I AM YHVH’S TEMPLE – PART 1

A dog food company’s newest product was not selling well. The president called in his management staff: [How is our advertising?] he asked. [Great,] replied the advertising executive. [This ad campaign will probably win the industry’s top awards this year.] [All right,] the president continued: [How about our product design?] The production manager spoke up. [It is great boss. Our new label and packaging scored high in every marketing test we ran.] [Hmmm, well, how is our sales staff, are they doing their job?] The sales manager was quick to respond. [Yes Sir, our people are the best in the business.] There was heavy silence as the president thought about what he had just heard. [We have great advertising, great packaging, a top-notch sales force, yet this product is coming in dead last in the dog food market. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?] Everyone looked at each other; finally, one brave soul spoke up. [It is the stupid dog’s sir. They just won’t touch the stuff.]

Sometimes the Churches and Ministries are like that in trying to reach the unbelievers, but many times we have this problem with those that are already believers. We can have the slickest advertising, the nicest facilities, the best Bible studies, the most wonderful music, but for some reason we cannot get the people this is done for to understand what a wonderful opportunity we have for them. And I believe the problem comes down to what people believe about themselves in relationship to who they are in Yeshua Moshiach. When we understand the promises that are given to us by YHVH as believers, we will begin to live life to its fullest and take advantage of every opportunity that will help us to become more like Yeshua. We know that in Moshiach we are secure and that in Moshiach we will not be condemned. In Moshiach, [I am YHVH’s Temple;] those of us who are believers are the dwelling place of YHVH Almighty. Let us focus on two passages of Scripture; one focuses on the individual believer being YHVH’s Temple and the other focuses on us collectively, as the Church, being YHVH’s Temple.

What? Know you not that your body is the Temple of Ruach HaKodesh Who is in you, Who you have of YHVH, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore, glorify YHVH in your body, and in your spirit, which are YHVH’s. -- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Know you not that you are the Temple of YHVH, and that the Ruach of YHVH dwell in you? If any man defiles the Temple of YHVH, him shall YHVH destroy; for the Temple of YHVH is Holy, Whose Temple you are. -- 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. YHVH lives in each individual believer in the Person of Ruach HaKodesh. YHVH lives in His Church as individual believers meet together corporately. In other words, YHVH is both in you and in your church where you gather with others who also have YHVH dwelling in them. And what we need to understand is, that YHVH is not dwelling in you and dwelling in your place of worship in some abstract, symbolic kind of way, YHVH is there as a present reality as much as you are. He is really in you today! Here are three facts that will help us to better understand and apply this today:

1 -- YHVH Lives Here:

In the Old Testament the Temple was the place YHVH promised to meet His people, Israel; they would come to that physical structure and YHVH would appear to them. It was not as if YHVH lived within the four walls of the building, but that He would be present there for the people. And Adonai said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put My Name there for ever; and Mine eyes and Mine heart shall be there perpetually. -- 1 Kings 9:3. YHVH is saying to Solomon: [I will meet with you here at the temple. This is the place for you to come, for the people to come and for the world to come. This is the meeting place.] Since Moshiach has come, YHVH has taken it a giant step further. Today, YHVH says that our heart is the place where He dwells, not on a temporary basis, but He lives here forever. Like the Old Testament Temple, He is not confined to only one place at one time, but His presence within us and within His church is real and unending. YHVH very literally lives with us every day, every moment, in every situation.

Know ye not that ye are the Temple of YHVH, and that HaRuach of YHVH dwelleth in you? -- 1 Corinthians 3:16. Paul is not talking about YHVH appearing in a cloud or in the Ark of the Covenant, he is saying that YHVH really lives in each one of us and in His Church. We are the Temple of Almighty YHVH and we are His dwelling place, His habitation. Now when I understand and accept this truth, I am going to begin examining my life, my attitude, my commitment level and just about everything else in my life. I am going to look at these things in the light of the fact that everywhere I go and everything I do, YHVH is with me. When I fully recognize and embrace this fact, I will be filled with a power unknown to me before, it is a realization that YHVH loves me, that YHVH fills me with His power, that YHVH gives me the ability to do what He asks me to do and that YHVH enables me to live my life to the fullest. If I put a glove in my hand, the glove cannot do anything by itself, but when my hand is in it, it can do many things. True, it is not the glove, but my hand in the glove that acts. We are gloves; it is Ruach HaKodesh inside us Who is the hand, Who does the work. Now what we have to do is make room for the hand so every finger is filled. YHVH lives in us, but He will only become fully operative in our lives when we are ready for Him to fill us and use us to do His work. Ephesians gives us two texts along these lines; one applies to us as individuals and the second applies to the church as a whole. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with Ha Ruach. -- Ephesians 5:18. which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. -- Ephesians 1:23. We do that by simply getting ourselves and our agendas out of the way and letting Him take over. He will do it and we will all benefit from it and the sooner we do it, the better off we will all be.