Reflections, August 30th, 2009

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Reflections: Whose House Are You?

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light..."1 Peter 2:9

Scripture Reading For This Week: Exodus 19:5,6; Psalm 118; Isaiah 8:14,15; 28:16; Hosea 2:23; Hebrews 3; 1 Peter 2...

It may seem like a peculiar question for some. However, God's children are suppose to be peculiar. Whose house are you? Who are you allowing to take residence within your temple, when our bodies (temples,) are suppose to be the house of the Holy Spirit?

What are you allowing to enter into your house? Do you know? Do you understand that just as a physical house has many entrances, so does our spiritual house? And God is calling us to do a home inspection to determine what is going on, and just whose house are we.

It is my sincerest prayer that this week's Reflection will be a source of encouragement and enlightenment for your body, mind, and spirit. May God's word be illuminated for you. I pray that you receive all that God has ordained for you to receive. And if you did not know; He has ordained much for you. He's just waiting on you to receive it.

Whose house are you? I mean, do we really understand that we are the house of the Holy Spirit, and that we cannot allow every and anything to reside within us? We cannot continue to pollute our houses and expect the Holy Spirit to continue to reside. That's just not happening.

Now, I will not get all philosophical with you; because it doesn't take much of an exegesis to explain that, each and every day we are doing things that give the use of our "house" over to satan. Our actions allow the enemy to gain access to our "house". It's in our conversations, our walk, what we watch, who we invite to impart things into our spirit. Our eyes, mouths and ears are the gates into our "house". And if these gates are not properly secured, trust me, the enemy is coming in full force to take residence. And you better believe that he is not coming alone. He is bringing a whole slew of demons to be sure to wreak havoc and destruction in not only your life, but those around you.

1 Peter 2:1-5

"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

When we allow ourselves to be filled with malice, hate, anger, jealousy, all manner of negative emotions; we allow the enemy to have access to our house. Another word for house, is heart. When we allow negative emotions to rule us, we are allowing our hearts to become hardened, desensitized to the touch of the Holy Spirit. Because we become so filled with rage and bitterness, and animosity, we cannot begin to hear what God is speaking to us.

There are many of us that walk around believing that all is well in our lives. We would have easily answered the question of: whose house are you?, with a matter-of-fact answer, saying God's house. But sadly, many of us would be shocked to realize that God hasn't resided in us for a long time. The fact of the matter is, the Holy Spirit departed a while ago, and what we are believing is the presence of the Holy Spirit, is just residue from past anointing: The memories of what used to be. If we were to be honest with ourselves, we'd admit that we have not experienced sincere joy in a long while. That we have not heard a fresh word, or received an unction of the Holy Spirit in quite a while. Sadly, many of us have become so comfortable in the state we are in, that we don't recognize the severe state of disarray our houses/hearts are in. Oh, we are quick to point it out in others; but when it comes to holding the mirror up to ourselves, we become blinded, seeing only what we want to see, and not the many cracks and cobwebs that have formed in our house, that have given place to satan for use.

The more time we spend in the presence of God, the more our houses are secured. The stronger we become; the more we are fortified. But, when we began to take for granted what we have gained in the Lord, and begin to ease up on the things that we know we should do, that is when the enemy strikes. Just because you spent an hour on your knees yesterday, does not mean you can skip the next day.

Once again, I will liken it to your physical house. You spent all day on Saturday cleaning your house. You threw away old stuff. Did the laundry. Changes the curtains, etcetera. You really worked hard. Through out the week, you know that you don't have enough time to give the same meticulous care as you did on the weekend, but you know, that if you don't do spot checks throughout the week, you will become overloaded on the weekend. Imagine a sink of dirty dishes. A pile of them. It didn't get that way overnight. What happened was, you had one dish that you decided could wait. Instead of taking the time to wash that one dish, you chose another. And so on and so forth, until you winded up with a pile of dirty dishes. Not only was it eyesore, it smelled. And guess what? You said you'd take care it on the weekend; but lo and behold, you have a surprise visitor coming by on Friday!

So it is with our spiritual house. We get lazy and caught off guard. Because we think we read our Bibles, go to church once a week, occasionally get on our knees, that that is enough to secure us. But it's not. We have to do spot checks. We don't know when Jesus is coming back: the exact hour or day. But we do have signs that He is coming soon.

Our houses are not clean. And they have been taken over my satan and his mignons. It is time to evict the enemy, clean our houses, and allow the precious anointing of the Holy Spirit to come in and clean house and reside once again.

Hebrews 3:4-8,14

4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. 5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; 6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.  7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:  14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

Sometimes we can go through things that we have a hard time getting over or dealing with, and we can have a tendency to blame it on God. We get angry with the Father—sometimes not realizing it, and we began to quietly rebel against Him. We don't pray as much. We don't read the word as much. We don't talk about the loving, Savior to anyone. And each day that passes, we allow access to the enemy. We entertain unclean thoughts. We watch things that we shouldn't watch. We read and listen to things that we know provoke sin. We keep company with those we know that do not believe in God or in living holy. And before you know it, our hearts are hardened, and the Spirit of the living God has departed.

You know, there are things and places in us that need a spiritual cleansing. There are places within us that we haven't checked for a long while, and God is calling for a thorough Spring cleaning. There are hidden things. Things that the enemy doesn't want us aware of, because if we knew, he'd lose his hold on us. But glory to God! Our Father loves us too much to leave us in such a state of disarray.

God is going into our attics, and our basements, our crawl spaces, and uncovering the hidden and secret places that have stored some rotten stuff! Is it painful? Most likely yes. Is it scary? Change often is. Will it hurt? The truth often does. But with the Master Cleaner, He is the balm that will soothe and heal. We just have to be willing to allow God to clean our house. We have to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to have full occupancy of our entire house; allowing Him to come in, and make Himself at home, since technically, it is His house!

Some will profess that there is nothing wrong with them. That their lives are well, and that they love God. They will profess that because they are operating in the gifts and calling of God, that there cannot be nothing hidden in their "closets". But, Romans 11:29 states: "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."

In other words, how many people do you know that have gifts and talents that are clearly far from saved? Just because you have those abilities, does not mean that Holy Spirit is still in residence.

Whose house are you? Is the Holy Spirit in residence today? I pray that you will do a home inspection, and find out if the Holy Spirit, or satan holds the deed to your house. May the spirit of peace and prosperity find rest in your: spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, social, and financial lives. Spend time daily in the presence of God. Take take for granted what was done yesterday. For God's anointing and mercy are new each and every day. Be Blessed.

©2009. Ruthe McDonald. All Rights Reserved.