An article I wrote with some edits and additions by a good friend
art oneThe Eternal PurposeWhenever are lead and guided by principles and goals we feel are important, whether they be right or wrong, our whole life and the lives of others is affected. Our lives can be like the runner that sets out to run a race with the wrong finish line in view; he finds himself running and wondering aimlessly in wrong directions. How many times have we set an agenda for our lives and found that they were wrong? How many years have we lost in false start? How many dead end streets have we traveled in our search for what we perceived was real, only to realize that something was missing? The problem is that once we start on a course and commit our lives to it, it is hard to change. It often requires tearing down many of the things we have spent years in building. We are told in Hebrews 11:10 that Abraham looked for a city “whose builder and maker is God.” Yet no where in the genesis account of his life do we find him making that confession. Abraham’s desire was a hidden mystery until it was revealed by Paul. The fullness and the reality of this mystery has been clouded and distorted by the work of the enemy in these last days through misguided and ambitious leaders who have divided the church round a foundation that has nothing to do with God’s eternal purpose. Are we building for the sake of building? Are we building without and contrary to the blue print? Are we following the path of the majority without fully questioning if what we are building is really from God? Paul stated God’s eternal purpose this way in his letter to the Ephesians: “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints [this was given to a man who had a humble view of himself], this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles [one] the unsearchable riches of Christ, and [two] to make all see [turn the lights on] what is the fellowship* of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by [through] the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Eph 3:8-12, NKJVWhen we compare Hebrews 11 to Ephesians 3, and then when we go back to Abraham, we find that in his faith he was being guided to something at the time that he could not see…a heavenly city of which he was a part. This revelation was made clear through the apostles and prophets with Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. God’s purpose from creation on was to build a temple of His presence out of living stones. The focus was not on forms, agendas, rituals, Sunday services, programs, but a living body jointed connected together without any type of divisions. This point is made clear by Paul in Ephesians 2:19–22, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in [and through] whom the whole [not just some little part] building, being fitted together [all of his house], grows into a holy temple [made without hands] in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” NKJV Can you see what we have done with His purposes? The agendas, the false revelations, the many divisions, the names we have established in which we have drawn many around, it has not had at its source the builder and maker that has had only one purpose. We have strayed off course because we have lost our focus. If every man had been building on that foundation, there would have been a continual joining of His members into one house… His temple. We have miserably lost the vision because we have built around men. We are all now in the same position of Israel when Jesus first came… our traditions, no matter how noble and sincere, have had many noble plans under unbroken men. God’s only purpose was to create a living temple of living stones and from that temple to reveal his wisdom and majesty, glory and power, to the ruling angelic powers. These angels are watching God as He continually unfolds his glory and majesty in an ever exponential and increasing way. The revelation of His purpose is so vast and powerful that these wise creatures are literally BLOWN AWAY! All they can say as they stand around His throne is HOLY,HOLY,HOLY! God’s eternal purpose is to unfold this revelation of His glory and power in His earthly temple. You and I and all the saints are to be bound together by bands of love. In fact, He desires to reveal His love in all it’s totality through His extended body on this earth as it now is in heaven. This extreme measure of revelation is too profound and intense for any one man to comprehend alone. We must comprehend it together, corporately. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you [all], being rooted and grounded in love [all of us together…no divisions], may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge [knowledge will not work here]; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Woooow!!!!Eph 3:17-19, NKJVHere we see the cornerstone Jesus and the great high priest, giving God the Father a PLACE TO DWELL forever. My whole being drools, longs for and thirst to see this. We have been too rooted in men and their many revelations. Our deceived and divided egos have provided us with nothing of His finale and eternal purpose. This has caused me to question and consider that maybe we have no revelation at all. Can we honestly say that as we all stand before Jesus at judgment day we will hear these words, “well done my good and faithful servant.” On what basis have we been good and faithful to His eternal purpose compared to the efforts of building our own kingdoms? I fear and tremble the coming of the day of judgment, it will come just as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. Whoever destroys that temple; he will be destroyed and banished from His presence forever. The cause is