Skip to main content

A City Without Walls


“…’ Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it.  And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,' declares the LORD, 'and I will be its glory within.'”—Zechariah 2:4-5

“Look into my eyes!”

I would glimpse into Jesus’ eyes before I would turn away again.
   
“There is a part inside you which you don’t want me to see.  Let me see it!”

Suddenly I felt vulnerable and on edge.  What could He possibly be looking at?  I had the feeling of a great dry land on my body that had never been watered or touched by His presence.  He was now entering into that waste and renewing it with His Spirit.  I apparently had never let Him in.  It’s like the junk drawer or the closet of odds and ends that you don’t know what to do with.
 
See, what God was doing was showing me how much more of myself I need to surrender to Him.  Not much happened outside of my spirit except a greater sense of what it means to be the bride.  A bride on her wedding night surrenders her entire being to her groom.  It’s a great mystery and Jesus longs for the same thing to be done to us.  He wants to know us and every part of our being.  Even the parts we think we ought to have shame over.  Those parts, I learned last week, He loves!

So, as will be with the new heaven and the new earth, my own temple of the living God does not need walls.  It trusts Him to be the glory around and within.  We are to trust Him fully.  Completely.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Case You Were Curious

The feat of writing a post and explanation for what happened this past weekend has kept me from even attempting it for some days now.  How do you describe miracles but not as to cheapen the treasure of their testimony? First I must begin to explain who this man Steven is, and who he someday will be.  Skeptical, I have been for some years now which is why I categorize his existence as a miracle. He is strong.  Meek.  Authoritative in speech, and yet the most gentle of men.  He hates all the usual things like Wal-Mart and loves all the usual authors like G.K. Chesterton.  His brokenness before the Lord was what set him apart from the crowd for me.  I honor this man with words of encouragement. "Steven, you are dearly loved and anointed by Jesus.  Not because you have done great things for Him, but because your heart longs to make Him the focus.  You know He is good even in the desert seasons.  You have chosen Jesus.  You have a ...

Tucker's Birth Story

Tucker Jason Rhys was born on October 30th, 2023 at 3:18pm in the afternoon though I say his birth story started four months earlier in June.  In June we were packing up our family and lives in Africa to come back to America for a year. With two small kids and me being six month pregnant, Steven and I still thought it would be worth the effort to stop in Paris for a layover and do a couple Frenchy things like eat a croissant and see the Eiffel Tower.  It’s a “perk” of the job I tell myself—every flight path inevitably goes through Europe. We booked tickets that took us through Paris and then onto America. After booking everything we hit a snag—Farrah’s passport was set to expire in September and apparently France requires three months of validity left on a US passport before giving a visa to visit their country. She only had two months left before she needed to renew hers. (I'm getting to the birth, I promise…) Up until that last week on our island as we were packing our bags ...

Onething

Two weeks ago I attended the Onething conference at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.  This was my first time going down there.  It had been a while since I've been able to engage in corporate worship, and it doesn't get much more corporate than 30,000 people this side of heaven. The music began to play and I was surprised how resistant my mind was to forgetting what lies behind and going to God in song. "Go over to the dance area," He said. "No...I really am fine over here, God" (about a minute later) "But, God, I want more of you!  I want to freely worship without distractions!" "Then obey Me." I have always somewhat feared the role of God called the Holy Spirit.  I've thought that to receive more of Him it meant seizing on the floor and foaming at the mouth uncontrollably (the latter is obviously an exaggeration).  However, with the simple act of obedience, those things that bound my mind from freedom to wo...