The Father is so passionate about this that He put everything that would hinder us from perfect union with Him, on His Son. Isaiah 53: 4 But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. 5 But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed (Message Bible). He did this all for the sake of love! The greatest lover of all, Jesus, had this to say, “"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus paid for it all, “It is finished."
The Father warred for His temple to be free from any bondage or blemish, and He continues to war on lies that bring any doubt to that truth. Holy Spirit lead me to the story of Jesus cleansing the temple and the imagery of Jesus cleansing the temple and us being the temple has amazing goodness in it.
The story is found in Mark 11:15-19, Matthew 21:12-17, Luke 19:45-48, and John 2:13-16. I find a few things interesting here. This story is in every Gospel, most of His stories are not found in all the Gospels. That tells us that this story has extreme significance and God is saying something loud and clear through it. Another thing I found interesting is that everywhere this story is found follows with the religious community rebutting with “By what authority are you doing these things," or, "who gave you this authority to do them?” This is still taking place today.
God has given you the green light to take His power and love to the entire world, if He said so it's best we step into these things regardless the opposition. The biggest attack the enemy brought against Jesus was to try and get Him to question who He was. It’s the same with us, the enemy does not want you believing the Truth about who you are. The religious minded would rather debate than be great. When I speak of the "religious minded" I'm speaking of the people that have made God the center piece of everything, but they see Him as impersonal and powerless.
Matthew 21:12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves (NASB). Their was a premeditated assault from the Father on His temple being tarnished. Jesus entered the temple and wreaked havoc on the religious activity that was void of intimacy with Love. I believe the mentioning of the dove is significant, the dove is representative of the Holy Spirit in the bible. Jesus overturns the seats of those trying to sell the Holy Spirit still to this day, and He will continue. The Holy Spirit is free. Any program, organization, method, ministry, minister, etc… that presents the idea that you need them to cleanse you is a lie, the cross already cleansed us. We need solid teaching on the finished works of Christ far more than new programs and methods on inner healing. Inner healing is ok, but its the cross that heals you and not the inner healing program. The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in an unclean vessel, does the holy Spirit live inside you? Then you are spotless, blameless, and holy in his eyes. God is not cleaning up your life piece by piece, you are growing in the awareness of how clean He has already made you.
It would be of great benefit to start believing what He did for us on the cross actually has the effect He says it should. The Comforter is His gift for us in an uncomfortable world, because we are not of this world. So we should be uncomfortable in any environment that is not heaven, His presence. Yet we dwell in a lovely paradox. We should be so comfortable when the world is uncomfortable that people get comfortable around us and they don’t know why. Then people see the comfort ability in you and want your comfort, Jesus! God already won the war to cleanse you so His comforter could dwell in you, His temple! He did it on the cross.
John 2:15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables (ESV). Jesus was whipped and ‘by His stripes we are healed’. Jesus cleansing the temple is a mirror of the Father cleansing us through Christ on the cross. The perfect peace that was in the Garden of Eden, before ‘sin entered through one man’, was completely restored when God’s temple was cleansed at the cross. God cleansed the temple through Jesus in this story, and God cleansed His temple (YOU) through the Messiah on the cross. In the second chapter of 1 Peter it says this, "you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (NASB)
Matthew 21:14 And blind and crooked came to him in the temple, and he healed them. (Wycliffe) In the midst of cleansing the temple, Jesus cleansed the temples, or "living stones" (their bodies) where God dwells. God is real serious about us being completely whole in health, serious enough to let His Son take on all the sickness and pain so we could have heavens health. We have everything needed to walk exactly like the King did (2 Peter 1:3), in character and health.
Mark 11:17 And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? (NASB) You are the walking, talking, breathing, and living prayer for all nations. You are His temple of prayer! You are the temple that carries the “Desire of the nations”, Haggai 2:7. Psalm 2:8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as Your possession (Amplified). Asking of Him would be praying, and receiving the nations (plural) would be the becoming their hope part. You are the temple that hosts the ‘Hope of Glory’, Colossians 1:27. You are the hope that the world draws from, because rivers of hope, love, and power that never run dry live inside you. God cleansed us so The Perfect One could dwell in us as spotless vessels. Walk in Truth and let your experience catch up.
Luke 19: 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” (ESV) You are the living exchange of wishes with God for the world. The word for pray in the Greek is proseuchomai and it can be translated as - an exchange of wishes with God. Religion practices void of "on earth as it is in heaven" is bondage, it’s the den of robbers.
“The Pharisees were the dream thieves of their day,” Graham Cooke. Religion robs you of freedom and your dreams that you can change this world. Religious practices void of intimacy with the Living Word will never satisfy you, it puts a tourniquet on His grace empowering you. Religion promotes fear and says, watch out the world is getting bad. Kingdom minded sons and daughters of God say, "the world had better watch out for me, I’m carrying the King of Glory!" You are gloriously free, don’t let the religious lies void of power and love turn your temple of His dwelling into a religious identity thief. He paid way too high a price for us to be walking around in the lie of bondage. You are free to change the world, to be outrageously creative, to be just who He created you to be, and to be so uncontrollably joyful that people think your nuts. It’s called ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory’ and you can find it in your bible, 1 Peter 1:8 KJV.
Matthew 21: 15-16 When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?” (Message) When the temple was clean the joy broke out, that is awesome! Your temple is clean, let His joy break out! The religious got upset when joy broke into the temple. A childlike faith lives in joy and thanksgiving. The children, the demons, the prostitutes, the drunks, and money frauds all knew who the Messiah was. It was the Pharisees, who spent their lives studying so that they could spot Him when He showed up, that couldn’t figure it out.
You are already washed clean, grow in this place of His grace. You are full of everything you need to turn this world upside down with His goodness, take faith filled risks to step into this priceless truth. He paid the full price so you would have full access to all of heaven. Walk in His Truth and let His power and love change the world through you!
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