The Shekinah Glory, YOU Are
What does it mean when
the Bible says, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God's?” And
what does it really mean, as far as the “church” is concerned, when the God
says, “What? know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and
ye are not your own?
That little word … “what?” … carries with it an emphatic meaning. Simply put, God is almost screaming, “Why is
it that you don’t know this? This is a
basic truth for every believer to live!
Get with it! Get FIT!
This leads
my thinking to another verse that many find hard to apply to our lives today:
Mat 9:15 And
Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as
the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall
be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
Mat 9:16 No man
putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to
fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Mat 9:17 Neither
do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine
runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles,
and both are preserved.
The “old bottles” and “new bottles” refer to how the Holy Spirit did,
and how He will work in the lives of men. In
the Old Testament (the time period of the Law), God showed His presence to His
people in the form of Shekinah Glory … a pillar of smoke and fire that rested
over the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies.
God did not permanently indwell people then as He does today. The Holy Spirit/Ghost would come and go as he
willed to perform a function, using man to accomplish his purposes. That is not true today. Since Acts 10 (initiated in Acts 2), God
began permanently indwelling those who would accept His son as their personal
savior; thus, residing in them constantly … never to leave. We are the Temple of God! We are ambassadors for Christ! How we treat our bodies tells people what we
really think about God.
That leads me to a question … “How is how you take care of your
physical body telling people what you think about God Almighty? Please don’t skirt the question or justify
the fact you may not be taking care of the dwelling place of God on this earth. Be honest!
It is important to be FIT physically and spiritually so your F-aith can
I-nfluence people T-day where you Live, Work, and Play! People do judge you by how you take care of
your Temple … that’s human nature. The
good part is we can do something about that.
We can GET FIT!
It’s interesting to observe how God has “met” with men throughout the
dispensations (periods of time) of humanity.
Let’s look at a few ways, and then we can check out how he “meets” with
man today.
Gen 3:8 And
they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD
God amongst the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9
And the LORD God called unto Adam,
and said unto him, Where art
thou?
Gen 3:10 And he
said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
God would walk and talk with Adam and Eve while they were in the
garden in the cool of the day; only this time, they could not see God, they
could only hear his voice. The reason
for this is that they had lost the IMAGE (the spiritual aspect) of God. It frightened them because they had always
seen God, but this time they could only hear him. Sin had separated man from a unique relationship
with God. God has been dealing with the
Mystery of Iniquity since that time … until one day … He will eradicate sin and
usher in a new heaven and a new earth.
Until then, we are limited to a spiritual relationship with God. That is why it is so important for believers
to maintain physical health. We must
give the world a proper picture of our love for our Savior. Like any bride (the church/believers), we
want to look our best for our bridegroom (Jesus). That directly applies to how and why we are
to keep our bodies FIT for the Master’s use.
Another example of how God met with man (prior to the Holy Spirit
permanently indwelling his people) is Moses:
Exo 24:12
And the LORD said unto Moses, Come
up to me into the mount, and be there:
Exo 24:15 And
Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.
Exo 24:16 And the
glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses
out of the midst of the cloud.
This is fascinating. God said not a word to Moses for six days; he
was “just there.” On the seventh day God
began speaking to Moses. Are there times
when you don’t want to talk with God; you just want to “be there” with him in
the quiet solitude of the hectic pace of life?
We can “be there” with God just as Moses was “there” with God … as long
as you have a rhema (the word alive) relationship with the Holy Spirit.
We also see God meeting with man when
Abraham met Melchizadek and when Jacob wrestled with an Old Testament
appearance of Christ at what we know as … Jacob’s ladder. That brings us to how God “meets” with man in
the Church Age (the time from the ascension of Christ until the catching away
of the church). God meets with man in
the church age the same way he met with man in the Tabernacle Period of the Old
Testament. He meets man through the
indwelling Holy Spirit; thusly, we are the Church Age Shekinah Glory. We are the place where God touches mankind. God lives in us through the person of the
Holy Spirit. That is why GETTING and
STAYING F.I.T. (physically and spiritually) is so vital to the success of
our mission on this big, blue ball
called earth.
The “new bottles” of the working of
the Holy Spirit cannot be put in “old bottles.” The Holy Spirit does not work
through a place (old bottles) in the church age … He works through a person
(new bottles) … the believer who is in a right standing with God mentally,
physically, socially, and spiritually.
The Holy Spirit is limited by confining Him to a place … Like what we
call “church.” The church is not a place
… it is a person. You, a believer in
Jesus Christ, are the church … and when the church (YOU) gathers, then that
is called the ecclesia (the church
gathered). It is the gathering of the CHURCH (believers) that we are not to
forsake. The gathering is what keep us
accountable and encouraged to fulfill mission.
That mission is to R-each people with
the truth, E-stablish people
in the truth, A-pply the truth daily,
and P-roduce warriors to share the truth. That is the mission that Satan is
successfully usurping from the body of Christ.
Don’t let him do it in the spiritual realm, and don’t let him do it in
the physical realm.
RU FIT Ministries is dedicated to
encouraging people and gatherings of believers to GET and STAY F.I.T. for a
lifetime. We can Influence your group in
a variety of methods which are outline at: www.rufitministries.weebly.com. You can also use our Facebook page to begin
today to become accountable to GETTING F.I.T. by posting your workouts at: www.facebook.com/rufitministries.
If you would like 2 free copies of my
book: RU FIT – Curing Spiritual and Physical Obesity in the Body of Christ,
just send me your email requesting two free chapters to: mdharrell1@bellsouth.net.
Please begin today being the Ambassador
for Christ in all aspects of life … mentally, spiritually, socially, and
physically!
Live OUT LOUD!
Mark Harrell – Habakkuk 2:2
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