Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19,20 NET)
The Holy Spirit is God—one of the three persons of the trinity. Throughout the Bible and history part of His job has been to equip God’s people to manifest the power of God in this world. Before Gideon conquered the Midianites, God’s Spirit came upon him; John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit even while he was in his mother’s womb, preparing him for the great work that God would do through him. There are many examples of men and women, in both the Old and New Testaments, that were filled with the Spirit and equipped to make a difference in the world, who were strengthened, were given wisdom, and were transformed into amazing examples of God’s power. The difference is that after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, the Holy Spirit comes to permanently fill a person, turning them into temples of the Spirit. In the age before the Lord Jesus, the Spirit temporarily filled people for particular tasks.
Today’s verse says, “…you are not your own. You were bought at a price.” Jesus’ death on the cross not only washed away our sins, not only healed our diseases and broke our curses, it made it possible for us to be baptized in the Spirit and become instruments in God’s hands, houses for Him to live in. We are only fulfilling part of God’s plan when we stop short of being baptized in the Spirit. Jesus purchased us so that the Spirit could possess us, working through us to manifest the glory of God in the world.
A good marriage is similar to this relationship. After marriage a man can no longer make decisions solely based on what he wants. Now he has to consider his wife, communicate with her, and arrive at a joint agreement about anything that affects both of them. His body does not belong to him alone, it also belongs to his wife. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is virtually the same, only deeper, and supernatural.
The baptism in the Spirit is not something we can do without. If you have not yet become a temple of the Holy Spirit, seek to become one.
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