holy living are pretty blurred.

To accurately apply Solomon’s spiritual demise calls from us for a truly open heart, the exercise of spiritual discernment, and a willingness to love God above all else. Solomon’s story ought to soberly remind us of what can happen when we insist on loving what God insists on hating. Perhaps there is no greater exercise that you could do today than to honestly evaluate your own mindsets and practices, then courageously dump what you shouldn’t be doing.

I would like to think in Solomon’s life that God’s grace got the last word, but since we don’t know for sure, when it comes to you and me, why chance it!

Going Deeper With God: Evaluate the practices of your life—and the heart attitude behind them: what you view through media, what you take into your body, what occupies the things you desire in your mind, the kind of people you allow to influence you. Are there patterns that run in opposition to the things that God loves? Are there desires that God despises? Bring them before God in a repentant heart, and let the Holy Spirit arrest your spiritual drift.

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The Best Use of Your One and Only Life

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

C.S. Lewis said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” Solomon was living proof of that. As long he passionately pursued making God famous, his life was a blurry photo of heaven on earth. When his focus shifted from heaven to earth, he became a clear picture of the squandered life. As long as we make glorifying God the mission statement of our lives, we will gain something far greater than the ephemeral fame, power and wealth of Solomon; we will have gained the eternal joy of making Jesus famous.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 10:1, 4-5, 7-9

When the Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, which brought honor to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions…When the Queen of Sheba realized how very wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built, she was overwhelmed…She exclaimed to the king, “Your wisdom and prosperity are far beyond what I was told. How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom! Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.”

There is nothing wrong with wealth, power and fame—so long as we use them to glorify God. If we have the right perspective in the process of attaining those things, and keep the right perspective once we do, then they will be divine blessings in our lives. If they change us into prideful, self-absorbed, pleasure-seeking, power-hungry people, then the blessing will become a curse.

We will see in the next chapter that the very things God gave to Solomon as blessings turned into curses. Solomon began to misuse them for his own selfish purposes, and they turned his heart from God. But I am getting ahead of myself. In this chapter, we see how Solomon’s great achievements brought great attention from people near and far. Kings and queens came from around the known world to interview the King of Israel, and like the Queen of Sheba, what they had heard of Solomon was not half of what they found. He was uncommonly blessed because of the favor of his God.

What was the secret of Solomon’s success? It was the very first thing we read of when the queen encountered Solomon on her visit to Jerusalem. His wealth, power and fame “brought honor to the name of the Lord.” (1 Kings 10:1) Once she realized how true that was—that Solomon was far more impressive in person than his impressive résumé—she redirected her praise to the source of it all, the God of Israel. Here was a case of a person’s fame being used as an irresistible witness to his faith. This queen, not a believer, as far as we can tell, exclaimed,

Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness. (1 Kings 10:9)

C.S. Lewis said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” Solomon was living proof of that. At this point in his life, his passionate pursuit was to make God famous. As long as his did that, God blessed this earthly king with heavenly treasure. Solomon’s life was a blurry photo of heaven on earth. When his focus shifted from heaven to earth (1 Kings 11), he forfeited the source of all that fame, the glory of God, and he became a clear picture of the squandered life.

Whether you become famous, attain power or amass wealth is immaterial, even though the godless philosophy of this present age will tell you it is the most important pursuit in life, that it is the determinative evidence of success, that it is the pathway to happiness. It is not. What is of utmost importance, what is true success, what is the wellspring of joy is making Jesus famous. Money, power and fame are a distant second to that. If you make the glory of God the passionate pursuit of your life, and keep it your focus even if God sovereignly gives you the other, then you will have surpassed the greatness of the wisest, wealthiest, most winsome human being who ever lived, Solomon.

Make Jesus famous. Make that the motto of your life—your mission statement, and nothing much can go wrong for you. With your one and only life, pursue the glory of God and you will automatically and always be right!

Going Deeper With God: Reassess your attitude toward fame, power and wealth. Do you desire it? Why? If it is for the glory of God, great! If it is for your own pleasure, comfort and status, repent. Make making Jesus famous your mission in life—and stick with it through thick and thin.

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A Temple That Pales In Comparison To You

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Do you know who are you? You are not purposeless. You are not insignificant. You are not average. No way—you are the temple of God himself, a far more precious and glorious home of the presence of God than even the holy structure Solomon erected. Solomon’s temple pales in comparison to you. Seriously! That is who you are—you new identity in Christ. So live like it!

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 9:2-7

The Lord said to Solomon, “I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart. As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations. Then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name.

