Restoring the Church of Jesus Christ For the Times to Come Part II

A Comment on Part I

We thank God for giving us another bright morning for us to express His glory. In the Part one of this article, we were made to understand how God will be visiting the Church for a judgement that will help purify the saints to express His full glory. Though the previous article outlined unpleasant issues concerning the Church in present times, I will like also to state for a fact that the Church is not completely without the glory of God. The truth is we do all we can to see the glory of God completely, but only end up seeing it partially. I know some may censure me concerning this truth, but if you should tell me everything is fine about the Church today, you are either a hypocrite or not seeing at all. I really thank God for expressing Himself through these brothers for us to see His complete will.
 

We always listen to messages concerning the building of the church; those who are faithful to the Lord, after listening to the these words go back to their knees to plead for the Lord's help in order to build the Church. In fact I for one have been hearing the message concerning the building of the Church even before I understood what it meant to have a  relationship with God, but ask yourself, what progress have we made ever since? I was almost getting tired of listening to the message of building the Church, the revival of the saints and the visitation of God until the Lord gave me the opportunity to listen to a brother speak at Kumasi, another from Nigeria who came to my local church and the last one from Accra.
 

Comparing all these messages to the older ones that I have been listening to, the Lord opened my eyes and I saw that He has been talking ever since but we were not listening because when we hear the messages, we throw them away or even forget about them before another one comes; brethren, one single message from a brother cannot reveal the complete will of God for the Church. We have to keep traces of all what the Lord is saying through the brethren, link them together, then and  only then can we fathom completely what the Lord is saying to the Churches. God helps us understand. Amen.
 

Going to the Mountains

Hag 1:5-9(NKJV) 

"Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts:"Consider your

ways!  You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes." Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the Lord."

We struggle to experience the complete glory of the Lord, but we end up experiencing this partially. You see, brethren, personally I believe that when the fullness of the glory of God dwells amongst us, we will begin to live the full life of Christ. Today all these little, little things amongst us that prevents us from experiencing God completely have a root source and by doing what the Lord says they all will be uprooted and we will see the hand of God completely. The Christ life is not only living righteously, it also contains, good health, good finance, signs and wonders and above all the fear of God among the Church as it was among the saints of the old. I believe we all have heard this scripture so many times; this is the same word that I'm starting this section with. Going up
to the mountains, to bring woods, represent our prayer and reading life - This has more to do with our personal fellowship with God. I remember one of the Youth conferences in the Volta region, we

W must go to the mountain

learnt this form a very proficient brother in the Church, and trust me when I said this particular message has been shared so many times in the Volta region at many conferences, the saints can testify to this. I have heard other men of God preach the same thing in different ways, but the latest place I heard this message was at the young people's meeting in Accra about last two years. This was one of the things they dwelt upon. There are other books of the bible that reflect this form of offering, we can talk about Ezra, Nehemiah and the first book of Chronicles. Today, I'm not saying anything different from this; we need to go up to the mountains each and everyone of us, especially we the young people or the youths - Going up the mountains symbolises building oneself through prayer and the word of God; reading  other Spirit filled, articles, commentaries and listening to recorded messages from conferences also helps in this process. 

I believe we are all doing our best in these things, but let us pray for more grace. Now among these is also helping the elders restore the order of the Lord in the Church, when you are confident about the teachings of the elderly ones, not because they are old but because you proved everything with the word of God and held unto the good one (1 Thes 5: 21), never let anyone take that from you, instead let your conviction work on their lives. Amen. So we have to go back to the mountains. We should note that this aspect of the restoration process is not very different from the Judgement process. If God gives us grace and time we shall look into that, but on your own compare the two through prayers and the word of God. You can put your findings and revelations in the comment box for other Christians to have access to. If you have any worries, concerns, corrections, additions feel free to drop them by, we will all learn and grow together for Christ to receive the Glory. Amen.

THE OFFERINGS OF METAL

Ex 25:1-3(NKJV)
"Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his  heart you shall take My offering. 3 And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze;"

When Israel was delivered from Egypt, I said in the part one, that God gave them a lot of the riches of Egypt, part of which include the metals - Gold, Silver and Bronze. The deliverance from Egypt is an emblem of our salvation process, and after we have all been saved from the world, the things we used to serve the prince of the world must not stay in the world, they must come with us, because we will be needing them to serve the Lord after all all the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof.  I know this may sound a little of but it will become clearer. After our salvation God also deposited some resources in us apart from  the ones He gave us in Egypt. Let us take all of them one by one starting from the Metals.

GOLD

Offerings of Gold

God used gold because that is the most precious thing we know. In the scriptures gold represent holiness.
"Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD". Ex 28:36(NKJV). Because gold is the most precious material we know, God used it to represent holiness. Anything made of gold in the temple of God is highly consecrated to the the Lord. Sometimes in other to create the same effect to things made from other materials apart from gold, they mark part with gold or inscribe gold on it.

"In that day"HOLINESS TO THE LORD" shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts."  Zech 14:20-21(NKJV)

Gold therefore represent the divine nature of God  which is holiness. When we talk about holiness most of us confuse it with being righteous as in living a life void of sin, God will never ask that from us because we can never give that to Him. What He is however demanding from us is holiness which means a total consecration for Him alone. Nothing should come before Him in our lives, not marriage, not parents, not Academics, not even our own soul lives. Money, fame, beauty fashion and many more are taking the place of Christ today in the Church. Most of the local Churches who are separated from denominations of men, I believe are far from letting any man take the place of God in the Church, but some of these things as mentioned earlier are also taking the place of Christ in our own lives and therefore the Church. God want complete holiness; I'm not saying we should not look beautiful, God is a master of beauty, look at the woman, she is a beauty God created even the waterfalls, flowers and all the pleasures of nature are all romantic (figuratively used), but what was God's purpose of creating all these - I believe to make the man He created comfortable and happy. The question therefore arises; why will you want to look more beautiful than you already are? Why are you going to school? Why do you wear what you wear? Everything we do should make God happy and comfortable.
 

The offering of Gold; no other God apart from Him - We must not

The spirit of Jezebel

allow anything to take the place of God in our lives this is what the offering of Gold stands for. To be holy, you must not agree to any other doctrine, teaching, custom or tradition but only Jesus Christ. The Church must overcome Jezebel the god of money and fashion. The gods of our villages must also be subdued completely for only God to reign (Will be explained later). To the brethren in the denominations, no man should take the place or the glory of Christ in the Church. There is only one head pastor, He is Christ Jesus; there is only one arc bishop, He is Christ Jesus; There is only one Father, He is Christ Jesus; there is only one Mother, He is Christ Jesus. The Pope is not the father of the Church, Mary is not the mother of the Church. Christ is all in all. 

There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to one hope when you were called—  5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Eph 4:4-6(NIV)

The Bible says today, today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart. Today God is telling us to bring to His presence the offering  of Gold. Complete holiness from within the heart to outside the heart and the body, do not say God sees the heart because God does not only see the heart He sees the body also. He is Holy therefore be Holy. I will conclude this section of Part II by a scripture so we all can meditate upon, confess continually or pray read.

The beauty of Holiness

"Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!" 1 Chron 16:29(NKJV) AMEN.

God bless you all and grant you grace for the race and the building of His church. Please don't forget to share this message. It is necessary to do so for the glory of God.

Prayer burden: Let all the saints pray for God's help so that we can be separated completely for His holiness to be seen in the Church.

 READING LIST.

Jer. 2:1-3, Exo. 15: 11, 1 Chr 16: 28-29, Heb 7, Exo 28: 36, Mal. 3

Click here to read Part I