God longs for His glory to invade every dwelling.
Isaiah 4:4-6- When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, 5 then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering. 6 And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.
I am overcome with the desire of the Lord as revealed in this passage. Do you see it? Do you see what His heart yearns for? He longs for His presence and glory to be released over all of the altars in the land, and His heart is for every dwelling place to have an altar that calls upon His name.
“Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place…”
Every home. Every family.
And yes, over the assemblies. Yes, over the big meetings where the crowds gather, hungry for His touch. Eager to meet with Him there. He long to lead and to guide, to pour out His Spirit, to show His glory in those environments. No question.
But also…
Above every dwelling place a cloud by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Glory and a covering. A shade from the heat. A place of refuge. A shelter.
What if every child grew up in that environment? What would the church look like then?
That word “dwelling place” is makown. A place. A habitation. A foundation. It comes from the word kuwn which holds the idea of preparation to establish something. In order to fix something, establish it, make it secure, make it firm, there must be a degree of preparation, arranging it and being steadfast.
The word makown – dwelling place- is mostly used to refer to God’s dwelling place. What if our home became His home? What if we prepared our dwelling place in such a way that it became His? That He felt so at home in our habitation because we had cultivated an environment that welcomed Him instead of simply going about with business as usual consumed with our own agendas. What if we said, “My house will be Your house” and that pillar of cloud and fire, the very presence of God became the all-consuming agenda of our homes and lives? What if we knew it was on His heart and therefore it became on our heart? What if we placed it before Him, asking His to come and burn away anything that didn’t please Him in our midst so that His dream could be our reality?
Oh Lord Jesus, meet us at our family altar.
