DayBreaks for 03/07/13 – Proof of the Pudding
1 Kings 8:11 (NLT) – The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the LORD filled the Temple.
The passage above describes a day after Solomon finished construction of the temple and the temple was being consecrated. Hundreds of years earlier, the Presence of God was with Israel as they moved through the wilderness as a pillar of cloud during the daytime and a fiery pillar at night. God gave those two visible manifestations of His Presence to Israel as reminders that He was there…that He was real…and that He was powerful.
As I read this passage two days ago, I was struck with a sense of wonder at what it must have been like for those present when God’s Presence came into the temple in such a visible way. We aren’t told much more about it, but I don’t think that it was just a normal looking cloud – there was something very glorious about it. It may have been a cloud which glowed brilliantly (we tend to think of glory as something blindingly bright), or which echoed with peals of thunder and flashes of lightning (God did that on numerous occasions). Whatever it was, it was a very special moment in Israel’s history.
What really struck me though was not so much the nature of the cloud itself, but the question that I was led to ponder: when God’s glory came down to the temple and filled it, there was a visible sign of it that was undeniable. As the New Testament tells us, our bodies are now the temple of the Holy Spirit of God, and I must ask myself, “What sign(s) of His glory are there in my life?” If God has filled us with His Spirit, if He lives within us as we often say, certainly there must be some visible, outward sign of that Presence. But is there?
How about your life? What signs would be visible to others that God lives in you? Perhaps we would all do well to first take a personal inventory, and then to ask those brothers or sisters who we know and trust to tell us if they are able to see signs of God living within us.
This is something we should take seriously. Romans 8:9 (ESV) – You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
PRAYER: Father, I pray that we will take Your indwelling Presence seriously. Help us not to “manufacture” signs of Your Presence hypocritically, but to simply let Your Presence shine out of us in such a way that it is visible and that You are glorified! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Copyright 2013 by Galen C. Dalrymple.
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