As a child of God, you belong in the royal 

priesthood; our opening text says we’ve been 

made kings and priests unto God, and every priest 

has to offer sacrifices (Hebrews 8:3). Your temple is 

your body; that’s the temple of the Holy Ghost. And 

as long as you’re in your physical temple —the living 

tabernacle that God has given to you, you have a 

job to do: to offer sacrifices. That’s the sole purpose 

for the temple as revealed in the Old Testament (2 

Chronicles 7:12).

God is looking to have His sacrifices in your 

temple (your body), and you’re the priest over your 

temple. I can’t be the priest in your body, because it’s a 

private temple, exclusive to you. No wonder the Spirit, 

through Paul, writes in Romans 12:1,  “I beseech you 

therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 

present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 

unto God, which is your reasonable service.” 

1 Peter 2:5 says,  “Ye also, as lively stones, are 

built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer 

up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 

Christ.” We’re living stones, and are to offer spiritual 

sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. That let’s 

In the Old Testament, the temple Solomon built 

was divided into two parts: outside was the 

temple courts, where the animals for sacrifices were 

killed. Then, there was the temple itself; the first part 

of it being the holy place, and only the priest could go 

in there then. The second part of it was the most holy 

place, separated from the first tabernacle with a thick 

curtain. 

While the priest ministered in the holy place, only 

the high priest could go into the most holy place—the 

inner sanctuary—and he did that once a year. To go into 

the most holy place, he had to offer sacrifices to God 

for himself and for others; he could only go in there with 

the blood of an animal (Hebrews 9:6-8). Moreover, at 

the end of one year, that atonement would expire, and 

another sacrifice would be required. 

Regardless of the sacrifices performed by the high 

God spoke the Word in recreating and 

restoring order to the earth after it became 

a dark chaotic mass. In the midst of the darkness and 

chaos, He said, “Let there be light,” and light became 

(Genesis 1:3). The Word that gave light to the world 

became flesh, and dwelt amongst us in the person of 

Jesus. 

The Lord Jesus walked the streets of Galilee, 

Capernaum, and Jerusalem, as the Word in human 

form. He lived as the Word and did everything He did 

with, and through the Word. He healed the sick with 

the Word. He raised the dead with the Word, and cast 

out devils with the Word. He only had to speak words, 

and miracles ensued. 

Recall how He raised Lazarus from the dead, a 

man who had been dead and buried for four days 

and who surely must have begun to decompose. 

When Jesus called out, “…Lazarus, come forth” (John 

11:43), the man who had been dead came out alive! 

How awesome! Jesus lived and triumphed with words, 

When you study the context of the statement 

made by Jesus in our opening verse, you’d 

notice He’s teaching the disciples about faith, not 

prayer. In the preceding verse 22, He had said to them, 

“…Have faith in God.”   The original Greek connotation 

was: “Have the faith of God,” meaning the God-type 

of faith. In His ensuing explanation of how the God-

type of faith operates, He highlighted two important 

factors: your mouth and your heart. 

Notice again what He said, “Whosoever shall 

say…and shall not doubt in his heart…shall have 

whatsoever he saith.” He’s showing us an important 

principle of faith: your heart and your mouth must go 

together. Romans 10:10 says,  “For with the heart man 

believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth 

confession is made unto salvation.” Until and unless 

there’s an affirmation of that which you’ve believed in 

your heart, it’ll not work.  

Faith believes and speaks. 2 Corinthians 4:13 

says we believe, and therefore speak; we believe first 

in our hearts that what we desire exists, and speak 

Actually, it’s not scripturally correct in the New 

Testament to say, “May God’s Spirit rest upon 

you.” Someone may read our opening verse and run 

off with the idea that even Paul desired that the power 

of Christ may “rest upon him.” That wasn’t the case. 

What Paul said wasn’t about the power of Christ 

resting upon him. The word translated “rest” is from 

the Greek, “episkēnoo ̄,” which is a combination of 

two words: “epi” meaning “a superimposition,” and 

“ske ̄noo ̄” meaning “habitation.” “Episke ̄noo ̄” therefore 

means, “coming over something to take charge of 

it from within.” Paul was in other words describing 

his experience of being continuously filled with the 

Spirit. 

Another use of the term “rest upon” is seen in 1 

Peter 4:14, where the Bible says,  “If ye be reproached 

for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of 

glory and of God resteth upon you….” Here, the word, 

“anapauō” is used, which refers to being refreshed 

or given rest, but not as in sleep. If you study the 

context, you’ll observe that it says, if you’re persecuted 

Many people have wrongly interpreted our 

opening verse to mean that Elisha requested 

for a double amount of the anointing that was on Elijah. 

