When the people of God returned from exile, they built a Second Temple. “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of father’s houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy” (Ezra 3:12). The Second Temple existed from around 516 BC to AD 70 and served as the temple for Jesus and Paul. But the Second Temple was missing five things: the ark of the covenant, the glory, divine fire, the Urim and Thummim, and the prophetic voice.Many people of God are weeping today because they experience a church empty of presence and glory. There is something missing. We have lost the glory of His presence. We no longer carry discernment or speak the prophetic word to the nations. Could the church today be missing the same things as the Second Temple? The church, as the final temple of God, should be the place of His presence and fullness of the Spirit. We should be the fiery voice of discernment and truth. The church must recover what is missing. We can restore what is missing, or we can become the Church of the Missing Five.

--Craig Lindsay Ervin

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