Our pastor has been doing a fantastic job of teaching on the concept of the Holy Spirit.
Often the forgotten third person of the trinity.
Sunday he taught on the dwelling places of our hearts.
Now I know it’s a hard concept for some who perhaps are not ‘believers’ or for those who don’t understand or know the Holy Spirit and how important it is to our faith.
Don’t let that intimidate you.
Stick with this study and you will learn the concept and the importance of how it works for us.
In the New Testament book of Second Timothy the writer says this:
13 Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus;
14 guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
(another version says to treasure it instead of guard) Both concepts are good and understandable.
Now to explain the concept of dwell: it means to set up residence, house or occupy or live in.
Such as you dwell in your home, and long to be there when you are gone.
I know I am most at home ‘in my home’… I think we all are like that.
When you come home you want to relax. If you have a guest you show welcome and honor to them.
(Perhaps only show our good side and not our messy)
Pastor said we often compartmentalize our homes, in reference to the presence of God.
We often will say, “God I want to make my home open to you, but can you not go into that room or that closet?”
Pastor said how we host the Holy Spirit will be a clear sign of our heart and how much we allow Him to change us.
Pastor said hosting is different than hindering or honoring. They are contrast of emotions and reactions.
To Honor is: power, peace, victory, life, truth, guide, wise and fruit.
To Hinder is: impotence (not able), fear, defeat, death (spiritual), lies, lost, foolish and failure.
When we move from the truth of the Holy Spirit we become comfortable with deception and lies.
The concept of whenever there is a lie, someone always gets hurt.
He used the story of Ananias and Sappira who were husband and wife, and in the New Testament book of Acts their story is found if you want to read up on them.
They lied and cheated thinking it was acceptable and in the end the final outcome was not a positive one.
God dealt with them in a very strong way.
I think it was an example for us to understand, lying always erodes truth.
Let me say it again, lying always erodes truth, but when truth is exposed healing can begin to take place.
In the time and era we live in, there are a lot of untruths floating around our heads and hearts.
All we have to do is turn on our television or read the internet news.
Pastor said, when we start to accept the lies our society is telling us, on many levels we begin to tolerate them, and not the story of what God is telling us.
He said lies will always hinder intimacy and truth.
Think about that line. Lies will ALWAYS hinder intimacy and truth.
The walls go up when lies move within our relationships.
The Holy Spirit is truth telling and the enemy is always deception and lies.
So the question I guess, is to ask ourselves what are we most comfortable with?
Would we rather live in harmony and peace or frustrating chaos?
Truth telling is painful but living within the concept of lies is deadly.
It is a choice we all must make.