Where does God live? When asked this question, many believers will say “in Heaven”, while many children fresh out of Sunday School will answer “in my heart”. While this may be a very pleasant thing to think, the scriptures have something different to say regarding this question, and the answer lends itself to explain why many are not experiencing the richly fulfilling relationship with Christ that they so desperately need.
Now some may be asking at this point: “James why does this even matter?”
It matters because if we do not know where precisely that our God lives, then we are not properly able to provide a suitable dwelling place for Him, or even where we should be meeting Him.
If you wanted to come visit me for a friendly meeting and talk with me, you would first need to know where I could be met, otherwise we would never meet up, and we would not be able to socialize.
The same is also true with God, God may call us His friend (John 15:15), but if we never communicate with our friends, the relationship never grows and eventually dies off.
In order to really have socializing time, we must first meet, and then we can talk and share. So let us now look at some scriptures describing in detail where God actually does dwell. The first is in 1st Corinthians 6:19:
“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?”
This is one of several verses which are commonly used to support the idea of Christ living in our hearts. However that idea is not accurate. The above verse actually states that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, The emphasis being on the word temple because this is the key:
The ancient tabernacle of the LORD was comprised of three main parts: The Outer Courtyard, the Holy Place, and the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies).
Likewise also our walk with Christ is also comprised of three parts: The first being salvation (Jesus named Himself the Outer Gate or door in John 10:7)
In the tabernacle the outer courtyard – which is where you’d be right after entering through the gate, is where burnt offerings were given as a sin sacrifice. Jesus was and is our eternal sacrifice for all sin, so He also has that area covered, so also as well as being the entry point, He is also our sacrificial lamb (and that is where that name comes from).
The second area in the tabernacle is the Holy Place, it is where fragrant incense is burnt as an offering to God, it is also where the Golden Candlestick is, and where the table of showbread is located.
Now the Showbread is specifically, a sign of an invitation by God to share a meal in fellowship with man. It is an act of friendship, as us sharing meals with friends today; only with God!
Back then, only priests were allowed to do this, but today through the redemptive and cleansing work of Jesus, we are all made priests, with Himself being the High Priest (1st Peter 2:5).
So we are allowed to eat the showbread now, but how do we do this? Well Jesus also named Himself the Bread of Life in (John 6:35). We can “eat His bread” by meditating and strengthening our understanding of His completed work and continuing to identify with Him through Communion.
Finally, the third area of the tabernacle is the Most Holy Place, this was the place secluded and sealed off by the priestly veil until Jesus’ sacrifice tore the veil apart symbolizing that all are able to come into this place by Jesus now.
This is the place where God met with the priests over the Ark of the Covenant. And this is the area that brings this all together. We who went into this wondering where God actually lives, have now found His personal room. The entire tabernacle is His; just like we call our houses “Our House” yet within that house we all have our personal intimate areas, our own little room. This is Gods’ room. We can not reach this area without going through the other two areas first, likewise we can not meet God in this fashion without accepting and recognizing and digesting the work of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Today we meet God through praise and worship. The Bible makes it quite clear, using the same analogy of the tabernacle in Psalm 100:4:
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”
It could be said that the scripture above refers specifically to the Inner Court or the Holy Place with the showbread and the incense, because the incense was a thanks and worship offering to God.
So how can we also be certain that Praise brings us into His Most Holy Place or into His Room? The following scripture in Psalm 22:3 removes all doubt:
“But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”
Now some may say “James, don’t you see that it’s talking about Israel?”
But my friends, we through Christ Jesus have been grafted in to all of the blessings and provisions that Israel has, with even better promises, as made clear in Romans 11:17-19:
“And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bore not the root, but the root you.
You will say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.”
So in closing my friends, does this mean that we can now go around and tell all the little children claiming that Jesus lives in their hearts that they are wrong? Personally, I would not…
But instead let us guide them to understand that instead of Jesus living there, we should hold Jesus in our hearts to have continual close fellowship with Him, for He is the one true gateway of the temple, and so very much more.
Give Him praise, always!
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