The Church: The House Of God

"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven!" Genesis 28:17

    The house of God is where He dwells and where His presence resides and from the time of the tabernacle in the wilderness up until the last temple in Jerusalem He dwelt in a building. When Jesus pointed out the temple buildings to His disciples they marveled when He said that not one stone will be left upon another that will not be thrown down and so it came to pass. When Jesus was crucified the angels of God tore the veil of separation from top to bottom signifying a new covenant in which man could now come before the Most High through the shed blood of His Son, thus establishing a new and living way whereby man is now the dwelling place of God!

    We as the body of the living Lord Jesus are the temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells, knit together and joined by that which each joint and part supplies insures the growth of the body. Not just a metaphor in which some would suggest, but a living breathing organism made up of born again members of one another, fulfilling the will of God in the earth. Christ in us, the hope of glory is the description of a supernatural being comprised of individual members joined together for one purpose and plan, to make replicas of the Lord Jesus Christ and to announce through the gospel the salvation of mankind available to all who would believe, repent and receive His mercy. No longer a place to go, but a Person to be in the likeness of the Son of God endowed with power, indwelt with His presence and consumed with His passion, He is risen in us!

    We are His body, the only expression of the Lord Jesus Christ the world will ever see and His life is to be lived out in human form through us who have received His Spirit. Because of tradition and false teaching we have defected from the truth and erected the old priesthood under the direction of demonically inspired schemes to stop the forward motion of the most powerful entity in the world, the church of Jesus Christ! Imagine what it would be like if we had continued in the divine plan of God for the Holy Spirit to indwell a people totally given to the purposes of the Most High, to walk the earth with the same power, anointing and authority that was given to the Christ, it would truly be a sight to behold!

    Coming to Him as 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

ARE YOU THE EXPECTED ONE?

    And John calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, "Are you the expected One, or do we look for another?" Luke 7:19

    John the Baptist wanted to know if the reports about Jesus were true and so he sent his disciples to find out from the source if this was truly the Messiah. When they came to Jesus and asked Him if He was the expected One He began to heal the sick and opened blind eyes so that the disciples of John would report back that indeed this was the Son of the living God! This should be the proof today if God truly resides in us that these signs and miracles would be evident in us also.

    The true house of God in us will exhibit the power and anointing of the risen Savior with signs following us, raising the dead, healing the sick and casting out demons because His Spirit resides within us and our mission and vision will be the same as His. The body of Christ will once again walk among the poor and needy setting the captives free and preaching the true gospel of salvation to all who would choose to believe, repent and receive God's mercy and forgiveness through the shed blood of His only begotten Son. The church will no longer be mocked because of it's pride, greed and selfish ambition because God's judgment on His house will purge the sin out of His people with the fire of His presence, and the sword of His Spirit will cut out the cancer of complacency and the apathetic mindset induced by false teaching and the doctrines of demons.

    The question today ought to be: are we the expected one's, are we, the people of God truly a place where the Holy Spirit abides, does His power and presence dwell within us, and are we allowing Him to walk among the poor and needy of the world in us? Maybe in a few, its always just been a few called out saints who actually took Him at His word and went into the mission field, multiplying their talents and reaping a harvest for the Master, while the rest just sit on the sidelines of religious ritual cheering them on as if that was the will of God for them, slowly dying of spiritual starvation in their purpose driven pews of complacency. Modern day so-called Christianity has sadly missed the mark by totally disobeying the "Great Commission" in which the Lord Jesus Christ has called us all into His harvest to reap a crop of disciples who will in turn do the same in His name.

    "Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. "And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me." Luke 7:22,23

HOW DO WE LOOK TODAY?

    Who is left among you who saw this temple (house) in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is it not in your eyes as nothing? Haggai 2:3

    I would say that what we call the house of God today is like what Isaiah said about Israel's spiritual condition in his day, that they were like a watchman's hut in a cucumber field, or in other words, like a bunch of scarecrows! Are we not as nothing compared to the powerful church of the Lord Jesus Christ as it was portrayed in the book of acts? When was the last time you saw your shadow heal someone, or someone was raised from the dead or healed of a deadly disease, or have seen a cripple rise from his wheel chair? I doubt many have seen such power because we have not taken Him at His word and obeyed the gospel, but instead we have gone a whoring after the world and its pleasures and comforts while the poor and needy cry out for mercy!    

    "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this house to lie in ruins?" Haggai 1:4 

The word of the living God has been totally ignored as it was when Haggai the prophet spoke these words to God's people. We have erected a shrine on every corner, a mausoleum of fleshly works and good intentions inviting the world to fellowship with us in our dead ritualistic pagan services in memory of a God who died long ago, Who no longer performs miracles or heals the sick because we no longer believe in Him or His works of righteousness. What a sad commentary at this time of the Resurrection, the most important event in human history when the Son of God took upon Himself the sins of the world and died a horrible death in our stead, and so we promote this unbelievable act of mercy and grace by inviting the world to a lukewarm presentation of the gospel or to see a passion play or drama and then subject our kids to a pagan ritual of Easter in which they are made to partake of a demonic fertility rite in the name of Jesus! It just doesn't get any worse than this that we the people of God would become sharers in demons by compromising the word of God for the sake of our ritualistic worldly traditions!

    What would Jesus do? Well I will tell you what He did when entered Jerusalem and approached His own house and found them exchanging money and selling merchandise, He turned over their tables and drove them out of the temple! I would hate to think of what He would do today if He were to enter one of our traditional Easter services and practicing an ancient fertility rite and subjecting our children to demonic entities. Lets face it and take a hard look at where we have fallen and repent and restore what has been lost so that we can once again walk in the power and anointing given to a people sold out for His purposes and called upon to make disciples of all nations in His glorious name! Jesus didn't say invite them or entertain them, He said, "Go and preach the gospel to the poor, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons in His name and observe all that He commanded us and He promised if we would obey He would be with us until the end! 

    "Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the Lord all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord!' " Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Amend (repent) your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. "Do not trust in these lying words, saying, 'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.' "For if you thoroughly amend (repent) your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment (justice) between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, (illegal aliens) the fatherless and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood (abortion) in this place, or walk after other gods (pagan rituals) to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Jeremiah 7:2-7

Your servant in Christ, Timothy Laughlin
  Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

NOTE: Jesus spoke this very prophecy to His own people when He entered Jerusalem and approached His own temple run by what He called: "Sons of the devil." We would do well to heed the words of this prophetic warning given just before His death, burial and resurrection when He said, "Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," says the Lord." Jeremiah 7:11