“Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” [Eccl. 12:1] We have been thinking lately a great deal of the Creator of the heavens and the earth, “the sea and all that in them is,” but most important of all is it to remember that “it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people.” [Psalm 100:3]

Let us find out first of all just what He made us for. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” [1 Cor. 3:16]

You will remember that when God made Adam, when the temple of his body was complete, “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” [Gen. 2:7] That which God breathed into him to give him life, was the air, which man has gone on breathing ever since. So this is the life-giving Spirit of God.

Each little new-born baby when it comes into the world, is a temple or house, formed by God for Himself to dwell in. Then God breathes the air into its nostrils, the breath which gives it life. The Spirit of God which fills all the things that He has made, rushes in and takes possession of the new house, and the child becomes a temple of God with the Spirit of God dwelling in him.

Did you think your body was a house for you to live in? Oh, no; God made you from the dust of the ground, to be a house for Him to live in. That was what He reminded Adam when Satan tempted him to think that the forbidden tree would make him so wise that he could do without God living in him: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” [Gen. 3:19]  When the breath, which is the Spirit of God, is taken away, “then shall the dust return to the earth as it was.” [Eccl. 12:7]

Now you will see that we have no life ourselves, but “we live, and move, and have our being,” [Acts 17:28] because He who is “the Life” dwells within us. When Jesus lived on earth, a temple for the Spirit of God, He said, “I can of Mine own self do nothing.” [John 5:30]

What? Can we really do nothing of ourselves? you ask. Can we not see, and hear, and speak, and move, and think, of ourselves? Just think for a moment what it is that does all these things. Is it your eyes that see, your ears that hear, and your brain that thinks? If so, why cannot one think and see and hear after the breath has left the body, and he is dead, so long as he has eyes and ears and brain? Adam had a perfect body when he was first formed, but not until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life could he think or speak or see or hear.

Then what is it really that does all these things?—It is the Spirit of God, which is our life, and truly we can of our own selves do nothing. It is by the power of His life in us that we see and hear, and by the same power that we speak and think and move. “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” “And there are differences of workings, but the same God which worketh all in all.” [1 Cor. 12:4, 6]

All the members of our bodies are formed for the use of the Spirit of God, as a means by which He may enter into us and use us. Through our nostrils and our lungs He breathes His life into us, and all our senses are a way for God to give Himself to us.

He comes in at our eyes in all the beautiful things that we see around us, that reflect His beauty to us. In all sweet sounds, in the songs of the birds, the music of the sea, the mighty peal of the thunder, and in His Holy Word, He enters at our ears into His own temple.

And then, if we will let Him, He uses our tongues, our hands, our feet, and all our members to do His holy will, and through us gives Himself to others.

Take my life, let it be
Consecrated Lord to Thee.
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, ALL for Thee.

The Present Truth – July 21, 1898
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf  The Spirit of Life