Tuesday, January 7, 2014

The Key to Your Power as a Believer (Part 1)

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.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV

John entered the church building and felt the weight of Someone with him.  Though alone on the front pew, He knew that Someone filled the room.  And the weight of that Someone caused John to fall face down to the ground.
He intuitively knew to be careful.  To watch his every thought, intention, word, and action.  John felt like he did when he played his piano recital before three judges.  The difference was this:  The One watching him, and judging him, watched as One who perfectly knew John…and perfectly loved John.  This love made him cry.  The Spirit felt warm and blazing.  A blanket.  An electric shock.

“Forgive me for not being what You made me to be.  From now on I will be by trusting you.”
The blaze cooled.  The comfort remained.  But the comforting flame was still intense.  John still dared not think, or speak, or act like he did before these moments.

He left the church building, still aware of the One who filled the room. The One now filling his body.  But it wasn’t his body anymore.  (It never had been.)
A billboard advertising a strip club loomed over head with a seductive woman in a two pieced bikini.  John thought, “My eyes are not mine any more.  I can’t just look at whatever I want.”  So he turned away from the picture and focused on the beautiful cloud formations instead, praising God, the One above, the one Enthroned, the One in John’s body.

John felt a new ability.  He felt a new motivation for self-control.  He considered Himself the Spirit’s slave, and His body the Spirit’s home.  John wanted only one thing:  For the Spirit to be comfortable inside him.  Not like the Spirit was a guest, but instead like John himself was the guest in another person’s house. 
Having read how Samurai devote their entire bodies and souls to their masters, possessing no time of their own, John knew that he could no longer use His body any old way.  After all, it was no longer his body.  This was John’s new ability, the key to his power:  The Spirit of God is in John.

 

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