You Do Not Belong To Yourself

"Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,

who lives in you and was given to you by God?

You do not belong to yourself."

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT)

When a person commits his/her life to Jesus Christ and becomes His, the Holy Spirit of God comes to reside in him/her. In other words, he/she becomes God's dwelling place. In the Old Testament era, the presence of God only inhabited a physical building, first the Mosaic Tabernacle, and later Solomon's Temple. After Jesus' death and resurrection, however, the system changed, and the bodies of genuine followers became the temples of God.

Now, when the Holy Spirit of God comes to live inside a person, He takes ownership of the whole person and begins to do His work in transforming him/her into the image of Jesus Christ. This is why the Church is a body of believers and not a building. For this reason, the focus of a church should always be the people, not the building. Similarly, the focus of a church ministry should always be to bring people's hearts to God and have them commit their lives fully to Him; it should never be the focus to satisfy people's carnal desire for entertainment, fun, social events, and freedom to live life whatever way they choose without conviction or repentance.

Once a person becomes a child of God and a temple of His Holy Spirit, he/she no longer belongs to him/herself. He/she has been bought for a price and now belongs to God. However, if there's no change in his/her life, then it's evident that the Holy Spirit is not at work inside him/her. And if He's not at work, then He's just not there. People need to fully commit their hearts to God and His Word because The Word is God. One cannot love God and not His Word. The two go hand-in-hand.

The Word of God should always be the main focus in church ministry, never a sideline reference to which one occasionally refers. If the Word of God is not a church's focal point in ministry, whether it be Sunday morning services, youth groups, children's ministries and programs, or Christian counselling, then God is not at the centre, man is. And if man is, then the Holy Spirit cannot do His work.