Every House We Build Will Fade Away! His Glory Calls for More!
NOTE: The houses that we build as referenced here include our buildings (whether old or new) many of our traditions, our methods of worship, our models for church growth, and a thousand other things we do in His name, oftentimes with the greatest sincerity. The Apostle Paul encourages “a sincere faith,” but sincerity is not the only ingredient God supplies for constructing His local church body. This article is not meant to speak evil of your local church, not at all, but it is to say that there is more, much more. The glory that He promised awaits us. We need only to put our own glory down.
Speaking of the New Covenant Church as opposed to the Old Covenant Church in the Wilderness, the Apostle Paul wrote the following: “… how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?” (II Corinthians 3:8).
So, where’s the glory – His glory, I mean? Old buildings like the one pictured here should serve to show us that what we build will not last. If only we could see that spiritually speaking; or if only we would.
It appears the congregation once assembled there abandoned the premises. Maybe they built a new building, or maybe they died off, or their faith faded away. Oftentimes, we leave an old building for a new one – a shinier version that fits current trends. We glow in the fresh aroma of what is new! And other times, we stay in our old meeting houses and add a fresh coat of paint, a new roof, or better landscape and parking lot. In any case, new things give us fresh wind – but is it the wind of the Spirit? Not usually.
Whether the building is old, or new, or remodeled is not relevant to the question. Again, I ask… “Where’s the glory – His glory?”
The good feelings we have in our temporal buildings, along with our tightly woven traditions, have characterized and categorized our spiritual standing to one another and to the world for centuries. In this way, we think we have represented God to ourselves and to the world. God doesn’t despise buildings where we meet, and some of our traditions are good. But long ago, we allowed them to overshadow what we know to be true – that the God who created the heavens and the earth is not glorified through His Spirit by even the grandest of our edifices, or our most cherished traditions, or our most exuberant shouts of praise to His name. He desires only to be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth, and things that appeal to us – to our own satisfaction – greatly hinder just that.
Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” Says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:1-2).
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (John 4:23).
“Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:4-5).
So, where’s the glory that is supposed to “exceed the glory” of the Old Covenant? Has the Spirit failed? Of course not!
We know God’s glory isn’t present like He says it could be and should be. We’ve known that for centuries!
I remember singing a hymn as a child throughout my youth, titled, “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing,” composed from a poem written by Daniel Whittle in 1883. One part of that hymn reads: “Mercy drops round us are falling but for the showers we plead.” That hymn is still sung today in some houses of worship, more than 160 years after it was penned! And it’s only one in a long line before and after it.
When I was born and growing up in church in the 1950s, we knew we sorely lacked God’s glory and the power that accompanies His presence, and we “pleaded” for more; but that “more” was seldom realized, and even then it was only a taste. It was just enough to make one long for more.
Through the Cross and Pentecost, God appropriated an even greater glory than I’ve ever seen, or than anyone has seen in our generation, and probably for many generations. So, what has been (and is) the problem?
There are many, but to begin with, we’ve not followed His design. We’ve not followed His holiness, His righteousness, His teaching, or His example (for the most part). Thus, He has not seen fit to release His glory as in the days of old when everything was “built according to pattern” – something that was required before He let His glory shine.
“Thus Moses did; according to all that the LORD had commanded him, so he did. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:16, 44).
His Spirit surely has not failed us. But we, for the most part of our doing, have failed Him.
Many of us would agree with that, but we’ve been on this side of Jordan so long that we’ve lost sight of the Promise. We’re not willing to lay our “Christianity” on the altar for Him to raise us up like true Christ followers. And we won’t be that until what we’ve built goes away. He’s going to help us with that. Just watch.
He’s about to show us His glory – and make us glorious too, but it won’t be in the house that we’ve built! Are you preparing for Him to take away the house that we’ve built in His name and to be a part of His house as He would build it? It’s going to happen.
“If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land…” (Isaiah 1:19).
He Must Increase, So We Must Decrease
We’re satisfied with so little. We’ve made God so small. What a disservice to Him. What a poor legacy we leave.
All these centuries, God has worked inside the “wood, hay, and stubble” Church that we’ve built, and He will judge all that in His appointed time (I Cor. 3:9-15). As a matter of fact, He’s been judging us all along, and He’s doing so now more than ever.
Many years ago, He gave me a message to the churches, titled, “Purging at the Dawn of Glory.” In recent years, He’s confirmed that message was indeed born of His Spirit. We are seeing a purging by Holy Spirit fire.
God’s last advance for His Church to become that spotless bride described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus requires a kind of Word washing for practical sanctification and brotherhood advance too – something that cannot happen in the houses we’ve built, asserting church traditions we’ve grown to love more than we love Him.
Jesus said the church at Ephesus “left” their first love. Did they leave it for tradition, for religious pride, or for a form? History records that the church at Ephesus remained a Christian hub for several centuries but eventually faded away.
Like the believers there, we have in many ways left our first love. Unlike them, we live at the end of the Church Age, not the beginning. The Bible indicates that we’re going to return to that first love with the fervency of Holy Spirit glory, never to leave again! Get ready for a major transition, because Holy Spirit glory is how the Apostle Paul describes the last church!
