What Does That Look Like?
Last week I discussed the fact that the church is the place where God "kicks it." In 1 Corinthians 3:16 it states that the Holy Spirit dwells in the body of Christ. The "you" is plural there. Today I would like to talk about 1st Corinthians 6:19 where the "you" is singular. You and I, as born-again believers in Jesus Christ, have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. It states that we are the "temple" (once again the holy of holies) for the Holy Spirit, sent from God, and we have given up the ownership rights to our bodies. That is crazy!!
First of all, to think the Holy Spirit would want to live inside of me is insanity! The things that I think and the prejudices I have towards the things of the world are not an environment that is completely welcome for God to "kick it." I mean sometimes I do not love people the way God loves them. In fact, I gossip, slander, lust, hate, rebel, and I am stingy sometimes. How could God want to live in an environment like that? If I am truly honest, there are rooms in my house I do not make God welcome to dwell in.
The truth is, God still comes and makes His dwelling inside of me. Sometimes He and I are on really good terms. There are other times (like when one of His children doesn't act the way I want them to) when I do not make God welcome in certain areas of my life. When I watch things on TV that I know I shouldn’t, or go places where I know I shouldn't be, or Then I make the atmosphere a place where God is not very welcome. The thing is, He still lives in the house. He just doesn't have access to the whole house. I kind of think this is what the Bible says when it talks about grieving the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).
It is amazing to me that God's Spirit came and dwelt inside of me the instant I believed (Ephesians 1:13-14) and yet I am still not completely “cleaned up.” I guess the process of sanctification takes a LONG time. Part of it is my fault. There are many places where the responsibility is mine to put off’ certain things, to renew my mind' by doing certain things, and to stop pleasing the flesh but to follow after the Holy Spirit. In my own life, God delivered me from A LOT when I was saved but He left a LOT to do also. We have the Divine Nature inside of us (2 Peter 1:3-4) but we also have a lot of our old habits, thought patterns, prejudices, and goals that have to be brought into line with the new nature God has put inside of us.
I think the difference between before I was saved and now is God has placed two things inside me making me different. The first is a Divine 'want to' that desires to change. I do not want to be the same. The second thing is the power to change. I now have the power of God helping me give up those things that do not please Him and to become more like Jesus.
I have never been married, I am not a woman, and I have never fathered a child (that I know of). The thing is, in a very real way, we are pregnant with God. He has placed a seed inside of us and we are to nurture it, care for it, and bring it to maturity. When a mother is pregnant, she eats for two, she quits doing certain things, because they will affect the health of the life inside of her. She doesn't go to the same places she used to because they may put her child's safety in danger. Isn't it the same way with us? We have something inside of us we need to protect, nurture, and help grow because as 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “we are no longer our own.” We belong to God.
So, what does the Divine Nature look like when it is on display? What would it look like if the nature of the Holy Spirit blew up in my life without any hindrances or veils? The Bible says that we should walk like Jesus walked (1 John 2:6) and Paul says to Timothy that he should show himself to be an example of a pure life for those who believe (1 Timothy 4:12). Some would say if people actually did this there would be a lot more power gifts displayed. I think if we walked more after the Divine Nature inside of us we would forgive more. I think there would be a LOT more love flowing from our lives.
1 Corinthians 6:19 says that we do not belong to ourselves but to God. What does this mean? It means we should be allowing God to control us and make decisions in our lives. When we allow this to happen more and more then the Holy Spirit will shine through our lives in a brighter and brighter manner.
I wonder what this looks like? What would it look like in me? In you?