When we embark on a leading from the Lord we must be sure that we are in the whole council of God. In other words the sending or calling must be ballpark in God's word. Nothing new has occurred in the journey of the church. It has all happened before: people have always done their own thing and called it 'God.' Israel did it all before we did. They mixed idols with Yahweh worship and branded it as the state religion. We are given these examples so we would learn from them (1 Cor 10:11). I believe the church needs to 'give careful though to its ways' because it does not practice church that is God's way and is more about serving the ideas Man has thought up throughout history.
It is biblical to call for assessment of church practice
To find where my calling is to do this is well documented in these blogs. However I want to underline that this is God's will through the book of Haggai. The context of the book is outlined by the Lord in that the people say the time has not yet come to build the Lord's house. The Hebrew word for 'house' is strongly associated with 'family' as does the one when he says the people have their own covered houses. It is clear that the Lord is referring to the Temple but we all know that a believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant. They are told be God to 'give careful thought their ways.' As I have been warning for 15 years at the time of writing, believers need to assess their church practice to make sure they are building the ekklesia the Lord wants and not their own version of church that came from history.
It is biblical to point out that the church is not seeing God's blessing
Next we see the Lord underlining a painful truth. The people had sown but not harvested. This is described in various formats in the text of Haggai. But it is also a painful truth about the church. Mega churches water down the gospel to fill seats, which brings in tithes, which allows more works to be invested in. However, the blueprint for God's involvement is the Book of Acts. I'm not suggesting the exact miracles need to take place to authenticate God's hand. However, it must have some sort of miraculous mark... it is simply God's way when he endorses something. God tells the people they are all about their own building and not about His building and therefore barrenness has been the mark. Today it is not the resultant harvest that is celebrated... it is the sowing, the activity itself that people see as God's blessing. Not according to Haggai. It is God's hand to bring blessing that we should look for and identify as an authentic work of the Lord.
To wait upon God's sending instead of assuming we are called in biblical
next we find that the people hear Haggai's words and obey the Lord. It is given to us the reason for their hearing is because Haggai was sent of the Lord. Care needs to be taken here as it wasn't just anyone who heard this and obeyed. It was the remnant of the people who heard. the remnant were the final surviving portion of the people. In our terms these are those who have survived the system-church and have found this is all about God's glory, not 'my ministry.' Some time ago I had to be schooled by the Lord that people who opt for 'biblical church' are specific people who the Lord can still add new information to. Its not like people can't come... but I have no ability to identify those who are willing to reopen their ears to hear the voice
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