great and so is the consequence. How can we ignore the very heart of Jesus in his prayer in John 17?Joh 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Can we not see that the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose depends on an absolute unity between the people who are called by HIS name? I am not saying we should be in unity with those who meet in their own name which is the name they give to their church or ministry but those who gather in HIS name. The corporate indwelling that will allow God to pour himself in all FULLNESS can only be accomplished through a body that is in PERFECT unity. Does it sound impossible? It is with men who do not understand the cross. These men seek their own glory and significance and see Jesus as a vehicle to accomplish that end.We need to go to the cross and let it destroy all of our selfish ambition. We need to take the promises that God had given us and apply them for the purpose for which they were given…so that we can be partakers of the divine nature: 2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Why do we defile our faith by applying the promises of God to things that feed our carnal nature?1) money( he became poor that you may become rich)2) significance( I will make you the “head” and not the “tail”)Applying the promises to such ungodly desires do not produce the divine nature and therefore it cannot produce the inner life that God needs as building material for his temple of living stones. When you build a house will you use Styrofoam blocks that are painted to look like bricks? NO! You will reject such false material and purchase real stones. So it is with God, He will reject the blocks that only have a superficial veneer to make them appear as stones. He will quarry real stones to build his temple.Part twoThis revelation stands to this very day and age as a challenge to this generation. Its implantation has been neglected because we have primarily fallen into a clergy/laity and a man centered gospel. Our near-sighted focus has caused us to blindly follow our agendas that have successful covered this mystery. Though many may speak of His eternal purpose, what they are building has no power or glory to support its fruits. What Peter taught was a simple foundational revelation to baby Christians:“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 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 [not men].” 1 Peter 2:1-5When David wanted to build God a house, this is what he was told: “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'"'2 Sam 7:5-7, NKJVThis is because God doesn’t dwell in a house made with man’s hands:"However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 'Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what is the place of My rest?” Acts 7:48-49, NKJVWe are to be his dwelling place and in us he will pour out his total fullness before an unregenerate world.However, due to the hardness of Israel’s heart and the necessity to hide this revelation until Jesus died, He allowed Solomon to build Him a temple. Lets look at the shadow and type :“And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon spoke: ‘The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud. I have surely built You an exalted house, And a place for You to dwell in forever.’" 1 Kings 8:10-13, NKJVWe see that when the glory of the Lord filled the temple the priests could not stand to minister. When the Glory fills the REAL temple of living stones, the pastors who love the pre-eminence will not be able to stand there either. They will no longer be able to stand before the whole congregation exalting their portion over all others and thereby holding the entire body in bondage. Notice how God’s eternal purpose will be shown by the CHURCH and not the five fold ministry as we have come to call it? I remember the day when the five fold ministry was the buzz word for anyone on the cutting edge. We ran to ordain and set up the five fold ministries in our little groups, never realizing the reality of God’s eternal purpose that begins with Him and not us… no matter how we feel about our sincere efforts to be relevant. The five fold ministry, according to Ephesians 4, is just a temporary scaffolding “till” the temple of living stones begins to function as one new man. Sadly, all we seem to see is a higher and higher erection of the scaffolding. With the scaffolding being so high today, one wonders how anyone could reach down to build anything at all on the foundation. It seems today we have built churches around the scaffolding and we have focused more on the scaffolding than the building. Even though most cannot see this. The so-called five fold ministry has laterally dominated the building and we have lost its biblical purpose and calling. If fact, the five fold ministry has been the primary cause for all the division and separations we see today. “Till we all come to the unity of faith” has been lost in the exaltation of men and we have lost the simple gathering around Jesus the only head of His body. Somehow one can hear the echo coming. “Wow to the shepherds…!! The temple of living stones has been removed from the foundation of Jesus and has been stolen, one by one, by men to erect their own kingdoms in Jesus’ name. All this seems right to those caught in a man-centered movement, yet the clear evidence of what the eternal purpose embodies is ignored. Why has God let this happen? I am convinced in God’s divine patience that He permits the natural man to precede Him with his best efforts followed by His divine intervention. The nature of men’s egos and interworking of his flesh tends to subconsciously cause him to scramble to reach the top of the hill first. “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise