Dwelling in God’s Heart – The Chapel of the Holy Spirit
Dwelling in God’s Heart – The Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8).
“I am inside My Father, and you are inside Me, and I am inside you.” (John 14:20).
Even though the phrase “accept Jesus into our heart” is not in Scripture, we get the picture. Accepting Jesus into our hearts means we receive Him into the very core of our being, into the centerpiece of who we are, affecting everything about us. When we receive Jesus into our heart-home, our identity becomes His, the essence of our personhood is intimately wrapped into the essence of Christ’s Personhood. When we make our home in His home, He miraculously become a resident inside each of us as well. And when we experience that Double Union with Jesus Christ, we discover that our spiritual location is inside of the very heart of God. In other words, if the Son is inside the Father, and we are inside the Son, then logically we are inside the Father! By dwelling in the Son’s heart, we dwell in the Father’s heart as well. By living inside the “Person after God’s own heart,” we find ourselves inside God’s heart! As Paul claims in Colossians 3:3, believers are “hidden within Christ, inside of God.”
Way back in 1954 there was a creative little evangelistic tract produced by Inter-Varsity Press, written by a pastor named Robert Boyd Munger. He entitled his brief tract, “My Heart – God’s Home.” I recommend it if you find it. Following up on Revelation 3:20, Pastor Munger imagined a believer opening his door and escorting Jesus through the home of his heart, now that Jesus has taken up residence in him. Now that Jesus dwells in him, and He has moved into his heart, what will Jesus see there? So the believer in the tract proceeds to give a tour of his heart-home with Jesus as he welcomes Christ into his heart. Together they tour the person’s study, dining room, living room, workroom, recreation room, bedroom and hall closet. I thought this was an engaging idea, but now I would like to give the other side of the story. Jesus lives within us, to be sure. But we also live within Jesus, hence inside the very heart of God. So if the Father was to give us a guided tour of His heart, what would we find? What will be waiting for us to discover in the many rooms of God’s heart? We could easily entitle this, “God’s Heart -My Home.”
Like anyone’s home, God’s heart will reflect His attitudes, motivations, personality, character traits, His heavenly “tastes” in interior décor. God’s deeply held convictions will be revealed in His heart-home, as they are in our own hearts. Using Scripture as our guide, we will explore God’s heart as we make ourselves at home and abide in Him. We will explore everything from the front porch to the front door, the living room to the dining room, from the kitchen to the study to the chapel. And many more rooms as well, like the bedroom, the bathroom, and the nursery. There may even be a sneak peek at the family room, the children’s playroom, and the school room.
THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. This sacred space in the house of God’s heart is that “prayer closet” that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 6:6. It is a private room in the inner confines of God’s heart, away from hustle and bustle, separate from the distraction of human traffic. It has no windows, just one door, contains comfortable furniture, and one candle that is burning every hour of the day. The Chapel is always guaranteed to offer privacy. God designed this secret prayer place to be fashioned in the shape of a cube, which of course is a perfect 3-dimensional square. This cubed Chapel is designed after His dwelling places on earth, the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem. God loves the ideal shape of the cube… It is perfectly proportional, and looks exactly the same regardless of the vantage point. The heavenly cube is seen by God as a truly holy shape, perfect for encountering God’s intimate presence. The God-ordained cube has more meaning than we might think, seeing that the New Jerusalem will come down from heaven in the shape of a cube, the perfect, eternal place to house the presence of God. (Rev. 21).
In this Chapel, one feels drawn into the presence of the Holy Spirit. Scripture is clear that believers in Jesus are welcomed into the fellowship of the Trinity itself, and are truly “in” God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God wants His Chapel to be an experience of one entering “inside” the Holy Spirit engaging in heart-to-heart conversation with the Spirit Himself. When one prays inside the Chapel, one is literally praying “in the Spirit.” The Chapel contains the very air of permanence, stability, the ultimate in mercy. The atmosphere is so full of the Spirit that there are times when there is simply no room in the Chapel in which to pray.
The Chapel is the closest a person can get to the inside of God’s bosom. God is love, God is sheer mercy, and it’s fascinating to see that mercy in the Greek is another word for womb. The Chapel is a space that provides security, protection, nutrition, everything that a growing believer needs to develop in Christ. So the Chapel literally feels like being inside God’s womb of love. Truly, all of God’s heart-house is sacred, for He is perfect holiness. The Chapel of the Holy Spirit, though, is a set apart place inside another set apart place. The Chapel is the place set apart for intimate communion with God through the Holy Spirit.