Jehu led Israel to destroy its temple of Baal and execute the priests and Baal worshipers.

Now in Judah, Jehoiada leads the people as they destroy their temple of Baal and execute the priests.

The divided nation has finally agreed on something.

In these chapters we turn our attention back to the southern kingdom of Judah. With Athaliah’s execution, the last of Ahab’s dynasty and influence are purged and the nation can begin to recover from her 6-year reign of terror.

The Temple is about 125 years old. And a building that old is going to need some work. But before they fix the temple, there are some very important things that need doing first.

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When I’m doing a soundcheck with the worship team, if someone is having trouble hearing themselves, I encourage first attempting to fix the problem by subtraction rather than addition. Meaning:

What can we turn down in the mix so you can hear yourself better?

If you only fix by addition, you will end up escalating the volume to unhelpful levels.

You might consider using that idea for other life situations- stressful schedule, a messy house… Before buying more stuff to try to fix it – planners, organizers, nifty gadgets, first try fixing it with subtraction. What can we get rid of?

Judah begins fixing the nation first by subtraction before they seek to add.

• Minus one wicked queen
• Minus one temple of Baal
• Minus several altars and images of Baal
• Minus one high priest of Baal

Only after removing the things that gave the forces of darkness access did they endeavor to fix up and restore the temple.

Let me be direct.

If you have evil things in your life and home, you’re kinda wasting your time to try to build up the temple. Things like…

• Occult, New Age, and other non-Christian religious objects, even if you only think of them as collectibles or curios.
• Movies and music that normalize or glorify the flesh and sinful behavior, or make witchcraft seem harmless and entertaining; (this includes streaming services and apps.)
• Pornography & Smut
  • Ladies – it’s not ok to shame men for looking at porn but excuse reading smut. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Smut is porn in print. I said what I said.
  • Guys – nearly naked, fantasy female characters in video games do the same thing to your brain as porn. No excuses.
• Games with occult themes, especially serious role-playing ones that involve witchcraft, necromancy, etc.

There are probably more, but this is bare minimum. Don’t think you can have any of these things in your life and grow as a Christian. You’re gaslighting yourself.

I’m gonna say something SUPER challenging right now. Brace yourself.

If there is any object you possess, that if Jesus told you to give it away or light it on fire, and you couldn’t immediately haul it out of your house and calmly watch it go up in smoke, bingo – you have an idol.

And where there is an idol (it doesn’t have to look like a statue of anything) that idol gives locality and access to evil spiritual forces. Why? Because it’s basically a banner of rebellion waving in the spirit. You can say you’ve surrendered all to Christ and He is your Lord, but the stuff you won’t let go of tells a different story. It says, “I’m really on the do-it-my-way team.” (Just like Satan) It’s a dead giveaway to the Enemy of your soul that you are an easy target. It gives evil influences a wide open door to get you.

This is what that looks like in the spirit realm:

“No one is able to serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You are not able to serve God and money.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭24‬ ‭LEB‬‬

🤨 Go big or go home.

“…If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him…” 1 Kings‬ ‭18‬:‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

😯 Boy, you’re feeling spunky and preachy today. What brought this on?

I just get tired of praying against the evil forces at work in the lives of people if they are not doing their part to cut off the things that give the forces of Hell permission to access their lives.

It feels like this:

It’s like asking me to swat mosquitoes in your house but you won’t close the doors.

Prayer isn’t a magic incantation. It’s meant to be a partnering with the Lord. But praying, “Lord help me” while holding on to things that leave the door open to the Enemy- that’s not partnership. That’s self-delusion. I can’t pray the Devil out of someone’s life while they (behaviorally) have the red carpet rolled out for him.

You could battle the same problems for years and never get the victory- never really move the needle.

If that’s you, it’s time to clean house. And I mean HARD CORE.

Go full-blown Jehu and Jehoiada. (Obviously not killing any people) Show no mercy. Plug those holes in your boat. CLOSE THE DOORS. Light things on fire if you have to. (Use caution of course) Just get it out of your life. Repent and denounce it. If you have to choose between your cell phone or your soul, take a sledge hammer to the phone.

🤔 Or, you could just delete bad apps and put filtering software on it. Or get a dumb-phone.

Or that. But a sledge hammer is way more dramatic. ⚒️

FIRST you get rid of the evil.

THEN you can repair the temple.