Commitment to Build God's Temple

What is God doing in your city? He is saving people… but not just individuals to live out their individual lives. He is building something. He is building a temple to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit. You are a part of that. I am a part of that. God is looking to build a temple. How do you fit into that… into what he is doing?

​READ
Ephesians 2:14-22 NIV - For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

ASK

• What is God doing? He is saving people… but not just individuals to live out their individual lives. He is building something. He is building a temple to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit. You are a part of that. I am a part of that.
• What is God doing in your city? He is looking to build a temple. How do you fit into that… into what he is doing?
  • We often look at our lives with the perspective of what is he doing through me individually. When we see our role in light of the whole of what God is doing, a peace comes to our spirits.​

REFLECT
Out of commitment to God, you commit to people. Out of this, he calls you to a task together. Don't get this backwards!

• Be careful of committing to a task, instead of people. Your team is not a means to your end. They are not here to support you in your personal mission. God invites you into the whole of what he is doing through your community.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 - Don’t you know that you yourselves (plural: you all) are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

The enemy targets your commitment by oppressing:

• Finances
  • When finances dry up or are in disarray…
  • What is your response?
• Relationships
  • The enemy often targets your relationship with leaders.
  • What is your response?
• Ministry obstacles
  • The enemy targets ministry outcomes.
  • What is your response? Strive harder? Go on with your experience? Will you stop and listen to God's plan?
• Details 
  • Often the enemy targets details and messes up the little things.
  • What is your response? Anger? Blame? Will you take up your authority?
• Dullness in your spirit / heaviness​
  • Confusion and flatness in quiet times, prayer and worship times
• Old character issues arise again… you thought they were dead and done
  • Don't be surprised if old areas of struggle, hurt, temptation come back again. You are getting squeezed. The enemy goes with what always worked in the past.

How to persevere in the commitment that God has called you

• Make God the focal point of your commitment, not people.
  • Otherwise, you will fixate on people as the ones who are controlling you.
• Fight for unity in relationships. Ephesians 4:1-5
  • Don't sacrifice people for the task.
  • Unity will come when the focus is on Jesus and the task he sets before us.
  • Be open with your leaders about your process. Don't struggle alone.
• Determine to live a healthy life. You are building for the long haul.
  • Often, under pressure and feeling the weight of commitment and the spiritual battle, personal health goes out the window.
  • Physical health - exercise and eating
  • Relational health - finding moments of fun and connection
  • Mental health - find space to breathe, dream, create
  • Spiritual health - time with your Father
• Personal commitment to worship and intercession.
  • Practice the steps of intercession personally.
  • Take up your authority over your own life and calling. Deal with the enemy. Invite the Holy Spirit in.

The benefits of commitment

• God is honoured, pleased with your commitment
• Gaining of spiritual authority
• Deepening relationships - more fulfillment than you thought possible, because together you are focused on Jesus (the head of the body). The more we can get focused on Jesus, the closer we become with one another (ex. The triangle).