Solomon built a magnificent temple for the Lord God. With this temple, could it bring God's eternal presence? The chapter of the Bible that the teacher leads us to read will reveal the key to a temple with God's presence.
Questions for Reflection:
Why are some people's prayers answered by God, while others are not?
Do you agree with the statement, As long as it is a church, God's presence will certainly be there? Please explain specifically based on the scriptures in this chapter.
Can you explain the difference between believing in the Lord with a commoner mentality and believing in the Lord with a princely mentality?
In Chapter 9, under what circumstances would God abandon His sanctified temple and forsake His people?
How We Should Read the Bible
When we read the Bible, we don't actually need to understand the entire passage, but we must grasp a few key points. If you expect to understand everything, you may still be stuck reading Genesis Chapter 1 after ten years because you will never fully understand it. So, what's the problem? The reason this book is called the Bible is that each time you read it, you will discover new things. This is actually God's design. The Bible is a scripture, and its content is too profound; we can hardly imagine how vast it is. We can hardly imagine how much truth is stored here. We only have half an hour for each Bible study, so we should grasp as much as we can and not expect to grasp everything. Actually, smart people read books this way. If you see a child reading a book and still reading the part they don't understand without moving forward, this is definitely a child who is not doing well in their studies. So, we should understand this principle: understand as much as you can.
Holy Prayer
In 1 Kings Chapter 9, I won't talk too much; I'll just discuss verses 1-9. In the previous chapter, we talked about Solomon's seven prayers. The author who wrote the Book of Kings actually wanted to illustrate one thing: Our God is a God who hears prayers. So when you start reading from Genesis, you will find that as soon as someone prays, the scripture immediately describes how God responds. Has God responded when you prayed today? If not, you should think carefully. In many churches, we find that thousands of prayers are not answered. To find the problem, we must return to Solomon's seven prayers. It must be that people's sins have separated them from God. Our God is a holy God, so holy that He cannot tolerate even the slightest sin. Even a little sin can hinder our prayers.
Our church's vision is to build a holy, unified, and glorious elite church. We need to constantly strengthen this concept in our minds; this is very important. First, holiness is very important, because without holiness, we cannot see the Lord's face. Holiness is God's work in us. So, what is holiness? Offering yourself as a sacrifice, consecrated to the Lord, is called holiness. Whatever you keep to yourself is not called holiness. If you offer yourself as a living sacrifice, you can become holy. Therefore, you need to invite the Lord Jesus to come in, to be your Lord and your King, and you will become holy. It doesn't matter if you still have mistakes that haven't been corrected; God will definitely lead you to change.
Once you are holy, you will be unified, and you will see God's glory descend upon the temple. This is what we need to know today: God will definitely answer our prayers. This is not a dogma. Through this chapter, we can see that God responded to Solomon's prayer, saying to him: I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and keep all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ (1 Kings 9:3-5)
Having a Princely Mentality
Everyone should view this statement in this way: this statement is not about David or Solomon, but about you and me. God's intention is for you and me to become kings; God does not want you and me to become ordinary citizens. Some people have a commoner mentality. When they talk about heaven, they want to be ordinary citizens. But heaven is full of kings; there are no commoners. We cannot expect to enter heaven with a commoner mentality, because God's will is for us to reign with Him. The reason is simple: Because the church is the body of Jesus Christ, and Jesus is the head of the church. If you don't want to reign, you can't stay inside Jesus Christ. This matter is too important because you cannot enter that city. The Book of Revelation records a glorious city where God's Spirit dwells. The city does not need lamps or electricity, because God's glory is the light of the city, and many people cannot enter it. So, we must cherish ourselves, have a kingly mentality, and then we can reign. When you have a kingly mentality, you understand God's will, and the state you live out will be very different.
We must remember that we cannot be Christians with a commoner mentality, because Christians are kings. We must have a princely mentality. So God said this sentence for later people to see. Jesus said, For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. (Matthew 12:50) Jesus meant that you are the same as Him. This is God's intention; our hearts must turn to Him. If you lack dignity inside, many bad habits will come out. Without this mentality, the most serious reaction is worrying about what will happen tomorrow, worrying about whether you will lack anything, and worrying about how you will live in the future. The more you think about it, the more entangled you become, and you feel that you will live a life of poverty. Think about it, if a person hasn't started living a poor life yet, but has a poor heart, isn't that terrible? So God wants us to have a noble mentality. Usually, when I train people for interviews, I will let the brothers and sisters have a talent mentality: It is not that you need this job, but that the company needs you as a talent. If this job doesn't want you, it is the company's loss. A few days ago, a sister came back from an interview and told me that the interview was great, and she wasn't nervous at all because she is now a princess, so she won't be nervous. When you have this mentality, your problems are no longer problems, and you will surely receive the best blessings. This is God's intention.
