After leaving the Garden of Gethsemane, we plodded along the sidewalks of the busy streets in anticipation of our next sight: The Wailing Wall.
For those of you who don’t know much about this, the Wailing Wall, also called The Western Wall, is all that’s left of the Second Temple. According to Jewish tradition, it was believed that the mountain upon which the Temple was built was the focal point of all creation. They believe that the “Foundation Stone” of all the world lies in the center of this mountain, that Adam was created here, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob served God here, and that the First and Second Temples to house the Ark of the Covenant were built here because Jerusalem was the place especially appointed by God to be the dwelling place of His Shekinah glory. Although the First Temple and Second Temple were destroyed, Jews have continued to pray in the shadow of the Western Wall, all that remains of the glorious, appointed dwelling place of the Most High. They do so to show their faith that the Temple will be rebuilt, even though over 1,900 years have passed since the destruction of the Temple.
I clutched the paper in my hand, praying over it as I reached the wall. In every crevice and crack imagineable, pieces of paper had been stuck. On these papers were prayers for families, friends, problems, and needs. In my hand, I had many names written with specific prayers to God for every one. I read over their names as I waited, somehow feeling for all the world that God would hear each and every prayer. My family topped the list, especially with prayers for my mother. Lora. Michael. Noah. Mark. Joanie. Erin. John.
Then came the names of my dear friends: Holly. Steve. Codie’. Mira. Renae. Brett. Kayla. Corey. Laurin. Kristin. Bader. I implored God to bless each of them, giving them hopes, futures, spouses, and a fruitful life of serving God, asking Him to bless each one and cultivate His presence in their lives.
I prayed a special blessing for those who had helped me in the hardest times of my life and shown me the love of God when I needed it the most: Maria, Sulam and her family, Orlando, Marita, and Senor and Senora Pena.
And then, I prayed for my team: Brandy, Ashlee, Kendra, Katie, Ken, Anthony, and Don, asking specific fruits and blessings and ministries to be found in their lives.
Holding these prayers in my hand, I felt as if, somehow, God would grant each one. Being in the presence of this holiness, of this place I have only ever heard about and never dreamed I would see, I felt the ubiquitous presence of God. To know that I was standing in the very place where God’s presence was sheltered and revered thousands of years ago was one of the most surreal experiences I could have never imagined.
As a woman drew away from the wall, I knew it was my opportunity to squeeze into the tiny opening that she had left. I touched the wall, and immediately, my tears began to fall without explanation. Over me, around me, underneath me, beside me, in me, and through me, I felt a presence I can’t explain. It wasn’t the most incredible spiritual experience I have ever felt, but it was maybe the most different. When I feel the presence of God, it’s always as if He’s moving inside of me, and I can feel the beautiful stirrings of His grace in my heart. Here, before the wall that housed His glory, I felt as if God was standing right before me. It was surreal. Yes, I felt Him stirring in my heart, but that was completely secondary to the feeling that God could have been standing right behind the wall, my human ears practically able to hear the breaths He was taking. I will say that the way he stirs me from the inside is a much more intimate and preferable feeling; but the sensation of feeling His presence, as if He was clothed in an image I could see, stole all words and explanations from me, and despite myself, I barely felt able to pray.
As we finished praying and went out into the courtyard to wait for Dan and Patch to be finished, I began to think about what I had just seen and experienced. It was as if I felt the presence of God, not inside of me, but in person. It was one of the most indescribable things I had ever felt, and even now I’m frustrated by the lack of words to describe what I truly felt.
And at the same time, not to take away from the awe and majesty of the presence, I much prefer to feel God’s breath filling my lungs, His Spirit coursing through my veins, His words comforting and eliciting joy and peace through my body like the very blood that flows and gives me life. I don’t have to stand before the wall that housed His Shekinah glory to feel this. I’ve felt it in an inexcusably overcrowded, beat-up van with broken seats, overheated people, smelly chickens, the roach infestation manifesting itself as I feel one crawl down the back of my shirt. In the earthy mundanity of this situation, I’ve felt God in a more personal, consuming manner than I did standing before the wall that SAW the glory of Heaven on earth.
Some time later, as I was reading my Bible, I would come across a scripture that enabled me to understand this paradox completely.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. -John 1:14
In this passage, the Greek word “skenoo” is translated as “dwelt”, but what it really more literally means is “pitched his tent”, which is an allusion to God’s dwelling among the Israelites in the Tabernacle and eventually, the Temple. Before the Temple was built by King David as a permanent dwelling place of God, the Israelites pitched a tent to house His glory. This tent was known as the Tabernacle, which served the same purpose as the Temple eventually would.
When Jesus came to earth, God “pitched his tent” among mankind, meaning that Jesus WAS the housing place of God’s Shekinah glory. He lived among us – infinite, omnipotent, holy, unchanging God, clothed in humanity – and suddenly, we didn’t have to go to the Temple anymore, because the Temple had come to US. In ages past, God manifested His presence to His people in the Tabernacle and the Temple. Now, instead of us taking residence among God, He, through the coming of Jesus Christ, takes residence among us. Jesus fulfills the Old Testament symbolism for God’s dwelling with man in the Tabernacle and the Temple.