God’s Work With Us Comes In Stages Leading to a Glorious End
God’s work with His people has always been progressive. He does not show us all His plans at once. He never has. He operates by mysteries revealed over time, showing us more as it becomes needful or relevant to our time.
To a great degree, we can decide how deep in spiritual waters we want to swim; and sometimes, He simply overtakes us with a flood. We have such an illustration in the Bible, when God overtook Israel with His glory like a flood.
Through the Prophet Ezekiel, God showed a river flowing from the Temple that started only as a small stream. He used its increase to foretell of the increase of His glory that will come in His millennial reign. First, the water was only ankle deep, then knee deep, then waist deep, and finally so deep that one would have to swim (Ezekiel 47:1-6). This represents the increasing blessing and glory of God that will be flowing from the Temple where Jesus Christ will be in the center!
Now, on this side of that millennial reign, we can walk in water that’s ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, or so deep that we must swim. I don’t know where you are in the stream. I’m somewhere between knee deep and waist deep, I suppose (metaphorically speaking). But I’m not satisfied, and I hope you’re not satisfied where you are either. Probably, there are only a very few out there who are actually swimming.
What Will You and I Do?
We can make that choice today, of how deep the water in which we want to be, just like hundreds of millions of believers have before us. We can choose to move on with God now or not, either swimming deeply or continuing in puddles. We understand that, ultimately, God will bring whom He will into every new point of His progression to maturity, but the Bible is replete with instructions given for us to act.
For example, while God’s grace must draw us to His Son, we must respond by believing in His Son. Believing is our part. Jesus calls us to act when He commands unbelievers to “repent or perish” (Luke 13:1-5). And the Apostle Paul instructs us to “walk in the Spirit” so that we will not fulfill the lust of our flesh (Gal. 5:6). That’s an action.
That principle is true with all things for all of life. Clearly, we’ve seen many points of God’s progressive work with mankind throughout Church history, often referred to by Church historian, Mark Knoll, as “turning points.” Throughout these turning points, many moved with God, and many did not.
Recall that throughout the Bible story, God did not fault His lack of grace toward those who did not act when He was gracious, but rather He laid blame on them for their unwillingness to respond. We have no reason to think differently about those who refused to move with God throughout Christian history after the first century Church. And we cannot use that excuse today either. He still calls us to respond.
Consider that God built His Tabernacle in the Wilderness, residing with His people throughout their wanderings over forty years even though the distance from the Red Sea to the Jordan should have taken them less than two weeks to travel.
God was so dissatisfied when, within days after crossing the Red Sea, many of them clearly displayed their lack of faith in His promise, that would not come until after passing through the brief Wilderness zone. God did some house cleaning there, even purging some, and it wasn’t pleasant. He opened up the earth under their feet, and it swallowed them up! In addition to unpleasant purging, many were unwilling to lay down their own lives in exchange for His promise of future glory. So, He kept them in a barren desert, out of the Promise Land of “grapes and honey,” until all those who wanted to go back to Egypt had died off.
The short Wilderness journey from Red Sea glory to Canaan glory was God’s way of testing their faith. He wasn’t going to let anyone enter His Promise with crusty, waffling, or selfish faith. Besides, there would be warfare ahead, for which they would need a tested faith in order to take the promise He had given.
Can you see the similarities with Christianity today, and throughout centuries past? Allow the Holy Spirit to speak. We must be honest with ourselves, family of God. While He’s certainly worked alongside us while building His house, our part has greatly restricted His glory. We’ve been wandering far too long.
The Church at Corinth had many of the faltering characteristics of the Church in our time. To them, Paul wrote: “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections” (II Cor. 6:12).
According to Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, there is one more turning point for God’s people yet to be realized, the last one on God’s calendar. He is going to prepare us as “a glorious church” (that’s His term, not mine) for our glorious Groom who is coming soon (Ephesians 5:27)!
I want to act on what He tells us is coming. To “act,” in this case, is to prepare for it. He’s the one who’s going to bring it about.
Below are only three of many examples I could give from the Bible of progressive turning points for God’s people that may help you think it not strange that there is one still to come – the last one. Number four is the last one for which we should greatly anticipate and prepare now.
1. The Apostle Paul explained that when God moved His people from the Old to the New Covenant, He demonstrated His progressive plan.
“But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory” (II Corinthians 3:7-11).
And verse 15: “But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart…”
“What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day’” (Romans 7:7-8).
That was the first of many turning points for God’s people – from an Old Covenant people to New.
The majority of Jewish religious leaders refused to progress into the New Covenant; thus, they have remained in spiritual darkness for nearly two thousand years now. What about us? Are we willing to move on as God increases our understanding of what His Word says?
He is not bringing about another Covenant, but He is going to reveal what He accomplished for us through His Son that we’ve not realized yet because we’ve not been willing. Our faith was weak very early on in the journey after the Cross (our “Red Sea”), and we’ve been allowed to wander. Yet all the while, He’s been with us. How long-suffering is our God, our Creator, our Redeemer, and Soon-Coming King! In anticipation and preparation for sending His Son, God is going to help us be willing! Hallelujah!!
