The dwelling place of God - Ephesians 2.19-22

This blog was written from the lectionary texts two weeks ago. 

 
What is your single passion? .  If you thought about all that you are passionate about regarding life in ministry, what would it be?  For David it was that he would find a dwelling place for the ark of the Lord. We see in Psalm 132 that David didn’t want to give any sleep to his eyes until this reality happened. The idea of the very glory and presence of God dwelling among his people burned in him.

In our first lectionary text in 2 Samuel 7.1-14, we see that what was in David’s heart was to build a dwelling place for the Lord. Up to this point the Lord's presence had been in the tabernacle. Grateful for his own house, David wanted to construct a permanent place for the Lord.  Ultimately this temple would be built by David’s son Solomon. In granting David's desire, the Lord made an eternal covenant with him: “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” As we know, this was fulfilled in Jesus when he came, our King in the line of David, and was fully the dwelling of God.

In Ephesians 2.19-22, Paul shares that we are now “members of the household of God”, and “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” The very Spirit and glory of God is now dwelling in us, in the people of God. As David was consumed by the longing for the very presence of God to dwell in a house, we now have the this same presence living inside of us.  Does this reality overwhelm us and drive us to further seek the Lord?  It’s easy for prayer and worship of the Lord to be relegated to one of many spiritual activities that we do.  But as we come to understand the heart of God, to understand what it means to have his very essence in us, I pray that it would move and grip us to even deeper prayer and seeking him; that it would move us to even greater hunger for God; that we would ask for the absolute fullness of him to dwell in us; that we wouldn’t be satisfied without it.  God wants to fully dwell in us so that his kingdom will be established in us and that kingdom life will flow through our communities and many will experience it.  Let’s pray and cry out as a community that the full dwelling of God would be established in our lives and in our churches.  Let’s pray for a powerful move of his Spirit, and that his tangible presence will come down and rest in our cities that are so desperate for a touch from God.