“It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made.   (1 Kings 14: 25-26)

I felt the Lord spoke to me through this passage. He said: “What golden shields do you have in the temple? There should only be one shield, and that is the shield of faith. All of the others are made from the gold of this world, and belong to the ruler of this world. You need to remove your golden shields from My temple.“

The shields can take many forms. But they all have the same purpose: we look to them for safety and protection, and hiding under them we keep ourselves away from the Lord. We can let them become our security. They can be financial security, emotional security, reputation, religious systems, our traditions – any number of things. But the Lord wants us to clear His temple so that He can come and fill it with His glory.

God gave Solomon wealth and wisdom beyond measure, but in the end his heart went after other gods. He, and He alone, is our strength and our shield; His presence and not the gold He gives is our security. This is our shield of faith. If we wrap ourselves in him and place our trust in Him alone, His glory will eventually come and fill the temple. And then the answer will be “yes!“ to the question that Jesus put in Luke 18:8: “Will the Son of Man find faith on earth when He returns?”

I received this word around the same time that Jake received the prophesy posted as “My body is not in shape.” It is worth reading them together, as they convey a similar message.