God’s Dwelling Place

“How lovely are Your dwelling places, .0 Lord of hosts!” (Psalm 84:1). I believe in life after death — because I’m already living it!

Spiritually, I am living a resurrected life. I am already fully and perfectly saved, fully alive even as He is in this world. I am freed from self-improvement, self-pity and self-righteousness. I am free to be a giver, to be a lover, to be an expression of God to this world.

    We were born sinners by nature. At some point we became sinners by choice, condemned to hell. We were separated from God, walking away from Him. We each “fell short.” The Bible teaches that our only hope is to have the life of God in us — to be in a personal, intimate and vital union with the Author and Giver of Life.

    The day I believed God’s truth, I was set free. I died to an old, temporal earthbound life. The Scripture puts it this way: “My old self was crucified with Him, that my body of sin might be done away with, that I should no longer be a slave to sin” (or anything else of this world!) The old union, with all that is opposed to God, was broken, and I, just like Jesus, was resurrected to a brand-new life in union with God.

    How? I was placed in Christ and He was placed in me. This is God’s design from the beginning — that I should be a container and expressor of His Life. Notice the biblical pictures: He is the Spirit, we are containers; He is the God, we are temples; He is the Vine, we are branches; He is the Treasure, we are vessels!

    God’s desire is to abide in us, for us to be one of His “lovely dwelling places,” for Him to settle down in us and to then be the Life of our lives . He wants to “make Himself at home” — in us!