I have wondered on the HIGH PLACES for many years. I have truly struggled with this concept that GOD found so vile. I read of all the KINGS in the OT and this resounding theme of HIGH PLACES which GOD wanted "CLEANED UP" so badly has left me wondering over it for many years. Over the course of the last year I have heard GOD trying to help me wrap my mind around the HIGH PLACES. He has told me in my spirit that we do the very same thing today when we come to CONGREGATE in WORSHIP...calling it "CHURCH" but it has turned into SELF PROCLAMATION and SELF WORSHIP more than that of TRUE WORSHIP which is of the TRUTH AND SPIRIT. Even outside of the church the slang of HIGH TIME...is synonymis with entertainment. Today inside the "church" entertainment is the order of the day. IF we can SING GOOD ENOUGH...PREACH CHARISMATIC ENOUGH.....have the BEST PROGRAMS...then we can surely DRAW a crowd. SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE. This is the THEME of most "CHURCHES" today. HIGH PLACES. AND we get very addicted to that social interaction. GOD wants me to trust that "IMPRESSION" that he lays upon my heart....and he is faithful when I STAND for the WORD he gives me. WHEN I do this...it allows my eyes to be open to HIS TRUTH...and he will BACK that TRUTH with scripture. God has showed me several scriptures that CONFIRM what he has been trying to tell my heart. BUT this morning during our WORSHIP time that we have in our home on a daily basis since we came out of the "CHURCH"....this scripture was in my reading and I had to stop and ponder on it again. 1 Kings 18:22 "But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?" If you understand the story of Hezekiah, you see GOD said he was RIGHT in the EYES OF THE LORD and he CLEANED UP THE HIGH PLACES. Out of allll those kings over those hundreds of years...I think it was like 11 kings total but I am going on memory, so do not get detracted by my lack of knowledge...THE point is...even the Kings that GOD said were RIGHT never cleaned up the HIGH PLACES excepts Hezekiah. NOW we see the king of Assyria trying to woo the people from following Hezekiah and they are standing upon the LORD...saying they TRUST in HIM ONLY. BUT he mocks them....like the world will do you if you come out of the HIGH PLACES. This was just further confirmation of what GOD has been impressing on me for the past year. The king said in verse 22...YOU say you TRUST in the LORD, but is this not the very LORD that you tore down his alter and high place and he made you go to JERUSALEM to worship?? It was like the world MOCKING and saying ...HOW can you say you TRUST the LORD when you do not even go to CHURCH. The TEMPLE GOD had built in Jerusalem was the picture of our IMAGE of GOD...OUTER COURT, INNER COURT and HOLIES OF HOLIES. THAT is the place of TRUE worship that he was trying to get thru to the people....another SHADOW of the CHRIST to come....The TEMPLE JESUS built in each of us would have these dynamics. OUTER COURT/FLESH, INNER COURT/ MIND, and then the HOLIES OF HOLIES/HEART! He did not want us setting up IMAGES that were more about US than the IMAGE he wanted us to understand. WE are made to be the TEMPLE...Hezekiah followed GOD and he told the people to STOP WORSHIPING the HIGH PLACES and WORSHIP at the ALTER of JERUSALEM. An Alter that was to be our very HEART in the NT. Without a sacrifice there is no need of an ALTER. Where do we truly worship? IN the HIGH PLACES of self proclaimation...or in our HEART...THE HOLIES OF HOLIES!!
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 01:00:08 +0000
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