Do we have a barrier in place to keep God's adversaries out of our lives and homes? Have we built a barrier between us and the rest of the world, or have we torn it down? Are we leaving the gates open and unattended if we build a wall? Are we prepared to fight to protect our families and churches? Or are we just going to allow the enemy in unopposed? Are we ready to confront the world?
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This wall is not made of bricks and stones, but of spirit, anchored by God and meant to keep spiritual issues out. We are worse than unbelievers, according to I Timothy 5:8, if we fail to provide for the physical and spiritual needs of our loved ones. Have we done anything to defend our families, or has worldliness completely engulfed our frail defenses and infiltrated every area of our lives?
Walls irritate Satan. He murmurs in our ears, “Let's all be one happy family.” “Immature people should avoid walls. You've reached spiritual maturity, so you can deal with immorality with ease.” Do not be fooled by this line.
God teaches us to build unassailable fortifications against Satan by His own example. He erected cherubim with flaming swords at the Garden of Eden's entrance to protect the passage to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24), and New Jerusalem will be surrounded by lofty walls and gates (Revelation 21:12, 14). The church is to be a wall (Song of Songs 8:10) within which righteousness blooms and peace reigns.
Those who seek God's Way, providence, and will are given this spiritual wall. The effort we put into establishing a healthy relationship with Him is the job of rebuilding our personal wall, and He then supplies the defenses for us. God becomes our fortification.
As in the case of Job, God builds a barrier around His people to keep Satan at away. “Have You not created a hedge around him, around his home, and around everything he has on every side?” Satan laments. (Job 1:10; 2:10; 2:10; 2:10; 2:10; 2:10; 2:1 Satan could only attack Job after God had destroyed the wall, and he spent no time in doing so! Surely, we can see the lesson here.
What happens if we reject God, break through the wall, or neglect our connection with Him? “Whoever breaches through a wall will be bitten by a serpent,” says the proverb (Ecclesiastes 10:8). Satan is depicted in the Bible as a serpent. Many of our brothers and sisters have let their defenses down, and Satan has struck.
Because of our misdeeds, God sometimes rips down our walls (Isaiah 5:4-5). He delivers us to Satan for the destruction of our flesh with the hope that we may repent, as Paul puts it (I Corinthians 5:5). Sincere and thorough repentance is the surest way to rebuild the wall. Playing around with the repair project, dabbing untempered mortar here and there, will only aggravate God's displeasure (Ezekiel 13:8-16). Without God, such a wall gives the appearance of protection but dissolves at the first sign of an enemy attack. We must be completely dedicated to repairing our shattered relationship with God, and hence God's presence as the wall.
What does Wall mean spiritually?
Walls are often associated with negative connotations in today's society. Walls can be viewed as places of confinement and division. They're frequently referred to as obstacles that must be broken down and overcome. However, when we look at walls in the Bible, we find them as buildings that protect, provide protection, and represent a place of refuge, all of which contribute to a sense of belonging. That is why we are constructing the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, a national landmark comprised of one million bricks, each signifying a prayer answered. It is our wish that this memento's monument would serve as a symbol of hope.
What does the Bible say about building walls?
To defend Jerusalem's residents from foreign attack, God told Nehemiah to build a wall around the city. God, you see, is not opposed to the construction of walls! And the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament tells how Nehemiah accomplished that mammoth endeavor in a record-breaking 52 days.
What is the purpose of spiritual building?
Because God promises spiritual fulfillment through an eternal relationship with Him, our aim as Christians is to strive for the prize of righteousness in Christ Jesus. “Blessed are the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). The ultimate aim and mission of Christ followers is to find satisfaction in God's righteousness and His desires for creation.
Spiritual development is a gradual process. Because God's love compels every aspect of life, the Christian delights fighting for the prize of righteousness in Jesus. “I keep pressing on toward the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). The reason for our temporary and ultimate fates is satisfaction in God's righteousness. Spiritual refinement is shown as a process towards maturity throughout the Bible. “Craving pure spiritual milk, as newborn babies do, so that you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). “Instead, we shall mature into the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ, by speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
Christians place a high priority on self-development because we seek to shed our old selves (selfish desires) and put on Christ's garments. “I am no longer alive because I was crucified with Christ, but Christ lives in me. My current physical existence is based on my faith in the Son of God, who loved me and offered himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The first step of Alcoholics Anonymous is to confess that your life has become unmanageable and that you have no control over your addiction, whether it be alcohol or something else. This sentence is beautiful because it teaches a theology of imperfection.
