The Foundation of the Lord

”Now when the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord according to the directions of King David of Israel. They sang, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His lovingkindness is upon Israel forever.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.“ ‭‭Ezra‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬-‭13‬ ‭

As I think about all the details that went into the building of the temple, I recognize at times I am like the ones who mourned the old one. There are things in my life I have held on to, mourning that my life has changed so much. And yet Holy Spirit infills the temple that is my body, I should be shouting for joy at the change He is making within my life knowing that He has great things in store for me.

I was scrolling through Facebook and a post from Hugot Seminarista caught my attention. It had pictures of various Bible characters with a reminder of what God qualified them despite of. I noticed there were other pictures in the post so opened to scroll through them and this one jumped at me as something I “know” but didn’t ever see in the light.

One of the things from the “Old Temple” I have allowed to hold me back is that I ran. Well, I walked away from God, but really that is what Jonah did to. I have looked at it in light of Bis disobedience, but never Him walking away from God.

”But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.“ ‭‭Jonah‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭‬‬

I became a Christian when I was eight years old. I was baptized and know that is was a true conversion. However, just as Jonah was blinded by his dislike of people, I became blinded to the hypocrisy that I saw as a teenager. I didn’t want anything to do with “those people” even though I loved God and knew He loved me and had saved me.

Over the next decade or so, the temple of Holy Spirit, that was my body was desecrated and tore down. No one could take Holy Spirit from me, but I certainly took Him places He didn’t belong and destroyed myself from the inside out.

And then Holy Spirit drew me back, just as God drew Jonah back to the calling He had placed on Jonah. He called me back to His Body, to fellowship with others once again and to pursue intimacy with Him.

Then, just as God called the Israelites to rebuild the temple, Holy Spirit set to rebuild me. I am not sure this side of Heaven it will ever completely be done. He slowly started working on me. He took me back to the foundation that was placed within me during the first twelve years of my life. He started clearing out the junk, rebuilding healthy boundaries, and restoring the things that had been broken and destroyed.

Even as He has been working, and I have joined in through surrender there are things I have mourned because it doesn’t look like I thought it should. It doesn’t look like it did before when I was going strong for God. However, it is still strong. It is deeper. My temple is filled with Holy Spirit and ai am surrendering to His process. I have to let go of the old and recognize that season of my life is passed. It is time for me to embrace what God is doing now.

Lord I thank You for the old because it laid the way for the new. Help me to release the mourning and rejoice with gladness all that You are about to do! I love You Lord!!!