us a standard against him.” Today the Lord is calling many outside the camp, He is allowing the stones to be formed and perfected outside the camp and out of the control of men and their movements. “And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7, NKJVToday many of these saints have come out of the Babylonian system [institutional church] and have been led into the wilderness to be purged and perfected. They will come out of the wilderness in a harmony and unity where God will dwell in all His fullness. There will be no arguments or debates, no more splitting of hairs, no more gathering around one man’s leadership and no more names…only one name will prevail and exalted and that is the name of Jesus. Much of what man accomplishes necessitates public exposure, conventions and commercialism to be successful, but what God is doing is quietly transforming the hearts of men and women in the furnace of affliction. For God’s glory to work in the hearts men and women self must be abandoned totally. I don’t think many have seriously considered the path one must take to fully know God. Business makes poor soil for preparing for the harvest. There are far too many leaders raised up by the instructions of men and far too few raised up through the life of Jesus. We need to minister out of life not information. I think we talk a lot about these things, but for us to have a true corporate reality of the depth of His love it is going to take a deep reality of the cross working in our daily lives… few have this revelation because we are too busy doing without it. God is looking for those who live in the reality of heavenly places. Those who are not caught up in the arena of this world’s problems and solution see His eternal purpose beyond this life. We are here but for a very short time, nothing supersedes the kingdom of God. The sounds of God’s dealings with those who are going through this process of purification will not be heard with fan fare. They will walk by an inner revelation of the cross and an obedience and love to the Lord Jesus Himself. They will move through the full power of the Holy Spirit as living stones, hearts knitted together, being the temple without hands. God has often, at times, sent us into Babylon for a painful lesson in the works of men followed by a deliverance from the systems and traditions of men:“Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pangs. For now you shall go forth from the city, you shall dwell in the field, and to Babylon you shall go. There you shall be delivered; There the Lord will redeem you From the hand of your enemies.” Mic 4:10, NKJVIn the finale end, this living temple will rise and become the Holy City, the new Jerusalem.“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, PREPARED AS A BRIDE adorned FOR HER HUSBAND. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” Rev 21:1-5, NKJV
art oneThe Eternal PurposeWhenever are lead and guided by principles and goals we feel are important, whether they be right or wrong, our whole life and the lives of others is affected. Our lives can be like the runner that sets out to run a race with the wrong finish line in view; he finds himself running and wondering aimlessly in wrong directions. How many times have we set an agenda for our lives and found that they were wrong? How many years have we lost in false start? How many dead end streets have we traveled in our search for what we perceived was real, only to realize that something was missing? The problem is that once we start on a course and commit our lives to it, it is hard to change. It often requires tearing down many of the things we have spent years in building. We are told in Hebrews 11:10 that Abraham looked for a city “whose builder and maker is God.” Yet no where in the genesis account of his life do we find him making that confession. Abraham’s desire was a hidden mystery until it was revealed by Paul. The fullness and the reality of this mystery has been clouded and distorted by the work of the enemy in these last days through misguided and ambitious leaders who have divided the church round a foundation that has nothing to do with God’s eternal purpose. Are we building for the sake of building? Are we building without and contrary to the blue print? Are we following the path of the majority without fully questioning if what we are building is really from God? Paul stated God’s eternal purpose this way in his letter to the Ephesians: “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints [this was given to a man who had a humble view of himself], this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles [one] the unsearchable riches of Christ, and [two] to make all see [turn the lights on] what is the fellowship* of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by [through] the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Eph 3:8-12, NKJVWhen we compare Hebrews 11 to Ephesians 3, and then when we go back to Abraham, we find that in his faith he was being guided to something at the time that he could not see…a heavenly city of which he was a part. This revelation was made clear through the apostles and prophets with Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. God’s purpose from creation on was to build a temple of His presence out of living stones. The focus was not on forms, agendas, rituals, Sunday services, programs, but a living body jointed connected together without any type of divisions. This point is made clear by Paul in Ephesians 2:19–22, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in [and through] whom the whole [not just some little part] building, being fitted together [all of his house], grows into a holy temple [made without