Cleanse the temple

Cleansing the Temple

Jesus cleansed the temple twice – once at the beginning of His ministry (John 2:13-22) and the 2^nd time towards the end of His ministry (Matt 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17 & Luke 19:45-46).

Jesus was full of compassion & love but the one thing that really angered Him was to see His Father’s temple not functioning as one.

His desire was that His Father’s house should be a house of prayer.

It was a custom at that time for the people to involved with sacrifice, prayer, praise & worship – the people needed to buy animals for the sacrifices which God had said they should offer to Him. But what truly angered Jesus was that the buying & selling had become more important than prayer & sacrifice.

In other words, Jesus cleansed the temple of everything secondary and put back that which was essential – Prayer.

To God, prayer is still to be fundamentally important in the life of His present-day temple, the body of Christ.

God has chosen the human body to be His holy temple. When a person is under the blessing of God, he has the divine favour of God upon His life.

He will be successful and prosperous in the Lord. His life will be filled with the blessings and power of God. (Joshua 1:18, Psalm 1, Psalm91).

When the curses over a person’s life are not broken in the name of Jesus – the curses will be like a black cloud over him, preventing the blessings of God from flowing to him.

For we were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God’s.

To be filled with the holiness of God – our body (His temple) must first be cleansed.

One way of cleansing is through deliverance and our first deliverance is to be delivered from the world.

Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Do you wonder why there are so many Christians today stricken with incurable and terminal diseases?

Watch what you say; as we speak to one another, God listens:

-Malachi 3:16

- Matthew 12:33-37

- Proverbs 6:2

- Eccl 5:2-3

- Eccl 5:6-7

The words that we speak will ensnare us. We are asked not to be rash with our mouth nor say anything hastily before God.

Our words are to be few and we are not to let our mouth cause our flesh to sin.

Yet many of us use our tongues loosely. Whether we understand a matter or not, we must say something.

More than often, what we say is not in line with the word of God but vain babbling.

Our words have power to bind or to loose.

When we speak the negative, we bind a person.

When we speak the positive, we set that person free.

It is therefore so important that we speak blessing to people.

The Bible says we are judged by our words (Matt 12:36-37). If our words do not bless or edify – then we have defiled our mouth. It would be better to keep quiet instead.

We should be careful not to open our mouth hastily because we might say the wrong thing.

We should not speak much except to edify and bless so that God is glorified when we open our mouth. Most people enjoy gossip but inevitably, someone will become the victim of the talk.

Whoever guards his mouth and tongue, keep his soul from troubles. (Prov 21:23)

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14)

Prayer to break strongholds:

We break every hold and stronghold of the enemy and every curse, in Jesus’ name.

Lord, we rebuke the spirit of deception,

Break the spirit of rebellion and

Break every power of wicked and foul spirits.

We rebuke every spirit of deception and lies so that we will know what it means to seek your face.

Churches split because of the defiling of the temple of God, the corporate body – through the misuse of our tongue.

Many people are murmuring and grumbling. Whether they are right or wrong, they just want to throw in their comments.

Everyone thinks he is right and everyone has something to say. All this fueled by hell. They always think that their problems are so great but actually, they are the same because people are the same everywhere.

The Lord revealed that one of the ways t cleanse the temple, our body, is to keep our mouth shut. This is the key to resolving splits. Defilement comes from out of the mouth so keeping our mouths shut will prevent us from speaking defilement.

Isaiah 6:1-9

Psalm 19:14

Eccl 5:1-2

James 1:26

Murmuring and complaining can lead to rebellion.

Even if we have been misunderstood or falsely accused, let God do the vindication. When we keep still, God will take over and release the perfect plan. We cannot do better than He can.

When the dealing comes – just submit. When we are broken, the glory of God will be revealed in our lives.

Psalm 51:17

The minute the Spirit of God moves, the enemy will try to hinder the move of God by stirring up strife and contention.

We cannot prevent enemy attack but we can put on the whole armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) and counter-attack.

How?

- By putting on the nature of Christ which is love.

- By not getting affected by the strife

- By spending more time with God & releasing ourselves into His presence

- By doing nothing & letting God run the show

- By letting God do whatever needs to be done & asking Him for grace to go through.

- By submitting to His leading instead of reacting to the situation.

- By asking Him to show us what we are supposed to be learning from it all.

The greatest lesson in our life is when everything breaks loose. This is the time God will see how we handle a situation.

Will we panic & try to solve the problems ourselves ? Or will we just hand the matter to God?

This is the time to really stand on the word of God.

Philippians 4:6-8

“Give me the grace to change, and in times of trial & difficulty – I will not open my mouth to murmur & complain but allow You to deal with my life.”

To drive out the enemy & cleanse my body, the temple of God, I need to be sure that I am born again.

1- Acknowledge your sins and confess them before God.

2- Repent of your sins.

3- Ask God to forgive you.

4. Renounce your sins.

5- Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you.

# God be with you as you dedicate your life to Him once again.