Have You Dedicated Your Home?, Pt. 1 - No. 103

Deuteronomy 20:5, “What man is there who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.” 

We have been talking about dedicating our children to the Lord. God also wants us to dedicate our homes to Him.

When King Solomon spoke to King Huram of Tyre about materials for building a temple for the living God, he confessed, “Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to Him…” (2 Chronicles 2:4) He was speaking of building a temple for God to dwell. There is no temple left today but God now wants to dwell in our bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit. He also wants to dwell in our homes. He wants our homes to be set apart to Him.

Have you dedicated the house you live in to the Lord? It may be a new home, or a home you have purchased from someone else. Either way, you need to dedicate it to the Lord. It is especially important to cleanse and dedicate a home that has had previous owners. You cannot know what has taken place in the home and you don’t want to give the slightest opportunity for Satan to take a foothold in your home.

The owner of every new house in Israel made a celebration and dedicated it to the Lord. Speaking of the Israelites dedicating their homes, Samuel Chandler writes, “It was common when any person had finished a house and entered into it, to celebrate it with great rejoicing, and keep a festival, to which his friends are invited, and to perform some religious ceremonies, to secure the protection of Heaven.” John Calvin writes, “By consecrating their houses to God, they declared that they were God’s tenants, confessing that they were strangers, and that it was He who lodged, and gave them a  habitation.”

If you haven’t already set apart your home, don’t wait any longer. Put on a feast, gather in some friends, and ask them to pray with you over your home. Walk into every room and ask God to cleanse it and for His power to flow into the room. Invoke God’s blessing over every inch of your home and set it apart for His presence and His purposes.

Or, when your friends move into a new or used home, give them a surprise celebration. Gather friends, take food for a feast, gifts for their new home, and then pray and bless their home with them. When I was young, growing up in New Zealand, people gave a Tin Canning to a new married couple when they moved into their home. They called it a Tin Canning because people took jars of food they had canned and loaded the young couple with food for the coming year.

In parts of USA, they call the same celebration a Pounding. I guess this was because everyone took a pound of something to the new couple, e.g. a pound of sugar, flour, butter, cake or whatever. This is a wonderful way to bless a new married couple, but more importantly to take the opportunity to dedicate and set apart the home.

If you are a songwriter, you could write a song for your new home, or you could write a song for someone else as they go into their new or used home. King David, the Psalmist of Israel, wrote a song of thanks and praise when he moved into his new home in Jerusalem. The title of Psalm 30 says, “A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David.”

When King Solomon and the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord, Solomon put on a great feast that lasted for 14 days! (1 Kings 8:62-66)  Set apart your home with feasting, singing and prayers of dedication.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Lord, please help me to be aware each new day that my home belongs to You. Help me to see it as a holy shrine for your presence. Amen.”

 

AFFIRMATION: