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Treasure Chests from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

Treasure chests are special boxes crafted to hold something precious. Just as a treasure chest, we, too, can be vessels for something incredibly valuable: the Holy Spirit. Think about the Ark of the Covenant, which Moses constructed according to God's precise blueprint:

(Exodus 25:10–11 NKJV) "And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around.

The Ark of the Covenant was a rectangular box, about the size of a small seaman's chest, made of common acacia wood and covered in pure gold. God had a purpose for it, and He wanted it to be beautifully designed to reflect His glory. When we look at how it was made, we find that a cubit, the measurement from a man's elbow to his fingers, is about 18 inches. So, if we measured the Ark, it would be roughly 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches tall.

Inside the Ark were the Ten Commandments, etched on stone tablets, along with a few other priceless treasures: Aaron's staff that had miraculously budded with almond blossoms and a golden pot of manna - the bread from heaven that sustained the Israelites during their time in the wilderness (Hebrews 9:4). It was called the "Ark of the Covenant" because it held God's law, representing the sacred agreement between God and His people, Israel.

The Ark was crafted from natural wood, cut from trees that grew from the earth. It was then overlaid with pure gold, a material that symbolizes God's divine nature throughout Scripture. Gold is an element, and unlike other precious stones, which are formed from various materials under extreme heat and pressure, gold exists in its pure form from the very beginning. This reflects God's eternal and unchanging character. Interestingly, (Revelation 21:21) tells us that the streets of heaven will be made of pure gold.

When we examine the Ark, we see something crafted from common materials yet beautifully overlaid with something eternal. The ordinary wood was covered with divine gold, and inside it were precious treasures. The Ark was indeed a sacred treasure chest, but God had something even better in store, as He said in Jeremiah 31:

(Jeremiah 31:31–33 NKJV) "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Jesus' atonement ushered in the New Covenant, making the old Ark unnecessary. Atonement means "At-One-Ment," signifying the restoration of a relationship. Imagine two parties who were once separated but have now come together as one. That's exactly what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, bridging the gap between humanity and God.

Like the Ark, the human body is a container. It holds our spirit and can also house others, such as the Holy Spirit or even evil spirits. In fact, our bodies can accommodate many spirits simultaneously. A striking example is found in Mark chapter 5, where Jesus cast out a legion of demons from a single man. There were so many that they rushed into a herd of about 2,000 pigs, which ran off a cliff and drowned. Jesus spoke more about this in Luke 11:

(Luke 11:24–26 NKJV) "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first."

The spirit referred to the man's body as "my house," indicating that man was once his dwelling place. By the end of the story, we see that at least eight evil spirits lived inside that man. Our bodies are containers for spirits, both good and bad. I have witnessed enough Christians undergo deliverance and felt the effects myself to understand that it is possible to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you alongside other spirits.

Your body is like a house that God is gradually taking over, room by room. We are fixer-uppers, reclaimed and rescued from the enemy. Ideally, our lives will eventually be filled with light and have no dark corners (Luke 11:36). However, it doesn't start out that way. Many of us have "red light districts" within us, areas of our lives that have not yet been fully submitted to God.

Yet, today, we are God's treasure chests. He desires to cover us with His likeness and fill us with His Holy Spirit. Rather than having His law written on tablets of stone and stored inside the Ark, God writes His Word on our hearts. As Paul expressed:

(2 Corinthians 3:3 NASB) ... you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

(Romans 2:14–15 NASB) For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts...

Just as the Ark of the Covenant was constructed from common wood and then covered in pure gold, we, too, are made from the earth but covered in His divine nature. Where the Ark contained the law written on tablets of stone, we have it written on our hearts. It is the natural covered by the divine, filled with His presence and His Word. We truly are God's treasure chests.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please mold me, deliver me, and help me fulfill my purpose here. Fill me with Your word, Your Spirit, and cover me with Your presence. I want to be Your treasure chest today. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!