Here's a fair question: If God were to show up where you were at any time, how would you know that it is actually Him who's shown up? Where and how would He dwell with us? While you try to work out the answer, consider this truth: God is in fact Spirit; He doesn't just show up to be seen by the natural eyes. This is a question that needs to be answered by every believer as it's answer speaks to who God truly is and who we truly are as well.
1 Kings 8:27: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth?” Behold, even the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!”
Acts 7:48: “However, the Most High does not dwell in houses built by human hands. As the prophet says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house have you built for me? Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?”
Certainly, it is only the human body; the vessel which the Lord God Himself has made according to His good desire and understanding; that can be able to host and contain His nature and glory. As Solomon admitted in 1 Kings 8:27, no man-made structure can be able to host God’s personified nature such as to provide worthwhile expression to the person God; no matter how much gold, cedar; how many strings and pipes are dedicated towards the establishment of the same. Indeed, the sanctuary won’t speak when God wants it to; it won’t sing or offer a word of wisdom or encouragement by itself when God desires such and it definitely won’t dance in accordance with the kinetic move of God’s Spirit. It won’t weep in repentance when this is the only requirement for God’s glorious nature to revealed in a given setting. Not at all!
All-across the intricate balance of God’s vast creation, only one figure is found worthy enough of fully revealing who God is at the physical level. This is the human figure, whom God created and then made in His image and likeness. Image in this case points to the soul of man which is what I would term as a carbon-copy of the person God - man’s originality is only found in God. On the other hand, likeness touches on our physical presence which enables us to wield on earth the same level of authority as that which God wields in heaven. At this, the rest of creation will then be able to say: “This is in fact how God is like!”
This should now help us understand why God kept on expressing His frustration over the kind of worship that His people, Israel, offered Him. In this case, for ages, we’ve put so much focus on the sanctuaries, the offerings, the songs; the shallow prayers, which are often only just vain babbling as Jesus puts it in Matthew 6:7, etc. On the other hand, we fail to address the one thing that causes us to constantly wander away from God’s truth: our wrong mindsets, ill-intended hearts and corrupted human will which in this case summarise the fallen state of man's soul. God is tired of contending with us at the mind-level, heart-level and will-level as this are the very attributes that also define the person God; He has a mind, a heart and a will. Rather, He wants us to be able to come to the place where we can be able to actually display His nature (His mind, heart and will) to the rest of creation as we walk in-step with Him while we grow in grace and truth.
God wants us to be restored to His likeness; we can’t keep on battling the same 'detached-human' issues every now and then. He is a King and we are His heirs; He desires us to grow to the point whereby He can be able to entrust to us His estate to steward. Think of this in the same way as you would your child: Would you prefer to have him or her locked up in the compound all day until adulthood or would you have it that he or she instead grows in capacity to the point that he or she can be able to run your remote business while you relax back at home? In this case, while thinking of your home as being what heaven is to God; wouldn’t you want to have your child go outside at some point in time to display to the rest of the world the kind of value that you’ve placed in him or her?
Surely, when I get blessed with mine at some point by God’s grace, I certainly wouldn’t want to be disciplining or rebuking them day after day for committing the same kind of mistakes - For this reason, God afforded us His eternal Spirit who makes us alive to His ways on account of our belief in His one and only Son; Holy Ghost; who gives us the capacity at mind-level, heart-level and will-level to respond positively to God's guidance; something that our initially-corrupted human spirit couldn't be able to do on its own. In the same way that our human spirit is able to find perfect expression within our bodies; God's Spirit, in whose image we've been created; is also able to find perfect expression within our bodies; a God-level kind of expression that was at display in Jesus Christ during His earthly days.
The human vessel, being able to thus host God's eternal Spirit within itself, becomes the only one all-across creation which can be able to express God’s personified nature exactly as God desires. In this case, it only takes us being mindful of this matter so that we don’t get to limit God’s influence over earth. On the other hand, God is very orderly and personal in His overall approach to the matters of life. He doesn’t just allow things to happen because we are able to call on His Name in a personal way. Rather, He allows things to happen only according to the pure desires of His heart which have been revealed in His Word.
In this case, the most primary thing (and probably the only thing) God needs us to do in order for us to meet the requirements for the display of His glory is to be holy. At this, I’m not just taking about the 10 commandments since the Law of God has already been fulfilled to completion by the Holy Spirit in us. In this way, we only need to be faithful enough in our walk with God to allow Him cleanse us each day until the perfect Day when our perfect, inwardly-established Spiritual identity will be revealed outwardly. Our bodies in this case take quite some time to reveal the already-worked-out Spiritual reality of our perfection and this is where God's enduring grace comes in to gradually and progressively mold us from the inside-out in a kind of spiritual training (for this reason, God even says that we are already enthroned with Christ in heavenly places; this is already a Spiritual reality. We're already kings; we only need to undergo the prior training that's required). God then calls me and you to avoid sin by all means; not by our own human strenght; but by dwelling on the truth that His grace is able to afford us the strength needed to prevail against sin. You only need to desire righteousness inwardly because even sin begins inwardly before it finally manifests as a physical deed.
Holiness is all about us giving God the exclusive opportunity to display His glorious nature through us and it requires us to be fully submitted, like an actual child, to His set standard for man which has been established in Jesus Christ. Anything that falls below Jesus' standard should be to us something that needs to be diligently worked on (ignorance, sin) as we continue marching towards the glorious Spiritual identity which God has already worked out for each one of us in Christ Jesus; our Lord and King. We only need to draw from the understanding which Jesus employed as a man in order to fulfill the Law of righteousness and finally rise up to the highest throne there is both in the heavens and on earth.
Ephesians 1:4: "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." - Holiness and blamelessness is non-negotiable in God's sight; He's afforded us this through Jesus Christ and it involves us being committed to His way alone without compromise. Holiness in this case is a choice we get to make each day; how we choose to go by our business on a daily basis - God's way or the world's way? This is the only way through which God can reveal Himself through us - when we are holy - as God is understood best through His actions. In this case, holiness is never about us judging others or eclusively offering them literal advice. Rather, it is all about us showing them that there is always a better way to do things no matter how much the world might compel them to flow with the masses. It is all about drawing others to repentance through conviction; not condemning them.
God in this case isn’t just a force that needs to be put on display for if He were indeed just a force; everything in the heavens and on earth would have crumbled at His slightest nudging (just think of how even the mountains shook violently at His presence - this was because they couldn’t contain God’s level of understanding). Likewise, He isn’t merely a mysterious treasure that needs to be searched out neither is He a statue. Rather, He is the perfect person who just desires to interact with His persons on an intimate level. He just wants genuine friendship with us as this is what it takes for His glory to be made manifest on earth.
God just wants to be able to say: “I’m not physically there, but I’ve sent my representative to provide a word of knowledge, an encouragement, a song, healing, comfort and so on and so forth.” God can only be revealed on earth through me and you; He doesn’t have on earth the kind of authority that He has in heaven (since He gave man the absolute authority on earth according to Genesis 1:28) and that’s why He’s established us as houses that can be able to host His soaking Spiritual presence. We are His anointed; we just need to hold ourselves with the same level respect that He holds us with as this in turn translates into our fear of Him. Surely, when we view ourselves as what He’s made us to be; His image; and seek to settle for nothing less than this, we are by all means proving our regard for Him. We are His very essence; even as Jesus puts it in Psalm 82:6:
“I said, ‘You are gods’; you are all sons of the Most High.”
You and I are highly anointed, highly favored by God!
