The Temple of Our Hearts

“I only wanted to remove Him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there.” - AW Tozer

This past year, I wrestled with many things, but I think the biggest battle that raged in my soul was the battle for the temple of my heart. Who or what would captivate my attention and reign? Would it be my obsessive addiction to sports? Gaming with my buddies? Working out at the gym? The pursuit of a significant other? My vocational work life? Or would it be Jesus?

For the majority of my life, I have claimed I was a Christian, but what did that really mean? John Stout says, "Christianity by definition begins with the historical figure of Jesus Christ. If God has spoken, his last and greatest word to the world is Jesus Christ. If God has acted, his noblest act is the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ. I think God has spoken and acted. He has said and done something beyond our human comprehension. The gospel we share with our friends and families is less an invitation than a declaration. God declares for all the world that in Christ, he has done for the world what we could never have accomplished on our own. That is the message we are charged with sharing and blessed for being chosen to convey.” 

So, to be a Christians means to live a life that is a "declaration of the Gospel"? What does that even mean?

In the words of Dallas Willard, to live a life that is a "declaration of the Gospel" requires us to be "pervasively possessed by Jesus". He is not just a discipline, a devotional, or someone that we speak about at church. Jesus is after our affection and hearts! When He says, "Follow Me", it is not merely a prayer we pray, but rather life in full pursuit of everything that He is. We are to become like Him, as He is our rabbi, and we are His disciples.

For the Jews in the 1st century, the title of Rabbi meant "master". A Rabbi was to be the Spiritual master of the people of Israel. These rabbis would also carry a "yoke" which meant a set of teachings, their own interpretation of the Torah, and a way of living. So, then for every disciple, they were to apprentice under their Rabbi, just like someone in the trades. While apprenticing they were to be with their rabbi, to become like their rabbi, and to do as their rabbi did. They were to dedicate their entire life to learning and molding themselves after their spiritual master.

So, to be "pervasively possessed by Jesus", and to live a life that is a "declaration of the Gospels", we must dedicate our lives to learning and moulding ourselves after Jesus, with everything we do. We can no longer just be churchgoers who sit in a crowd on a Sunday listening to the sermon, but we must make our relationship with Jesus our own! We must dedicate our lives to spending time with Him, our Rabbi, learning the habits and the ways of life that He had. Then we mould our lives to be like Him, so we can become like Him, overflowing with the truth of the Gospel.

This is the yoke that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He has a better way to live, and He wants us to join Him and live like Him. A life that is not absent of the hurt and pain of the world, but a life that gives us the rest our souls crave. A way that sets our souls free from the sin and burdens that shackle us down. The Jesus way.

To take on His restful yoke will require something of us. Jesus says in Matthew 16:24, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me". We must deny ourselves and our current life, giving up our sinful ways, in pursuit of Him. We must become disciples. Unfortunately, many of us, including myself, do not make space in our lives for this to be possible. We live lives that are too busy and rushed. For others, we have different priorities that are far more important. So, what would it take for us to be fully in on Jesus?

In Genesis 22 we read about Abraham and Isaac. For years Abraham had wanted a son, and finally, God gave him the son that He had promised; but in an odd turn of events God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Imagine being Abraham. You waited your whole life for your dream to be fulfilled, only for God to take it away! How was he going to do this, and even if he could get his heart to consent, how would he be able to reconcile with this decision? He was already over 100 years old. But Abraham did what many of us would not dare to do. He would offer his son as God had directed him. Then he would trust the God who had provided for him for all those years to make a new way to fulfill His promise to Abraham (that he would be a father of many nations). So, he rose ​early in the morning to carry out the plan. He set up the altar and prepared the sacrifice. Now Abraham was at the point of no return, he set Isaac on the alter, but just before he did... the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Why would God do this? A.W. Tozer argues that God never intended to actually allow Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but that he "only wanted to remove him (Isaac) from the temple of his heart that he might reign unchallenged there." He wanted to reorient his loves, to ensure that God was the king of his heart.

In my own life, I have struggled for years as I wrestled with my Christian faith. I loved Jesus, but to an extent I lacked fulfillment, continued to struggle immensely with sin, and was not living a life that was a "declaration of the Gospel". I would read my Bible, go to church, and even go to Bible study, but it always felt like it was never enough. Which to some extent was true. I was still stuck in my old ways of living. The activities themselves were not wrong, in fact, many were great, but I had made my entire life, especially my church life a list of things to do. Doing things was what was important, it was never about the quality and the time spent doing said activities. At times, I would not even give enough time to do these things well. I would prioritize sports, friends, and work. Again, none of these things are bad, but they were never meant to rule our lives, and furthermore, they were not giving me the life and rest Jesus promised because I was not pursuing Him with everything. What Jesus really wanted was a relationship with me, where He reigned supreme in my heart, unchallenged. Only then would I walk in the fulness He had promised.

I am still figuring this out and definitely do not do this well every day, and to be honest changing my life was hard, especially at first. I had to give up a lot of things. You might ask, but what did I gain? I got my life back, my soul began to come back to life, and I felt like I was living life again (the way we were created to live). When I get it right, I feel His presence so much more vividly, I feel so much closer to Him, and I can also hear Him so much more clearly. When I slow down and simplify my life around abiding with Jesus, and putting Him at the center, everything changes. Spending time with Him in prayer, solitude, and through reading (the Bible) fills me with so much more joy and gives me so much life. I actually find rest for my soul, my sin habits have lost their power over me, and others around me are met by the Gospel through the life I live. But for this life change to occur in my life, I had to make a decision. If I really was a Christian and a disciple of Jesus, and I was going to be a walking "declaration of the Gospel" and be "pervasively possessed by Jesus", He had to "reign unchallenged in my temple".

This is not an overnight change, it requires us to join Jesus on the lifelong journey on the slow, gradual, and intermittent change. One day at a time. Some days we take three steps forward, only to walk two steps back. It is a journey where He is continually making us more like Him, through His redemption, restoration, forgiveness, and grace.

So, what if you changed your life and allowed him to reign unchallenged in your heart? Well, it would cost you something and it wouldn't be easy, but you would gain so much more...