hands] in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” NKJV Can you see what we have done with His purposes? The agendas, the false revelations, the many divisions, the names we have established in which we have drawn many around, it has not had at its source the builder and maker that has had only one purpose. We have strayed off course because we have lost our focus. If every man had been building on that foundation, there would have been a continual joining of His members into one house… His temple. We have miserably lost the vision because we have built around men. We are all now in the same position of Israel when Jesus first came… our traditions, no matter how noble and sincere, have had many noble plans under unbroken men. God’s only purpose was to create a living temple of living stones and from that temple to reveal his wisdom and majesty, glory and power, to the ruling angelic powers. These angels are watching God as He continually unfolds his glory and majesty in an ever exponential and increasing way. The revelation of His purpose is so vast and powerful that these wise creatures are literally BLOWN AWAY! All they can say as they stand around His throne is HOLY,HOLY,HOLY! God’s eternal purpose is to unfold this revelation of His glory and power in His earthly temple. You and I and all the saints are to be bound together by bands of love. In fact, He desires to reveal His love in all it’s totality through His extended body on this earth as it now is in heaven. This extreme measure of revelation is too profound and intense for any one man to comprehend alone. We must comprehend it together, corporately. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you [all], being rooted and grounded in love [all of us together…no divisions], may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge [knowledge will not work here]; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Woooow!!!!Eph 3:17-19, NKJVHere we see the cornerstone Jesus and the great high priest, giving God the Father a PLACE TO DWELL forever. My whole being drools, longs for and thirst to see this. We have been too rooted in men and their many revelations. Our deceived and divided egos have provided us with nothing of His finale and eternal purpose. This has caused me to question and consider that maybe we have no revelation at all. Can we honestly say that as we all stand before Jesus at judgment day we will hear these words, “well done my good and faithful servant.” On what basis have we been good and faithful to His eternal purpose compared to the efforts of building our own kingdoms? I fear and tremble the coming of the day of judgment, it will come just as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow. Whoever destroys that temple; he will be destroyed and banished from His presence forever. The cause is great and so is the consequence. How can we ignore the very heart of Jesus in his prayer in John 17?Joh 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Can we not see that the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose depends on an absolute unity between the people who are called by HIS name? I am not saying we should be in unity with those who meet in their own name which is the name they give to their church or ministry but those who gather in HIS name. The corporate indwelling that will allow God to pour himself in all FULLNESS can only be accomplished through a body that is in PERFECT unity. Does it sound impossible? It is with men who do not understand the cross. These men seek their own glory and significance and see Jesus as a vehicle to accomplish that end.We need to go to the cross and let it destroy all of our selfish ambition. We need to take the promises that God had given us and apply them for the purpose for which they were given…so that we can be partakers of the divine nature: 2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Why do we defile our faith by applying the promises of God to things that feed our carnal nature?1) money( he became poor that you may become rich)2) significance( I will make you the “head” and not the “tail”)Applying the promises to such ungodly desires do not produce the divine nature and therefore it cannot produce the inner life that God needs as building material for his temple of living stones. When you build a house will you use Styrofoam blocks that are painted to look like bricks? NO! You will reject such false material and purchase real stones. So it is with God, He will reject the blocks that only have a superficial veneer to make them appear as stones. He will quarry real stones to build his temple.Part twoThis revelation stands to this very day and age as a challenge to this generation. Its implantation has been neglected because we have primarily fallen into a clergy/laity and a man centered gospel. Our near-sighted focus has caused us to blindly follow our agendas that have successful covered this mystery. Though many may speak of His eternal purpose, what they are building has no power or glory to support its fruits. What Peter taught was a simple foundational revelation to baby Christians:“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 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 [not men].” 1 Peter 2:1-5When David wanted to build God a house, this is what he was told: “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'"'2 Sam 7:5-7, NKJVThis is because God doesn’t dwell in a house made with man’s hands:"However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: 'Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, Or what is the place of My rest?” Acts 7:48-49, NKJVWe are to be his dwelling place and in us he will pour out his total fullness before an unregenerate world.However, due to the hardness of Israel’s heart and the necessity to hide this revelation until Jesus died, He allowed Solomon to build Him a temple. Lets look at the shadow and type :“And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon spoke: ‘The Lord said He would dwell in the dark cloud. I have surely built You an exalted house, And a place for You to dwell in forever.’" 