Inside every one of us is a place that God has made for Himself. You can liken it to the Holy of holies, the home of God in man and the seat of His presence. It is a place unknown to the physical man, the flesh. It is where your spirit man lies and communes with God, the essence of your whole being, from where decisions are churned out. It is what the Bible mostly called THE HEART OF MAN.
Brief History: when the Israelites came out from captivity, they needed His presence for protection, judgement, sustenance, and direction. God called on Moses to build Him a temple. The temple will be The Holy of holies, where no man but the priest enters only after a series of cleansing, the innermost and most holy place where His very presence will be. If He were going to be with them, that would be His earthly seat. And so it was.
That place is also in man. God made it as a meeting ground, just like the garden of Eden.
Now in our journey as pilgrims, we need the presence of God; for protection, judgement, sustenance, and direction. Most of all, we long for His presence, His companionship in the person of the Holy Spirit. If God were to come as per our needs, then that would be His seat of authority in us. The control room from where He would be shaping our thoughts and, consequently, decisions.
Knowing this, how then is it that we are making the wrong choices or going the wrong way?
How is it that we feel empty and without the presence of God?
How is it that the thoughts of our hearts are still evil and corrupt?
Well, the presence of God sanctifies and purifies our thoughts and lifestyle because His presence means the absence of evil and vice versa. Corruption in our thoughts and actions is because of the absence of God in His place in our lives.
What causes this absence? What takes the place of God?
The environment we expose ourselves to:
The things we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, say with our mouths, the friends we keep, and even our choice of worship place(when it is a place that doesn’t honor God’s Word).
Through these things, the devil slowly but surely displaces God in His place in our lives and takes over our thought process, corrupting it with evil. And just a tiny seed of evil planted could field unbelievable results in our actions and reactions.
So you see, when we remove God from His place in our lives, we invite the devil in because there must always be an occupant in our “hearts.”
How do we give God His original place?
By letting Him purify our hearts and making them a conducive dwelling place for Him(Malachi 3:2-3)
How do we do that?
- The Word of God; This is the first thing the devil alienates you from. The Word of God keeps you from sin, and sin keeps you from the Word of God. We must make a habit of studying and feeding on this Word. It is God’s instrument of cleansing.
- Prayer; The devil attacks our prayer life because he understands the place of prayer in a Christian. Please always pray, ESPECIALLY when you don’t feel like it.
- Fellowship; Always make time to go to the house of God to gather with fellow believers. This creates a covering for the child of God.
- Be careful about what you expose yourself to. We must be intentional about what we see, hear, say, and where we go. (proverbs 4:23)
As we do these, we see the presence of God return, and our lives become better for it.
