Wednesday, September 3, 2008

God Lives in Me

I've heard people state from time to time that it is foolish of Christians to believe that God actually 'lives' inside of them. "Is there a hole or something down in there where He stays?" is how I believe I've heard it phrased.

Granted, this is an odd thing. While the Bible clearly states that the Spirit of God lives or dwells inside us ....

John 14:16-18 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

1Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

... it is obvious to us that there isn't a specific place or location within us where He resides. So how do we explain the biblical statement that God can actually reside within us?

Let's look at it from a different viewpoint (for readers of C.S. Lewis, you'll recognize this analogy from his book "Mere Christianity"). Let's say that we were scientists and we came to this planet to observe life here. We would observe a various assortment of things like electricity, lettuce and dogs. Now as scientists, we can only learn from what we observe. We can't get 'inside' of the lettuce or the dog to know what is going on. Whether they have a mind, whether they can think or reason, whether they have morals ... we can only infer those things from watching their actions.

But when it comes to humans, it's a entirely different story. We can learn not only from observing their actions, we also get an entirely different viewpoint because we are human! And when I look inside myself, I see something that I absolutely cannot explain. I see that I have a spirit. That spirit feels emotions and it thinks and it plans and a million other things. But where does it live? Where does it dwell? How can it even exist inside of me when I'm only made up of blood and tissue and fluids?

So can I explain how the Spirit of God lives inside of me? No, I can't. But I also can't explain how my own spirit lives inside of me, either. And when I look at it from that perspective, it doesn't seem that odd at all that His Spirit can dwell with my spirit .. wherever that may be.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

7 comments:

  1. Amen, thanks for the wonderful post.

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  2. He live in you...He is you...He is your hands and feet and you are His Vessel or Tabernacle in the world and He lives in and around you...in many ways He is you....until you see Him in you and realize this He does give you a window of concious experience to let you think you are you but really...you are....a vessel of His....and it is Him in you...Christ in you ...that is the Hope of Glory and when you see Him in you you will see All and in All in you and you will see your Spirit in you and His and a whole multitude that He is...All and in All ...and in you...and they will all know you already/////when you surrender to Him He gently shows you...tjhat was never a choice thing...He has always been there...only you hadnt acknowledged Him there and All and in All...once you do start to recognize that you really will diminish as Paul said and you will see Him and His more and more.....in you....His Tabernacle....His Body...in you...with many members.....

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  3. God is good all the time;)

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  4. Praise El Shaddai!!!!!!! We thank him for his word, i pay so that the Holy spirit may allow us to understand his word for his word is life to us

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing with us this wonderful revelation. may God bless you to bless us aswell whom are in need of your wisdom brother. I pray that your revelation knowledge may be increased to increase ours aswell. God bless you.

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  6. He lives in us and all other things for that matter. Otherwise we would know the circumstances of our births and dictate the nature of our deaths (not to mention the people would elect to live forever). Truth be told no person can dictate or has control of their destiny (even down to the things they think they do on an everyday basis by their own will) All the human can do is react to events. That said, the force that brought you forth and gives you the gifts of awareness, perception, and movement. That is your God living in you..

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  7. Thank God for being a Christian as Christianity is not a religion, is life of God in human.

    Brethren thanks for exposing this wonderful thought.

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