I see a vision of a group of people under a dome in a big central room. They’re all looking up, like they expect something. There are other people rushing around busily out in the wings [in service to God], but the people under the central dome are just standing there quietly, looking up. They’re bathed in a beautiful golden glow from above, and they take deep breaths of the heavenly air that descends on them. It’s the Lord’s temple.

(Prayer:) Oh Lord, for a breath of Your heavenly air to refresh us and clear our minds and inspire our hearts and give us visions that thrill us, that set our heads awhirl for You, Jesus!

(Vision continues:) The people who are so busy rushing around get tired and have to come under the dome to get refreshed and refilled.

(Prayer continues:) Help us to be like that, Jesus. Help us to remember we can’t go on without the heavenly vision You give, without a breath of heavenly fresh air, without the sound of that sweet music. We just can’t go on without hearing Your voice and getting inspired by the upward look!

We wouldn’t worry and fret so if we spent more time with the Lord, looking up through that starry dome, breathing that heavenly air, and hearing that beautiful music. We’d find peace and rest for our soul. It would totally renew us and refresh us and give us new vision and fresh inspiration, new strength, rest and peace and joy.

Have you been there?

Have you taken time to get quiet before God as you slip into the temple of the Spirit? Have you been there to get a fresh breath of air from Heaven? If you haven’t, you’ve really missed something! You’ll get awfully tired and weary and upset and fearful and doubtful and discouraged and worried and flurried and hurried. You’ll get out of touch with the Lord and run out of strength and wisdom and love and patience — all because you haven’t come into the temple to be refreshed and renewed by His Spirit.

Jesus can wipe away all your fears and tears with just one little restful moment in that perfect peace He gives when your mind is stayed on Him.

Are you too busy? Are you in too big a hurry? Is your work too important to stop for a few minutes of inspiration and refreshing from on high, spiritual renewal, physical rest — a little love feast with the Lord? You’ll never make it if you don’t stop for a while under the dome. If you don’t get in there and catch a little of His light, you’re not going to reflect much of it to others.

All you have to do is get alone with the Lord and look up at all His beauties and breathe His heavenly air and hear His heavenly music and see His heavenly visions.

It doesn’t have to be at any set time. You can look up through the dome any time of day, anywhere, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. Just take a few quiet moments with the Lord. Anytime, anywhere, you can come swiftly out of the wings and enter the temple in spirit (John 4:24). Look and live! Look up! Make a temple of your heart. See what God can do in that beautiful realm of the spirit.

You just can’t do that very well in the midst of the other voices and the clamor of business. Those other things may be necessary, but you have to keep coming back into the rotunda in spirit to get your batteries recharged. You can’t do it without Him. You’ll never make it without His power. You may run for a while, but unless you come back and get hooked up to the current again, you’ll run slower and slower till you have nothing left and are just plumb flat!

It can be downright hard work out in the wings, and you’ll never have the strength or the vision or the inspiration that you need to do that work unless you keep coming back in under the dome.

He can solve all your problems in one little glimpse. He can refresh your whole spirit with one deep breath. He can clarify all your thoughts with just one sweet strain of heavenly music. He can wipe away all your fears and tears with just one little restful moment in that perfect peace He gives when your mind is stayed on Him and Him alone, because you trust in Him (Isaiah 26:3).

It just takes one little glimpse of Jesus to make it worth it all — and to help you be able to do it all. Take time in the temple today!

Temple Time, Copyright © 1998-2012, The Family International