Living Temples

UV 953/10,000 Living Temples Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. I Corinthians 6 v 19 Sexual purity is one of the aspects of our life that the Lord considers most vital. Of the three types of lusts, the lust of the flesh is the most powerful. Like Joseph fled from the adulterous wife of Potiphar, we are exhorted to flee from sexual immorality. Today, we are living in an age where sexual immorality is rife and people do not seem to know right from wrong, what is permissible in the sight of God and what is not. Joseph incurred vengeful wrath and risked his very life in order to stay right with God. Sexual immorality is an area of challenge for many believers as well as pastors. Many have been trapped into extramarital relationships and addiction to pornography. Our eyes are the windows of our bodies and we should be careful of the light that is let in. We cannot do as we please with our bodies for once we are saved by our faith in Christ, our bodies are no longer mere flesh and blood but anointed by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity and we are declared to be temples of God. The Holy Spirit is the seal of ownership that the Lord places on us. Jesus is the Capstone, the keystone and the cornerstone of this temple. It is not easy to remain sexually pure. It requires the grace from the Capstone. We are no longer to treat God as a part time consultant but as a full time owner. He does not merely reside in us but He presides over our lives. We should always act with the knowledge that our actions and reactions can either please or displease the Lord and make it a habit not to grieve the gentle and sensitive Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows us intimately and inside out. He knows the inclinations of our hearts and minds and we can ask Him to continually sanctify and daily cleanse us from our innermost places. The Holy Spirit is the separator, the differentiator. In the beginning, when the Spirit moved over the waters, the land separated from the sea, the light separated from the darkness. Now when He moves within us, we are being separated from our former sinful selves. We are being separated from the sinful world and its ways. He transforms us from within so that we are living sacrifices before the Lord. Where formerly, we only had attitudes formed and shaped by the world, now we have beautiful attitudes formed and shaped in accordance with the Word. It is the Holy Spirit who makes our lives holy and acceptable to God. Over time, He removes the hidden and inner blemishes and flaws as we surrender our wills to Him. God has ordained that man is married to woman. Just as a man is faithful to God, He is to remain faithful to the woman he is married to and likewise the woman. I was listening to the debate and discussion on the re-criminalizing of homosexuality by the judgement of the Supreme Court last week. Homosexuality is described and justified by many as a disposition that many are born with, giving them no choice. But many who had such a disposition once they were saved and anointed by the Holy Spirit turned from such a lifestyle. The world’s standards keep changing but the Word remains the same. According to the world’s standards, it says that homosexuality is not an offence as it is a genetic disposition. Tomorrow, it will further state that sex with children or paedophilia or sex with animals is also a natural disposition. Even if a person has a natural disposition to be immoral or homosexual, the Spirit will give him or her the grace to overcome an inner weakness or tendency. When we are in Christ, we become members of His divine body. We are united with Him in our flesh and blood and therefore, cannot be one in flesh with any one except as it is ordained in the Word. Being living temples, we should always be conscious that we are consecrated to the Lord, that our thoughts, words and deeds are to conform to His image and His Word and not to the world. Being living temples, we should always have praise, worship and thanksgiving proceeding with the flow of a river or stream, unceasingly from within the deepest recess of our hearts and souls. Prateep V Philip