Our Body is His Temple
When we become a Christian, the Bible says – Our body becomes a temple for the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and was given to us by God. We no longer belong to ourself, for God bought us with a high price. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
So because the Holy Spirit dwells in our body, we should make our ‘temple’ a place fit for this royalty, a place where he would want to reside.
When Jesus was on earth, He regularly visited the temple in Jerusalem. One day he arrived to see people doing business there and He took action – see here:
In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; and he saw money changers behind their counters.
Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and oxen, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Don’t turn my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house burns within me.” John 2:14-17
The account of these events is also found in Mark 11:15-17: where it is written:
“The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a place of prayer for all nations’, so here’s a thought, does He want our body, His ‘temple’ to be a place of prayer for all nations?
In the Bible God instructs us to:
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20
But will He stay if we don’t make Him feel welcome?
I don’t believe Jesus would ever leave us unless we decide we don’t want Him around, but like any other relationship, when we don’t spend time with Him, neglect our relationship with Him, sometimes it can feel like our prayers are hitting the ceiling and we God seems somehow distant. That’s when our faith in Him can diminish because the relationship has broken down and He’s not so close any more.
So how do we make sure He says close? Its like any relationship. If we tell someone we love them but never spend any time with them the relationship will grow cold.
We’d go all out to make our home suitable if royalty was coming to stay, but Jesus doesn’t ask us to make ourselves suitable for His arrival. The Holy Spirit residing in us gently prompts us to let go of the things that aren’t good for us anymore, in order to mould us into the person God destined for us to be.
By obeying His prompting, we give permission for Him to gently and completely clean out the things in our lives that aren’t appropriate for us as Christians.
A relationship with Jesus is never pushed on us. Jesus waits patiently for us to give Him permission to stay but things like anxiety, fear, depression, hate, anger, etc are all the things Jesus died on the cross to free us from, so when we continue to let these things rule us, there is little room for the Holy Spirit to stay.
“This is the message from the one who is holy and true. He is the one who has the key of David. He opens doors, and no one can shut them; he shuts doors, and no one can open them.
“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me.
Look! I will force those who belong to Satan — those liars who say they are Jews but are not — to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love.
“Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.
Look, I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown.
All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write my God’s name on them, and they will be citizens in the city of my God — the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And they will have my new name inscribed upon them.
Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Click here to read for yourselves
If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him; If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us; BUT…
If we give up on him, he does not give up – for there’s no way he can be false to himself.
Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out.
Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. 2 Timothy 2:12-15 MSG
If you’ve read down this far and you don’t have a relationship with this God of the Universe its easy to begin. We just have to recognise our need of Him, receive His forgiveness and ask Him to come in and be our guide.
When we accept Jesus as our Saviour He promises to come in –
“Here, I’m standing at the door, knocking. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he will eat with me.” Revelations3:20
Please do your part and share this message because everyone deserves to know!
© Copyright 2014 Elaine Costin All Rights Reserved
While everything The Holy Spirit inspires me to write is under full copyright protection, the only purpose is to make sure people copy it right. As long as you always clearly reference it as my work including my copyright statement at the bottom, keep it in its entirety without editing of any kind and link it to https://www.capturingsunrise.com/blog as the source, you have my permission to copy, print, and distribute my writings freely, as long as it is not for profit. If you wish to use my writings in a profit making capacity then permission must be granted by the author.
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