My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you,
and my words that I have put in your mouth
will always be on your lips… (Isaiah 59:21 NIV)
I introduced a beautiful word to the campers: SHEKINAH. It means God will “dwell or inhabit.” It means that God’s presence is especially near or revealed. Remember Moses at the burning bush, Mary encountering the angel at the annunciation, or the Holy Spirit descending on the believers at Pentecost. In each of these moments, God’s presence was powerfully and unmistakably revealed.
Think back to a time when you knew God’s Shekinah – you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was very near and he was revealing himself to you. What was your response? Holy awe or fear? Overwhelming peace? Gratitude for grace?
Yet, the Bible tells us that when we believe and receive Jesus as Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. God within us. Not only “God with us,” but “God within us.” Not only God “out there,” but “God in me.”
Although I’ve been in church for most of my life, I don’t recall being taught how to live in a personal relationship with the God of the Universe who dwells within me—the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Prayer was always directed toward a distant God, and reading the Bible seemed focused on gaining head knowledge. When I first realized that God the Holy Spirit actually lives in me, it was a mind-blowing moment.
You can’t hide from a God that is within you. You can’t ignore a God within you. You can’t even fully wall off that part of you.
How do you live with God inside you?
In partnership.
In every moment of every day, we face a vital choice: to partner with God or not. God’s voice—his Spirit, his gentle presence within us—is something we must intentionally tune in to. Recognizing his voice can be difficult at first because it competes with many others: the voices of people, culture, and even the enemy of our souls. In the beginning, listening for the Holy Spirit may feel as subtle as catching the wind—a fleeting impression. But as we spend quiet time in his presence, we begin to recognize that creative, loving, challenging, and guiding voice as truly God’s.
God,
Thank You that when we receive the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus, Your Holy Spirit comes to live within us. Help us to discern which thoughts and inner promptings are from You, and which we should ignore or even resist. We pray that our thoughts, words, and actions align fully with the leading of Your presence—the Shekinah within us. Guide us, protect us, and teach us to be attentive to your voice. We ask this in in Jesus’s name, AMEN.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV)
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26 ESV)