The Indwelling of Christ – The Shekinah Glory

 

Two pairs of brothers in the Old Testament, both sons of spiritual leaders of Israel, both were supposed to succeed their respective father in the ministry of service and both were corrupt and unruly. The first was the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 1-10) who did not follow God’s direction and served God at their own way. The second were Hopno and Phinehas (1 Samuel 4:1-10), the sons of Eli, who violated God’s principles, they provoked God’s blessing at the wrong time, in the wrong place.

 

Both ended to maximum divine discipline of sin unto death. Both suffered miserably in the hands of the Lord. Both executed the will, the plan and policy of Satan, violating every principle related to Shekinah glory. They have demonstrated to us, that friendship with the world is too dangerous (James 4:4). They love the world and the things of the world (1 John 2:15).

 

The wife of Phinehas prematurely give birth to a son named Ichabod which means: the glory of God has departed. She gave birth after hearing that her father-in-law died, her brother-in-law died together with her husband died. In Hebrews, kabodh means no glory  - no Shekinah glory. God’s plan is perfect designed for the imperfect man. God’s system has accurate message (sound Bible doctrine), distinct sound, and correct procedure (ICE approaches in studying the Word of God).

 

4 Sacred buildings in the Bible:

  • The Exodus Tabernacle (Exodus 25:40)
  • The Temple of Solomon (1 Kings 8)
  • The Temple Zerubbabel (Haggai 2)
  • The Tabernacle in Heaven (Rev. 11:19)

 

The Old Testament “sacred buildings” were sacred simply because of the Shekinah glory of Christ. Those three buildings were object lessons that speak of Christ Jesus. The only thing that made the OT building sacred was the presence of Shekinah glory. The Trinity indwells every believer with each member having a different purpose.

 

As believer, your life belongs to Christ. God’s life in you has tremendous potential for happiness and prosperity. In the Old Testament, the indwelling of the Shekinah glory was short lived. Is the indwelling of Christ upon the believer permanent? Are you going to be indwelt with Christ in the millennial and in the eternal stage?

 

The indwelling of Christ is exclusively unique to the Church Age, which manifests the reality of our uniqueness. The indwelling of Christ is a sign of royalty of the people whom God called, elected and appointed. Ekklessia, literally means the called out ones being a sign of royalty itself. The indwelling Christ has 5 purposes:

  1. Sign of uniqueness
  2. Sign of their royalty
  3. Guarantees of the escrow blessing
  4. Eternal security
  5. Motivation to live the pre-designed plan of God

 

Gal 5:13  For _you_ were called to freedom, brothers [and sisters]; only [do] not [turn] that freedom into an opportunity to [satisfy] the flesh, _but_ by means of love be serving as slaves to one another.

 

There is an ongoing conflict between the old sin nature and the Holy Spirit. The tendency is always to give in to the desire of the flesh. The believer is commanded to cease striving and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10), in short, the antidote is Bible doctrine in the soul. The metabolized Bible doctrine in the soul under the realm of spirituality results to spiritual freedom.

 

Shekinah represents the invisibility of Christ. There are six aspects of the indwelling of Christ.

  1. The prophecies concerning the indwelling of Christ (John 14:19-20)
  2. The verification of the indwelling of Christ (John 17:22-26)
  3. Indwelling of Christ related to the pre-designed plan of God for the Church Age (Col. 1:25-29)
  4. Indwelling of Christ related to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-11)
  5. Indwelling of Christ related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 2:20)

Indwelling of Christ related to your test of faith under undeserved suffering (2

  1. Corinthians 13:2-6).

 

Two Christological dispensations (where Christ actually indwells the human body:

  1. Hypostatic Union – (from birth of Christ to His ascension) from 4 B.C. to A.D. 30 (33 years period)
  2. Church Age – (from Pentecost to Rapture): divided into two period
    • Pre-canon (the Book of Acts times) AD 30 to 96
    • Post-canon (NT epistles times) AD 96 to Rapture of the Church

 

The Church Age believers are the “temple” built by the Holy Spirit to become the resident of indwelling Christ. This “temple” is maintain by the Holy Spirit and cannot be destroyed by anyone or anything (1 Cor. 6:15-16). However, this “temple” can be damaged as illustrated by sexual sins analogy (1 Cor. 6:16, 18). The principle here is that, the physical part of us is a property belonging to the spiritual part of us (1 Cor. 6:20).

