The Temple, the Church and the Holy Spirit
Hi Friends,
I am excited to share with you a vision, that is so important to me. God gives us visions to bring revelation concerning things we do not know, and things we should know, but have not appreciated. But today, this revelation I am sharing with you has to do with how we see ourselves, our church and our ministry. I am truly grateful to the Lord for bringing clarity and understanding to keep us on the right track.
Before I received the vision, I opened the Bible and began to read in the Book of Ezekiel, about the heavenly temple that the man of God was showing him. This happened to be the second time within a day or two, that the Lord brought me to this passage. I realized that there must be something that the Lord wanted to show me about the temple or its specifications. So I decided to read the passage carefully to be sensitive to what he would have me see.
The angel, or man of God led Ezekiel in his vision all throughout the temple. I believed that God wants to lead us in the same way. One step, one room, one courtyard, one place at a time. There was order. I noticed that there were only two rooms for the sons of Zadok, who were the only two Levites that were to minister before the Lord. This is significant, but I must study and pray more to understand.
After reading, I wanted to see if there were any 3-D models created to follow the specifications given in the Book of Ezekiel. So I went online to find one. Here is a link to an animation of a 3-D model of what it may have looked like to Ezekiel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNmERZkT6JM
This vision has a meaning for me personally, but there is another, deeper meaning, as I will explain.
The Vision
The vision began with a view of a shelf, with a clear finish on a light colored wood, like oak or ash. There were two pairs of evenly spaced wall brackets under the single shelf that spanned the entire distance. The two L-shaped wall brackets furthest from me were finished in red. The two wall brackets closest to me were painted or finished in blue.
Then I saw the order of the brackets change. The furthest most bracket was removed, as well as the piece of shelf above it. The next bracket that would have been red was now blue, and the two brackets closest to me, which were originally blue, are now red.
So there are only three brackets with a shelf that spans the distance.
The scene changes, and the shelf and brackets have now become a shelter with wall supports. The vertical portion of the supports are now like pilasters (columns attached to or protruding from a wall). The horizontal portion of the bracket that supported the shelf, has now become a ceiling beam. The same three brackets are in place with the furthest most being blue and the two closer brackets being red.
Suddenly I find myself standing under the place where the furthest most bracket and shelf would have been. There is nothing above me. There are no walls surrounding me. There is no floor beneath me.
I open my eyes for just a second and then close them again. I know that I am still in the Spirit, but now I see nothing at all. I am only aware that I am alone in the presence of God. I have the realization that God surrounds me. He alone is my shelter. He is the one holding me up, keeping me secure.
At that moment, I had a revelation of what the Lord was showing me. The temple of Ezekiel was a place to worship the Lord, yet it did not exist in this physical realm. But for now, the temple of God resides in us as believers, here on the earth. We are the church, made of believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit. The church building is simply a gathering place. I realize that my understanding and my relationship to the church is not entirely what God had intended.
God is looking for those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth. The Lord is showing me that I need to reassess my obligations and commitments. I have always had a strong sense of commitment to my church. From the beginning, my desire was to be with God 24/7. So I began praying and reading the word of God, nearly continuously. My commitment simultaneously grew to become hours spent at church. “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Psalm 122:1
But what happens when our commitments to church activities and obligations to serve in various ministries begin to crowd out the very one with whom we want to spend our time? The church offers activities that seem God inspired, that seem worthwhile and noble. But my calling has always been for prayer, and anything that takes me away from this central focus is “busy work,” or a “distraction.” We can become so busy with “God’s” activities, that we miss the opportunities to just be with him. When I used to make costumes for the church productions, I used to pray, Lord will you change the church’s focus from “busy work” to spending time with you. I have heard all the arguments for why they put on these productions - primarily to reach the lost or those that wouldn’t otherwise step into a church.
But I ask, “Why not instead make fasting and prayer the focus, after all didn’t Jesus say, ‘My house will be a house of prayer for all nations?’” Mark 11:17 Who knows, the Lord might respond with the nationwide revival for which we were to pray! Can you imagine all kinds of people coming into the church in droves. We would see healings everyday. There would be miracles, signs and wonders. People would come to the churches just to get right with God. We would see those that were lukewarm develop a desire and hunger for the Lord. We would see the spiritually dead come to life by the Holy Spirit. No longer would we need to plead with our family and friends to come to church, they would see others being healed, delivered - they would see lives changed! They would come to church just to experience the Lord for themselves.
