The Temples of God (14): The River of Life

In this episode, 'the River of Life,' Derek explores the profound biblical revelation that believers are the eternal Temple of God, designed to be filled with His presence and glory. Redeemed man in Christ is designed to be the eternal Temple of the Living God, indwelt by Him and shining forth His glory. Thus, redeemed man is the ultimate, eternal Temple of God (1Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19-20, 12:12, 2Cor 6:16, Ephesians 2:21-22, Rev 21:22-26). TEMPLES are designed to be dwelling places of God, and He introduced TEMPLES to reveal His ULTIMATE PURPOSE for mankind. He created MAN to be His TEMPLE, and now His plan is to redeem us, so that we might be the DWELLING PLACE of God, that God would dwell with us and IN US forever! This is God's ultimate purpose for man - that God might dwell in us and be glorified through us. All Temples of God are a blueprint of His ultimate Temple (Man), and so they describe our nature, design, purpose and operation - how God made us to function. The first clear design feature of God’s Temples is that they are all tripartite in structure. That is, they are comprised of 3 distinct parts, with 3 different levels of holiness, sometimes represented by different heights: (1) The HOLY of HOLIES, where God is enthroned, (2) the HOLY PLACE, and (3) the OUTER COURT. Likewise man is (1) SPIRIT, (2) SOUL & (3) BODY (1Thessalonians 5:23). The greatest Presence of God is in the Holy of Holies, where He is enthroned as King, and His Presence (Glory) radiates like light shining forth from the Holiest Place. One picture of this FLOW of LIFE is that His SPIRIT of GRACE flows down like RIVERS from the highest place (the Holy of Holies or Throne Room) to water the lower places. We see this RIVER of LIFE in the Heavenly Temple (Rev 22:1-2), in Eden (Genesis 2:10) and in the Millennial Temple (Joel 3:18, Zechariah 14:8-9, Ezekiel 47). Jesus was a fully functioning Temple of God, who came to make us into Temples of God, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in our born again spirit (John 14:16-17, Romans 5:5, John 4:10,14), and flowing out through our heart as rivers of living water (John 7:37-39). So, now in Christ, God, the Holy Spirit lives within our reborn spirit (where Christ is enthroned), from where He wants to flow down as rivers of life to fill our souls with His light and life, and then flow out through our bodies to the world, as we obey Him, by speaking His words and doing His works. We are Temples of the Living God, who wants to fill and empower us and be glorified through us. As we let His River of life and grace flow down from our high place (our spirit) through our soul, as we submit to Him and obey Him, the trees in the garden of our soul (our thoughts and emotions) will continually flourish and grow and be fruitful to the glory of God.