Know ye not that your bodies of the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid…Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
—1 Corinthians 6:15, 19-20
When the Bible speaks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we often limit His presence to the spiritual part of our being. But, the Bible says expressly, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” The church needs to understand that the body has a part in redemption by which it becomes the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. The church must also recognize the place that healing has in the Bible and in the counsels of God.
The account of creation tells us that man is composed of three parts. God first breathed life into the body, “the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). By this union of Spirit with matter, man became “a living soul” (verse 7). The soul finds its place between the body and the spirit: the link that binds them together. By the body, the soul relates to the external world; by the spirit, it relates with the spiritual world. By means of the soul, the spirit can subject the body to heavenly powers; by means of the soul, the body can act on the spirit and attract it earthward. The soul must choose between the voice of God, speaking to the spirit, or the voice of the world, speaking through the senses.
We know what sin and Satan have done with this arrangement. By means of the body, the spirit was tempted and seduced; it became a slave of the senses. We know also what God has done to destroy the work of Satan and to accomplish the purpose of creation.
The Holy Spirit brings to our souls the life of Jesus—His holiness, joy, and strength—He comes also to impart to the sick body all the vitality of Christ as soon as the hand of faith is willing to receive it. When the body is fully subjected to Christ, crucified with Him, renouncing all self-will, desiring nothing but to be the Lord’s temple, it is then that the Holy Spirit manifests the power of the risen Savior in the body. Only then can He manifest His power in us, to show that He knows how to set His temple free from the domination of sickness, sin, and Satan.