What do we do in God’s Temple? We worship God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We adore Him. We praise Him loudly and quietly. We thank Him. We seek forgiveness. We beg for our heart’s desires. We seek His countenance and direction. We intercede for others. We seek peace, love and a joy that the world cannot give.
Similarly, we Christians often like to claim that our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Think about the paragraph above and then think about our bodies homing the Spirit of this awe-inspiring God. If you are like me, the first thought will be how irreverently we often treat God’s Divine Presence in us, His human temples.
What do we think God’s Holy Spirit expects to be the house rules of this Temple that He has conceded to occupy with His Divine Presence? Holiness, or at least every sincere effort to aim for holiness, knowing fully well that we can never achieve perfect holiness while we are in this world.
From God’s Word, we can glimpse that the Spirit’s expectations will include: Lives that worship God, keeping the Alpha and Omega as the beginning and end-point of our desires, words and actions; Choices and decisions that glorify God’s name; Bodies that are subjected to the Spirit of God; Thoughts that are subject to the captivity of Jesus Christ; Care that the Residence is clean and welcoming.
Love of God and neighbor as we love ourselves, is the overarching house rule that will encompass all the above. We tend to fall short of these house rules when we fail to keep a constant consciousness of the presence of God’s Spirit in us. The same reverence we have for God in His Tabernacle should propel us to reverence His Spirit within us.
I believe most people have a desire to reverence God wherever they encounter Him. The key is remembering that He is within us, not only when we are praying but every single second that we are breathing. For it is His Spirit that gives life. This is why we should develop the mind-set of doing all things with God. Not only when we need help or are fearful, but when we are relaxing, enjoying the company of friends, working or playing.
God promised that He will never leave nor forsake us. His Spirit is within us but oftentimes we only invoke Him when we are praying or praising. It’s as if we are concerned that He would not approve of other aspects of our lives. May we continually and deliberately invite the Holy Spirit to participate in all that we do. In this way, we participate in God’s holiness and glorify His name as we go about our daily lives.
Hilltop Thoughts, Valley Strengths 