We can prepare our lives to honor God by doing all the right things, but until His presence fills those places of preparation, we will be just a beautiful temple that was built to honor God but lacked the most important part – the presence of God. Looking and sounding spiritual is not enough.

When Solomon built the temple, he employed the best craftsmen of his day. He used tons of gold and silver worth hundreds of millions of dollars in today’s prices. Even the walls of the temple were overlaid with gold. Every article of the temple was created with exquisite expertise.

When the temple was finally completed, “Solomon then summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel and all the heads of tribes—the leaders of the ancestral families of Israel” (II Chronicles 5:2). 

When everyone was finally assembled, the ark was carried by the priests into the temple, and “There, before the Ark, King Solomon and the entire community of Israel sacrificed so many sheep, goats, and cattle that no one could keep count!” (vs. 6).

As they continued to worship they declared, “God is good. His faithful love endures forever” (vs. 13). And then something remarkable happened. “At that moment a thick cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their service because of the cloud, for the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple of God” (vs. 13:14). Even their best plans for worshipping the Lord were halted because the overwhelming presence of God had blinded them from continuing.

Nothing in our life is ever complete until the presence of God is manifest in that place no matter how well-crafted that place is or how appealing it has become to the natural eye. Only the presence of God defines the people of God.  

When God fills our lives. it will be unexplainable because it will overwhelm our natural senses and logic. At that point, even the continuance of our plans for worship will have to cease because the Lord’s overwhelming presence will blind us to everything else, including our best-laid plans to honor Him.

Imagine the silence that happened on the day of the temple’s dedication. At that moment the Israelites could not do or say anything more because the Lord was present.