It took twenty years for Solomon to complete two of his major work projects—his palace, which was beyond spectacular, and more importantly, the temple, which housed the glorious presence of the Lord. And while we don’t know exactly what the temple looked like since the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it some 400 years later (keep that in mind—God is under no obligation to protect his holy places when his people persist in unholy living, cf. 1 Kings 9:6-10), it must have been magnificent, knowing the brilliant Solomon’s architectural achievements—impressive even by modern standards. But as jaw dropping as the building was, even that compared to God’s presence that inhabited the place as it was dedicated, which you can read about in 1 Kings 8.

When the priests came out of the Holy Place, a thick cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple of the Lord. (1 Kings 8:10-11)

While the temple certainly was equal to the Hellenistic list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, What made it so special wasn’t Solomon’s engineering brilliance or the building’s awe-inspiring beauty, it was the presence of the Lord. And what added to the inspiration of his presence was the certainty of his promise:

I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart. (1 Kings 9:3)

Fast-forward to your life and mine today. Do you realize that Solomon’s temple in all its splendor has been replaced? Replaced by what? Not by what, but by whom. You—as a follower of Jesus Christ, who is the complete revelation of God’s presence, the fulfillment of his promise, and the expression of his power—are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. That is who you are, and me too, together with every other surrendered follower of Jesus: We are God’s temple. That is what the Apostle Paul says,

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? (1 Corinthians 3:13)

Now the implications of that are huge. Not the least of which is the fact of your redeemed identity. You are not purposeless. You are not insignificant. You are not average. No way—you are the temple of God himself, a far more precious and glorious home of the presence of God than even the holy structure Solomon erected. Solomon’s temple pales in comparison to you. Seriously!

That is who you are—you new identity in Christ. So live like it!

Having trouble grasping that truth? My guess is yes! So I am praying this prayer for you today:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

By God’s sovereign grace, you are a wonder to behold.

Going Deeper With God: Take a moment before you go a step further to pray Paul’s supplication for a Holy Spirit revelation of your true identity as God’s holy temple. As God reveals that truth to you, it will change everything about your day.

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Why God Answers Your Prayer

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Why does God desire to answer our prayers? Not for our petty purposes—although he graciously takes those into account—but for his redemptive purposes God supplies our needs and fulfills our desires. He blesses us with abundance, graces us with favor, covers and cares for us, supplies us with success so that people will look at us and be attracted to him. Through his blessings upon us, he receives glory, honor and praise. As we were created to do, we bring glory to him being a real, live example of answered prayer.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Kings 8:59-60

And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.

In 1 Kings 8, Solomon prays one of the most moving prayers you will ever encounter in. It is long, but worth reading—and if your heart is tender toward God, you will be moved, for Solomon is really praying what you and I often pray. He asks for forgiveness—repeatedly and in advance; he prays for protection; he requests provision; he invites God’s abiding presence; he appeals for success.

We pray those prayers, too. And God is faithful to answer our supplications—even when it doesn’t seem like he is or it feels like his answer is way too slow in coming. God forgives—repeatedly, he protects and provides daily, he is with us always—even when we can’t see or feel him, and at the end of the day, he grants us the kind of success that is eternally celebrated in the heavenly realm.

So why does God do that? Why does he answer the prayers of little ol’ insignificant us? Is it because we are just so lovable? Perhaps—he really does love us with a crazy love, you know. Is it because we are so deserving? Not a chance! Is it to make us more comfortable? Perhaps, but probably not, since he is much more concerned with our character than our comfort. Is it to relieve our pain and soothe our hurt? It could be—he really is moved with compassion by our plight. God answers prayers for a variety of reason, some of which we will never grasp. God has his reasons, and for those of us who call out to him, whatever his reasons, we are eternally grateful that he is a God who not only hears but answers prayers. How blessed we are to be the people of God!

Yet there remains a reason God answers our prayers that we don’t often think about. If we could ever get our brain around this, I think we would probably present our prayers and petitions in a lot better frame of mind and with a great deal more trust than we are prone to do. What is the reason God answers?

So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. (1 Kings 8:60)

There you have it. Not for our petty purposes—although God graciously takes those into account—but for his redemptive purposes God supplies our needs and fulfills our desires. He blesses us with abundance, graces us with favor, covers and cares for us, supplies us with success so that people will look at us and be attracted to him. Through his blessings upon us, he receives glory, honor and praise. As we were created to do, we bring glory to him being a real, live example of answered prayer.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:7-8)

Now understanding the purpose of answered prayer in that light ought to make praying a whole different—and better—experience for us, wouldn’t you say? Get addicted to God’s glory—even in your praying—and you will likely see a significant uptick in your prayers being answered.

Going Deeper With God: Take a moment to reconsider what you are asking God for in prayer. Rather than making relief, comfort or success your most urgent outcome, try making the glory of God your chief aim! Try it, and you will pray a lot differently—and more effectively.