Whose Body is This?

"Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." (I Corinthians 6:19,20 NLT)

May I have your attention, please? All the things we do to the bodies we live in do not belong to us--they belong to God!

What! You mean, I shouldn't have clogged up my lungs with foul-smelling smoke and poisoned them with nicotine? You mean, I shouldn't have over-eaten for the last forty years all that fried food, desserts, with no vegetables, clogging up my arteries, causing damage to my heart? You mean, I shouldn't have drank those forty-ounces, and tequila shots, or that fifth of vodka a day, killing off brain cells with drug use and abuse and alcohol? You mean, I shouldn't have slept with every Tom, Dick and Harry or Mary Jane, Susie, and Sally that I met, forever incorporating a piece of them with everyone I slept with? You mean, I shouldn't have misused my body to satisfy morbid curiosity by sticking things in places they did not belong? Is that what you mean? Have you identified you, yet in this list of--"I shouldn't haves?"

Wow! The things we do to our bodies when we don't understand they are just "on loan" to us while we are here on earth!

Had we known sooner than we discovered, would we have done anything differently? I'd like to think we would. In fact, had I been introduced to The Word and understood that it is the gateway to my relationship with God, sooner--there are a number of things I would not have done when I was younger.

I wouldn't have started smoking cigarettes and kept up the horrible habit for eighteen years--I'm dealing with the consequences, now.

I wouldn't have been so insecure about who I was because of things that happened to me that were totally out of my control that I did things I should not have done to my body.

I wouldn't have been involved with some of the men in past relationships because they did nothing to provoke thoughts of Godly behavior.

This list could go on, but I think the point has been made. When we know better, we should do better. Now, that I know my body doesn't belong to me--I try harder to take care of it because I realize that it deteriorates naturally with the aging process and it doesn't need my help to destroy what God is doing in my life.

This is the body I need to house the spirit that God has given to guide me and I will not desecrate the temple in which Holy Spirit lives. After all, this is not my body, it belongs to God!

Thank God for second chances! I now know and do all those things that will hopefully prolong God using me in this body!

Connected Spirits!

Is the temple clean and free of debris? Or is our temple a mass of filth where Holy Spirit is choked out and quenched, prevented from doing His job because of what we do?

When we pray, and allow Holy Spirit to pray on our behalf, the direct connection is made and our answers are directed Holy Spirit who imparts them to us, but if we are not listening, we miss what God has for us.

Our spirit being (we are three-part beings: spirit, soul, body) must be attuned to Holy Spirit so we can hear and obtain and achieve all that God has for us to do. We, of ourselves can know nothing apart from what Holy Spirit tells us--pertaining to the things of God--so we must be connected in order to accomplish! Now for those who do not understand what is being said, I suggest you become acquainted with The Word. We have a soul (some say our consciousness) which will be judged. We have a spirit which will go back to God when we die, and we have a body which houses our spirit.

Since we are spirit beings--connected to one spirit or the other (Holy Spirit or demonic spirit), we need Holy Spirit to stay on the path that God has established for us and to achieve all He has planned for us.

Verse nine in this same passage of scripture reminds us that, "eyes haven't seen, nor ears heard of all the great things He has in store for us" and we can only obtained when we are connected. Are you connected today?

Father, in the name of Jesus, create in us a desire and a willingness to receive Holy Spirit right now and allow Him to lead us in all things so we might please You.