CLEAN UP!

I LOVE A DIRTY HOUSE! I love dust and dust bunnies and filth and living with mice and roaches! I love dirty laundry, a dirty kitchen and a dirty bathroom and I hate cleaning up and putting things away! SAID NO ONE EVER! I've never heard anyone in their right mind even dare to utter such a sentiment. And if I did, I'd probably say that person has some mental health issues. Anybody who knows me knows it's quite the opposite! I love a clean home, for things to be neat and orderly and for everything to be in their PLACE. Most of the time. One of my strengths (and weaknesses) is that I'm extremely structured, so I'm excellent at organizing, getting rid of what I no longer need, reorganizing and cleaning on a deeper level so that everything is really clean...not just surface clean. So, I am constantly assessing and reassessing my home to ensure that what's in it makes practical sense for me and my family and to ensure that we have a nice clean environment to live in. I just can't live in dirty, filthy or unorganized, conditions. Or let me say, I would strongly prefer not to. For me, it's chaos. Some of you may well be able to relate to that. But the Lord challenged me about the standard I have for my home and the manner in which I was keeping another one...my temple. Where He resides!

In 2 Chronicles 29, we read the account of Hezekiah and his ascension to the throne. In that time the people of Israel were in full blown rebellion...worshipping other gods, desecrating the temple and flat-out rejecting God and His commands. The divided nation of Israel had turned its back on God, and it showed in how they neglected the temple! The temple was in disrepair and was being used for everything BUT the worship of God. The temple, where the Spirit of God was supposed to reside, the place where the priests went into the Holy of Holies to meet and commune and receive instruction from Heaven was housing idols! The lamps were snuffed out meaning it was dark inside and the interior was filthy! It was a disgrace! Everything was out of order and certainly not fit for the Spirit of the Most High God to live in!

Scriptures tell us that as soon as Hezekiah comes into power the first thing he does is commission the priests and Levites (those set aside to serve in the temple) to come in and CLEAN IT! What a novel idea! In verse 5, Hezekiah charges them to "...remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary." The men got right to work. They began to clean out the house of the LORD. Vs 16 also reads "the priests went into the sanctuary of the Temple of the Lord to cleanse it, and they took out to the Temple courtyard ALL the defiled things they found...and carted it all out to the Kidron Valley." They didn't just take the defiled things out; they took them AWAY to the Kidron Valley. That was a place OUTSIDE of Jerusalem, far away from the temple.

As you read this, I dare you to think about the condition of your temple. Our bodies are the home of the Holy Spirit according to 1 Corinthians 6:19. But what condition is it in today? Is it dark in your heart from unhealed hurts and traumas? Are you housing idols within? Idols of occultic thinking and practice, inordinate affections for people/things or ungodly points of view? Are the doors to your heart in disrepair, allowing in envy, jealousy, pride, arrogance and all other unclean things that should not be there? Are you guarding your eye, ear, mouth and sex gates from the perverseness of this world to ensure that your tolerance for sin isn't being raised? Are you repenting daily, assessing and reassessing what's being harbored within such as rage, anger or unforgiveness, so that you are aware what areas need cleaning and purifying? And are you taking care to clean out (with prayer, reading God's word, fasting, deliverance and sound Christian counseling) to rid your temple of all the rubbish that can be held in the heart? Because the truth is we all regularly do some manner of cleaning in our homes. We even teach our children to clean but neglect to do that for the place where God resides! Reader, if you and I don't want to live in a dirty house what makes us think that God would want to??

The saddest part is many (who say they are called by His name) serve, lead, counsel and minister in this awful condition. Our temples are downright dirty and there's no urgency to make it right. Let us put on the spirit of Hezekiah and get to "cleaning house". And I declare to you, as in vs. 11..."do not neglect your duties any longer! The LORD has chosen YOU (and me) to stand in His presence, to minister to Him, and to lead the people in worship and present offerings to Him." And we must do so with a CLEAN HOUSE!

~Dania Roberts