Dear Glory Carrier,
If you know you are having guests over to your house, you naturally put in the effort to clean up. You organize the rooms, wipe down the surfaces, and make sure everything is immaculate because you want your visitors to feel welcome and comfortable.
Yet, as believers, we carry a reality that is greater than hosting just a guest. The King of Kings, the absolute Creator of the entire universe, has chosen us as His personal habitation. He desires to live in us and to dwell within our very being. Isn’t this awesome?! As Hebrews 3 reminds us, Christ is faithful as the Son over Gods house, and we are that house if we hold fast our confidence and the pride of our hope firm to the end. What an unspeakable honor this is. But it forces us to ask a deeply sobering question: What does His dwelling place actually look like right now?
The Holy Spirit moved into our lives the moment we gave our hearts to Jesus. He is not a visitor who drops by for a weekend. He is a permanent resident. Still, it is so incredibly easy to get distracted by the noise and routine of daily life that we become entirely insensitive to the One who lives inside us. Scripture warns us not to quench the Holy Spirit, something that can happen so quickly when our focus shifts away from Him.
When was the last time you sat down went into an honest conversation with the Lord to ask: Lord, examine my heart and my body. Is it orderly in here? Do You truly feel at home in me?
When guests are staying at your house, you check on them. You ask if they need something to drink or if everything is okay. We must have that same posture with the Holy Spirit. We must ask: Lord, am I pleasing to You today? Have I made room for things in my life that You cannot comfortably house? What is inside of me that needs to leave? Sometimes, we allow clutter to pile up in the rooms of our hearts. We harbor secret anger, hidden doubts, or bitter emotions that slowly crowd Him out and grieve His presence.
From the Ark to the Inner Room
If we look back at the Old Testament, the manifest presence of God was not something accessible to everyone at all times. The people of Israel carried the ark of the Lord, and its presence was treated with absolute weight and awe. When the ark returned, they rejoiced, they trembled, and they spent days preparing themselves.
Think about Zechariah in Luke 1. The lot fell on him to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense in the Holy of Holies. This was a once in a lifetime moment of beautiful proximity to the divine. Imagine if you had to wait an entire year, or an entire lifetime, just for a brief chance to come near the presence of God. Today, because of the torn veil and the blood of Jesus, you have the privilege to enter His presence daily, hourly, and at any second.
But the sad thing of this constant access is that it so easily breeds familiarity. We have lost the weight of the privilege. We must guard ourselves and our hearts against turning away from true reverence. Whether we are reading His word or spending time in our quiet room, He is still God. He is forever worthy of all honor, awe, and trembling respect. This fact must never become normal or lose its depth.
A Holistic Temple
When we talk about the reality of God living inside us, we cannot separate our spiritual life from our physical life. Being the house of God is entirely holistic. Our spirituality is not just an abstract concept in our minds; it is physically anchored in the bodies we walk around in every single day.
Scripture reminds us of this balance in 1 Timothy 4:8, noting that while physical training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Taking care of the temple means honoring God with our physical strength, our health, and our daily choices, while always understanding that the ultimate goal is the cultivation of true godliness.
Let us not treat the presence of God as a casual reality. Let us clear out the clutter of anger, distraction, and compromise. Open the doors of your heart today, invite the Holy Spirit to examine the rooms, and live with the profound awareness that you are carrying the living God inside you everywhere you go.
Blessings <3
