When God Fills the House
Sunday, March 02, 2008
By Pastor Jim May
I hear these same words coming from the lips of nearly everyone I meet. There seems to be a great hunger for a mighty move of God in the church. I believe that we are coming down to the last of the last days. Jesus is coming soon. And I believe that the Bride of Christ must be about making herself ready to meet the Bridegroom.
As their wedding day is drawing near the bride and groom can think of little else other than preparations for the wedding. Their only concern is to be prepared for the time when they will finally be joined as one under God. Everything else takes a backseat in their lives.
If they have a job, it seems that they just go through the motions for their thoughts are with the one they love.
If they are shopping the cost of that which they go to purchase will surely be considered so it will not interfere with the needs of the wedding. The man and woman who are soon to wed watch their spending and they are very careful not to foolishly waste the money needed for the wedding, or the honeymoon or the beginning of their marriage.
If the bride and groom are near one another in the days before the wedding, then nothing else and no one else is more important than each other.
I believe that is the way that the church should be feeling right now. It won’t be long until the bridegroom comes to catch his bride away and carry us back to the Father’s house for the wedding ceremony. There we will rejoice together with God as his own dear children. We won’t be invited as guests. We won’t be invited as honored servants. We won’t go to that wedding feast as strangers. But we will enter the gates of Heaven, walk right into the Throne Room of God, and stand before the Father in Heaven as his own dear children, Sons and Daughters of God, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, and there we shall reign forever and ever with him.
We should be preparing for a wedding. We should be seeking only to please the Lord because very soon, nothing else will really matter. All we should be looking for; and all that we should be hoping for is the time when we will finally be together with the Lord.
The hunger for a mighty move of God is there because we can sense that the Bridegroom is about to come. We, the church, are the Bride and we are anxiously waiting that great day when Jesus shall come again. We are hungry for God. We are looking for his coming. Our eyes are fixed on that Eastern sky because we don’t want to miss his coming. I want to see Jesus, the one who died for me. I want to behold his face and to see his glory and majesty. I want to experience that Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
The hunger inside of us cannot be satisfied with a thick juicy steak or a seafood platter. The hunger inside of us is not physical but spiritual. I want more of God. I want to be more like Jesus. I want to know that I’m truly born again, filled with the Holy Ghost and power, and anointed for service. I’m hungry for a mighty move of God. I’m starving for a fresh anointing of power from on High. I need God today, more than I did yesterday. I was blessed yesterday. I walked with God yesterday. But I still need more of God today.
My prayer is, Lord, fill this house. Not just this church building of brick and mortar, but this house of flesh where your Spirit dwells. Fill this cup Lord. We lift it up Lord. Come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of Heaven, feed me ‘til I want no more. Here’s my cup, fill it up and make me whole. I’m hungry for a mighty move of God.
I need a revival in my soul. We need a fresh anointing, a fresh infilling, a fresh experience and a mighty move of God down in our souls. Come and fill the house Lord! That is our prayer!
But what is it going to take to get God to fill this house? What’s it going to take for God to move in our church and in our own heart? I believe we can find an answer to these questions in the Word of God. There was a time when God filled his house, and when the presence of the Lord came in, all the efforts of man came to nothing, because God moved and man just had to sit back and enjoy the presence of God.
The story takes place in the Book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 5, but it really doesn’t begin there. It started many years before that. For hundreds of years Israel had desired a permanent home where God would dwell in their midst. All through the wilderness their dreams were looking for the day when they would enter into a home of their own, a place where they could be free.
God had promised such a place in his covenant to Abraham. Every Jew was born as a child of Abraham and every one of them longed for and prayed for the day when God’s promise would be fulfilled. But it seemed that it would never come. Time and again, the nation of Israel would fall into idolatry, allowing the things of this world, and the pressures of life, to draw them away from looking for the fulfillment of that promise. They wandered as strangers in a foreign land, and though they had homes in Egypt, and had tents to dwell in through their journeys in life, they never had a place that was truly called home. They were pilgrims and strangers in a world that rejected them because they were God’s chosen people, a nation with a purpose, and there was always a yearning in their hearts for something greater than what other people were so willing to accept.