By His grace, many of us already see and desire it! But between where we are today and where we’re going to be soon, God’s doing a lot of cleaning in His own house – even some purging. Yes! We’ve already entered the final round of “purging at the dawn of glory.” His glory, revealed to, in, and through us! What a glorious church we will be!
2. When Jesus first came on the scene, John the Baptist called people to be baptized in anticipation of Him. At the same time, John pointed to a much deeper work that God would do in those who would believe on Jesus. John was only “a light,” but Jesus was the “True Light.” John baptized in water, but Jesus would baptize in the Holy Spirit: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11).
When more people began to follow Jesus than John, John the Baptist explained, saying: “He must increase, but I must decrease´(John 3:30).
Here we see two actions ordained by God Himself. One confirms the new birth, and the next points the way to upward growth, spiritual maturity. More evidence of His progressive work!
3. Jesus’ disciples were surely surprised when He told them that He was about to leave, and that where He was going, they could not come then, but He would come for them later.
In the meantime, He was going to send them His Spirit, something that would be “better” for them than for Him to be there. He literally said that it would be to their “advantage” for Him to “go away.”
“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you´( John 16:5-7).
Jesus did not disappoint in the end. He never does. Now, because of His Spirit poured out upon all who believe, He is walking with men and women, boys and girls of every tribe and tongue all at the same time without any boundaries whatsoever – all while He, Jesus, is seated in heavenly places with His Father, and ours!
And throughout twenty centuries of spiritual warfare and world chaos under the prince of the power of the air, Satan, God’s Spirit has not so much as batted an eye but has prevailed everywhere we allow Him to light. Thank God that He overrides us often too, but He is sensitive – more sensitive than we even imagine. Usually, if we won’t allow Him to move us forward, to grow us up, He won’t impose Himself on us. This is the great problem we’ve had for centuries, and most of us still do today. The last church, the glorious church, will be a result of Him imposing Himself upon us! Hallelujah! Impose, Holy Spirit! Impose!
At some point, it would be wise for us to come to grips with the fact that the houses we’ve had such a heavy hand in building in His name, along with many of our traditions, are not up to par with what He enabled all along – not even close. That’s a hard pill to swallow that only a few are willing to take. Therefore, He’s going to help us by dismantling our house for us. His pure work will be better! Much better!
4. Now, about our last turning point … I’m going to use a phrase from each of the three examples above simply to clarify why we should wholeheartedly embrace what the Bible says about one more spiritual progression on this side of being glorified, which happens when we see Jesus (I John 3:2; I Cor. 15:35-49).
Notice one phrase that sums up each of the aforementioned examples:
- “For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.”
- “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
- “It is to your advantage that I go away…”
I am not saying that those examples of progression in God’s plan are necessarily pictures of what God said He’s going to do with His Church in these end times; I only use phrases from each because they are fitting to make clear exactly what we need to realize as we begin to grow in our understanding about another turning point transition.
Now compare these with those references above:
- The glory God’s going to reveal in and through us will far surpass the glory we have now – which is mostly ours.
- God must increase if we would become a truly “glorious church,” for which reason we must decrease.
- Such a move of God will be to our great advantage over the spiritual place where we are today.
The Church that we’ve built (in many respects) is built by our design, not God’s; and we’ve used a lot of “wood, hay, and stubble” to make it happen (I Cor. 3:11-15). In addition to that, we’ve incorporated the spirit of this world with the holy things of God, both in our gatherings and in our lives – lives that He marked out to be separate from the spirit of this world, even while we live in this world. When we gather together in His name, we bring those things with us. Since it is His people who make up His house, those things become a part of His house.
To the Church in Corinth, Paul wrote: “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (I Corinthians 5:6).
Let’s not forget that His house is not an organization, an institution, a building, or a tradition. His house is a living organism – His people. Who we are when we gather matters. What we participate in out in the world makes us who we are. Our confession does not necessarily identify who we really are; but rather, our actions do that.
Our Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9).
Below, we’ll see what the Apostle Paul teaches are the mechanics that will bring about the next transition for the Church. They are no different than what God intended and designed all along, but we’ve either not incorporated them, or we’ve not done so according to His design. In either case, we are sorely lacking regarding God’s way and desire from the beginning.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:11-16).
God has already been preparing some of us to help many more who will come in when He brings about the change that will ignite it all. That change will result in representing His finished work on earth – His glorious church!
Let’s prepare our minds to think and align biblically concerning this last stage in God’s progressive plan for His Church, prepare our hearts to be more sensitive to His Holy Spirit’s input, and prepare our lives to be in sync with His Word and His Spirit.
This is the action He seeks from us, and I believe the Bible teaches that He requires from us, if we would become full beneficiaries of His Last Church plan. He doesn’t reward slothful servants, but useful ones (Matt. 25:14-30; Rev. 3:21).
Build Your body Your way, Lord! Make us glorious in Your eyes!
