Dennis, it is true that the Christian lives in the world, yet we are not of this world. We belong to another kingdom. Those who discern this truth will demonstrate it by their lives. They will not live as if this world was their home, seeking comfort and every good thing afforded by this age. They will have their focus on a heavenly inheritance, and they will live for the will and pleasure of a heavenly King.

There is a great difference between a man whose focus is on this world as his home, and the man who is looking to an inheritance and dwelling place in the age to come. The first man lives as a settler, while the latter travels lightly through this world as a pioneer. The apostle Paul said:

I Corinthians 7:29-31
But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.

Our attitude toward this world should not be to acquire houses and lands and much material goods, or to sate ourselves with every pleasure offered. Rather, we should use what is needed to carry forth the will of God, being satisfied to receive our good things in the age to come.

This was certainly the example set by Christ. He accepted whatever provision the Father chose for Him. Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. And He was content with this!

The hallmark of discipleship is contentment with the will of the Father. What He chooses for us in the way of living experiences should be acceptable in our eyes, whether we are abased, or abounding. Paul testified of this contentment in his life. (Philippians 4:11-13)

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Thank you for your kind gift. I appreciate it very much. I am grateful for your humble response to those things I have shared in the comment field in answer to your questions.

You are absolutely correct about the Temple containing many more insights that can be applied to the lives of the saints.

Certainly we are to be lights in this world. The Temple contained the golden candlestick, and there is a profound lesson to be discerned in it. I have written of this parable in the teaching titled Parables that can be found at the following link:

http://www.heart4god.ws/id593.htm

A further insight is gained as we look at the divisions of the Temple. The Temple was comprised of three distinct parts: The Outer Court, The Holy Place, and The Most Holy Place.

The Scriptures teach that Christians are being built up as a Temple of the Lord. The lives we live will determine what part of the Temple we will be found in. The Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies, is the place of the Bride.

From the Outer Court to the Most Holy Place we find seven pieces of furniture arranged in the shape of a cross. To travel further in a man must embrace the cross. These symbols and the parables they contain are discussed in a chapter of the book "The Remnant Bride."

See the following two chapters:

http://www.heart4god.ws/id34.htm
http://www.heart4god.ws/id33.htm

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Thank you for your wise and thoughtful counsel. Everything you wrote made perfect sense to me and has found an open heart. I will be working on this, immediately.

As I do this, I also would like to ask you if you believe that the analogy of the temple applies to us in other ways. In that, just as you point out that Christ threw the money changers out of the temple that we must also throw money changing out of our hearts and minds. But does the analogy end there? The temple has many structural elements that seem ripe for extrapolation as does the figure and concept of the temple as it relates to both Jews and Gentiles of the world.

Now, Christ taught in the temple, he went to and worshiped in the temple and the temple was in the world, in that, it was existent in time and space, just as we are. Did Christ object to being in the world or object to trading outside the temple? In Romans 12:1-2 Paul tells us “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of you mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. (NAB) But Christ also said in Matt 6:10 “your kingdom come, you will be done, on earth as in heaven. (NAB)

I have always wondered why the Lord’s Prayer says “on earth as in heaven” if we are not to do something here on Earth, which is here in time and space.

I ask this because it struck me that if we are indeed temples of God as part of the Sonship, then are we not also beacons on a hill just as the temple was (and is) in the center of the city of Jerusalem? (Funny, just thought of what and who has been “occupying” the temple mount for the past 1941years.)

This is important to me because I want so much to finally understand how I follow His voice and live here on Earth without contradiction to his purpose for me.

Again, thank you for you help.

YBIC,

DR

Also, please look for another gift via PayPal.

Yahweh is certainly not opposed to a man caring for his family, nor with you seeking to be disciplined and responsible. At the same time, what God testifies to be actual needs are to be content with having daily food and covering. Paul says, "With these we shall be content."

The world presses upon us a different standard of what is necessary. Even Christians are driven to "keep up with the Joneses." It is difficult to divide between those things we have acquired through the counsel of our own soul, and those things God has led us to acquire. Our own soul would very much like to rule, but those who are Christ's disciples must be beheaded that they might take Christ as Head.

I believe it is a good thing for a man to wrestle with such issues. Every man will have to give an account for the life he led. It is therefore every man's responsibility to press into the Father until he has the assurance that he has heard God and is following the course Yahweh has chosen for His life.

