“When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods… Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars… Completely erase the names of their gods…. you must seek the Lord your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes—the place where his name will be honored.”(Deuteronomy 12:2-5, NLT).

When the Israelites were about to enter the land of Canaan, Moses instructed them on an important aspect of possessing the promised land. He said they must dispossess the evil that was in the land! They must completely eradicate it!

Because, God cannot cohabit with sin and evil. God’s glory and presence won’t abide where evil dwells!

So, the Israelites were commanded to destroy every vestige of pagan worship and build a nation where only God would be recognized as God among them. And then God would live among his people in a designated location by placing his name there.

Today, God indwells believers by His Holy Spirit. But, what was true for the God’s abiding presence in ancient Israel  is still true for us in our individual lives.

When God places His name on you and lives in you, you must eliminate all visible trace or evidence of the sin and evil that once existed in your life because of the new life you now have in Christ. It must be completely erased from your life! “So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life” (Romans 6:11-13, NLT).

When you possess the life of Christ, then His Spirit dwelling in you will empower you to completely erase sin and sinful desires so that His name can be honored by your life and the way you live it.

And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. (1 John 3:5-6, NLT)