To even see the disciples of Jesus question Jesus about his actions is appealing. In John 12:1-8, we see a poor woman who took her savings, bought perfume and wiped the perfume on Jesus feet with her hair. Judas complained that the money could have been used to help the poor. But Judas was stealing from the money bag for his own greed. Where Jesus wanted a heart, Judas wanted a garment. The disciples, in John 9, approached a blind man and saw his condition. Instead of being like Jesus and seeing the healing and opportunity for this blind man's future, the disciples were too busy being like some well known preachers by trying to drag out and determine what parent committed the horrible sin in the past that made this man blind in the first place. Sometimes when the opportunity of healing occurs, you have to seize that moment, cut through everyone else's needless words, and accept the healing no matter what others say. After the blind man received healing, he had to endure more grief from the Pharisees who claimed that they had the only anointing because of their lineage to Moses. The Pharisees tried to call his healing demonic and deny the power of Jesus. Very true in some churches today where latter moves of God are denied because the humble and willing vessels did not come from their denomination nor claim that preacher so-and-so from the 1800's was their influence.

In a nutshell:

• The Pharisees wanted to build bigger buildings with rigid systems of legalism consisting of "do's and dont's" in a stationary temple of spendor and hoard the blessings to themselves.
• Jesus wanted to build better believers with annointing and grace to be mobilized to go wherever he leads His followers to give away the blessings received from God.

In Genesis 11, we see clearly an attempt of man to become God. These men decided to erect a statue to heaven in order to be famous and not be scattered about. These men thought because of their human efforts that they could be the god in their life. But the scriptures clearly show us that God scattered the people to and fro and changed their languages, and construction of the shrine to themselves was abandoned. The men of Babel are alot like the Pharisees in many ways. Both Babel and the Pharasees want a stationary shrine as a monument to their movement gone by in an attempt to reach the heavens to "please" God. I want you to remember the word "stationary" as we further progress in this article. Both Babel and the Pharasees wanted a name for themselves at the expense of putting their actions as self-idolotry to exalt themselves above God. Babel and the Pharisees masked their true motives through human works and various forms of sin repackaged as legalism. When I think of Babel, I immediately think about the Native American concept of the totem pole. The totem pole was used by the Indians as a way of carving symbolisms of animals, other natural objects, and visions of the appearances of evil spirits. The Indians used to have pow-wows and dance around these totem poles in the name of ancestry worship to contact their deceased ancestors for "hidden wisdom" (necromancy). Also, the totem pole was used to enhance the traditions and methods of the past. I find this to be in parallel to Babel in reference of a shrine to themselves. I also see this in parallel to the Pharasees who wanted a shrine of legalism and ancestry worship of Moses when they could have had the Messiah. As the Lord scattered Babel and it's bricks and mortar lay in ruin, Jesus, throughout his life, death, and resurrection, prepared the way of bringing us from a stagnant building of brick and mortar to becoming a human temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). We clearly see what happens when people try to build modernized Babels (totem poles) and do not heed God's warning about idolotry. Let us now look at what happens when we do decide to cut down the Babels and totem poles that have raised themselves as God instead of letting God be God.

In Judges 6, we see Gideon. Gideon is just your average everyday farmer with a low self-esteem problem out threshing wheat in a winepress to keep the Midianites (who conquered the Israelites after they did evil in the Lord's sight) from taking the wheat. It was here that the angel of the Lord visited and called Gideon a "mighty warrior", then the Lord told Gideon to "save Israel out of Midian's hand". When Gideon prepared the offering, the Lord told Gideon to "tear down the altar to Baal, cut down the Asherah pole, and use the wood to build a altar to God and sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering". An Asherah pole was an idol that was approximately eight feet tall made in honor of the goddess of fertility Asherah. It was very similar to the build and design of the totem pole. It was after the cutting down of the Asherah pole that the events to free Israel took place. It is after we begin to cut down the Asherah / totem poles in our life and then fully submit to God that God moves on our behalf. Gideon was so afraid of the people that he cut down the Asherah pole at night and did the sacrifice at night. I find it amazing how this could be done with a lot of noises taking place and not one Baal and Asherah worshipper was alert to wake up and confront Gideon in the night. Judges 6:28-30 clearly states that the Baal and Asherah worshippers did not know that Gideon cut down the Asherah pole and sacrificed the bull on the altar he made from destroying Baal's altar and the cutting down of the Asherah pole until the next morning. When someone is in the state of totem, they have became a part of the state of slumber. To those who want out of the slumbering state of totem and partake of the life of temple, I say to you "wake up from your slumber (Romans 13:11)" I also find it amazing that it was Gideon's father's altar and Asherah pole that was destroyed and the change in mentality of Gideon's father when Gideon's father saw the remains of the sacrifice. Gideon's father went from serving Baal to "letting Baal attempt to defend himself in front of God". Hearts change when the dead totem is further destroyed by the power of the living God. The tragedy in Gideon's life is that after destroying totem and bringing his people back to God, Gideon in his later years took gold from the Israelites and made another totem (ephod) that the Israelites later prostituted themselves to. After Gideon died, the Israelites went back to Baal worship. Just because you defeated totem and became temple does not mean that the devil wants you to become totem again. Therefore, one who desires to remain a temple of the Holy Spirit must remain in a constant state of spiritual maintenance and proper balance of word, prayer, and praise or else the opportunity exists for the temple to be destroyed. The scriptures clearly say in 1 Corinthians 3:17 that "if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple".

Click here for part two of Totem to Temple.