I encourage you to press in to the Father. Devote yourself to being that house of prayer Yahweh created you to be. Ask the Spirit of Christ to expose anything that has entered into the Temple of your body that is hindering your perception of that still, small voice of God. And be zealous to drive out the merchants and money changers if they might be found intruding there.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Brother Randall, one requirement for hearing the voice of God is that we have a quiet soul. We must still all selfish ambition, and desire nothing above knowing the Father's will that we might do it. Christ did not have any trouble discerning His Father's voice. This was due largely to the fact that He was focused on only one thing – Doing the Father's will.

George Mueller who raised up huge orphan houses in England in the 1800s shared the following. Whenever he was faced with a decision regarding expanding the orphanages, or any of the many other ministries he was involved in, he said he would never trust himself to discern God's voice until he had come to a place of quietness inside. He shared that he would consider if God were to tell him "Yes" regarding some direction, or "No." Only when he was equally content to have God direct either way would he trust himself to hear God's voice.

I believe this act of Mr. Mueller's touches on a very important principle. Whenever we have any bias in our souls, we will find it difficult to discern God's voice. We must quiet all other voices except God's. When we yearn above all else to know His will that we might do it, then I am confident Yahweh will make His will and direction known.

There are certainly other things that can hinder a person from hearing God's voice. Deception. Unconfessed sin. Unforgiveness toward another person. Yet, above all, I believe it is necessary for a man to be single-minded, having a desire to please the Father while stilling the natural impulse to please self.

Brother Randall, I know you are asking these things because you have a greater than average desire to be found pleasing to the Father. You want to know whether the life you are currently living, which seems so common and not unlike even that which the lost would do, going off to work each day, paying bills, maintaining a home and the cares of a family, is the path God has chosen for you, or whether you have in some way chosen this course for yourself.

Continued….

Thank you for writing and asking your excellent question. This is a question that all Christians should be seeking to answer. When we discern the necessity of living a life surrendered to the leading of the Spirit, our next natural thought should be "How do I recognize the voice of God?"

It is perhaps easier to address this question by asking, "What things hinder us from hearing God's voice?" Hearing the voice of God should come naturally to all who are born again of the Spirit. Read I Corinthians 2:11-16)

When Christ drove the merchants and money changers out of the Temple, He demonstrated His zeal for His Father. Yahweh created man to be the temple in which His Holy Spirit dwells. We are that which has been created by the Father to be a house of prayer.

Men, Christians included, are guilty of filling their souls with the noise of commerce and self-seeking. A pursuit of the world, a love of money and the things it can buy, a focus upon material comfort, possessions, ease and pleasure, can so fill our souls with noise that it makes it nearly impossible to discern the still, small voice of God.

One of the necessary steps I believe will enable a person to hear the voice of God (assuming they have been born of the Spirit of Christ) is to drive out the spirit of merchandising and money-changing from their soul.

Few actually recognize that these things have taken up residence in them. Can you imagine the spectacle it must have been to have people selling animals in the Temple courts? The hawkers were shouting to gain the attention of pilgrims to the Temple. The animals made their own beastly noise. Then there were the money changers exchanging the coin from all the foreign travelers to that accepted by the Temple priests.

After a while, these sights and sounds became so common that no one noticed them anymore. Only Christ saw the incongruity of it all. He knew that this was not what His Father had in mind. Yahweh wanted a house of prayer.

I believe it is similarly difficult for Christians today to discern how far they have departed from the will of God for their lives. They have come to accept the world's forms of conduct and thought as normal. It is hard for us to discern that we have drifted so far that we can no longer discern the voice of God.

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Thank you for your teaching on this subject. This tract, "the restoration of all things," came to my attention just a month or so ago when I met with Bob Schlenker
who writes “The Open Scroll” before he moved to Penn. This tract, for me, brings it home and ties out so many thoughts and concepts that seemed to linger without a theological home.

Now, I do have a question: I understand self control and discipline as it relates to ones own moral, ethical and emotional actions. That makes sense to me. However, where I have trouble is reconciling my daily life here in time and space with His Will. How do I know that I am being directed by Him and not just hearing my own random thoughts?

For instance, I have a job by which I try to support my family but I am not sure that by doing my job that I am somehow ignoring God. Am I not supposed to be disciplined and work hard for my family? I have not been given any specific direction by Him, to my knowledge, other than to seek knowledge of the scriptures and watch for the signs of the times. I cannot go stop doing this. So, given that I am so compelled I believe that it has been given to me as the Holy Spirit’s direction for me. Is this a rational view or am I missing something?

Can you share with me (us) how it is that you distill your human thoughts from those that you perceive as being from the Holy Spirit?

Is there a method by which that we can know that we are being directed by the Holy Spirit and not just thinking thoughts on our own?

Thank you,

YBIC,

D Randall