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Aligning ourselves with the Holy Spirit so that we no longer serve as a place of visitation but as a place where the kingdom of God dwells can seem like a daunting endeavor. What does that place of love and empowerment look like, how does it interact with the world? A great example can be found in Acts 5:14-16 which states that people brought the sick into the streets so that when Peter’s shadow fell on people they might be healed. This wasn’t because of Peter but because he pursued the Lord so passionately that he became a place of dwelling for the Holy Spirit. People knew that there was something holy and powerful within him. So we should also be a habitation for the power of God. As His sons and daughters through salvation in Christ we are filled with the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. We share in the same inheritance that Jesus had. We merely need to understand and embrace what has been given to us.
How do we do this? How do we become this place where the spirit and power of God dwells? We do it by dwelling there first ourselves. Our faith has to get past the stumbling blocks of thinking we are earning our position in the kingdom or working to be worthy. We need to embrace our identity in Christ and passionately seek an intimate relationship with God. We need to get past our dreams, hopes and expectations of what this life should look like and become obedient to His will and purposes. It needs to be wholly about Him.
We need to long for Jesus to receive His full inheritance. We must see people as He sees them, love people as He loves them and be so passionately moved by that love that we are consumed by the desire to be such a welcoming and powerful place that people will long to receive the very thing we carry. When we do this, when we live this place of intimacy then His spirit and power will naturally flow when we interact with others. Sounds easy right? Then why is it so hard? Because it takes follow through. Much like an exercise regime it starts in small ways and as you continue to engage with it you start to see small steps in the right direction. If you falter or stop exercising you quickly go back to being less healthy. Faith is not a feeling; it is a muscle which must be used to be useful. Being a habitation of His presence is all about working that muscle and engaging with a God who loves you and beckons you to be with Him, to know Him and to experience His love. By so doing, like they did with Peter, people will be drawn to you and will experience the power of the living God who loves them and has sent His Son to ransom them and bring them into His Kingdom, for whether they know it at present or not they too are children that God dearly loves.