How incredible is this?! Can we just stop and imagine this for a moment and let the profundity of this sink in with us: It was amazing enough that God made a dwelling on earth to house His Heavenly glory which sinful man should never even get to see. It’s incredible enough that He gave us a place to come and find this glory. But for God to send Jesus Christ to dwell among us, to come to us, to minister to us, the very dwelling of His heavenly glory, now moving and walking and speaking with human flesh and blood, so that He could run to us instead of beckoning us to come to Him… Isn’t it overwhelming?! Oh, the love of God for us! Can we even comprehend it?!
And even greater still, Christ died for us so that the Holy Spirit could come and dwell among us after His resurrection and ascension. We are never left alone. Even when Jesus, who came to us in human flesh, ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father, we are never left alone. The Comforter has come, and in Him, we find an even greater manifestation of the Presence of God!
Ken and I were discussing this topic, and he put it in a perspective I had never before seen or understood, but when the revelation hit me, I felt as if I finally grasped the power of God in me.
Ken said, “Isn’t it amazing how God, over time, comes successively closer and closer to man? In the earliest days, He spoke to men through prophets, and normal man could not approach God’s presence or even speak with Him. Then, the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle and the Temple were given so that man could have a physical manifestation of the glory of God, but still, no one but the priests could approach Him or petition Him for the forgiveness of sins. And then, Jesus Christ comes and he dwells among men, so that all people who are in His vicinity can approach Him, ask Him questions, petition Him for the forgiveness of sins, hear His teachings, and understand Him as a human being.
“So many Christians seem to believe that if they could have lived at the time of Jesus, they would be much better Christians, because Jesus could tell them what to do. But Jesus, walking on earth as a human, is as finite as I am. All people can never be around one human all the time, so when hard decisions had to be made and comfort was needed, Jesus as a human wasn’t omnipresent, He wasn’t able to instruct and comfort and lead all people at one time, because His humanity inhibited this.
“And now, we have the greatest dispensation yet, the Holy Spirit. After Jesus left us on earth, He sent the Holy Spirit, who is always with us. Now we can know the instructions, the comforts, and the leadings of God in us at all times, at all places, in all circumstances.”
As he spoke, my heart started jumping. I said, “I finally get this, Ken! It’s like, if you were Jesus, I’d feel like I needed to be with you all the time so you could tell me what to do. Yet, even as God, you’re just a man, incapable of being omnipresent, incapable of always being near all people at all times. But if you were like the Holy Spirit, it would be like you were always with me, like you… lived inside of me, and told me what to do.”
With the sound of this last sentence exiting my mouth, the concept of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit made sense like it never had before. That’s why we say Jesus lives inside of us, because the very same Spirit that told Jesus what to do as a man now tells us what to do. We don’t have to be in a specific place, like the Temple, to feel His glory and presence. We don’t have to approach a finite human – the same form Jesus took for us – and seek Him like a guru to ask advice on any tiny thing. No, we have the very same instructor who told Jesus what to do, the very same source of Jesus’ healing power living in our bodies, the very same comforter who enabled Jesus to suffer unimagineable disgrace and pain enabling us to do the same for Christ.
Shockingly enough, the same Temple wall that I kissed and prayed against pitched His tent among us, living and moving and breathing into our lives as a man. But even more shocking than that, after He ascended and left us the Holy Spirit, this Spirit enables you and me to be the Temple, to be the dwelling place of God’s Shekinah glory on earth among sinful man.
“Or do you not know that YOUR BODY is the Temple of the Holy Spirit WITHIN YOU, whom you have from God?” -1st Corinthians 6:19
Before the Wailing Wall, a place that Jews and pilgrims have traveled the world over just to feel the presence of God, I stood with the same amount of glory in my own body. In God’s sight, I am just as holy as the remnant of the wall that saw His glory on earth. I am just as perfect, just as blameless, just as majestic, not because of anything I have done, but because Jesus’ sacrifice empowered the Holy Spirit’s activation on earth, and this same Spirit lives in me. The same Spirit that men could not approach for thousands of years is the same Spirit that lives in my body.
I am a Temple of the Spirit of God. I don’t need to travel the world over to feel the presence of God, because the presence of God is in me. And, just as Jesus pitched his tent among us, the Spirit of God now pitches his tent among sinful man wherever the redeemed are found.
So now, as I look across the dozens of tents that my squad has to sometimes pitch, I see a different picture: Each tent pitched is a Temple of the Holy God of all creation, and He has anointed us to be His atoning work here on earth.
Wherever we are, whatever we do, however we find ourselves, we are Temples of the Spirit of God.
I am as much the Temple of the Spirit of God as the remnant of the Western Wall, but I’m even more relevant, because the Spirit of God is living and active in my life as I move and walk and breathe and have my being.