Paul brought the gospel everywhere he went, accompanied with signs and wonders! Why do our churches feel that we must entice people to come to church by putting on large productions, or hosting the best Christian entertainers, or offering the promise of a “good time,” and a cup of coffee?
I believe God wants us to become more detached from our church buildings and pews and go out to where the people are: in the hospitals, the nursing homes, the prisons, the workplaces, the schools, the shops, the sporting events, and the streets.
Years ago, the Lord had to break me away from the mindset that I had value because of what I could do and what I had accomplished. The Lord did not value me the same way the world does. He said, “I don’t want you to do. I want you to be.”
Now I see by this vision, that my ideas of who I am have slid back into the “I am what I do. I am my accomplishments.” It shows up in how I think about my church, my ministries, and the tasks I undertake and the commitments I make. “I am not the church I attend. I am not the ministry in which I serve. I am not the title someone might give me. I am not here to fulfill the expectations of others. But — I am a bond servant of the Most High. I am a child of God. I belong to him and He belongs to me. I am the Lord’s disciple, for I follow him. With whom should I identify? If we are the Lord’s disciples, then we should identify with him. “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” Luke 6:40
I wrote earlier about a vision that I think is worth mentioning again. Years ago, on a Sunday morning I got up early to pray. I received a vision of a man leaning up against a short stone wall. He turned his head and looked directly at me and said, “Amelia, ask me about the divine curfew.”
I knew a curfew was put in place by authorities, to mandate a stay at home - to be off the streets. It is sometimes imposed for safety reasons. I knew that God wanted me to stay home from church that morning. He wanted me to simply spend time with him.
I would love to tell you that I was perfectly obedient, but that was not the case. I nearly panicked. “What will the prayer group think if I am not there? What about the people in church? What will they think? Everyone will think I have abandoned my post!”
Do you notice where the concern is? “What does everyone else think about me?” This is the fear of man. Where is our fear to be? With God or with man? Isn’t the fear of God the beginning of wisdom? The fear of man is a snare. We cannot live our lives to please man. We must consider God and his priorities. And certainly the loyalty to the church and its ministries must take second place to God’s requests and commands. After all why are we doing, what we are doing?
Jesus noted this same phenomenon with regard to the traditions of men. “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” Mark 7:9 The church is quite capable of doing the same thing. We must put God and the authority of his word first.
But now since this vision, I understand that when God showed me that there were no walls surrounding me, no ceiling or shelter above me, and no floor beneath my feet, that I was not to be attached to a location or physical place. My place was to live in the shelter of the Most High, abiding under the shadow of his wings.
This whole revelation has truly been an eye opener. I believe that God wants me to be available to him, and to have no conflicting priorities or obligations. Right now the Lord has asked me to simply pray, and to write. The Lord said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.” Matthew 11:29 I really feel that a great burden has been lifted! I don’t have to be like anyone else. I don’t have to impress anyone. I just simply have to please the Lord.
I would like to share a passage the Lord gave me in one of my favorite books: My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. I was having trouble really expressing what I was feeling about the church and my relationship with it. I hope this helps you understand too.
“The ‘Go’ of Unconditional Identification” - September 28”
“Jesus…..said to him, ‘One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor… and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’” Mark 10:21
The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple.
Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships.
Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute “go” of unconditional identification with and abandonment and surrender to Jesus.
“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him….” (Mark 10:21) The look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God, is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
“One thing you lack…..” From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.
“……sell whatever you have..…” I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. “…..come….. and follow Me.” And the road is the way He went.
This is the sentence that really summarizes what I believe the vision is revealing about the relationship we are to have with the church and with the Lord.
Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships.
I believe that what he is saying to us is that our relationship with him means to identify with him and not a church, or a group, or a family, or a close friend. Jesus is to be our all in all. There are to be no substitutes!
