Your Body, The Temple of the Holy Spirit

1 Corintians 6:19-20 (NIV) says “do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

What do those verses mean? Simple. The Holy Spirit lives within you. It is His home, and the way you keep your home (inner man/spiritual) reflects on your body (physical man/self).

If you are a child of God, a Believer in the Body of Christ, have been baptized with water, then you were filled with the Holy Spirit at salvation.
The Holy Spirit, who is part of the Triune, is holy, righteous and perfect. Man is by inheritance, sinful. God gave man free choice and with free choice sinfulness (man’s choices) and righteousness (the Holy Spirit) can dwell in a believer, together – up to a certain point. When this happens it is the Holy Spirit’s role to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He convicts, reproves and admonishes. He wants us to be Christ like, so He works according to God’s will and plans. But He cannot force us to change or accept the will of God.

You say “It’s my body I can do what I want. I have free choice!” and that may be. But according to Paul in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 6, “not everything is beneficial” to you.

For example: 
• Smoking may look cool but it leads to disease and death.
• Sexual immorality – adultery, fornication, etc., may feel good but it leads to destruction and sometimes death.
• Gossiping, lying, slandering, betraying one another, may seem harmless but it leads to disgrace, lack of trust and hurt.
• Eating the wrong types of food may taste good but over long periods of time it leads to disease and death.
• Infrequent time spent in relationship with The Father leads to weak faith and no authority.

All sin has consequences. ALL

For the wages of sin is death: Physically and Spiritually. What is sin? Anything that is not of or against God. Disobedience.

If we are the temple of the Holy Spirit we should want to take care of it – inside and out. You have a home, and your desire is to keep it nice and clean. You mow the grass, trim the hedges, pull up weeds, paint the walls, upgrade appliances, hang new curtains and so forth. And because you desire to keep it spic and span, you have it cleaned on a regular basis. We all know that if it’s not cleaned filth will accumulate, and then it can become overwhelming.

Well when it comes to our spiritual home we should think the same way. We should want to keep ourselves clean free from filth. How do we do that? By being expedient in what we eat, do or say.
Many believers feel as though they can sin and ask God for forgiveness later; that they have grace and mercy, no matter what. But that’s not so. James 4:17 (KJV) says “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Paul in verses 9 and 10 of 1 Corinthians 6 also stated that wrongdoers will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Wrongdoers, who are they? They are Unbelievers and Believers in the Body of Christ. If you are not doing right then you are doing wrong. That’s a wrong doer.

Your body is God’s temple. It’s where the Holy Spirit dwells. When you heed His instructions and guidance, you grow. He then increases within you until others can see God within you. If you refuse to listen but heed to your flesh, He will eventually leave – for good, and then He will allow you, to be turned from God’s glory to the uncleansliness of your own flesh. ReadRomans 1: 21-25. In other words, if you refuse to change your ways after many repeated attempts of the Holy Spirit to lead you the right way, you are grieving Him (Ephesians 4:20); wounding Him and eventually He leaves. If that happens, the person is saying they love the sin, the life they are living more than they love God. How hurtful to God, who is all love!

To have the spirit of God removed from your life is a terrible thing. You are no longer joined with God. In Psalm 51 verse 11 David cried out to God and asked Him not to take His spirit away from Him. David knew how important the Holy Spirit was in his life.

Repentence – means to turn away from ways unpleasing of the Lord Almighty and mean it.

Turn – means to reverse the position or placement of (Dictionary.com).

Away – means aside, to another place, another direction, from this or that place (Dictionary.com).

So, if you repent and turn, you are asking the father for forgiveness and reversing your actions from how and where they use to be, and going forth in the direction your heavenly father wants you to be.

We must remember that once we accept salvation into our hearts we have a partner and a guest for life. A partner that desires for us to live a fruitful and prosperous life. A partner that desires for us to experience the blessings of a loving father.

We must treat that guest with respect and honor and love. Don’t do them Him what you would not want done to you. Do what is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord. Serve Him in gladness and obedience – in the physical and the spiritual.

Be Blessed!
Tereciah V. Smithen-Quintana
Copyright 2012