"Jesus
answered, If a person [really] loves Me, he will keep My word [obey My
teaching]; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our
home (abode, special dwelling place) with him." (John 14:23 AMP).
Some people look for special places
of prayer when they have very serious things to pray about. At such times, they
say they are "going to the mountain" to meet with God, much like how
the children of Israel regularly went to meet with Him in places where they
built Him an altar.
As new creations, we don’t need to
go through such a routine to fellowship with the Lord because we are His altar
and He dwells in us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "...know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost...." The word
"temple" could also be rendered as "home," but Paul chose
to use temple in order to communicate the religious nature of your body as
regards its service to the Lord.
One time, a Samaritan woman asked
Jesus what He thought of the different places where the Jews and Samaritans
worshiped. She said, "Our fathers worshiped God on this mountain, but
you Jews say we ought to come to Jerusalem to do that." Jesus said to her,
"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father…But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:
for the Father seeketh such to worship him" (John 4:21, 23).
The hour Jesus was referring to has
come; it’s the day of the new creation. You don’t have to go about looking for
where to meet or worship the Father, for God lives in you now. Your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost; you carry Him with you everywhere you go.
Understand however that as your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, you are also a member of the body of Christ,
which is made up of other believers like you. So as you worship the Lord at
your private moments, you must also participate in corporate worship with
fellow believers by attending church services. That is where you will hear the
Word, grow spiritually, and be effective in the work of the Kingdom.
Further Study
Acts 7:48;
1 Corinthians 3:16
Andy Agim
Christ Realities
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