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Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
As temples of the Holy Spirit, we exist to glorify God while we welcome visitors into His presence. Every choice in our lives should conform to this purpose.
In this series we are exploring what it means to be temples of the Holy Spirit. We’re looking at the nine types of people who visit temples so that we can understand their motivation. If we understand what drives them, we will better understand how to help them on their journey towards the Lord.
Choosing the Temple-Priest Mindset
When we receive salvation, we are made new. The Bible calls us temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), and it also calls us priests (1 Peter 2:9).
The temple is the totality of our being that is host to the Holy Spirit. Anytime someone interacts with us, they are interacting with the temple of God in some way. Even if they are merely observing our behavior from a distance, as temples of the Living God, our behavior says something about who we serve. Therefore, every part of our being—physical, mental, and spiritual—should glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
The priest is our conscious awareness that ministers before the Lord. It’s the part of us that takes care of the temple and helps other people meet with Jesus.
People may interact with the temple without us knowing. They may observe us while we are unaware, thinking, “There’s something different about that person. There’s a kindness about them I’ve never seen before. There’s something good about them. Something merciful and joyful. I wonder what it is?”
Interacting with the priest, on the other hand, is always intentional. There is focus and purpose to it. The priest might notice curious observers and decide to engage them in conversation. The priest meets people where they’re at, answers their questions, and invites them into more meaningful relationships with Jesus.
Stepping into the temple-priest mindset is a choice. We can choose it at any time by remembering we are temples of the Holy Spirit and representatives of Christ. Practically, this means keeping our hearts and minds clean while being attentive to those who are in our presence. It means treating everyone with kindness and intentionally looking for opportunities to help people get closer to Jesus.
It’s never too late in the day to choose this mindset, but the best time to step into it is in the first part of the day, when we wake up.
The Morning Walkthrough
Everyone who has had to open up a business in the morning knows to do a walkthrough of the building before they unlock the doors. They want to make sure the lights on, that the trash is taken out, and that the rooms are clean and organized.
Why? They want people to have a great experience! It would be embarrassing if customers walked into the lobby and wrinkled their noses because of smelly garbage leftover from the night before. It’s much easier to focus on helping people if we aren’t busy cleaning up yesterday’s messes.
As priests, it’s important that we do a walkthrough of our temples in the morning. If we take the time to do a quick inventory of our lives, we can make sure our thoughts, words, and actions are clean and welcoming. If we pair that with prayer and Bible reading, it gives us a roadmap to navigate the day and helps prepare us for the types of people and situations we’ll encounter.
Relying on the Helper
The beautiful thing about God is that if our temples are dirty, we don’t have to clean them alone. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, and He’s very hands-on. We can ask Him to help us organize our thoughts, and He will. We can ask Him to purify our emotions, and He will. We can ask Him to direct our choices and empower our actions, and He will.
Psalm 139:23-24 ESV - Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
When we partner with the Holy Spirit to take care of our temple, it is a testimony of the power of Jesus Christ to change our lives for the better. That kind of testimony is incredibly appealing to those in the world who are hurting and looking for answers.
If you need help cleaning up your life, ask the Holy Spirit. If you need help repairing a part of your life that’s broken, ask the Holy Spirit. If some parts of your life need to be reorganized, ask the Holy Spirit.
Invite Him into your morning routine, and He will help you. He will help you understand the Bible. He will help you surrender the things you’re having a hard time letting go of. He will lead you to the answers you’re looking for. He will help you heal and gain wisdom and know the truth as you read the word of God.
He will help you.
It’s in His name.
John 14:16-17 ESV - And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.