After Jesus was taken up to heaven, the apostle John received a magnificent vision of glory. He said, “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (Revelation 21:22-23, NKJV). In other words, the only temple in heaven is Jesus himself.

Now that God’s temple is in glory, sitting at his right hand, where does the Lord dwell on earth? We know that no building can contain God. As God himself says, “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest?” (Isaiah 66:1). Paul echoes this in the New Testament, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). If we look for God’s dwelling place in some building, we’re not going to find it.

Paul gives us our answer: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). The Lord lives and rests in the bodies of his created humankind.

Once we place our belief in Jesus, we become God’s very dwelling place. This was demonstrated most visibly at the Upper Room. The Holy Spirit fell on the disciples there, filling them with himself. He claimed their sanctified bodies as God’s temple where the Father would come and live. The Spirit would help them to mortify and destroy the works of their sinful flesh, and he would give them power to live victoriously. Their bodies became God’s temple, a dwelling place not built with hands.

Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). In other words, you belong to God, and he wants you to be his resting place.

Dear believers, give God glory by opening up your heart to the truth that you are his temple on earth.

In a confusing and contradictory-seeming passage, God gave the Old Testament patriarch Abraham the land of Canaan “for an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8, NKJV).
You might think while reading this, “How could God promise Abraham’s descendants a permanent homeland? Surely Abraham must have known that the land in front of him wouldn’t last into eternity.” The New Testament even tells us that the world will be destroyed by fire, burnt completely out of existence, after which the Lord will bring about a new heaven and earth. Was this promise of an “everlasting possession” to Abraham some kind of trick? It couldn’t be a mere piece of real estate. How could that be eternal?

The fact is that this land of promise was symbolic of a place beyond the earth. I believe Abraham knew this in his spirit. The Bible says that as Abraham moved about in Canaan, he always felt alien. “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10).

Abraham’s heart longed for something beyond the land itself. He could see the true significance of the land blessing, and he realized, “This place isn’t the real possession. It’s just an illustrated sermon of the great blessing to come.” Abraham grasped the true meaning of the Promised Land; he knew Canaan represented the coming redemption of God’s people, the safe haven that the Lord would invite his people into one day. Jesus himself said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).

The Holy Spirit enabled this patriarch to see down through the years to the day of Christ. He knew that the meaning of his Promised Land meant a place of total peace and rest, and this place of rest is Jesus Christ himself.

The Lord Jesus is our promised possession. We are his, but he is ours as well, and God invites us to obtain our everlasting possession by simple faith.

It was to the Philippian Christians that Paul first introduced this truth, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5, NKJV).

Paul wrote this message to them while he was imprisoned in Rome, declaring that he had the mind of Christ and casting aside his reputation to become a servant of Jesus and his church. Then he wrote, “I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state” (Philippians 2:19).

This is the thinking, the outworking, of the mind of Christ. Here was a pastor, sitting in jail, yet he wasn’t thinking of his own hard situation. He was concerned only about the spiritual and physical condition of his people, and he told his sheep, “My comfort will come only when I know you’re doing well in spirit and body. As a result, I’m sending Timothy to check up on you.”

Then Paul makes this alarming statement: “For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state” (Philippians 2:20). What a sad statement! As Paul wrote this, the church around him in Rome was growing and being blessed. Clearly, there were godly leaders in the Roman church, but Paul says, “I have no man who shares with me the mind of Christ.” Why was this so?

Evidently, there was no leader in Rome with a servant’s heart, no one who had cast aside reputation and become a living sacrifice. None had the mind of Christ. Instead, everyone was set on pursuing his own interests. “For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:21). Paul’s words here cannot be softened: “Everybody’s out for himself. These ministers seek only to benefit themselves. That’s why there’s nobody here I can trust to naturally care for your needs and hurts, except Timothy.” Paul could trust no one to go to Philippi to be a true servant to that body of believers.

Dear believers, let us be a Timothy to our church and community! Our prayer should be “Lord, I don’t want to be focused only on myself in a world that’s spinning out of control. I don’t want to be concerned only about my own future. I know you hold my path in your hands. Please, Lord, give me your mind. I want to have your servant’s heart.” Once we have become servants to the church, only then will we truly have the mind of Christ.

As followers of Christ, we are to take God at his word and accept as true what he says about us. This means our ‘old man’ represents someone who still seeks to be seen as right before God because of his own works. Such a man’s conscience continually brings him under guilt, but instead of repenting, he pledges to overcome his sin problem himself. “I’m going to change! I’ll start fighting my besetting sin today, no matter what the cost. I want God to see how hard I’m trying.”

