We Serve God in the Temple; that is, in God Himself
The Old Testament had a physical tabernacle and temple as shadows of the New Testament reality. In the NT time Christ is the reality.
Today we do not have a physical temple, but our temple is our triune, processed, redeeming God, reaching us as the Spirit. Such a Spirit is our temple. We worship and serve God in this temple, and day and night God is our dwelling place. When I was traveling in a plane, I told the Lord, “This plane is not my dwelling place. You are my dwelling place. I am not actually in this plane, but I am in You.”*
In Revelation 7 John was shown a multitude who “are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple” (v. 15). These believers serve God “in His temple” and in verse 21:22 we are told that “the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are [New Jerusalem’s] temple.” Thus, to serve in the temple is to serve in God.
To be in God is the reality both now and in New Jerusalem. To realize this, we need to “seek the things which are above” and “set your mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth” (Col. 3:1, 2). This connects us to the present spiritual reality of New Jerusalem.
* From chapter 37, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.
Bible verses quoted in these posts are from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The text of this Bible is at text.recoveryversion.bible; this too is © by LSM.
Photo courtesy of pdphoto.org.
Posted by Don on May 1, 2023