Rejecting False Self-Esteem
Since God is a God who hears prayers, if there is a separation, we reject our sins. But the question arises, God's intention is good, but what about people's intentions? We really have to ask ourselves: What is in our hearts? Do we have a noble mentality? If the pastor and his wife criticize us a few times, negative thoughts immediately come, as if they want to harm you. Not only do you not have a princely mentality, but you also have the false self-esteem of a slave, that is, you cannot be criticized. Once criticized, you feel very uncomfortable. When we have a princely mentality, when we are criticized, we will think about whether we still have this problem, and then we reject it in the name of the Lord Jesus, very simple. As a person thinks in his heart, so he is. So, everyone should not think that your own thoughts and intentions do not need to be managed. It doesn't matter to follow the desires of the flesh, because in the end, God will let all the disasters come upon such people.
Never Compromise with Sin
This is why the following sentence was said: But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. (1 Kings 9:6-7) We can see God's intention: God will not compromise with sin just because He built this temple with great difficulty. God does not care how much gold and silver was used to build this temple. God will give up these things for our lives. He does not want us to go into corruption. Then God said again: Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why
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## God's Will is for Us to Have Life
The history of the Israelites corroborates this. Israel is the greatest nation in the world, yet that was all they could achieve. We cannot help but ask: Why is this so? Why did they have to approach other gods, serve and worship idols? Why did they forsake our God? I often ask such questions: how could someone who experienced miracles and immense life transformation turn around and worship idols so quickly? It truly astonishes me.
So, the sister testifying today experienced a near-death experience. Why must one experience such things to forsake idols? She might say, I didn't worship idols. But in reality, your work, your business, what you rely on—those are your idols. Later, I pondered why people are so fond of worshipping idols and forsaking God. After careful consideration, I realised it's **because people are too inclined to do things with a human mindset, finding it very comfortable to solve problems that way.** In other words, people have a natural inclination to **indulge their flesh**, preferring to view problems through the lens of the physical eyes and human logic.
For example, when faced with economic problems, people try to explain them with their own invented economic theories. People are fascinated by these things: I want to start a business, I plan to do it this way, I plan to make it so big. People enjoy doing these things, and they fall into them unconsciously. It turns out that many things in this world are spiritual. The reason why people like to pursue these things and are fascinated by them is because the evil spirits behind them are constantly releasing ideas, leading you down the path to death without you even knowing it. For example, worshipping money: people feel that it's good to have money, and how can one live without it? Later, I discovered that the biggest trouble for humanity is the mindset of merchants, which is to worship Mammon. Mammon is money. So Jesus said, You cannot serve both God and money. (See Matthew 6:24). You cannot have Mammon in your heart and worship God at the same time. God will not accept that.
Many people like to hedge their bets, keeping one foot on Jesus and the other foot in this world, wanting the benefits of the world, but they end up getting nothing, only disasters. Some people have a near-death experience, and they thank the Lord for that. But others fall directly into the deep valley of death. People like to worship idols because they like to indulge their own desires. People like to solve problems with human methods but dislike solving problems with the method of worshipping God.
In fact, solving problems by worshipping God is a thousand times better than solving them with human methods because if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, you will lack nothing. Let’s take an example: the boss says that this Friday is the company's annual meeting, and you will struggle: Should I go to the annual meeting? Or should I go to Bible study at church? But later, I discovered that those who overcame and chose to serve God alone are still doing very well, while those who chose to indulge human desires and please the boss have God turning their boss into a thorn in their life.
So Jesus said: “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37-38). What does it mean to love your parents here? It means indulging your parents more than indulging Jesus, fearing that your family members will have health problems and indulging their flesh instead of God's will. We really need to start having a mindset of invincibility: How could God let them die? So we really need to start no longer indulging human desires but instead start indulging God's will, because people's lives are in God's hands. If you want to gain life, you must lose it; if you lay down your life for Jesus, you will surely gain life.
This can be accomplished in me, and it can certainly be accomplished in you and in your family. The key lies in whether we indulge people more than we indulge the Lord. God spares no effort to save us from death, even if the temple has been dedicated to His name, He does not care, no matter how much gold there is, He does not care. What He cares about is whether you and I will fall into hell, whether we will perish, whether we will live that kind of painful life of being tossed around in this world.
The Lord brought all these disasters upon people. Don’t think that this is not love. This is God's love. Let's take the sister who testified today as an example. If death had not passed her by, she would definitely have fallen into hell. Going back to doing business again, we can imagine that if she were to do well and everything went smoothly, she would become even more distant from God. Thank the Lord for removing all that she relied on; those were all illusions, and wealth cannot be relied upon! So brothers and sisters, do not think that God brings all these disasters upon people to tease people. The problem with people is that they don’t know that they are walking on the road to death.
In John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Today, when I talk to some people about eternal life, they say, what is eternal life? Won't people die? They think that living forever in the flesh is eternal life, but my view is that I return to God, my life is connected with God's life, and I obtain eternal life. You and I have obtained eternal life, so what else do you have to worry about? You can live forever, so why worry about these things? So, after reading this chapter, we must make up our minds: to observe and follow the will of the Lord forever, to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. This is life, and in this way we will begin to live in God's grace. If you are such a person, will God let disasters come upon you? Will God forsake the temple established in His name? No, God will instead honour His temple even more, and He will listen to all who pray in the temple.