Laws are set in place to manage behavior. If you break the laws set forth by men, they will put you in jail in order to restrain you. They name the prisons using terms such as reformatory or correctional. Most leaving the prison are not corrected or reformed. They may be a little more cunning or sly in the future, hoping not to get caught the next time.
When we are saved Christ lives in us and we are now a temple or dwelling place. We have become sanctified or holy in our spirit. When we are in HIS Presence, we are on Holy ground. All of Heaven proclaims “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord GOD Almighty”.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to abide in us:
1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
We are told to glorify GOD in our body. In the center is our spirit and moving outward is our soul and finally arriving at our body. Man’s carnal nature cannot live in HIS Presence, he will die. The soul and the body want to keep the Presence from overtaking their position in the believer. The problem is man’s carnal nature cannot be “fixed” and our prisons are a testimony to that. Men must be transformed and this will occur as we submit to HIS Presence. As we submit to the fiery furnace and let the wood, hay, and stubble be burned away, the glowing Presence will remain. IN HIM we have our being.
This is not an external work but an internal work moving outward. If your focus is on the external works, signs, types, shadows, dates, time cycles, customs, feasts or other external representations, you will miss HIS Presence within you. The outside will not invade the inside. You will not wake up one day and have some special oil pouring on you cleansing the soul and the body. Au contraire, the work is occurring from the inside out. The body is the last to be dealt with, not the first.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Your body will be a living sacrifice only after you “prove” by the renewing of your mind. The “Holy of Holies” inside each of us is highly protected from the carnal man. However the veil is waiting to be rent in two by placing the carnal man on the altar and letting him die. When this veil is torn, the Presence will come forth brighter than the noonday sun. This light will expose any issue needing to be resolved. Impurities will be burned away and the dross will be removed. Men will then be unable to resist the light that draws them near. At that moment, the fullness of time is at hand.
Do you think you have to do this by yourself and by your own power and tenacity? No, be of good cheer:
1 Thess 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming (Presence) of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.