Doesn’t that sound like us? We are pilgrims and strangers in a foreign land, and though we may have some nice homes, and we can call ourselves citizens of this land, we know that this isn’t our true home. We are just passing through, living here for a little while, enjoying the blessings of God that have been given us for this time and this place. But there is something down deep inside that is stirring for we too have a promise. We have a promise of a New Heaven and a New Earth where righteousness rules and sin is no more. We are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. We are looking for a home not made with hands of flesh, but by the power of God.
There’s an old song that says something like this: “Just wait ‘til you see my brand new home. My Heavenly Father’s building it for me and I’m going to occupy for free. Nothing down here can compare. Just wait ‘til you see my brand new home.” And it won’t even have a mortgage.
Down through the years Israel kept vacillating, taking their eyes off the promise and then coming back to God again, just like so many in the church are doing right now.
Then their came a man named David who had a vision. It was a vision to build a permanent House of God after Israel had finally conquered most of their enemies and established their nation in the Promised Land.
David begged God to let him build the temple, but that wasn’t God’s plan. David gathered the materials, drew out the plans, made all of the preparations but he didn’t get to see the temple built in his lifetime. The fulfillment of David’s dream and vision was passed on to his son, Solomon. David laid the foundation but it was Solomon who built the temple that David had envisioned.
Down through the years, since the Lord ascended back into Heaven while Peter, James and John watched, the church, the Bride of Christ, has anticipated his return. Every succeeding generation hoped that it would be in their time. Their vision was of a seeing a brand new home in a permanent place. There vision was to enter into that Promised Land. But until this day, none ever saw their vision come to pass in their lifetime. But they kept laying the foundation for the next generation to build upon.
And so, here we are today, many generations later, still looking for that day. Will Jesus come again in our lifetime? I can’t help but believe that he will, but until that day, we just keep laying the foundation.
Finally, there came the day in Israel when Solomon’s Temple was finished. Let’s read about it in 2 Chronicles 5:1, "Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of the LORD was finished: and Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated; and the silver, and the gold, and all the instruments, put he among the treasures of the house of God."
David’s preparations, the past generations’ hopes, prayers and dreams, and the final work of Solomon were all there in the temple that day. The treasures of Israel that had been stored for this moment in time were all found in God’s House.
The Bible tells us that we are to have our treasures in Heaven. That’s where our home is. When you get to Heaven, all of the treasures that you have stored there will be waiting. All of the prayers you have prayed are waiting there. All of the desires of peace, joy, happiness and love will be there. All of the visions of glory, all of your hopes and dreams will be waiting in that new home. Just make sure that you are storing up your treasures in that Heavenly home. If not, then you’ll lose them all when the fire destroys this world.
2 Chronicles 5:2, "Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion."
Remember now, that we are talking about wanting to see a mighty move of God. We want to see the Spirit of the Lord fill the church and fill this house of flesh, to fill that hunger down deep in our souls for more of God.
Before the Spirit of the Lord would fill the temple there had to be more preparations. It wasn’t enough just to build the temple and put all the treasures of Israel inside. God wasn’t concerned about their gold and silver and their beautiful instruments. Sure they were needed and necessary but that wasn’t what brought the presence of the Lord.
First, the elders of Israel and all the heads of the families of the Jews came. This represents the leadership of the nation, and they had to come and bring up the ark that contained the tablets of stone that Moses had made with the 10 Commandments on them.
I’ve heard the saying, “As goes the leadership, so goes the church.” That same statement holds true whether it’s in the church, in the home and family or on the job. Everything rises and falls upon leadership. That’s why we must be so careful in choosing who we will allow to lead us. A leader isn’t a boss but a servant, and the more he or she serves, the greater that leadership will become.
A leader must earn that role; he can’t take it by force and keep it for long. It’s earned through faithfulness and dedication to serving those who choose to follow. If you think you’re a leader, then get out their and serve and see who will follow. If you think you are a leader and you have no followers, you better think again. You aren’t leading yet, you’re just out for a walk on your own, and you are fooling yourself.
The leadership of Israel came, bringing the ark with them. By doing so, they were signifying that the leadership was one with God and they were in obedience to the Laws of God. Oh that we had a greater portion of the church leadership in our world who could rightly say that they are one with God and fulfilling God’s Word!
2 Chronicles 5:6, "Also king Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him before the ark, sacrificed sheep and oxen, which could not be told nor numbered for multitude."
