Where Does God Live?

I heard about two college students whose football team was about to get a goat as their new school mascot. There was much discussion among the students about where the goat would stay. One of the boys said to the other, “Why don’t we let the goat stay in our dorm room?”
“What about the smell?” the other asked.
“The goat will get used to the smell,” the first responded.

Goats may get used to living in filth, but God won’t live in any place that is unclean. Where does God live today?

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are."

In the Old Testament, God lived in the Holy Place. It was such a sacred place that no one was allowed inside except the High Priest, who only went in one time each year on the Day of Atonement. In order to enter the Holy Place, the Priest was instructed to conform to meticulously detailed instruction about how he was to approach the residence of a Holy God (See Leviticus 16). He was required to submit to a purification process and put on sacred garments before entering the place where God lived. If an unauthorized or unclean person entered God’s residence, immediate death was the result.

The New Testament reveals that God has moved from where He used to live. He doesn’t live in the old neighborhood anymore. He has built a new house where He now lives. That house is the Christian (See 1 Peter 2:5). He has taken up permanent residence inside the believer. In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul states indisputably that the Christian is holy by boldly asserting three basic facts: (1)You are the temple of God. (2) The temple of God is holy. (3) You are holy. To deny the truth of the believer’s holiness in Christ is to totally reject this passage of Scripture.

Do you believe the Bible? The Bible makes clear that it isn’t necessary to pray for God to give the Christian holiness. The person you were in Adam was unholy, but we learned in chapter four that man is dead. We have been given a new life in Christ and with it came the blessing of holiness. “For if by the transgression of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Righteousness is a gift! You can know you are holy right now because the Bible says so (See 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 4:24; Romans 5:19).