In the Old Testament the LORD
God had a temple for His people; however, in the New
Testament He has His people for a temple.
The apostle Paul taught, “You
are the temple of God” (I Cor. 3:16).
The reason he can say that is because we have
been redeemed by the death of Jesus Christ.
Because of redemption, the Holy Spirit has
taken up residence in the redeemed.
In the old dispensation of the
law, the tabernacle and later the temple were given
over entirely to God for His sacred use.
They were called “holy” because they were
separated and used for His purpose and glory alone.
It symbolized the house of God on the earth.
Under the new dispensation of
grace, the Christian is now called God’s temple. The
believer must yield his or her whole life without
any reserve to God. Our bodies
are sacred temples, holy unto the Lord.
God has claimed by means of redemption our
bodies, and what He claimed for His holy purpose we
must yield to Him. “I beg you,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice”
(Rom. 12:1). We will do what the
apostle admonishes as we remind ourselves that we
are His holy temple. If we have
learned that our body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, we will keep it undefiled.
“Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.”
Moreover, the temple in the old
economy was given over to the LORD God for His
unique possession. When Moses
dedicated the tabernacle to God, He filled it with
His glory. When King Solomon
completed the temple, “The cloud filled the house of
the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to
minister because of the cloud:
for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of
the Lord” (I Kings 8:10-11).
From the moment you believe on
Christ as your Savior, the Spirit of God dwells in
you (Rom. 8:9). "But if the
Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells
in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11, NASB
1995). The apostle Paul clearly has in mind the
glory of God filling the temple.
Therefore, as the glory filled the temple of old, so
the Holy Spirit dwells with the believer of Jesus
Christ. “He dwells in you.”
When a sinner has been born spiritually, God
dwells in that holy place and that person can
commune in fellowship with the LORD God in holiness.
The Holy Spirit is a living person in the
Godhead, who literally indwells us.
The dwelling of the Holy Spirit in our bodies
is a real indwelling of a real individual, spiritual
person. That divine person is
very God of very God; equal with the Father and the
Son.
To the obedient disciple, Jesus
promised that He and the Father “will come unto him
and make our abode with Him” (John 14:23).
That alone is the secret of the normal
Christian life. We are to be God-possessed and
indwelled by Him. Let us trust
Him to do all that He has promised to do in and
through us.
What I yield to God He accepts,
cleanses, fills, and then uses me to His glory and
honor. It is God within the soul
of man, possessed today by faith, and throughout
eternity.
The indwelling Holy Spirit, a
living person, a divine presence, is God’s means of
reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Cor. 5:17).
In the old dispensation, God
took possession of His temple and indwelt it so He
could bless His people and they in turn bless the
world. The Holy Spirit invades
the temple of your body, assumes residence in you,
and begins the re-creation of Christ to the glory of
the Father. One by one, as we
yield to His sovereignty, He is changing the world.
He gives us “whole new strength and vitality.
He brings us to the fullness of His life.”
There is no greater pleasure to
the Holy Spirit than to dwell in His temple and do
extraordinary work through ordinary people who have
learned to make themselves available to Him to reign
with “ungrieved” sovereignty.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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