I went for a walk this afternoon.
The skies were cloudy, but I needed some exercise. Checking my weather app, the hourly tab showed clouds…but no rain in sight for at least a couple of hours. 20 minutes into my walk, I felt drops.
*
You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4 (NASB 1995)
1 John 4:4 has often crossed my mind lately. “…greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” brings me such comfort. The Billy Graham website says, “The Bible’s clear that when a person accepts Jesus Christ as Savior that His Spirit takes up residence in us. “After you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation… having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13).“
Think about that for a minute. God, Holy Spirit, when I said yes to Jesus as my savior, said yes to living in me. He is Helper, Counselor, Comforter, Advocate. He intercedes for me. He equips and teaches me to live for Christ.
Greater is HE.
What a precious, precious gift from God. Right?
Now, if we’re keeping things real here – and we do, on this blog – I don’t always remember that. I tend to forget that God gave me His spirit to live in me to guide me through this thing called life. Don’t get me wrong though. I spend time with God. I wake up and greet Him. I spend time with Him in conversation, prayer, studying His word. I sing to Him. I praise Him. I worship Him. But, I also choose my own way sometimes.
Which brings me to Holy Spirit.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
Holy Spirit is in me. As it says in 1 Corinthians 6 above, this body of mine is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Temple being used here in this passage is not by accident. The temple was an important place in the Old Testament. There were exact specifications given to God’s people about constructing His temple. Every minute detail mattered.
The temple was to house God’s presence, the Ark of the Covenant. There were no cutting corners when they were to construct a temple for a holy, pure and righteous God. There was no shoddy work. There was no “get it done quickly so we can get paid and move on to the next job”. No. The Israelites were building a sanctuary, a residence for God to dwell.
And even after it was built, there were exact specifications, directions, commands as to how people were to conduct themselves once inside. Not everyone could enter each portion of the temple. The Holy of Holies was no place for the ill-prepared. Jewish literature from the sages and rabbis talks of a rope being tied around the high priests waist in case he wasn’t properly prepared and dropped dead, they could easily pull him out.
The temple of God was no joke.
*
My body is a temple of God, the Holy Spirit. I have not been able to escape that thought lately. of course, it doesn’t help that I have been gaining weight. Lots of factors involved, but I’ve been making some poor choices of late.
Again, we’re keeping it real.
However, the Lord in His most loving way has been talking to me about my temple. Taking care of it. Eating properly. Spending more time with Him as my coping mechanism (see “Coping Mechanisms“) as opposed to food. Even if it’s healthy food, too much is never good. But, that’s a story for another day.
And that brings me to today.
I went for a walk because the Lord prompted me to go for a walk. Everything looked good on the weather app, so I went. I thought I could turn it into a longer walk, but a few drops of rain – which turned into more rain later – and I high-tailed it for home.
Stupid weather app, I thought.
I proceeded to finish my work day and came back upstairs to see the clouds still hanging over the city. Checking the weather app and there was a break in the clouds later in the day.
That later in the day came and there was rain. Pouring down rain.
Sigh.
After a while, I saw sunshine. I waited a bit just in case the clouds rolled in quickly to thwart my efforts – we start thinking like that sometimes don’t we? But, I felt Holy Spirit urging me to go for another walk. I told my son I was going for a walk and to have his phone ready in case it started pouring on me while walking.
He came upstairs and, I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was raining. Not quite pouring down rain, but definitely not a sprinkle either. Determined to obey God and walk anyway, I bundled up, opened the door, pulled my coat hood over my head and began my walk. I barely got past the driveway when I looked up:
God said, “Hello”.
This rainbow was majestic. This rainbow – oh, the picture doesn’t do it justice. Never have I seen a rainbow like this before in such majesty outside my front door.
I laughed. I nearly cried. And I ran back into my house and called my son to look. My 22 year-old son obliged and said, “Wow!”
Walking, praying, singing, delighting in God’s beauty and promise, His covenant promise through the rainbow, it was the best walk I’d had in a long time.
There’s an old praise song with a line that says, “It’s amazing if you look just what you’ll find.” Well, I obeyed Holy Spirit. I looked. And God said, “Hello”.
Had I not obeyed, I would not have seen.
***
Sunny Cadwallader 
You must be logged in to post a comment.