Apparently, this will solve all my problems in life.
If you've been born-again, that is, been given new spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, you already live in the Spirit. The Bible says that when a person is saved, when that person is born-again spiritually, the Holy Spirit comes to live within that person and it is by His presence within them that they are made "new creatures in Christ." (
Romans 8:9-17; Titus 3:5) In making this point, the apostle Paul called the Christians at the city of Corinth the "temple of the Holy Spirit." (
1 Corinthians 6:19) That's you, if you have by faith trusted in Christ as your Saviour and yielded your life to him as your Lord. You have become a temple of the Holy Spirit.
But, you know, many Christians live for decades as a temple of the Spirit but are little changed by him. Why is that? How can a person have the Holy Spirit within them but remain who they've always been, struggling with the same sins, still the same temperamental, selfish, lazy, gossipy, fearful person they were before they were saved? Well, the problem is that they have never truly yielded themselves to God, to the will and way of His Spirit. This requires that they die to themselves, that they "deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Christ." (
Matthew 16:24-25) It is only love for God, however, that can properly motivate this sort of living (
1 Corinthians 13:1-3), which is why loving God with all of your being is the First and Great Commandment (
Matthew 22:36-38). Living the crucified life, the life of Self-denial, which is the life God calls all of His children into (
Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14; Colossians 3:3; Romans 6:1-18), can't be properly lived by any other motive than love.
So, life in the Spirit is anchored in loving God with all of who you are. When you love God fully, when you love Him deeply, denying yourself for His sake, putting Him first in everything, is a natural and joyful way of living. Without love anchoring your relationship with God, however, living His way, living the crucified life, soon becomes a burden, a costly and dreary task that you will eventually give up. We do what we love to do, you see. It's just the way we are.
Many Christians get busy doing stuff for God. They read their Bibles, they pray, they go to church, they give, but they don't really love God. The Bible says, "These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." (
Matthew 15:8) Don't be one of these people who think doing religious things without a heart of love for God pleases Him. It doesn't.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.