Consider the tabernacle in the wilderness. It was a tent, a mobile house of worship and sacrifice used as the people of God came out of Egypt and journeyed toward the promised land. It was comprised of an Outer Court, an Inner court, and the Holy of Holies.
Now Consider the New Testament (Naos – temple) which is the believer, the saints of the most high God. We often think of church as a building but it is not. We are the church.
We are comprised of body, soul, and spirit. The body is temporal, the soul and spirit eternal. Each component is made up of individual aspects of our being.
The Body uses taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight; the five senses.
The Soul is made up of the mind, will, and emotions
Your Spirit works through conscience, intuition, and communion
God is a spirit. His first choice for interaction with humanity is through communion. His Spirit reaches to your spirit, linking, downloading into your hard drive the things of the Spirit. That divine communion exists through you opening your conscience and intuition to Him. This is why the baptism of the Spirit is so important and why Paul states if we do not have it we are not His.
Think about these three Biblical Characters that had a clear path to the throne; Saul, Jonathan, and David.
Saul was a fleshy man, hiding himself among his possessions, caring about what the people thought, not what God said. He couldn’t obey the man of God. His flesh reigned until his death and even in death he could not crucify the flesh, but an Amalikite had to finish him off. The Kingdom was ripped from him and given to another. Saul represented our physical or outer man; our desires, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Scripture tells us the natural man cannot receive the things of God. Ye must be born again!
Let Jonathan represent our soul (Oh king, live forever). He was next in line for the throne. It was his for the taking. He was the prince, the son of a king. We like Jonathan; he was a good guy, a trusted and loyal friend to David. Saul says to his son Jonathan, “thou son of a perverse woman, as long as David lives you will never ascend to the throne.” Our carnal mind is at war with God, it cannot be subject to God’s laws, or God’s government.
Jonathan yielded up the throne, realizing that David was God’s anointed. Saul knew if David, who represents our spirit, had a pulse, his son would never be king! Jonathan knew something his father did not. David was God’s choice and the son of David would be the Messiah. Understanding that, he yielded up his rightful place and handed the throne to David.
For David, who was a man after God’s own heart, to reign, Saul had to die. For David to ascend to the throne, Jonathan had to yield. There is a real basic lesson here. Most of us understand the flesh has to die, the battle is getting Jonathan to yield. Water baptism in Jesus name buries the old man (Saul), while a new man is born of the spirit (David), which causes a transformation and renewing of the soul (mind), so it now can receive the things of God.
When we receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost (and I realize theologians will not like this), we share the throne of our lives with Jesus Christ. It is then that we are seated with Him in heavenly places, ruling and reigning with Him through his government; the cross. Saul is dead, Jonathan has yielded, and we have access to God through the Spirit.
Acts 2:1-4, 38-39, Romans 6, 8:7, 12:1-2, John 3:1-21.
“Study to show thyself approved, a workman that needs the not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)