DEDICATED TO GOD.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWELVE.

2 CHRONICLES 7:14.    "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
This verse is quoted by Christians all around the world, and yes, it is a very powerful verse and the truth it contains is very relevant even today. Let us put it into context and see just how powerful it can really be. In the context Solomon has just finished dedicated the temple to God. If we read 2 Chronicles 6 we see that Solomon has just prayed this amazing prayer in the midst of the congregation of Israel, starting at verse 12 he kneels on a platform before the alter, spreads his arms towards heaven and then prays this amazing prayer of dedication, suggest that you read it. During that prayer in a number of places he prays that if the children of Israel stray from God but then repent and come back to God, that He will forgive them. In verse 40 he says; "Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place." Solomon recognises that the temple is to be a place of prayer.In verse 1 of chapter 7 we see the fire of God falls and consumes the sacrifice and burnt offerings and the glory of God filled the house to the point that the priests could not enter the house. When the children of Israel saw what had happened all they could do was bow down on the ground and begin to worship God. This should be our response to the presence of a Holy God. For the next twenty two days they continued to offer sacrifices and held feast days as they continued to dedicate the temple to God. After this God appears to Solomon by night, and he says to Solomon that He has heard Solomon's prayers and has chosen the temple for Himself to be His sanctuary, it is God who chooses the sanctuary. He then reminds Solomon of what he had prayed, He repeats back to Solomon basically what Solomon had prayed earlier, this is where verse 14 comes in. And in verse 15-16 He says; "Now my eyes will be open and My ears attentive to to prayer made in this place, for now I have chosen and sanctified this house; that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually."  We see here again it is only God who can sanctify the house, it is as we come humbly before Him, in an attitude of repentance, walking in holiness, recognizing that His house is a place to be honored and respected because His presence is there. We see then how God warns Solomon, he is to walk in obedience to God's word as his father David did, it is only then that God will establish his throne, he is not to turn away from it and to go and serve other gods, because if he does God's judgment will come against Israel and they will be uprooted from the land, the house that God has sanctified will be cast out of His sight and it will just become a byword. everyone that passes by the house of the Lord that had once been exalted will look at it and ask what has happened to it. The answer will be, because they turned away from the God of their fathers and worshiped other gods, God has brought this calamity upon them. It is okay to pray 2 Chronicles 7:14, nothing wrong with that, but what do we do afterwards. Do we truly honour the house of God, do we see it as a place that God has sanctified for His presence, or do we see it as a social hangout, a place to come to and be entertained in the name of worship. Sadly, in many ways the church today has become a byword, people don't see much difference between the way the world lives and the way that Christians live, the holiness of God has been lost from His house, the reverential  fear of God is not in the hearts of His people.  
This brings us to another aspect of this for us, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. We are now the temple of God, His Spirit dwells in us. The word says that we are to be holy, even as He is holy. Our lives are to be sanctified and set apart for the master's work, we are no longer our own, we have been purchased with the precious blood of the Lamb. Paul said in Ephesians 4:1 "I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called." There is a real weightiness in what Paul is saying here, that we would have an appreciation of what Christ has poured into us, what He has purchased us for, it is not about how we see our worth in our own ability but how we see and appreciate who Christ is in us, and what He has done in us and desires to do through us as we walk in His anointing and in holiness. It is time for us to rise up as God's people, on an individual basis, each one of us working in the body of Christ to fulfill what God has called us to be in true righteousness and holiness, recognising that we are the temple of God and that when we come into His house with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are coming into a place that God has sanctified and set apart for His worship and that we are to honor His presence there.