We say that we are hungry for a mighty move of God, but just how hungry are we? Are we hungry enough to sacrifice ourselves in prayer and fasting? Are we hungry enough to cry out to God, giving up our sports, our TV time, our golfing, our fishing or hunting, our computers and spend time before God as a sacrifice to him? Without sacrificing, our hunger will never be filled. There is a price to be paid before the Lord will fill the house. Israel had to pay that price and so will we, though in a different fashion of course. We have a revival coming on the first of April, but it won’t be a revival if we haven’t paid the sacrifices to see it come, it will just be another series of meetings. I’m tired of just having meetings. I want to see God fill the House and see him move mightily in my heart and soul!
2 Chronicles 5:7-8, "And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims: For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof above."
Now I know that the Ark of the Covenant was built in such a fashion that on top of the ark sat the Mercy Seat where two gold cherubim, or angels, faced one another with outstretched wings to cover the Mercy Seat, and upon that Mercy Seat was where the “Shekinah”, the bright light of the glory of God, shone when God was in the house.
But I want to think of this in a little different fashion. In my mind, these cherubim can also represent the presence of the Holy Ghost in the church. We need the Holy Ghost this morning. We need the mercy seat of God, where we can come into the presence of the Lord, sit in his sanctuary and sense his presence. And the need the guidance and anointing of the Holy Ghost to lead us to that place and then help us to see God moving in our midst. Our cry again is, “Holy Spirit come into this house. We welcome your presence in this place. Come in and take control of our lives and show us the way to God’s house!”
2 Chronicles 5:7-9, "And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims: For the cherubims spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof above. And they drew out the staves of the ark, that the ends of the staves were seen from the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen without. And there it is unto this day."
Can you see what’s happening here with the Ark of the Covenant? The priests are removing, for the last time, the staves that were used to transport the ark. What this means is that the Ark was never to be removed from the temple again.
What was in that ark? Nothing was there but the commandments. In the beginning we saw that the Tablets of Stone of the Ten Commandments along with Aaron’s rod that budded and the golden pot of manna were placed in there. But the rod wasn’t important anymore because it was God who gave life and the manna was no longer needed because now the Bread of Life had come and the Covenant of the Promised Land was fulfilled. But the commandment stayed. God still required the sacrifice of obedience to his Law and it hasn’t changed today. God doesn’t want us worshipping an ark, a rod or a pot of manna. He wants us to obey his Word and serve him. That’s what is needed before the Lord will move in his people. Obedience is better than sacrifice; that’s the way the Bible says it.
2 Chronicles 5:11, "And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place: (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course:"
Sanctified, oh how we hate that word “sanctified”, yet that is what God requires of his people before we will ever see a mighty move of God. We have to sanctify ourselves before we can truly serve him. We have to get rid of every besetting sin, every little secret sin and then wholly dedicate ourselves to God. That’s when we will see the might move of God. As long as there is sin in the house, God can’t dwell there. We need to clean up our act if we want to see a mighty move of God. It’s not enough just to be hungry – you have to make a move to find the food, and that means moving toward God in obedience to his Word.
2 Chronicles 5:12-13, "Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever…"
After the sacrifice of service, and after the sanctifying of our lives, there must be a true heartfelt and Spirit led praise. God wants us to worship him in Spirit and in Truth. No other worship is accepted by God.
If you are really hungry for a mighty move of God then learn to praise him and worship him with all your heart, soul and mind. It’s not praise if we are just saying the words and our mind is somewhere else. It’s not worship if we raise or clap our hands and sing, but we are looking around to see who is doing what, or thinking about lunch. True praise and worship, the kind that will cause God to move must come from the heart.
After all the requirements were fulfilled, and everything was in order, then 2 Chronicles 5:13 & 14 says, "…the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God."
That’s what we are hungry for! We are hungry for a mighty move of God. We are hungry for God to fill the House. I don’t need to hear the words of a preacher – I need to hear the words of the Lord. I don’t need to be entertained by a performer – I need to be filled with the glory of God.
Are you truly hungry for a mighty move of God? Then let’s fulfill the requirements. I want the Glory of the Lord to fill this church and to fill this house of flesh. I’m hungry for a mighty move of God, how about you?