The truth is that no Christian is perfect, and no one can achieve perfection by pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. From the second step of Alcoholics Anonymous, the faithful admit that only God can restore one's sanity. The next step in Alcoholics Anonymous is to surrender your will to God, which is the third step. Even if a Christian is not an alcoholic, these ideas apply to all of life because we are all addicts to some degree. Christians may find brief satisfaction in their addictions. Addictions have the potential to stifle Christian spiritual growth.
You might wonder what a Christian perspective on addictions is. Addictions are defined as anything that prevents real adoration of the Almighty Lord. Work, TV, video games, Facebook, and even just performing ministry instead of being ministry are examples of these addictions. The goal of spiritual growth is to find authentic worship in imperfection and to offer God our entire selves through labor, pleasure, and becoming Christ's imitation to others. “As dearly loved children, follow God's example and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1).
What does it mean to have a spiritual foundation?
We can withstand anything comes our way when we build on the rock-solid foundation of Christ. A God-centered foundation promotes solid faith and life, as well as the ability to be living examples to others.
Develop a strong spiritual basis and a strong faith. Building a solid spiritual foundation entails investing, inspecting, and maintaining itand God has given us the guidelines to do so!
Learn to put your faith in God for the little things. You'll find it simpler to trust God with the big stuff once you've done that.
What are walls meant for?
A wall is a structural feature that divides or encloses a space and, in building construction, forms the room or building's perimeter. Traditional masonry construction required exterior walls to support the weight of floors and roofs, but modern steel and reinforced concrete frames, as well as heavy timber and other skeletal structures, only require exterior walls for shelter and may dispense with them entirely on the ground floor to allow for easier access.
What is the purpose of a wall?
Walls in structures serve several functions: they support roofs, floors, and ceilings; they enclose a space as part of the building envelope, along with the roof, to give buildings form; and they provide shelter and security. Furthermore, the wall may include numerous services such as electrical wiring or plumbing. There are two types of wall construction: framed walls and mass-walls. The load is transferred to the foundation using pillars, columns, or studs in framed walls. The structural parts (such as 24 studs in a house wall), insulation, and finish elements or surfaces are all common components of framed walls (such as drywall or panelling). Masonry, concrete, including slipform stonemasonry, log building, cordwood construction, adobe, rammed earth, cob, earthbag construction, bottles, tin cans, straw-bale construction, and ice are examples of solid materials used in mass-walls. Lead-bearing walls may or may not exist. Building and/or fire codes must be followed when constructing walls.
Water intrusion can be controlled in three ways: moisture storage, drained cladding, or face-sealed cladding. Moisture storage is common in stone and brick mass-wall constructions, as the structure's walls collect and release moisture. Moisture will penetrate drained cladding, also known as screened walls, thus a moisture barrier such as housewrap or felt paper inside the cladding provides a second line of defense, and sometimes a drainage plane or air gap allows moisture to flow down through and exit the wall. In some cases, such as in rainscreen construction, ventilation is given in addition to the drainage plane. Face-sealed cladding, also known as barrier wall or perfect barrier cladding, is based on keeping the cladding surface leak-free. Early exterior insulation finishing systems, structural glazing, metal clad panels, and corrugated metal are all examples of face sealed cladding.
Externally and inside, building walls frequently become works of art, such as when mosaic work or murals are painted on them; or as design focal points when textures or painted finishes are used for impact.
Why was the wall built around Jerusalem?
Since they ceased to serve as a method of defence for the city, the walls of Jerusalem, which were designed to protect the city's borders against invasions, have mostly served as a tourist attraction.
What is the significance of the walls of Jerusalem?
It is the spot where the Islamic Prophet Muhammad hitched his winged steed, al-Buraq, on his Isra and Mi'raj to Jerusalem before ascending to paradise, according to one of various Muslim traditions, and it forms the western border of al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The sacredness of the Western Wall in Judaism stems from its proximity to the Temple Mount. The Wall is the holiest spot where Jews are authorized to pray because of Temple Mount entry restrictions, despite the fact that the Foundation Stone, the most sacred site in the Jewish faith, is located behind it. The original, irregular-shaped Temple Mount was eventually enlarged to allow for the construction of a larger Temple compound at its summit. Herod completed the process by enclosing the Mount with a nearly rectangular set of retaining walls designed to support the Temple platform, as well as vast substructures and earth fills that gave the natural hill a geometrically regular shape. Herod built a huge paved platform that ringed the Temple on top of this box-like construction. The western retaining wall is the closest to the old Holy of Holies of the Temple Mount, making it the most hallowed spot acknowledged by Judaism outside of the previous Temple Mount platform.
