Morning Light – July 27th, 2015: The Finishing Anointing

Morning Light – July 27th, 2015
Today: [1 Kings Chapter Nine]: The Finishing Anointing. The temple of finished. When the temple was completed God appears to Solomon a second time. The work of God in your life will enter this phase at some point. Living for God when you are under construction is different than when the finishing hand of God has wrought it’s work in you. Are you a perpetual spiritual construction zone? Are you ready for the finishing anointing? In this chapter we will grasp some import of this in our own spiritual lives.
[1Ki 9:1-28 KJV] 1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do, 2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. 3 And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. 4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, [and] wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: 5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. 6 [But] if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments [and] my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: 7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people: 8 And at this house, [which] is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? 9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.
When we read about the temple of Solomon we must remember the teachings of the New Testament that WE are that temple. As the ancient Jews did Christian culture tends to venerate buildings, liturgy and religious infrastructure as though we are still under the Old Covenant. Paul said in Col. 2:17 that these are “a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ…” This is because Jesus in Matt. 12:6 said “there is one greater than the temple here…” speaking of Himself. As wonderful as the temple may have been, or any edifice – God does not dwell in a building, He lives inside your heart. He is speaking of the temple of your body when He says “…I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually…”
God’s choice to live in you is not temporary. He said “my eyes and heart will be there perpetually. Even in eternity God will still be living in us and dwelling in us. God has no other chosen dwelling place. As He beautifies heaven so He beautifies us when He lives on the inside of us because He is passionate about who we are in Him and who He is in us.
[1Co 3:16-17 KJV] 16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.
You are the temple of God and the temple of God is holy. We can look at humanity and worldly culture and see how Satan seeks constantly to defile the temple of the human body through lust, unrestrained human appetites, defilement and pollution at many levels are all pointed toward the enemy’s campaign to deface and defile God’s chosen dwelling place in our physical bodies.
[1Co 6:19 KJV] 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
God wants us to know that our bodies don’t belong to us they belong to Him. What we put in our bodies, how we deface and mar our physical bodies in various ways all reflect our understanding or lack of understanding that we only borrow this natural frame. We are bought with the price of the shed blood of Christ and God has placed His Holy Spirit within us. Without getting into religious legalism here let me just say that we all must find out what accountability to this truth looks like and look to God for the assistance and grace not to defile the temple of our body in a manner that grieves the Holy Spirit that lives within us.
[Eph 2:21 KJV] 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
We are also a temple corporately in our connection to one another as fellow Christians. The enemy wants to segment us, sequester us from one another and limit us to one sectarian group or another. The party spirit is the very definition of Christianity as we know it all under the banner of correct doctrine, denominationalism and our own personally held beliefs. Revelation calls this Babylon – religious confusion. One day what God is building will arise out of the corrupt, politicized monstrosity of Christian culture and a spotless bride will appear even as Rev. 12 portends.
[2Th 2:4 KJV] 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Let us internalize this verse for a moment. There is in each of us a ruling principle. Sometimes it is the mind that will not allow you to yield to any influence that doesn’t satisfy reason or intellect. Sometimes it is the emotions that rule refusing to allow you to commit to any path of life that doesn’t register in a pleasing way to your emotional make-up. Who is sitting in your temple declaring itself to be God? The word of God and the Spirit of God is given to try what the Psalmist called the “reins of the heart”. Who has the reins of your heart? Ultimately what is the character of your life’s direction? Are you ruled by reason, requiring God to explain Himself before you will obey? Are you ruled by emotion – refusing any course of action that costs you those relationships that nurture you emotionally? We must make an effort in our faith to listen to the still small voice that defies the intellect and articulates the passion of a jealous God who will not allow us to have any higher fidelity than to God Himself.
[Rev 11:19 KJV] 19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
There will certainly come a day in eternity future that a temple will be unveiled but this temple is also in us right now. When Solomon’s temple was finished – it was opened. There is a building process in you right now. Do you have a sign on your life “Construction Zone”? Is your life a hard hat area or a hard head area? Have you allowed God to break ground in your life or are you as Solomon building your own house or the house of Pharaoh’s daughter? This second visitation of God to Solomon was a warning about Solomon’s priorities. Solomon in many areas held himself aloof and exempt from the law over which he judged the very people he was to serve. Say within your own heart “I am not exempt…” If Solomon had done this his life and testimony would have been different.
10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, 11 ([Now] Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not. 13 And he said, What cities [are] these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day. 14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold. 15 And this [is] the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. 16 [For] Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it [for] a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife. 17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether, 18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land, 19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
King Hiram had been Solomon’s partner in the building of the temple but when Solomon recompensed him he was not satisfied. The twenty cities that Solomon gave Hiram were located in Galilee. Galilee was the backwater of the promised land so there is an indication that Solomon in fact did short change and take unfair advantage of Hiram. Hiram named the settlements “Cabul” which means “good for nothing” and yet kept his end of the bargain in sending six score talents (50 pounds) of gold which today would be valued at over 50 million dollars.
Lack of fair dealing is common among God’s people. My father remarked that some Christians ideas of blessing don’t include the other person in a transaction being blessed as well. They don’t have faith that God will bless you and them both so they have to know that you were set at a disadvantage or the deal wasn’t fair. We need to hold ourselves accountable to break this stereotype. We must in all our dealings make sure we give more than we get. That doesn’t mean we let others dictate the terms by which we do business. But it does mean that we go beyond what is expected and bless others in all business dealings with generosity and a glad heart.
20 [And] all the people [that were] left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which [were] not of the children of Israel, 21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day. 22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they [were] men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen. 23 These [were] the chief of the officers that [were] over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. 24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which [Solomon] had built for her: then did he build Millo. 25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that [was] before the LORD. So he finished the house. 26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which [is] beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. 28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought [it] to king Solomon.
There were mixed nations in the land that Solomon had to deal with. Those nations that the Isrealites failed to destroy in the promised land Solomon now puts to tribute and forces them to work as slave labor. The Israelites however he did not enslave for common use but put them as warriors and military leaders. You will have people in your life that don’t live for God. These will be co-workers, employees, family members, etc. You cannot give them the same status in your heart as your brothers and sisters in Christ. You cannot deal with them as equals because they are not. They may serve their place in your life but when it comes to a time of battle let us learn to lean and be leaned on as brothers and sisters in the Lord and not resort to those who don’t know God for our defense in times of difficulty.