The Holy Spirit Sets You Apart for Spiritual Purpose

Our great calling and purpose is this: To be people who are set apart to live as human temples for God, who host His Holy Spirit’s presence and influence in our world. This is God’s doing, accomplished naturally, inexorably by His intimate association with your soul, mind, body, and spirit.

This is who you are, and who you were always meant to be.

The architectural reference for this purpose-defining aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work in you was the Hebrew Temple in ancient Jerusalem. This was where people went to “do business with God,” so to speak.

The Temple included a courtyard specifically for Gentiles, where people from all nations and ethnicities could interact. Beyond that was another area known as the Court of Women—a place of social relevance, supportive community, and learning about God and the Scriptures. Families and friends would gather here, preachers and teachers would deliver sermons, scribes and scholars would debate theology and their hopes for a Messiah. The Temple also held a vast treasury made up of thirteen chambers that held gold, silver, and other valuables—part of which were routinely distributed to the poor. There were rooms for storage, for oil and wine, and even a room for lepers to celebrate God’s healing. Finally, there was a Court of the Israelites and a Court of Priests, where a high altar was built. Here is where animal sacrifices occurred, a place for reconciliation with God.

You see where I’m going with this, right?

You see why it’s so important that Scripture calls you “God’s Temple”?

Because of the Holy Spirit’s presence within, you now are:

• a person with whom people from all nations and ethnicities can interact;
• a person of social relevance who contributes to a supportive community;
• a person with authority to learn—and share—about God and the Scriptures;
• a person capable of discussing and civilly debating life-changing theology;
• a person filled with treasures of God’s grace;
• a person capable of providing help for the poor;
• a person who can celebrate God’s healing—physical, emotional, and spiritual; and
• a person who can lead others into reconciliation with God.

This is you, right now. Not because you’re so great and powerful, but because He is.

The Holy Spirit has set you apart for unfathomable spiritual purpose—making you His “Temple-on-two-legs,” empowered with the ability to literally change His world.

Seriously, how cool is that?