seeing a vision of God’s building and caring FIRST for the Father’s House

This week we are focusing on, the Building of the House of Jehovah, which is the Father’s house. Especially in the book of Haggai, we see that after a while the people of Israel stopped building the house of God but did their best to build up their own house.

If we read Haggai we see that the welfare of God’s people is related to and determined by their relationship to God’s house. Because they neglected the building of God’s house, they were suffering poverty and they didn’t enjoy the results of their labor.

Today it is the same with us – we need to be stirred up, go up, bring wood, and build the house of God, so that the Lord may not only bless us abundantly but also that He may gain His heart’s desire, His building, and He may return!

How we need to see what the building is and pay the price to give ourselves for the building, so that the Father may get a house as His dwelling place for His corporate expression!

God’s Goal: The Building of God’s House

What is the building? According to what the Bible says, the building is the corporate expression of the Triune God.

God’s building is God’s corporate expression – when God gets the building, His glory fills the house making this house (constituted with His people mingled with Him) God’s expression.

The entire Bible is a book of building! The main subject of the Bible is actually the building of God, and all the main things in the Bible – the all-inclusive Christ, the Triune God, the life-giving Spirit, salvation, redemption, etc – are related to God’s goal of having a building on the earth.

The central and divine thought in the Scriptures is that God desires a building. This is what He desires, and all things are created for His will – to have a building, consummating in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 4:11).

Whatever God is doing today is part of His building work. Yes, He does a lot of things and we cooperate with Him in doing many things in the church life, but all these works are part of God’s main work, His work of building.

The Lord’s coming back depends on the building up of God’s dwelling place – He won’t come arbitrarily; the Lord will come back when the church as the house of God is built up!

Are We Preoccupied with God’s House?

What do we care for more than anything today? Just as we see in Haggai, most of the Christians today and many even among the recovered people seek their own things, taking care of their own house.

Only the Lord really knows what’s first for God’s people today in the church life. Many times what emerges in practicality is a concern for our own house!

We may say, Now it is not the time for God’s house – it’s not the right time for the house of God (Haggai 1:2). We may be preoccupied with our own house and with having a good living (1:4).

But what God is delighted in and takes pleasure in is when we consider our own ways and go up to the mountain to bring materials and build God’s house (vv. 7-8). Otherwise we will realize that we look for much but amount for little because God’s house lies in waste while we each run to our own house (v. 9).

We may be busy caring for our own houses, or we may not be like-minded with those taking the lead to build the house of God (see Phil. 2:19-20).

What the enemy does in his stratagems to delay the building is to cool us down and, as we get married, have a family, have a house, take care of our human daily needs, we would become lukewarm and not care for God’s house first.

But we should NOT worry about our human needs – God knows what we need! Rather, we need to cast our cares upon Him and seek FIRST the kingdom of God, the building up of God’s house!

God may even allow us to suffer loss humanly, economically, or even reach a stage of becoming stale in our Christian life – so that we may return to the House of God and care first for God’s house!

The House of Jehovah is the Father’s House

The house of Jehovah in Haggai is actually the Father’s house in John 14, and God is deeply touched when we don’t care for His house, just as He is satisfied and happy to bless when we build His house.

Who knows what the Father’s house is? It is only the Son of God who is continually in the bosom of the Father, who knows God’s heart.

The Son of God is the One most dear, most near, most beloved, and intimate with the Father, fully knowing and understanding what the Father has on His heart.

Christ as the Son knows what His Father’s heart is and in His ministry, He did the Father’s will, sought the Father’s glory, spoke the Father’s word, came in the Father’s name, and did the Father’s work. One day He opened His heart and said, I want to tell you about My Father’s house!

The Lord went to the cross, died, and came again in resurrection according to the Father’s heart to produce a dwelling place where the Father is at rest, where He can carry out His economy, where His will is done, and the desire of His heart is fulfilled.

We need to have the sense that the church is the Father’s house – here the Father lives, rests, propagates His life, dwells with His children, and the desire of His heart is fulfilled.

Today the Son is building a house for His Father, which the Father would call it home, and this house will match His characteristics and taste.

First, the Son came and removed every negative thing and every obstacle, and then He came in resurrection as the Spirit – now the Son is in the Father, we are in the Son, and the Son is in us (John 14:24).

No one fully knows the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son is pleased to reveal (Matt. 11:27). In God’s house the Firstborn Son of God takes the lead to glorify the Father and build the house.

Don’t you sense the deep rest and satisfaction in the Father’s being as we enjoy Christ for the building up of the church?

If we are released from our preoccupations and cares for our own house, we will see and contribute to the continual fulfillment of the longing and desire in the Father’s heart to have a house.

When such a house is built, the Father in the Son will come in glory, and the house will be filled with His expression, and life will be flowing everywhere!

Lord, save us from seeking our own things! Save us from running after our own things while Your house lies waste! Lord, IT IS TIME! We will come to build! We will bring the wood and build the house! Gain what You are after, Lord! Gain the building! We give ourselves to You for this, for the building up of Your dwelling place! Gain the Father’s house, the place for His rest and satisfaction!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, partially quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of the Minor Prophets, week 10 (entitled, The Building of the House of Jehovah).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # How blinded we have been, / Shut in with what concerns us; / While God’s house lieth waste— / Lord, break through, overturn us; / We’ll go up to the mountain, / Bring wood and build the house; / We’ll never say, “Another day!” / It’s time! We’ll come and build!
  # At the closing of this age, / Just before Your kingdom’s dawn, / May You gain a people, Lord, / For Your dwelling place, Your home. / Since for me You gave Your all, / Everything I lay aside; / For Your church my all I’d give, / That You would be satisfied.