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Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
When we surrender our lives to Christ, we are made new. God’s Spirit dwells within us, and we become His temple. But what does it mean to be a temple, and how does that affect our daily lives?
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.
Caretakers and Tour Guides
For this word picture to make sense, we’ve got to expand our minds by thinking of two concepts at the same time.
The Bible calls us temples of the Holy Spirit, and it also calls us priests.
1 Peter 2:9 ESV - But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We are both the temple of the Holy Spirit and the priest serving in the temple.
If that sounds confusing at first, try thinking of it this way: the temple and the priest are different parts of ourselves.
The temple is the broad experience. It’s the entirety of who we are; the height, and depth, and width of our existence. Any time a person steps into our world, they are in the temple.
The priest is our focused awareness. It’s the part of ourselves that intentionally interacts with people to help them on their journey towards the presence of God.
As priests, we are both caretakers and tour guides. We make sure the temple is clean and in order, but we don’t stop there. Remember, the purpose of a temple is to honor God while leading others into His presence.
When we have visitors to the temple—whenever family, friends, or strangers step into our world—we have a responsibility to meet them where they’re at, answer any questions they may have, and then invite them into a greater experience with the Lord.
Thinking this way lets us live our lives intentionally. We become aware of how the presence of God in us affects others. We begin searching for those who seem lost or who act like they have questions.
Let me just tell you, as someone who loves recommending restaurants and showing people around, living with this mindset is incredibly fun. It’s fulfilling to see the joy on people’s faces as they awaken to a greater understanding of who God is.
Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV - For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.