ABUNDANT LIFE VISION
THE HOUSE OF GOD. 1 COR 3:16-17
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? [17]God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. NLT.

Dear friends, good morning and happy belated independence day celebration to you. I pray that God will take over the affairs of the country and help us in Jesus name. I will talk to you about “the house of God” today. What is a house? Let me define it by myself, a house is a physical structure made of blocks, woods, bamboo, steal and other materials which is habitable for humans to live in. The implication of this is that any physical structure that will be called a house should give comfort to humans living in it. If it cannot give comfort to humans, it is not a house. Therefore, in this era, a house should be made of blocks, wood and other elements depending on the location it is being built to give the needed comfort for humans. Humans can find a house inhabitable and it is the same thing with God live can find some “houses” inhabitable. I will come back to this later.

A house in Greek is Oikia or Oikos. The difference between the two is that, Oikia means a dwelling while Oikos means a house, a dwelling, a temple, a sanctuary, an estate, and a family. One of the meanings of Oikos that I will dwell on is temple. The Greek word for temple is Hieron, which means a sacred place. You will notice in our text that Paul calls our bodies the temple of God. What he is talking about is that our bodies are sacred. Now, what is the meaning of sacred? Sacred means a holy, consecrated, venerated, hallowed, blessed, dedicated to God and a sanctified place. The truth is that God lives in a sacred place. Isaiah 66:1: This is what the lord says: “Heaven is my throne, And the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that? Could you build me such a resting place? NLT. God’s throne is in heaven and he has an extension on earth as it is his footstool. God’s habitat in heaven is a holy place. Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1-3 especially verse 3 confirms this. Isaiah 6:1-3: It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. [2]Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. [3]They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” NLT.

At this juncture, what is the house of God? The house of God is his holy temple. Does this temple mean the physical structures we build and gather in? No! Those ones are made by mortal hands and the one who made mortal hands cannot live in a structure built by mortal hands. I will take you back to Isaiah 66:1, the scripture reveals that heaven is God’s throne and he has the earth as his footstool where he rests his legs. This means that nothing on earth can “house” him. After all, Psalms 24:1 says he owns the earth and everything in it. How can a physical structure on earth be his house? I will have you to answer that. The house of God is the body of his children who have given their lives to his one and only begotten son. Why is this so? He created us in his own image. We are designed and structured like God and he can only live in a creature that looks like him, who shares the same similarities with him. God lives in us through his Spirit in us. Romans 8:16: For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. NLT.

God living in us tells us that God owns our bodies and we should live our lives to please him but those who are carnally minded cannot understand this and they live their lives as they like. 1 Corinthians 3:18: Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. NLT. Also, God living in us is his way of making his family among us. Everyone who belongs to Christ Jesus belongs to God’s family where God acts as the father of all of us. 1 John 3:9-10: Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. [10]So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God. NLT. The design of God is to make a house within us if we let him. Don’t forget that at the beginning of this teaching I said that it is not all houses that are habitable. God wants to live in us but he cannot force himself on us, we need to open up voluntarily for this to happen. Revelation 3:20: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. NLT. If you make your house inhabitable by not allowing him to enter because of sin, he will not come in and if you live in sin after you have opened up to him, it means you were never translated into his kingdom in the first place because 1John 3:9-10 says that you cannot be in his family and continue to sin. It is not possible because you will detest sin as his child. The major take away I want you to get is that you are the temple of God and you are to live with that consciousness and not live to serve sin of any form.

Therefore, if you are yet to accept the saviour’s work by giving your life to him, I implore you to do so now by saying this prayer wholeheartedly; Dear Jesus, I confess you as my Lord and saviour today, please save me and be my lord and I will be your witness till the end. Amen. If you have recited the prayer wholeheartedly, I congratulate you and I welcome you to the family of God. Make sure you join a bible believing church as you start your journey in Christ.
God bless you.