They even count the number of miracles between the 

two of them, and conclude that Elisha indeed had a 

double amount because he wrought twice as many 

miracles as Elijah did. That’s not how it works with God. 

You don’t count the number of miracles to determine 

the power of the Spirit that’s present. 

Even if we were to consider their miracles, Elijah 

wrought one that we could say outclassed all the ones 

from Elisha: the fact that he (Elijah) was raptured as an 

act of faith (2 Kings 2:11-12). Remember that the Bible 

says, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should 

not see death…” (Hebrews 11:5). This therefore means 

that Elijah required faith to accomplish a similar feat. 

Elisha, on the other hand, fell sick and died sick, though 

the glory was still in his bones.

What Elisha requested for was the right of the 

firstborn, which was signified by the double portion 

(Deuteronomy 21:15-17).  He wanted to assume the 

position of leadership amongst the other prophets in 

In the Old Testament, the children of Israel 

transported the presence of God from place 

to place every time they carried the Tabernacle of 

Witness, which contained the Ark of the Covenant. In 

1 Kings 8:9, the Bible tells us specifically that “There 

was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, 

which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD 

made a covenant with the children of Israel, when 

they came out of the land of Egypt.”  The only thing 

in the ark was God’s commandments.

Today, your heart is the ark of God; that’s where 

the Word is. Remember what the Lord said in Jeremiah 

31:33:  “But this shall be the covenant that I will make 

with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the 

Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write 

it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall 

be my people.”  This was fulfilled in us when we were 

born again. 

We were born again by the Word of God, and 

have become one with the Word; we’re living epistles, 

“written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living 

When you’re born again, you become a 

member of God’s great family. The Apostle 

Paul made reference to this family in Ephesians 3:14-

15:  “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of 

our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in 

heaven and earth is named.” It’s one family in heaven 

and earth, and you belong there now.

As a member of this family, you’re in a divine 

community. It’s like being in a secure online community, 

where members are given passcodes for access. All 

non-members are restricted, until they register and are 

given access codes. It’s the same in our community; 

through the Holy Ghost, we have access to the Father, 

and all the glories of His presence. The Bible says,  “For 

through him we both have access by one Spirit unto 

the Father”  (Ephesians 2:18). 

God is always happy with us. The Bible says He 

rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). Many 

don’t really know Him, that’s why they think He’s 

mad at them for the wrong things they’ve done, and 

tend to run from Him. But He’s love, and loves you 

In the verse above, the prophet Isaiah wasn’t 

referring to countries like the United States Of 

America, South Africa or England, but to the Church 

of Jesus Christ; we’re the custodians of the truth. The 

Church is the pillar and ground of the truth:  “…the 

church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the 

truth”  (1 Timothy 3:15). We’re the ones that keep His 

Word, and His gates are open to us. 

But there’s more; read what happens in the very 

next verse: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 

whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth 

in thee”  (Isaiah 26:3). The Hebrew words translated 

perfect peace are “shalom shalom,” meaning “peace 

peace”; but this construction really means peace 

with rest; peace with prosperity, health, strength and 

salvation! Thus, the righteous one, whose mind is 

stayed on the Lord, is kept in perfect prosperity, health, 

rest and strength. 

This further shows that your mind is where God 

wants to work. If He can get a hold of your mind 

through His Word, you can become as healthy, 

prosperous and successful as you ever want to be. 

God chose Israel as a nation and blessed them. 

However, every year, the priest had to atone 

for their sins; an animal had to be killed on behalf of 

the people. The priest will lay his hands on the animal 

and confess the sins of the nation upon it; this was a 

yearly routine. Think about that! 

But  over  in  the  New  Testament,  the  Bible  tells 

us  that  Jesus  Christ  was  God’s  spiritual  Lamb  and 

He  didn’t  just  take  the  sins  of  Israel,  but  the  sins  of 

the whole world (John 1:29). He was God’s perfect 

sacrifice that settled the problem of sin forever. Today, 

no one needs to kill any animal in atonement for sin. 

Hebrews  7:26-27,  referring  to  Jesus  says, “For 

such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, 

undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher 

than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those 

high  priests,  to  offer  up  sacrifice,  first  for  his  own 

sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, 

when he offered up himself.” Also, in Hebrews 9:26, 

we read,  “For then must he often have suffered since 

the foundation of the world: but now once in the end 

of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the 

sacrifice of himself.”  

In  some  parts  of  the  world,  there’re  certain