Walking Talking Temples of the Holy Spirit

"Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool, Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For my hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being declares the LORD, But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word." Isaiah 66:1-2 (NASB)

Obviously, as we've already discovered our God is so incredibly large He could neer be contained in a "house" built by man. Yet we've already discovered that the apostle, Paul, admonishes in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB): "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." No, He cannot be contained in a building of wood and bricks, but our hearts and our actions can certainly embody and proclaim His glory!

As I searched through the New Testament for specific instances of that which brought glory to the Father these are some of the examples I found, demonstrating that when He is present in our lives glorious things happen that we could never dream up. 

Luke 2:15-20 recounts the shepherds' visit to the Baby Jesus. Going about their routine lives in the fields by night, they had been visited by a host of angels. Did they expect to witness that spectacular display of God's creation? Highly unlikely. But their response was to leave their place of comfort, and go check this out at the risk of being mocked for believing some crazy vision was real -- or perhaps thought to have been smoking some funny weed.  The result: They returned glorifying God! Scripture doesn't tell us for sure, but I'm believing they returned to their work, their family, their friends, their same routine, but reflecting the glory of God and His heavenly light and colors to all of those around them! They were walking, talking temples of the Holy Spirit right in the middle of the ordinary stuff of life.

We will look at other examples in the next posts. Allow yourself to be awed by the glory of God.

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All other content Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011 

The Master's Teaching Seminar

 Were about to begin the next chapter in our study. Here's a brief overview.

Your Master's Plan: Check Out His Teaching Seminar

All through Scripture God's glory is displayed through the lives of real people. We'll begin this chapter by visiting the shepherds returning from their field trip to the manger, the forgiven paralytic, the widow's son restored to life, and John and Peter's encounter with the paralytic at the temple gate. The impact of their encounters with God provided an outpouring of His glory to the world around them. God met them where they were and prepared them to be used mightily in His plan. Their stories were recorded in the first century after Christ's birth. God is still using their God-color testimonies for His plans and to bring Him glory today in the year 2011. That is another rather mind-boggling revelation of the BIGNESS of our God!

Christ's power to make a difference in our world lives right inside our temples. . . our lives. . . our bodies. Unfortunately, we often put our focus on other stuff. It becomes all too convenient to set His place in our life apart for another "more attractive" alternative of the moment. Isaiah discovered that truth in His life. God provided for Isaiah's restoration. He does the same for us. When we run smack dab into our need for remodeling in our temples because of the sin/idols we allow to take His place on the thrones of our temples, God has already made all the provisions for restoration.

We'll also be looking at the provisions David had prepared for his son, Solomon, to build the temple of God in Jerusalem. We'll be drawing some parallels to the provisions God makes for our temple life through the blueprints Jesus laid out in His Sermon on the Mount. Pay close attention during His terrific teaching seminar.

Topics we'll cover in this chapter:

• God shows up in the midst of the situations of life.
• We are heirs, seated with Him at the right hand of the power of God.
• Will you be a willing participant?
• David's provisions for Solomon to build the Temple of God.
• God's provisions for His Temple in us.

Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2004, 2011