Neglecting the Temple of the Holy Spirit Within Me
Hello friends:
This morning as I was spending time with God, I wrote in my journal about my apprenticeship to Jesus and how I am responsible to tend to the presence of the Holy Spirit in me. As Dallas Willard wrote, “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone” (The Great Commission). I have to bring intentional effort to my spiritual wellness. It does not happen by accident. I hope my journal writing encourages you today.
Jorge
October 13, 2023
Scripture:
“We will not neglect the house of our God.”
Nehemiah 10:39b (NIV)
…When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1-3 (NIV)
Observation:
In Nehemiah 9-10, the writer recounts the story of God’s people gathering together to confess their sins and worship their God. Confession and worship were part of their new work of learning to live as a re-instructed people within the reconstructed walls of Jerusalem. A beautiful prayer recalling their sacred history of being delivered from Egypt, wandering in the wilderness with God’s protection and provision, glorious conquest of the land of milk and honey and equally disastrous disobedience to Yahweh are told in prayer. It all ends with asking Yahweh to remember them as they live as a captured people in the land God had given them. Following this, the people made a binding agreement in writing (a covenant) and the leaders of Jews affixed their seals to it. Chapter 10 appears to be a copy of the binding agreement that ends with the words “We will not neglect the house of our God.” God’s people promised to live as a covenant people again. Providentially, in my daily Bible reading plan, the New Testament pericope was Acts 2. In it, a gathering of confused apprentices of Jesus are together in a room when, as Jesus promised, the Spirit of God fell just like the Prophet Joel had foretold. The Holy Spirit who in previous times had been given to few, select people for a few, unique opportunities and challenges is now given at all of God’s people (young, old, male, female, and ethnically diverse) for every opportunity and every challenge. God’s Spirit who was localized in one place, the Holy of Holies in Temple in Jerusalem, now following Pentecost, resides in all of God’s people. As Paul would remind the followers of Jesus in Corinth two decades later, “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…” In the Old Covenant, worshippers of Yahweh had to come to Jerusalem to be with God, offer sacrifices, receive forgiveness and then return home. In the New Covenant, God comes to reside in his people and make them into living temples of God’s Spirit, becoming sacrifices for and extending forgiveness to the world and being God’s witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Application:
How often do I neglect the temple of God’s Holy Spirit in me? How often do the ruin and rubble of life keep me from living as a living temple of the Holy Spirit? Like the Jews prayer in Nehemiah 9, I can recall the amazing delivering and sustaining work of God in my past. From God’s rescue of my life as an addicted and lost high school senior to his supernatural calling on my life in a Physics class at Valencia Community College, I have my stories of God’s gracious and kind activity in my life. But I also have my fair share of seasons of willful disobedience to God. I have rebelled against God’s purposes in my life as it relates to my vocation, my relationships, my sexuality, my finances, my physical wellness and so much more. I have neglected the Temple of the Holy Spirit in me. Today, I can celebrate that by God’s grace, I have stepped into some daily practices that resist neglecting God’s Spirit in me. In 2002, my weeklong trip to walk-alongside Pastor Wayne Cordeiro, marked a radical shift in my soul. He taught me to listen to the Holy Spirit as a read the Bible. The simple SOAP (scripture, observation, application, prayer) journal method revolutionized my spiritual life. Listening to the Spirit through God’s Word has quickened my soul. About ten years ago, our Operational team at Grace Church got serious about practicing “working from rest” instead of ”working to rest” by practicing Sabbath. Game changer! About five years ago, I providentially watched a YouTube video from Dr. Brian Russell on a daily journal habit that I now call “512.” I write out 5 things I am grateful for, 1 thing that is bothering me, and 2 things that will make that day great. Another game changer! Recently, the Holy Spirit keeps returning me to Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV): This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ The ancient paths are those daily, weekly, monthly, and annual “tried and true” (The Message) roads that I travel down that keep the fire of the Holy Spirit in me tended. Walking these goods ways brings rest for my soul. Sadly, I know my propensity to be like my stiff-necked spiritual parents. I too can brazenly and defiantly tell God, “I will not walk in it.”
Prayer:
Father, thank you for this insight into the great potential of your Spirit that resides in me and my terrible propensity to neglect tending to Him. Let me faithfully and consistently walk the ancient paths. Amen.