Such a man brings much sweat and many tears to the Lord. He prays and fasts to prove that he has a good heart and to satisfy his own pride. He’s able to resist sin for days at a time, and so he tells himself, “If I can go for two days, then why not four? Why not a week?” By the end of the month, he feels good about himself, convinced he’s working himself free.

Then his old sin resurfaces, and down he goes into deep despair. That starts the cycle all over again. Such a man is on a treadmill, and he will never get off.

Paul tells us that the old man was pronounced dead at the cross. His old man was crucified along with Christ, killed in the eyes of God. Jesus took that old man into the grave with him, where he was forgotten. The Lord says of our old man, “I won’t recognize or deal with such a one. There is only one man I recognize now, one with whom I’ll deal. That is my Son, Jesus, and all who are in him by faith.”

The new man is the one who has given up all hope of pleasing God by any effort of the flesh. He has died to the old ways of the flesh.

This new man leans on the truth of this verse: “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Galatians 3:11, ESV). He believes, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). He may not always feel it or even comprehend it fully, but he won’t argue with his loving Father’s Word. He accepts it on faith, trusting the Lord is faithful to his Word.

As Jesus stood at the highest point of the temple, Satan whispered to him, “Go ahead. Jump! If you’re really God’s son, he’ll save you.”

“[The devil] said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: “He shall give his angels charge over you,” and, “In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”’” (Matthew 4:6, NKJV).

Do you see Satan’s deviousness in this? He isolated a single promise from scripture, and he tempted Jesus to cast his whole life upon it. He was suggesting, “You say that God is with you. Well, show me the proof. Your Father has already allowed me to harass you. Where was his presence in that? You can prove he’s with you right now by jumping. If God is with you, he’ll provide a soft landing. You can base your confidence on that. If not, you might as well die rather than go on wondering if you’re on your own. You need a miracle to prove the Father is with you.”

How did the Savior respond? “Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”’” (Matthew 4:7). What exactly does Jesus mean here by ‘tempting God’?

The Old Testament provides us with our answer. Over and over the Lord had proved himself faithful to the Israelites. God’s people received visible proof that their Lord was with them, and yet they fell into the same question time after time: “Is God among us or not?” God calls this ‘tempting him.’ Jesus uses this same phrase in his reply to Satan.

As with Israel, God has already given us an entire body of evidence for his presence. First, we have in his Word that contains multiple promises of his closeness to us. Second, we have our own personal history with God that is a testimony of his many past deliverances in our lives. Third, we have a Bible full of witnesses to God’s presence in past centuries.

What does this tell us? It shows us it is a grave sin to doubt God’s presence; we’re not to question whether he’s with us. The Bible is clear: We’re to walk with God by faith and not by sight.

Consider Israel’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt in the Bible. As God’s people crossed over on dry land, they saw the waves crash down on their enemy behind them. It was a glorious moment, and they held a mighty praise meeting with dancing, singing and thanksgiving. “We’re free! God has delivered us from the hand of oppression.”

Israel’s story represents our own deliverance from the bondage and guilt of sin. We know that Satan was defeated at the cross and that we were immediately set free from his iron grip. However, there is more to God’s purpose in saving and delivering us. God never meant for Israel to camp there on the victory side of the Red Sea. His greater purpose in bringing them out of Egypt was to take them into Canaan, his land of fullness. In short, he brought them out of slavery in order to bring them into his heart and into his love. He wanted a people who were totally dependent on his mercy, grace and love. The same is still true for his people today.

Israel’s first test came just a few days later, and they ended up murmuring and complaining, totally dissatisfied. Why? They had known God’s deliverance, but they hadn’t understood his great love for them.

Here is the key to this teaching: You cannot come into joy and peace—indeed, you cannot know how to serve the Lord properly—until you see his delight in your deliverance…until you see the joy of his heart over his communion with you…until you see that every wall has been removed at the cross…until you know that everything in your past has been judged and wiped away. God says, “I want you to move on into fullness that awaits you in my presence!”

Multitudes today rejoice in the wonderful benefits of the cross. They have moved out of Egypt, and they are standing on the “victory side” of their Red Sea trial. They enjoy freedom, and they thank God continually for casting their oppressor into the sea.

Many of these same believers miss God’s greater purpose and benefit to them. They miss why the Lord has brought them out, which is to bring them in to himself. He is where the ultimate joy, satisfaction and purpose of our lives may be found.