“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? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

In the book of Genesis, we read about how God communicated with people in unusual ways. He appeared to Abraham in visions and dreams, led the Israelites with pillars of fire and smoke, spoke to Moses through a burning bush and there was even the time that He wrestled with Jacob.

When we get to Exodus, however, He tells Moses that He wants a special place where He can dwell among His people. “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:8) God gives Moses very specific instructions as to how this place was to be constructed and maintained. This would become a portable sanctuary that would serve as the central place of worship for the nation of Israel as they wandered in the desert and after their entrance into the Promised Land. We refer to this structure as the Tabernacle.

In the Bible, the Tabernacle is referred to as the Mishkan, which comes from the Hebrew root, “to dwell”. Therefore, the Tabernacle was the earthly dwelling place of Yahweh. It was the place where God’s presence was manifested and His will was communicated. The specific instructions for building, purifying and maintaining the Tabernacle were of utmost importance because these people were creating a space that would be worthy of Yahweh’s holy presence.

After 440 years, God instructed King Solomon to have a permanent structure built in place of the Tabernacle. This was twice as large and twice as ornate as the original tabernacle. The splendor of this building was to reflect the glory of the Holy God that dwelt within. We know this dwelling place as the Temple.

When the Temple construction was complete, Solomon prayed a beautiful prayer of dedication that you can read in 2 Chronicles chapter 6. After this prayer, in chapter 7, we read about the presence of God descending and filling the temple. “When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.”

Fast forward over 1000 years to the time after Christ was born. The temple played an important part in the history of Jesus. First, the temple is the place that Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to be dedicated to the Lord. At this time, the Holy Spirit revealed to a righteous man named Simeon that Jesus was the promised One. We can read in Luke 2 about how he took Jesus in his arms and declared, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation
which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”

As a 12 year old child, Jesus traveled to Jerusalem with Mary and Joseph for the Festival of the Passover. On the way home, when they discovered that Jesus wasn’t with them, they went back to Jerusalem and found Him in the temple where He was sitting with the teachers and priests who were amazed at Him. When His parents questioned why He would make them anxious by staying behind, He answered, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Even at the young age of 12, Jesus recognized the temple as the place where He could be in God’s presence.

In the time period just before He was to be crucified, Jesus told the religious leaders, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19) Was Jesus actually threatening to destroy the sacred temple or was He indicating something greater with this statement? No, Jesus was speaking of His death and resurrection. Jesus was saying that HE is the temple. The temple was the place where the presence of God dwelt. Because He and His Father are One, Jesus was the ultimate temple!

Just before His ascension to heaven, Jesus promised His disciples that He would send a Helper – the Holy Spirit – to help them and to be with them always. “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17) We see this promise fulfilled in the book of Acts at the time of Pentecost. “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” This is the moment that God identified the new temple, the place where He would dwell. He chose a place that is made of Jesus’ people. Not a grand building or a mountain top or some other sacred space. His temple is made with ordinary men and women who have chosen to give their lives to Christ in full surrender.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul affirms this in chapter 6 when he says, “Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

So how are we, as temples of a Holy God, supposed to honor Him with our bodies? Is it by living a “good Christian life” and attending church regularly? If we read the Bible sometimes and do kind things for others are we caring for the Temple? These are all good things to do as God’s children, and I believe wholeheartedly in practicing spiritual disciplines, but if you look at the words of the verse above, it specifically says to honor God with our BODIES. Since the Temple is a physical place, much like the structures that were built in the Old Testament, we need to understand how to purify and maintain this holy place where God has chosen to dwell on a physical level.

Many people don’t understand how tightly intertwined our physical health is with our spiritual health. I would even go so far as to say that it is very difficult to have one without the other. Think about it. I find it much harder to have a meaningful prayer time when I feel bloated from eating too much junk. It’s super hard to give my full, undivided attention to the Word of God when I’m craving whatever it is I’m addicted to. Serving in different capacities at church or in the community is a lot harder if you are physically unwell or you get worn out easily because of poor habits.

In order to maintain a healthy spiritual life, we MUST maintain a healthy physical one. Before you feel like I’m being judgmental or that I don’t understand how real the struggle is, let me tell you that I have been addicted to food for most of my adult life. I have struggled with my weight, had thyroid disease and heart disease and I have been at the point where I’m pretty sure I couldn’t run to save my own life because exercise was too hard and not important enough to add to my full plate. However, I have gotten to a place in my life where God has set me free from my addiction and has shown me just how important maintaining His Temple is.

In order to maintain the Temple, it first needs to be cleaned out, or purified. Doing a healthy body cleanse has many benefits, but often it’s a really hard process to go through for several reasons. The first challenge you will face is overcoming your addictions. Many people don’t realize that they have a problem until their addiction is removed. The leading addictive substances besides drugs, alcohol and nicotine are caffeine and sugar. Caffeine is pretty obvious, since most coffee and soda drinkers can’t go 24 hours without caffeine before they get irritable and probably have a whopper of a headache. Most people who have a sweet tooth will readily admit that they are addicted to sugar, but have you tried to cut out carbs before? Pasta, bread, etc. are full of sugar, and you will quickly find out how addictive they are once you try to stop eating them.