1 Kings 8:10-13, NKJVWe see that when the glory of the Lord filled the temple the priests could not stand to minister. When the Glory fills the REAL temple of living stones, the pastors who love the pre-eminence will not be able to stand there either. They will no longer be able to stand before the whole congregation exalting their portion over all others and thereby holding the entire body in bondage. Notice how God’s eternal purpose will be shown by the CHURCH and not the five fold ministry as we have come to call it? I remember the day when the five fold ministry was the buzz word for anyone on the cutting edge. We ran to ordain and set up the five fold ministries in our little groups, never realizing the reality of God’s eternal purpose that begins with Him and not us… no matter how we feel about our sincere efforts to be relevant. The five fold ministry, according to Ephesians 4, is just a temporary scaffolding “till” the temple of living stones begins to function as one new man. Sadly, all we seem to see is a higher and higher erection of the scaffolding. With the scaffolding being so high today, one wonders how anyone could reach down to build anything at all on the foundation. It seems today we have built churches around the scaffolding and we have focused more on the scaffolding than the building. Even though most cannot see this. The so-called five fold ministry has laterally dominated the building and we have lost its biblical purpose and calling. If fact, the five fold ministry has been the primary cause for all the division and separations we see today. “Till we all come to the unity of faith” has been lost in the exaltation of men and we have lost the simple gathering around Jesus the only head of His body. Somehow one can hear the echo coming. “Wow to the shepherds…!! The temple of living stones has been removed from the foundation of Jesus and has been stolen, one by one, by men to erect their own kingdoms in Jesus’ name. All this seems right to those caught in a man-centered movement, yet the clear evidence of what the eternal purpose embodies is ignored. Why has God let this happen? I am convinced in God’s divine patience that He permits the natural man to precede Him with his best efforts followed by His divine intervention. The nature of men’s egos and interworking of his flesh tends to subconsciously cause him to scramble to reach the top of the hill first. “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise us a standard against him.” Today the Lord is calling many outside the camp, He is allowing the stones to be formed and perfected outside the camp and out of the control of men and their movements. “And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7, NKJVToday many of these saints have come out of the Babylonian system [institutional church] and have been led into the wilderness to be purged and perfected. They will come out of the wilderness in a harmony and unity where God will dwell in all His fullness. There will be no arguments or debates, no more splitting of hairs, no more gathering around one man’s leadership and no more names…only one name will prevail and exalted and that is the name of Jesus. Much of what man accomplishes necessitates public exposure, conventions and commercialism to be successful, but what God is doing is quietly transforming the hearts of men and women in the furnace of affliction. For God’s glory to work in the hearts men and women self must be abandoned totally. I don’t think many have seriously considered the path one must take to fully know God. Business makes poor soil for preparing for the harvest. There are far too many leaders raised up by the instructions of men and far too few raised up through the life of Jesus. We need to minister out of life not information. I think we talk a lot about these things, but for us to have a true corporate reality of the depth of His love it is going to take a deep reality of the cross working in our daily lives… few have this revelation because we are too busy doing without it. God is looking for those who live in the reality of heavenly places. Those who are not caught up in the arena of this world’s problems and solution see His eternal purpose beyond this life. We are here but for a very short time, nothing supersedes the kingdom of God. The sounds of God’s dealings with those who are going through this process of purification will not be heard with fan fare. They will walk by an inner revelation of the cross and an obedience and love to the Lord Jesus Himself. They will move through the full power of the Holy Spirit as living stones, hearts knitted together, being the temple without hands. God has often, at times, sent us into Babylon for a painful lesson in the works of men followed by a deliverance from the systems and traditions of men:“Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pangs. For now you shall go forth from the city, you shall dwell in the field, and to Babylon you shall go. There you shall be delivered; There the Lord will redeem you From the hand of your enemies.” Mic 4:10, NKJVIn the finale end, this living temple will rise and become the Holy City, the new Jerusalem.“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, PREPARED AS A BRIDE adorned FOR HER HUSBAND. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” Rev 21:1-5, NKJV
