Imagine you are building a holy temple...

Feb 24
5 min read

A friend asked me to help them follow Jesus today. I had to think. Here's what I said:

1. Set your intention to follow God. Not Jesus. God is the foundation. Jesus followed God. He's our big brother. We copy him.

2. Either go find your Bible or go buy one. Get one you love, that appeals to you. Write your name in it. Write the date. Make a vow to read at least 1 verse every single day for a year without fail. Mark the date. Keep the vow as if your life depends on it. Don't fail.

3. Pray to God for forgiveness of your sins in life up to this point, today. Mean it. Don't pray to Jesus. Pray to our Father, God, Yahweh, YHWH, also pronounced Jehovah but I call him Yahweh because every single instance he is mentioned in our entire Bible the word is YHWH. Believe me. I know. Say, Dear Father, Yahweh... pray... End it with our Big Brother's blessing, and example and trust in him too. Say, "In Jesus' name, amen."

4. Get started. It requires you to develop a brand new mind a brand new heart a brand new life. So figure out what you can give God as a sacrifice, an offering. Think of a favorite sin. Give it up. Vow. Begin. Work on it. Every single time you want to do that sin, stop. Maybe the sin is cursing. Catch yourself. Stop. When you have one conquered go to the next one. You will know in your heart. Don't stop doing this for that entire year.

5. Find good food. Nourish your body with the best food you can afford, the best you can choose. Change your habits. At the same time, you need good spiritual food. Find music that fills your mind with good thoughts. Find tv shows and books that fill your mind with good thoughts. Reject music and shows that bring you down, that are full of sin like murder, sex, meanness. Go up.

6. It has to become habit. You are going up. You are going to where God is pleased with you. You will become one of his leaders. So set that in your intentions. You have to do it for others, set that burden on your shoulders. It's not just for you that you are doing this. It is for so and so, think of someone. It is for humanity. Bear the burden.

7. If your Bible is not King James version then get a new one, one that appeals to you. Not New King James, get normal regular King James. It has also been messed with, they all have. But it has been messed with the least. So like food, you want as pure as you have the ability to get. You will cut off years by rejecting the changes they made to all the other versions. Get King James.

8. Once you have your Bible kiss it. Pray over it. Ask God to bless it. Ask God to guide you, ask God to teach you. God is your teacher. He exists. He hears. He responds. Be truthful. Be pure. He measures it before he lets you go to the next step.

9. Open your Bible to Genesis 1:1 and start your one verse per day for a year there. Mark it with a bookmark so you know where you left off. Get two bookmarks. Find Matthew 1:1. Also start there. Both. The Old Testament is harder to comprehend than the New Testament. But you need to master both of them. So do them at the same time. If all you can do is read one verse then alternate them. Genesis Matthew Genesis Matthew. But I found I couldn't just stop at one verse because it gets your mind to thinking, it sets your heart on fire with desire to know more, to understand. Pray as much as you breathe. Always be thinking about this. Live it. Secretly in your heart of hearts set your thinking on God, on learning, on desiring to grow. You will.

Once you have the right mindset and once you are feeding yourself good spiritual food and reading his Bible then you will start noticing that God responds to you. Believe he does. He does. Believe he answers prayers. He does. Watch for it. Watch for his responding to you. Learn to recognize it. Learn to respond with the best intentions and actions you are capable of. You will grow. Grow for a year. By the end of a year you will be able to see God. He'll lead you. You won't want to stop. I did it for a year and it was hard. But this is now year 41. I wouldn't stop if you gave me a mansion. I already have one, the most valuable one, inside myself. You're building your eternal mansion. Build it well. Do that.

10. This is the most important part. As you walk through this next year, as you read God's Word every single day, your mind will grow, your spirit will grow. That's the point. So when you read something that makes you feel like you are doing something wrong in your life then stop doing the wrong thing. Fix it. As you read and walk ideas will come to you that you could do better than you are. Do the better thing. The goal is to develop the virtues, love. So love. As you do situations will arise. God is sending those situations to teach you. Respond with the best virtue you can think of, respond over the top, with love, extra love. It helps you grow faster. Don't expect the world or the people around you, even when you love someone or do something to benefit them, to thank you. They won't. You aren't doing it for them. You are doing it to please your Father, God. So, look for your reward and recognition just between Him and you, no one else. The goal is to create a pure heart. That is done in secret. So it is between you and God. That's all the praise and thanks you need. To know you obeyed HIM and HE is pleased with you. He'll figure out what you need next. Watch for it in what arises. It's a path. Keep on the path. Keep following. It has to all become habit, natural. He'll answer you. Watch for it, pray all the time, like a child. He'll answer and lead you. Walk.

11. Here's where Jesus comes in. Whenever you have a question about the path, which way to choose, whenever there is a fork in the road, follow your Big Brother. Ask yourself, "What would Jesus do?" Jesus would do the very best over the top good thing you can think of. Do that. Then keep it all up. It's going to cost you. Pay the price. Imagine you are building a beautiful holy temple for God from scratch. This is where you will dwell for eternity. Build it beautifully. It's inside you. xo Angel

Written February 24, 2026 at 1:17 pm