Because I believe Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, I am a temple in which God dwells.   This is one of those mind stretching statements that believers often don’t stop to ponder.  We know we are alive and have a conscience and a spirit within us that makes us alive.  When we accept Jesus as our Savior, He sends His Holy Spirit to join with our spirit and live inside of us.  Why would He do that?   In the Old Testament times the Jews built a tabernacle at God’s direction as a place to worship God but also a place for God to dwell.  God instructed Moses in Exodus 25:8 “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”   God desires to live in our midst so He can guide and direct us into right living, but also so we can know and understand God and His ways more clearly.  1 Corinthians 2:11-12  “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.   What an amazing gift God has given us in the indwelling Holy Spirit.  We can feel connected to God at all times, loved and cherished by Him, guided and protected.  I love Romans 8:16 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,”   We can know that we are God’s child because the Holy Spirit tells us so from within.

How does this fact affect you?  Paul tells us in Romans 8:9 that if we do not know Christ we do not have His Spirit within us. “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”  Having God’s Spirit living within us and helping us to grow in understanding of Him and His ways is the privilege of every believer.  Paul says we are not led by the flesh anymore but are in the Spirit. To know Christ is to have His Spirit indwell us.  Do you let this fact that the Holy Spirit lives within you guide your words and actions each day?  Or do you ignore the nudging of the Holy Spirit and determine to do your own thing be it godly or not?  God put His Holy Spirit within us to help us to be more and more like Jesus.  Is that you?

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for your indwelling Holy Spirit.  Help me listen more carefully to you as I speak and interact with others.  Guide and protect me as I seek to be your light in a dark world.   In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Striving to walk in the Spirit each day,

Linda