1 Corinthians 3:9 You are God’s building.
At the moment of our Salvation, we are born again. We are no longer the same person. The Apostle Paul referred to this as “the new man.” In the 4th Chapter of Ephesians, Paul goes into detail on this subject. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the Truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true Righteousness and Holiness. (Ephesians 4:20-24)
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he refers to the saved person as a building. We are all buildings; God’s buildings. You are God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:9) All buildings are built for a purpose. They may be a residence, a place of business, ministry, or for storage, but they all were originally built with a specific purpose in mind. God created (built) each of us with a specific purpose in mind.
A building may be built to be a Church but if the Church moves out, that building becomes vacant and for sale. At that time, it can be purchased by anyone and used for anything. If the building is bought by a worldly, dishonest crook, it might be used as a place where illegal drugs are sold and other evil deeds take place. It is the same building. It is still structurally sound. It still looks like a church on the outside, but what is going on inside is not at all Godly, but totally satanic.
The building is not in and of itself evil but what is going on inside it is very evil. You see, the good people moved out, sold the building to evil people and they moved in. That building is redeemable and can once again be used for the good of the Kingdom of God, but it has to be cleaned out, remodeled, and refurbished. All the bad people have to leave and everything they used for their demonic activities must go.
Then, that building can once again be purchased by a fellowship of believers and used again for it’s original purpose: a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a perfect picture of us. We were created by God for a purpose. Everything about our body was perfectly designed for what our Creator had in mind. At some point, bad spirits began to move in and we let them. In fact, we invited them in. They moved in, took over, and started doing ungodly things. For the most part, we still looked the same on the outside. Our name was the same but what was going on inside was not at all the same. As time went by, we got worse and worse due to the demonic activity inside.
Then one day we heard the Gospel of Christ preached and we got saved and born again. This is when the transformation back to our original purpose began. Upon our Salvation, the Holy Spirit moved in and began the demolition process. Little by little, as much as we let Him, He threw things out and cleaned us up.
This is where our freewill comes into play because we have something to say about the process. He wants to do a total renovation but if we don’t want Him to clean certain things up, He won’t. Everything we surrender to Him, He will clean up and restore it to God’s original purpose but those things we want to hold on to, He will let us.
Unfortunately, this is where most Christians are today. They are like the building in our scenario above that was bought back by a fellowship of believers to be restored to a church BUT they allowed a few of the bad people to stay on and conduct their demonic business out of one of the back rooms.
The Holy Spirit will not force us to do anything. He can do anything but He is waiting for us to give Him permission. You are God’s building. He owns you but you are in control of what goes on inside. Pray about those rooms that you won’t allow Him in. Open that door and let Him in. He will clean it up and you will be one step closer to being the new man.
Let Him in and He will….…….turn the tide……..in your life.
Thank you Lord, Doreen
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