 

Note that the issue here is not sexual sins since it was used to present the spiritual principles of adultery. The “temple” of the Church age believers is damage under carnality by execution of human viewpoint and operating by satanic policy of good and evil.

 

How do you glorify God? The believers glorify God by having the Shekinah glory in them, which is Christ being manifested in them. It is not the man, but the presence of Christ. It is not the thing but the presence of Christ. The Shekinah glory is manifested in us through glorious riches (ploutos) or wealth in abundance (Col. 1:27), unfathomable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8), the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7) or riches related to escrow blessings in time and eternity (Eph. 1:18).

In time, the Church Age believers glorify God by receiving escrow blessing. There are several escrow blessings in time for the spiritually mature believer.

  • Spiritual blessings – maximum awareness of life, the capacity to savor every moment of life’s adversity or prosperity.
  • Establishment prosperity – the blessing of privacy and freedom.
  • Emergency prosperity – the blessing of success, promotion or wealth in the midst of disaster and calamity.
  • Professional prosperity –the blessing of efficiency, excellence in career or profession.
  • Business property – the blessing of management, salesmanship or success in private or corporate enterprise.
  • Social prosperity – the blessing of faithful, loving and trustworthy friends.
  • Romance prosperity – the blessing of sexual pleasure or production.
  • Mental prosperity – the blessing of learning and comprehension of academic subjects.
  • Industrial prosperity –the blessing of creativity and innovation to produce something beneficial.

 

Old Testament Israel believers could not see the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling between the cherubs, but they knew He was there from the cloud overshadowing the Tabernacle. Church Age believers cannot see the Lord Jesus Christ indwelling over our body but we know He is there from the truth of His Word.

 

Beholding the Shekinah glory will lead us to Christ being glorified in our body (Phil. 1:20-21). Beholding the Shekinah glory means that Christ is being glorified in the body of the believer. Spiritual transformation is possible only inside the pre-designed plan of God (2 Cor. 3:18). The phrase “metamorphoo auten eikona” which means “transformed into the same image” refers to the transformation into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ’s humanity. The phrase “to behold the glory of God” is synonym to the process of being transformed by the power of God, and also synonym to the believer’s “concentration on the Word of God.

 

Today, the Lord Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God the Father and at the same time He indwells the bodies of the Church Age believers. Through our spiritual eyes, we could see a manifestation of His presence. Through the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we can reveal the Shekinah glory to the world. By the grace of God, we are privilege to rest in Him where He is because we are positioned or we are in Christ. We are to abide in him above as He abides in us below (John 15:4). The indwelling Shekinah glory is a sign that God the Father loves the Son and God the Father loves you because the Son is in you.

 

The indwelling of Christ protects the Church Age believers from four categories of trends:

  • Trends of people emphasize relationship
  • Trends of human viewpoint emphasize
  • Trends of self-centered lifestyle
  • Trends of the old self nature or cosmic trends

 

The invisible Shekinah glory has visible manifestation (Exodus 25:21-22). The only way for the invisible Shekinah glory to be visible in the life of the Church Age believer is under the execution of the pre-designed plan of God. In the Old Testament the visible manifestation of Shekinah Glory was the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire (Exodus 40:34). In the Church Age, we have the visible part of Shekinah glory, the Holy Spirit indwells our body making it holy – our body is the Holy of Holies.

 

The pillar of cloud and fire became a great spiritual training instructor for Israel. When the cloud moves –they moved. When the clouds stop, they stopped. As believer, don’t move when God wants you to stand still. Don’t stop when God wants you to keep walking (Exodus 40:38). The pillar of cloud and pillar of fire points to the fact that everything is dependent on the Lord. The Shekinah glory is identified as the Cloud Theophany and Fire Theophany. It is not the man but the presence of the Shekinah glory that really matters. There is no sacred temple today (Church Age) except the body of the believer.

 

 

 

J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries