The Depths - Chapter 3

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We have been talking this morning about King David wanting to build a house for God.
God is saying, "I live in a tent not in things built by hands." Heaven is my throne the earth is my footstool, where is the house you will build for me. We all want to go out and build a house for God, but what He is saying in that Scripture is, "What house could you, build for me? Heaven is my throne and the whole of the earth is just my footstool, it is just my ottoman, what kind of a house are you going to build for me? If you built a house that covered the whole earth, all it would do is just house my feet. There is a movie from a few years back "FIELD OF DREAMS".

Remember the movie the Field of Dreams, a farmer is haunted by a voice “ If you build it they will come”. He hears that voice several times before he REALLY believes it and begins to act “by faith to build.. Finally, this farmer begins to disc under his crops and in that place he builds a professional sized baseball diamond. So that the great players of past, will come back to earth and play in his field, he gets to see them display their power and their glory. The great stories of glory of bygone days is seen today, on his field.

This morning we want to talk about how we can disc under our field, our crops and build a habitation for God by the Spirit, building an ethereal temple, a place where God will come and display his strength and power, his Majesty and His Glory.

What is an etheral temple? That is what Pat was talking about, the kingdom of God is inside you. An etheral temple is not a temple, out there in Jerusalem somewhere made out of stones and cedar timbers. But it is a place you create in here, a place in your spirit. This is where God dwells, Don't you know... the bible says, "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the holy Spirit? Remember that verse? "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the holy Spirit? Well, yeah! It is familiar but do we believe it? Because if we believe it... There was a times in Israel's history, where the temple that they had built for God, had been used for other things while they went into captivity. The Holy things had been defiled and there was rubbish and there was trash in the corners of the temple. And when Ezra came back from Babylon, he cleaned out the temple and they repaired the hinges of the doors and everything else. And I want to tell you, although it is not physical brick and mortar, not physical beams, there is a place inside you, maybe it has gotten cluttered with rubbish in the corners. So we have to go there and clean out a place that God might dwell in our midst. because our bodies are the "temple of the Holy Spirit."

"Experiencing The Depths of Jesus Christ" by Madame Jeanne Guyon
I would like to address this chapter to those of you who may not be able to read.* Because you cannot read, you may feel that you are in a weaker state than most Christians. You may feel you are unqualified to know the depths of you’re your Lord. But In fact, you are really blessed. The blessing in not being able to read is that prayer may become your reading! Do you not know that the greatest book is Jesus Christ Himself? He is a Book who has been written on within and without. He will teach you all things. Read Him!

The first thing you must learn, dear friend, is that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21)Your body is the temple of the HOLY Spirit

Never look for the kingdom anywhere but there, within. Once you have realized that the kingdom of God is within you and can be found there, just come to the Lord.

As you come, come with a deep sense of love; come to him very gently; come to Him with a deep sense of worship. As you come to Him, humbly acknowledge that He is everything. Confess to Him that you are nothing. Close your eyes to everything around you; begin to open the inward eyes of your soul, turning those eyes to your spirit. In a word give your full attention to the deep inward parts of your being.

You need only to believe that God dwells in you. This belief, and this belief alone, will bring you into His holy presence. Do not allow your mind to wander about but hold it in submission as much as possible.

Once you are in the Lord’s presence, be still and quiet before Him.

And now there in His presence, simply begin to repeat the Lord’s Prayer. Begin with the word “Father.” As you do let the full meaning of that word deeply touch your heart. Believe that the God who lives inside of you is indeed willing to be your Father. Pour out your heart to Him as a little child pours out his heart to his father. Never doubt your Lord’s deep love for you. Never doubt his desire to hear you. Call on His name and remain before Him Silently for a little while. Remain there, waiting to have His heart made known to you.

As you come to Him, come as a weak child, one who is all soiled and badly bruised—a child that has been hurt from falling again and again. Come to the Lord as one who has no strength of his own; come to Him as one who has no power to cleanse himself. Humbly lay your pitiful condition before your Father’s gaze.

While you wait there before Him, occasionally utter a word of love to Him and a word of grief over your sin. Then simply wait for awhile. After waiting, you will sense when it is time to go on; when that moment comes, simply continue on in the Lord’s Prayer.
As you speak the words, Thy Kingdom come” call upon your Lord, the King of glory, to reign in you. Give yourself up to God. Give yourself to God so that He may do in your heart what you have so long been a failure in trying to do.

Acknowledge before Him, His right to rule over you.

At some point in this encounter with your Lord, you will feel deep within your spirit that it is time to simply remain silent before Him. When you have such a sense, do not move on to the next word—not as long as this sense continues with you. You see, it is the Lord Himself who is holding you to silence. When that sense of waiting before Him has passed, go on again to the next words of the Lord’s Prayer.

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”


Praying these words, humble yourself before the Lord, earnestly asking Him to accomplish His whole will in you and through you. Surrender your heart into His hands. Yield to your Lord His right to do with you as He pleases.

Do you know what God’s will is?

His will is that his children love Him. Therefore when you pray, Lord, “thy will be done,” you are actually asking the Lord to allow you to love Him. So you begin to love Him! And as you do, beseech Him to give you His love.

All that I have described to you will take place very sweetly, and it will take place very peacefully, throughout the entire prayer.

Let us look now at another possibility.

There may come an occasion while you are with the Lord that you will wish to lay aside the Lord’s Prayer. Perhaps you will wish to come to Him as your shepherd.

Come to Him, then, as a sheep who is looking to his shepherd for real food. As you come to Him, utter something like this: “Oh, loving Shepherd, you feed your flock with Yourself, you are really my daily bread.”

It is proper for you to bring all your needs to your Lord. But whatever you do, do it believing one thing; that is, that God is found within you.

I realize that you might be one of those who has a set pattern or ritual, to your prayers. You should not burden yourself with the rituals you have learned. There is no need for using repetition or memorized prayers. Instead simply repeat the Lord’s Prayer as I have described. It will produce abundant fruit in your life.

Dear child of God, all your concepts of what God is like really amount to nothing. Do not try to imagine what God is like. Instead, simply believe in His presence. Never try to imagine what God will do. There is no way God will ever fit into your concepts. What then shall you do? Seek to behold Jesus Christ by looking to Him in your inmost being, in your spirit.

Let’s close this chapter by looking at a third way in which you may begin a deeper encounter with your Lord.
You may come to the Lord by looking to Him as your Physician. Bring to Him all your sicknesses so that He can heal them. But as you come to Him, do not come with anxiety or restlessness. And as you come, pause from time to time. This period of waiting silently before your Lord will gradually increase! Furthermore, your own efforts at praying will grow less and less. Eventually there will come for you that moment when He will gain the complete control, when you will continually yield to God’s working within you.

As you can see, what has begun as something very simple will grow! It will grow to become a very real and vital relationship between you and the living God.

When the presence of the Lord really becomes your experience, you will actually discover that you have gradually begun to love this silence and peaceful rest which come from His presence.

There is a wonderful enjoyment of His Presence

This wonderful enjoyment of His presence will now help introduce you to yet another level of prayer!

We will go on to this second level of prayer in the next chapter. It is a depth of prayer that can be experienced by all believers, the simple as well as the scholarly.

Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ
Other resources on praying scripture:
“Praying The Bible” The book of prayers by Wesley & Stacy Campbell...Please feel free to share this with a friend by sending them a link. Why not e-mail me with your comments.