Main menu
3.1 God’s temple
As we now have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we have become the temple of the Spirit in which God dwells.
Together with all other sons of God, we form the body of Christ, the Church.
Paul says it like this in Corinthians 12:13: “For we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”
Point by point we could also write it down like this:
• Jesus Christ – the Head of the Church;
• the Church – the body of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit; for
• us (as) members – to be fulfilled with the Holy Spirit;
• the Holy Spirit – the spirit of life, the power that keeps the body in existence.
The body – and so also its members – became the ‘way’ for the Holy Spirit to do the works of Jesus in this world (and even greater things, as Jesus Himself says in John 14:12), to reveal the powers of darkness and to break down their works. Ephesians 3:10 says: “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known…”
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a spiritual tool serving the body.
The Spirit manifests, reveals Itself now through the body with its members. This revelation in an through the body takes place through the expressions (gifts) of the Spirit. These expressions are being used in the battle against darkness and for the cause of building, strengthening the body itself.
1 Corinthians 14:12 also says this – “So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.”
Is it really necessary to emphasize the expressions of the Holy Spirit in this way?
It is of course possible that there are no expressions in the body for whatever cause or reason.
This is not normal, but unfortunately it does happen.
When something like this happens in the human body for example, we say that the person is handicapped or has restrictions. This is a person who can not sufficiently express, manifest himself. There is an error. The human spirit of life cannot be expressed by the body, in the way it really should.
Of course this can also be a fact in the Church, the body of Christ.
Just imagine the Spirit is not being able to express, reveal Himself or realise things in the way He wants to, for whatever cause or reason… In this case we are not allowed to call this a normal situation. We are then dealing with spiritual restrictions and a state of being spiritually handicapped!
It is clear that we are dealing with a shortage here, it is being visualised in the lives) of many children of God and for that reason also in the functioning of many Christian Churches. The body has lost its vitality. It doesn’t have enough resistance against the powers of darkness surrounding it.
This is why the call to be baptized in the Holy Spirit has a more urgent emphasis:
1. receive the gift and you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit;
2. become fulfilled with the Spirit;
3. follow the way of love and strive for the expressions (gifts, charismata, pneumatics) of the Spirit.
It is clear what Paul says about the expressions of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12. He does not want to leave us ‘unknowing’ concerning the expressions (gifts) of the Spirit. He is saying all this with a reason. Later on we’ll come back on the eventual goal of applying the gifts by ourselves and by the Church.
« Back | Next »