Paul understood this immediately, upon his revelation of Jesus. “But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to confer with flesh and blood.” Galatians 1:15-16
So when we have a dilemma, or a perplexing question, The Lord simply wants us to seek him for the answer. We are to pray through until we understand. “He rewards those who diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?.....So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or “What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-27 and 31-34
A Perhaps Deeper Meaning to the Vision
I also wanted to address another aspect of the vision, that of the shelf supports that changed to become wall and roof supports. As the vision opened, I saw four shelf supports. The furthest most were red. Red in the Bible generally means blood. One of the sources I read, indicated that certain types of reds, as scarlet and crimson, were used to denote sin. As I see the vision, I believe the red is meant to represent the Blood of Christ. The closest supports were in the color blue. According to this same source, blue in the Bible is most often associated with the Law and Commandments. And I believe this is the proper interpretation in the vision. The shelf in its unfinished state, represents the natural world, the earth, or God’s creation.
As the vision begins, the red (the Blood of Jesus) is furthest away, and the blue (the Law and Commandments) are closest. This would represent the time of the Old Testament, when the Law and Commandments of Moses were in operation and the perfect sacrifice of the “Lamb of God,” was still yet to come.
Then suddenly the brackets which supported the natural colored shelf, were changed. The red brackets were now closest to me and the blue brackets, representing the Law and the Commandments, were now furthest away. This change in brackets represents the change from the Old Covenant, to the New Covenant. The red brackets representing the Blood of the Lamb are in the place where the blue brackets representing the Law and the Commandments were.
There is still another change in the vision. One of the blue brackets was taken away. This means that the Law is no longer in effect, for the Blood of Christ has fulfilled the Law. “Jesus said, ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.’” Matthew 5:17
The Lord was speaking of what was accomplished by his death on cross. “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.” John 19:30 ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he said this, he breathed his last.” Luke 23:46
In the vision, there is one remaining blue bracket still holding up a portion of the shelf. This blue bracket represents the Lord’s commandments, under the New Covenant in his blood: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time,’ says the Lord. ‘I will put my laws in heir hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Hebrews 10:16
Jesus also summarized the Law and the Prophets with these words: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.‘ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
As I saw that the shelf and its brackets became the pilasters on a wall and the ceiling beams and a roof, I realized there was a connection with God’s heavenly designs and what man builds on the earth. God gave Noah complete instructions to build the ark, and then it became a actual sea going vessel. The design for the tabernacle was first made in heaven and then shared with Moses. It became a reality in its construction. There was a heavenly design created by God for the temple which would house the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of the Lord. It became a physical temple as Solomon, had it built.
God had me read about the temple in Ezekiel’s vision, because it is a heavenly design, that will someday come to be, when God creates his new city. There He will live with us. “And the name of the city from that time on will be: ‘The Lord is There.’” Ezekiel 48:35
But for now, God has given us, the Holy Spirit who dwells within each believer.
In my vision, the shelf represented what God had designed: the Old Covenant with the Law and the Prophets, and the New Covenant with the Blood of the Lamb. The shelf representing God’s creation, was supported by both of these covenants, the new replacing the old.
Once the shelf changed to become full size, as a building. God was showing me that the design that He had begun, now exists on the earth as the church. “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Matthew 16:18
As I was standing in the vision where the missing piece of shelf or roof would have been, there were no walls, no pilasters, no ceiling or roof, no beams, and no floor. By this God shows us that the building, or temple, is no longer needed. The curtain that concealed the Holy of Holies in the Temple of God was torn in two, top to bottom. So now we can come into the Lord’s presence freely. We do not need to come to offer the sacrifices of bulls, or goats, lambs or doves. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to speak with him, and abide with him. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23
We are the church. “For where two or three gather together in my name, there I am in their midst.” Matthew 18:20
We as believers are all called to share the gospel. We are to be those sent by God to the people in our neighborhoods, and in our workplaces. When we share the good news, visit the sick, pray for healing or the Lord’s provision, we identify with Christ. Just as Christ identified with his Father:
“Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” John 5:19
Our devotion and our only primary relationship is with Jesus. When all is said and done, our relationship with the Lord is all that matters.
I Thank you Jesus for your revelations, and your encouragement to keep seeking!
We love you Jesus!
