THE HIDDEN CHAMBERS OF THE SOUL

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EZRA, THE BELIEVER AS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Lesson #07
THE HIDDEN CHAMBERS OF THE SOUL

• Memory Verse: Joh 8:32
• A Controversy:
  • In our study we have seen how the details of Solomon’s temple relate to the believer as the temple where the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of the believer when he is born again.
  • There is one aspect of this study that is very controversial among theologians and that is the concept of the inner healing of the soul.
• The blueprint of the hidden chambers of the temple’s inner courtyard
  • The hidden chambers were constructed around the outside of the temple sanctuary in the inner courtyard along three walls. There were three levels or 3 stories of these chambers.
    • These hidden chambers were very small rooms made of wood for the purpose of storing all the utensils the priests used in performing animal sacrifice, maintaining the lighted candlesticks, maintaining incense, the baking of bread for the tables of showbread, maintaining the priests clothing.
    • In other words, these 93 rooms (31 on each of the 3 levels) were storage rooms that enabled the priests to do their job in the temple week after week.
  • Read 1Chr 28:11-12
  • Read 1Kin 6:5-8
    • Important details to notice:
      • While the walls of the temple were made of stone, the rooms were made of wood.
      • Access to these rooms was by one doorway near the front of the temple. These rooms were not accessible from within the temple itself. A priest could enter these chambers only from the inner courtyard.
      • These hidden chambers were not secured to the stone walls of the temple, but it was a free standing structure around the temple building.
    • The significance:
      • Wood construction: In the tabernacle and here in the temple, wood spiritually represents = human nature. Therefore, these chambers are part of man’s human nature located in man’s soul.
      • Three levels: Man’s soul consists of the unconscious, the sub conscious, and the conscious.
        • Therefore the three levels of these chambers represent these three aspects of man’s soul.
        • Because these chambers are accessible from the inner courtyard, it is man who controls access to them through his soul.
  • The contents of the hidden chambers?
    • Read Eze 8:6-12
      • We have already learned that the purpose of the hidden chambers was to store all the things necessary for the priests to use in the temple for the worship of God.
      • In the same way as closets in your house, you put things in there that over time you even forget what you have stored there.
      • This is what happened with the priests of Israel. They put personal things in these chambers and forgot they were there.
        • In Eze 8 God revealed to Ezekiel what things were stored in these hidden chambers.
        • They stored idols of foreign gods there. Why?

These were foreign gods introduced to the Israelites by Solomon’s foreign wives and concubines.

The priesthood had become corrupt and hypocritical. They said they worshipped the one true God, Jehovah, but in their free time they worshipped all the other gods stored in the hidden chambers.

The priests had used these hidden chambers as places where they actually worshipped foreign gods and kept their idols there.

