More Glorious Than Gold

Yesterday while at the baggage carousel, I saw a fellow traveller who wore an assortment of chains from which dangled charms and crystals.  She even had a silver charm glued to her forehead!  I observed her begin at the lowest crystal and align them with her fingers in ascending order towards her chin.  In some spiritual circles, it is believed wearing crystals promote healing and provide protection from negative energy.  My observation is many people put their trust in crystals, amulets and charms that only the almighty God is worthy and able to receive.  Since God is powerful and mighty to protect, save and heal, all who fear God and trust Him can rest assured He will shepherd us without fail now and forever.

When David expressed willingness to fight Goliath, king Saul insisted David wear the king's armour--even though it did not fit him at all.  It was God who preserved David and gave him skill to fight, and thus David faced the giant armed with a sling and stone with no armour at all.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, David was bold to face the champion of the Philistines and prevailed like he had against lion and bear.  He wrote in Psalm 20:7-8, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. ⁸ They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright."  It was not the harnessing of metaphysical properties of stones created by God or armour fashioned by man but a relationship with the living God that caused no weapon fashioned against David to prosper (Is. 54:17).

As born again children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, our confidence is not to be placed in charms or crystals because the Strength of Israel indwells each of His people.  2 Corinthians 4:6-7 says, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us."  Because the knowledge of the glory of God has illuminated our hearts and minds by the power of the Holy Spirit, we need not fear or be dismayed in times of trouble.  The Light of the World Jesus guides our steps in real time by His grace, and He also supplies energy and strength that benefits us, even as plants and solar powered devices utilise the rays of the sun.

The Scripture teaches Christians are now the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and this divine presence is to powerfully influence us inside and out.  All other spiritual powers and authorities in heaven and earth--seen and unseen--all bow trembling in complete subjection to God.  The design of the Ark of the Covenant provides a wonderful illustration of how God's presence within us ought to be consistent inside and out.  Exodus 37:2 says of the Ark constructed by Bezaleel, "He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold all around it."  The wooden box was not just to be overlaid with pure gold where it could be seen by people but on the inside that was always hidden.  We are not to be as Pharisees who projected an clean image when they were polluted within but to have integrity inside and out by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells, guides and strengthens us.  Builders are not as careful with concealed work as finish work that everyone can see, but Jesus spared no expense to fill us with knowledge of His glory within.

We are compared in our flesh to earthen vessels God has imbued with the glorious treasure of His presence.  God's intended result of this spiritual inner strength is expressed outwardly as it is written in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11:  "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh."  Thus God's glory that He has given us on the inside is intended to be seen on the outside as we trust the LORD because His design for us to to manifest the life of Jesus to others through us.  How glorious, that God's strength revealed in our weakness!  How much more glorious is our God than gold!