The second difficult aspect of cleansing your Temple is the amount of water that you need to consume. A general rule of thumb is to drink half an ounce to an ounce of water for each pound you weigh each day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should drink 75 to 150 ounces of water per day. If you’re exercising, you will need to drink more than that to replace what you lose through sweat. Drinking lots of water is a must when you are cleaning out your body, and we all know that what you put in your body eventually has to come out. If you choose any kind of fruit or vegetable juice cleanse, well, that has to come out too. That being said, I highly recommend staying close to home if you choose to do a full body cleanse.

Honestly, the best way to do a full body cleanse is to do a water only fast. Fasting with putting nothing but water in your body for longer than 24 hours is not an easy thing to do, but it will benefit you greatly. Did you know that fasting has actually caused people’s diagnosis to reverse??? Tumors have shrunk, cancer cells have diminished or disappeared completely, diabetes has been overcome and fasting has been proven to lessen the symptoms of many chronic illnesses. Your skin will become clearer, your hair will shine and you’ll feel more awake and alert during the day as well as having a sound sleep at night.

Back in 2020, when most people were sitting around eating copious amounts of food because we basically couldn’t do anything else, God chose to get my attention and open my eyes to the beauty of the benefits of fasting. You can read about my experience with that here https://themompursuit.com/fasting-and-prayer-weapons-of-warfare/. During this time, I went through amazing changes in my physical body because of fasting, but more importantly, I went through changes spiritually. These changes went hand-in-hand. I could do an entire post on fasting, but I encourage you to do a deep dive into this for yourself. I guarantee you it will change your life. (If you do decide to do a lengthy water fast, there are certain steps that you need to take to prepare your body for this as well as knowing how to maintain the fast and end the fast. You should also check with your physician if you are currently taking medication.)

Once your body is cleaned out, you can begin maintaining this state of God’s Temple. It’s important to not go back to your unhealthy eating habits. I am NOT saying that you should only eat vegetables and lean meat for the rest of your life. It’s fine to indulge in your favorite treats from time to time, and you shouldn’t be consumed with making all the right food choices all the time. You SHOULD, however, have some sort of plan to maintain a healthy eating style. Fad diets don’t work. Period. There is no magic pill that will make you lose all the unwanted body weight. Get educated on what healthy eating really looks like and go from there. The key is to find what works for you and stick with it. Don’t think of it as a diet. Instead, consider it a lifestyle.

Another part of maintaining the Temple is to take exercise seriously. This doesn’t mean that you need to run out and get a membership to the nearest gym or that you need to join a Zumba class or buy fancy workout equipment. This could simply be making sure you get out and walk every day. Take a hike, go jogging, start riding your bike – the possibilities are endless. Just get up and move. If you make exercising a habit, it will start to become something that you look forward to and you’ll feel better overall and have more energy.

One more thing I’ll mention about maintaining your Temple is to make sure you are getting enough rest. God created sleep as a time for our bodies to rejuvenate and repair itself. Good sleep can help manage stress levels and help improve moodiness. It helps with motivation, concentration and memory. Here are a few tips to help you fall asleep easier and stay asleep:

• Don’t eat right before bed. Late night snacks are actually a really bad idea. Your body is more resistant to insulin at night resulting in storing your food as fat instead of burning it off like you do while moving around during the day. Eating before bed can also cause an increase in acid reflux and indigestion. If we’re going to be honest, the things we tend to snack on before bed are usually mostly junk food anyway. Cookies, chips, ice cream, etc. are all things we should be avoiding as much as possible. A good rule of thumb is to stop eating at least an hour or so before heading to bed.
• Don’t spend lots of time in front of a screen just before going to bed. The blue light tends to suppress the melatonin in our bodies which is the hormone that causes us to be drowsy. Give yourself a good 30 minutes or more away from the television or from being on the computer or cell phone before trying to go to sleep.
• Develop a routine! If you get up and go to bed around the same time each day, your body will fall into a natural rhythm. You may even find that you start to wake up before your alarm goes off!

Sleeping is not the only rest that God created. Exodus 20:8 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.” The word, “Sabbath” comes from the Hebrew, Shavat, which literally means, “to rest”. So, this verse is saying to remember the day made for you to rest and keep it sacred and set apart. The Bible also says in Mark 2 that, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” In other words, this day of rest was given as a gift to us for our good. It is necessary for the well being of our Temple to take a break from the busyness of life and simply rest. When we don’t rest, we go against the rhythm that our Creator built into our bodies. The consequences that we can suffer from not observing Sabbath are burnout, stress, brain fog and a messed up immune system, just to name a few. Alternatively, when we do rest, we set boundaries in our lives that will protect our minds, bodies and souls from fatigue and we can reap the rewards of peace and good health.

God has chosen those who have repented and placed their trust in Him to be the Temple where His presence dwells.1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Do you not know that you are God’s Temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s Temple, God will destroy him. For God’s Temple is holy, and YOU ARE THAT TEMPLE.” Your life literally depends on how you are keeping God’s Temple. We must be faithful stewards and make our bodies a place worthy of His presence.

This is me before and after getting set free from my food addiction.