In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. 2 Chronicles 29:3
King Ahaz ruled Judah and he did a terrible job doing it. He not only was an evil ruler, but he built altars and worshiped other gods. God who gave him the kingdom, he turned his back on and led others to do the same thing. He allowed the Temple to be desecrated by burning incense to other gods, brought all sorts of filth into the Holy of Holies and when he was finished using it, he cut all the articles of the Temple up and simply had the doors locked. Then he took his idol worship out into the streets of Jerusalem and even had children sacrificed to the gods. But, there was a ray of light shining still in his son Hezekiah, who when he took the throne at age 25 opened the doors of the Temple and cleaned it out and repaired it. And soon there was prosperity, peace and revival.
Today there is no physical Temple, but rather those who accepted Jesus are now the temples of His Holy Spirit. And just like the Temple that king Ahaz sealed filth and desecration in, we too can become a container for toxic and unclean thoughts, festering wounds from the enemy. But how do we open the doors of our temples to bring cleansing and renewal. In Psalm 141:3 David gives us reference to the door, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” He’s telling us that we need to open our mouths and speak the Word for it’s like water that cleanses us from within and brings renewing and restoration.
How many people are holding things in, fearful to let anyone know how much they are hurting or struggling with destructive habits and addictions? Yet James encourages us to confess our sins to one another so we can be healed. This places Believers in the position of the one confessing as well as the one listening and brings an entire new meaning to Matthew 7:12 that we should treat others as we want to be treated. Beloved of God, we need to begin speaking the Word over ourselves as well as others because, look around at all the healing, restoration and revival that needs to be done.
Leave a Reply