Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah. Psalm 24:10 (KJV).

REFLECT:
When we hear the word or name ‘Temple’ the first thing that comes to mind is a religious worship center, which is very correct. Most religions of the world refer to their places of worship as temples.

These worship centers are held as sacred and holy grounds by the worshipers. The reason is that it is the place where they go to meet with whatever deity they worship or refer to as God in their lives.

Some people get quite offended when their designated worship centers are desecrated based on what they believe is a taboo to their faith. As a response to such offenses, they could go all out in defense of their belief(s).

Some of these actions taken may be so violent and brutal and may come at the cost of even losing some lives and prosperities.

There is much put into making these centers look beautiful, prestigious, and glorious. Adornments of precious metals and stones such as gold, silver, etc. are used to decorate these temples. Jesus had a few things to say about this kind of practice.

When His disciples brought the issue of the temple they called beautiful to His attention, His response to His disciples was thus:

“And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Mark 13: 1-2 (KJV).

Now we go through all this trouble and fuss about a temple, or temples built with hands by mere men, so what might we say about God’s own idea of what a temple should be and why?

The Bible tells us in Acts 7:48-49 about God’s own concept of what a temple should be “Howbeit the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

From the scriptural verse above, we know that God is not carried away by buildings made by hands. This means that He is looking for more than that. So what is God looking for?

1 Corinthians 6:19 gives us a picture of what God is looking for, ” What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (KJV)

So now we now know what God indeed calls His temple, it is our body. Now, this does not mean that we shouldn’t worship in a well-kept, beautiful building, however, it is not the building that matters, but rather the people who worship in the building that matters to God. This was the point Jesus was also trying to make in His discussion with the woman of Samaria.

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming, when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4: 21-24 (KJV).

Secondly, is that He would be able to come and dwell within us so that we could have an intimate and personal relationship with Him. Just like our Bible verse for today tells us —- Psalm 24:10, He wants to be the King of Glory of our lives, body, soul, and spirit. Meaning He wants to reign over His temple which we are and be one with us.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him.” John 14: 23 (KJV)

So, the question here is, who is King over our bodies? That is if we say that our bodies are the temple of God, it means that only one person should be King over our bodies, and that should be Jesus. When Jesus is in us, it also means that God the Father is in us and God the Holy Spirit as well.

Therefore, we are encouraged to make our bodies a prepared temple so that the King of Glory can come and dwell in us His temple. How do we do this, we must offer ourselves to our King- Jesus daily just as Romans 12:1 tells us –

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (KJV).

When we work to prepare our bodies for Jesus our King of Glory to dwell in us, and take His rightful place, His presence in us will definitely beautify and bring value to our lives.

Ebimobo W. Obasi

PLEASE PRAY ALONG:

A Prayer of Praise

FATHER GOD, You are the King of glory. You are worthy of all praise! Please help me to honor You through my words and actions. Come into your temple, even my body with all that you are, and all that you have to offer. Let my life reflect who You are and the power of Your grace. In JESUS MIGHTY NAME AMEN.