Day 10: All in to Build God’s House

Do you have a friend who is known to be a great gift giver? Somehow this friend always gets you a gift that makes you feel so thought about, cared for, and special. It is as if this person knows the deepest desires of your heart, and acts upon it.

In the same way, God has a deep desire, and in Isaiah 66:1, He reveals it to us:

“Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool, where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?”

God’s desire is to dwell with His people on earth! His desire is to have a resting place among His church. And we, as His people, are called to respond.

Just as a friend who gives the perfect gift understands the desires of the heart, we, too, are invited to understand God’s desire and make it our mission in life to see His presence fulfilled on earth.

This is where worship becomes essential, because God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). Worship is not just an activity; it’s where we create space for God to dwell among us.

Just as King David longed for a place for God to rest, we too are called to build God’s dwelling place through our worship.

King David, a man after God’s heart, speaks in Psalm 132:3-5 –

“I will not enter my house or go to my bed, I will allow no sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

David’s deep desire for God to have a dwelling place on earth led to a revolutionary worship movement: A 24/7 ministry of singers and musicians worshipping God through song and prayer, as described in 1 Chronicles 23 and 25.

This radical expression of worship broke from the old Mosaic practices and established a new way of encountering God.

If this came from David’s longing to honour God, imagine what could happen if we shared that same burning passion for His presence.

After all, we, the Church, are His bride, passionate and faithful, longing for the Presence of Jesus, our Bridegroom.

His desire is to have a resting place among His church.

In the New Testament, we see that we are God’s dwelling place – as living stones, we are being built into His spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5). Together, with Christ as our cornerstone, we form His living temple.

But it’s not just about gathering; we are called to offer spiritual sacrifices through worship, building God’s house with our lives and hearts.

In the Old Testament, worship was central to God’s house, in the tabernacle and the temple where the priests would encounter God’s presence.

Leviticus 6:12 gives us an important instruction:

“The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not go out.”

As priests in God’s house, we are called to sustain the fire on the altar by offering our hearts in worship daily. This is what sustains the fire of God which, in turn, sustains revival.

Revival begins in the hearts of the priesthood. When the flame of love is burning brightly in us, it will ignite a fire that will spread across the nation.

Malachi 1:10-11 contains a sobering warning for us as the Church:

“‘Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,’ says The Lord Almighty.”

The fire of worship in our hearts, sustained through true devotion, is what leads to revival. As we build God’s house through worship, revival will be the fruit: His glory will fill the earth, and His presence will ignite a movement that transforms the nations.

May the “first love fire” of worship burn in our hearts as a Church, and may revival be ignited across our nation.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You that we have this great opportunity to come together to worship You.

Father, You are looking throughout the earth for true worshippers who worship You in spirit and in truth. Lord, we ask that You would ignite in us a passion for Your love. In Leviticus, it says that the priests would tend to the fire on the altar. We pray, Father, that the fire on the altar of our hearts will never go out. Lord, we are praying and asking for revival to come, a revival that begins with a heart of worship and repentance. Would You stir up in our hearts, Lord, a longing to come back to our first love, that our hearts would be passionate for You, that we would live for Your glory? And we ask, Father, that You will reveal Yourself in a deeper way than ever before. We ask and pray this in Jesus’ most precious name, Amen.