The wall, which is just over half the total height of the wall, including the 17 courses below street level, dates from the end of the Second Temple period and is widely thought to have been built by Herod the Great beginning in 19 BCE, though recent excavations indicate that the work was not completed by the time Herod died in 4 BCE. The lower courses' very huge stone blocks are Herodian, while the medium-sized stone courses above them were built during the Umayyad period, and the small stones of the uppermost courses are more recent, especially during the Ottoman period.
The term “Western Wall” and its variants are mostly used in a narrow sense to refer to the section of the Temple Mount that has traditionally been used by Jews for prayer; it has also been referred to as the “Wailing Wall,” in reference to the practice of Jews weeping at the site over the destruction of the Temples. During the Christian Roman occupation of Jerusalem (ca. 324638), Jews were forbidden from entering the city save on Tisha B'Av, the day of national mourning for the Temples, when Jews would grieve at their sacred sites. Between the creation of British Rule in 1920 and the Six-Day War in 1967, the name “Wailing Wall” was almost exclusively used by Christians, and it was reintroduced during the era of non-Jewish control. Religious Jews and, increasingly, many others who deem it disparaging do not use the word “Wailing Wall.”
The term “Western Wall” can refer to the complete 488-meter (1,601-foot) retaining wall on the Temple Mount's western side. With the exception of an 8-metre (26-foot) section, the so-called Little Western Wall, the classic portion of the wall currently faces a vast plaza in the Jewish Quarter near the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, the remainder of the wall is hidden behind structures in the Muslim Quarter. The “Western Wall” or “Wailing Wall,” a section of the western retaining wall usually used for Jewish liturgy, is notable for having never been completely buried by medieval buildings and possessing substantially more genuine Herodian stonework than the “Little Western Wall.” In theological terms, the underground Warren's Gate, which has been out of reach for Jews since the 12th century until its partial excavation in the 20th century, is thought to be even closer to the Holy of Holies and hence to the “presence of God” (Shechina).
While the wall was deemed Muslim property as part of the Haram esh-Sharif and waqf property of the Moroccan Quarter, the Status Quo included a right of Jewish prayer and pilgrimage. During the British Mandate period, this view was confirmed by an international commission in 1930.
The first reference to this location as a place of Jewish devotion dates from the 17th century. The earlier sites used by Jews for mourning the destruction of the Temple were to the east, on the Mount of Olives and in the Kidron Valley below it, during periods when Jews were denied entry to the city. Various Jews attempted to purchase rights to the wall and its nearby region from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, but none were successful. The wall became a source of contention between the Jewish and Muslim communities during the advent of the Zionist movement in the early twentieth century, with the latter concerned that it may be used to further Jewish claims to the Temple Mount and therefore Jerusalem. During this time, violent outbursts at the foot of the wall grew common, culminating in a particularly deadly riot in 1929, which claimed the lives of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs, with many more injured. Jordan captured the eastern part of Jerusalem after the ArabIsraeli War of 1948. Under Jordanian rule, Jews were fully evacuated from the Old City, including the Jewish Quarter, and were forbidden from entering for 19 years, essentially prohibiting Jewish prayer at the Western Wall. Following the Six-Day War, Israel took possession of the location on June 10, 1967, and this period came to an end on June 10, 1967. The Moroccan Quarter was razed by Israeli authorities three days after they took possession of the Western Wall site to make way for what is today the Western Wall plaza.
What is the meaning of Isaiah 58 12?
“You will lay the foundations for many generations, and you will be known as the mender of breaches and restorer of roads to dwell in.” Isaiah 58:12 (NIV)
We prefer to look for texts in the Bible that relate to the work we do, which is to build and restore houses.
This Isaiah passage appears to be an appeal to the people to repair the city's walls and restore it.
In reality, it's a promise to the people of what they can achieve if they follow the Lord's instructions.
It appears at the conclusion of a chapter in which the people are punished for their false fasting.
They seemed to believe that God wasn't crediting them enough for their fasting and general virtue.
The response is swift and unequivocal.
“I haven't acknowledged your fasting because it is untrue,” He says.
Isaiah goes on to explain what actual fasting entails to the people.
He informs them that a real fast entails throwing off wickedness, releasing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, and providing shelter for the destitute.
The practice of righteous fasting is accompanied by righteous behavior.