• • • • • Eze 8 is just like cleaning out a closet. You find stuff there you forgot that you had put it there, but also you find filth, spider webs, and spiders because the contents of the place had not been disturbed for a long time.
    • Read 2Chr 29:16-18
      • When God revealed to King Hezekiah the contents of these hidden chambers, they cleaned out all of these 93 hidden chambers.
      • It took them 16 days to complete the task and rededicate everything to God in prayer.
      • This was a time of revival during the reign of good King Hezekiah.
      • But the revival did not last, for later God permitted the destruction of the temple and the Jews were taken into captivity in Babylon because of idolatry.
    • Read Neh 13:7-9a
      • After the Babylonian captivity, in the book of Ezra the temple is rebuilt, and in the book of Nehemiah the walls of the city of Jerusalem were rebuilt.
    • Now, in this passage in Neh 13 we find an evil person called Tobiah was permitted to live in one of these hidden chambers until God revealed to Nehemiah that he was not a priest but in fact an enemy of the Jews.
• The hidden places of the believer’s soul:
  • Just like Solomon’s temple, man has hidden places in his soul where things are stored.
    • The temple chambers in Hebrew are called chedar which means = innermost part or inward part.
    • Read Pro 20:27
    • Read Pro 18:8
    • This innermost part of our soul is where we bury our wounds, hurts, and guilt.
  • Remember we learned that the soul is made up of three parts, the conscious, the sub-conscious, and the unconscious.
    • The Unconscious Level
      • In the unconscious level of man’s soul are man’s instinctual responses.
      • You do not have to think about reacting when a spider or a mouse comes running out of a dark corner directly at you. You do not have to tell your brain to tell your body, “Now here comes something filthy, so don’t just stand there, move out of the way!” It is an immediate instinctive response on the unconscious level.
      • While you sleep, you do not have to tell your heart to keep beating and your lungs to keep breathing. These are instinctual responses that God has placed in man to preserve his life.
    • The Subconscious Level
      • In the sub-conscious level of man’s soul are stored all of the events that have ever happened in that person’s life, whether good or bad. This is the innermost part of man.
      • Many of these past events have good and bad feelings, joys and hurts connected with them.
      • Many of the feelings attached to these events are either real feelings or perceived feelings.
        • For example, when I grew up my mother and grandmother always told me that boys were better than girls. While they believed that fact, it influenced me to think that I did not have as much value in the world as my brother.
        • Therefore, I had real feelings of inadequacy. But I also had perceived feelings that my parents did not love me as much as they loved my brother. These perceived feelings were false because later when I was an adult, my parents demonstrated that they did love me a great deal.
      • We often forget about these past events and their corresponding feelings especially if they were bad events that caused negative feelings of pain and hurt. However, even if we do not think about them consciously, they are buried in our subconscious and become part of who we are.
      • These buried experiences influence how we react to situations. They influence the decisions that we make in life even if we are not aware of their influence. We will discuss this aspect later in our study.
        • Read Pro 24:4
        • God wants to clean out these hidden places in our soul and then fill them with the truth of the Word of God.
  • Access to the hidden places of the believer’s soul
    • The only door of access to the hidden chambers of the temple was located near the front of the temple building.
    • The access to man’s hidden chambers of the soul is the power of sin in his flesh nature.
      • Read Rom 7:23
      • Read Eph 4:26-27
      • Neither Satan nor the power of sin has access to the believer’s new spirit, his new heart, or his new willpower, but they have access to the body and soul area of man where our thoughts and emotions are displayed.
        • However, access is controlled by the believer himself. The believer gives sin and Satan access to the body and/or the soul when he makes emotional choices based on his desires, his lusts, and his self-will.
        • Can the believer strengthen the walls of his soul so as not to allow this access? Yes.
  • Strengthening the walls of the soul
    • Read Neh 4:10
      • In the book of Nehemiah, the task at hand was to build the walls of the city of Jerusalem after having built the temple in the book of Ezra.
      • Building the walls of the city was for the protection of the people in the city and the temple.
      • According to Neh 4:10, they were unable to build a part of the wall because of all the rubble that clogged the construction site.
    • The rubble clogging the restoration of the wall, spiritually speaking, is the garbage that we have stored in the hidden chambers of the soul.
• Cleansing the hidden chambers of the soul
  • How do we get rid of the negative thoughts and emotions before they get buried in the hidden chambers of our souls?
    • Read 2Cor 10:5
    • We must be alert to recognizing negative thoughts and feelings that come across our path so that we do not internalize them but recognize that they are not from God.
  • How can we get rid of the hurts, the guilt, the negative feelings already buried in the hidden chambers of our souls?
    • Read 2Chr 29:16
    • The believer lives by faith and not by works, feelings, or sight. Therefore, he does not have to do the cleaning of the hidden chambers. He only needs to give God permission to clean them out.
    • We must permit God, the Holy Spirit, to bring up the buried garbage.
      • That does not mean we must wade through it and sort it out. Some of this garbage is very painful.
      • We must not relive it over and over again experiencing the same negative hurts and feelings.
    • When the Holy Spirit brings something to your conscious mind, you acknowledge that it is negative and needs healing.
      • In prayer you ask God to reveal the root cause and to remove it and cleanse you of it.
      • If it involves the forgiveness of another person for the hurt done to you, you immediately forgive that person and pray that God bless him.
  • How can we store the truth of the Word of God in the hidden chambers of our souls once they are cleansed?
    • Read Psa 51:6
    • Read Phil 3:3
      • The believer must declare who he is in Christ for healing to take hold in his soul.
      • This is why memorizing scripture is important.

HOMEWORK
Cleansing and Healing the Hidden Chambers

• Application of Hidden Chambers of the Soul
  • Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit that wants to reveal stored garbage in your innermost being. Write down what the Holy Spirit has revealed to you and how you have let the Lord deal with it.
• Preparation for Cleansing and Healing the Hidden Chambers
  • Read Gal 2:20
    • Explain this verse in your own words.
    • According to this verse, what is it that man must know?
    • According to this verse, what is it that man must do?
  • Read Phil 3:13
    • What is it that man must do?
  • Read 2Cor 10:5
    • What is that man must do?
• Memory Verse: 1Joh 5:18