Praying To Be A Place Where Others Can Encounter The Presence of God

I have quite a lot of sky that I can see out my window – I live on the 19^th floor of a building – and this past month the sky was clear the night the moon was full.  Although I have a lot of city lights that bleed out my ability to see too many stars in the sky, the moon was very bright and those contours and shadows that tell us about the “man in the moon” were quite visible.  The heavens seem quite close at those times.

I remember the first time, on  a missions trip in South America, when our team travelled above the clouds – not in an airplane – but up the mountainside until many clouds were below and we were above them standing on the earth but in the sunshine looking down on clouds and then the earth below.  A place where it seemed the sky and the earth met.

Being on the 19^th floor of a building I often now, in this rain forest area of British Columbia, find myself looking out the window with everything fogged in because the clouds are going by at the level of my window.  If I get on the elevator and go to street level there’s more to see under that canopy of foggy cloud.  In my apartment I’m on earth but seemingly a bit in the heavens as well.

In one of my readings recently the author was reflecting on how the tabernacle and the temple of the Jewish people was a meeting place for God and His people – a place where heaven and earth connected.  This had always been God’s plan, we know from the time in the Garden of Eden when God came and walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.  That fellowship was broken by sin and Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden.

The story of God connecting with His people in the tabernacle and the temple is told in chapter after chapter in the Old Testament.  Then Jesus came and began to say some “very strange things”.  With a sinful woman at a well (in John 4) they were discussing about where people thought they had to be to worship God and Jesus told the woman:

Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21, 23-24

Jesus spoke about His body being the temple of God that would be destroyed and then raised up again in three days.  We are all so grateful for that meeting place of heaven with earth when Jesus breathed His last and gave up His life for you and I and all who live on this earth.  Three days later, Jesus powerfully rose again from the grave to give clear and convincing evidence that God’s power and presence of God are again poured out for us to receive.

We are now meant to be those who demonstrate every day this connection between heaven and earth.  God’s Spirit lives in us and our lives are meant to be a place where people can sense and experience the goodness and power of God’s Spirit speaking to them, pouring out grace and truth on them.

Oh Lord, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around this thought for a while now and it’s still a bit much to understand but regardless of my understanding, the truth is still the truth.  When we invite You to come and live in us, we become the temple of the living God. As Scripture clearly tells us:

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?  … God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.  1 Corinthians 3:16-17

God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.  Ephesians 2:20-22

Lord, you promised that if we would simply obey Your commands that You and the Father would come and make Your home with us.  Oh Lord, help us today to walk well with You.  We want our lives to be safe places where others can see a good and loving God and through our witness and our prayers even come to know Him and become part of this amazing temple that You are building together that has Jesus as the cornerstone.

You …

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:14

Our world, yes, even our world that tries to say in so many ways that there is not God, so needs a clear and convincing life witness to the reality of Your Spirit being alive and well and functioning here on planet earth.  Lord, use us today, we pray, to be a connection point between heaven and earth for many so they too may see Your glory and experience Your grace and truth for themselves  Amen

Well, I certainly have found myself short of words to explain what I find amazing about this topic but I want to, and I’m sure You do too, to just live it the way Jesus wants us to live as His connection point between heaven and earth today.