Haggai part five

Chapter one -
"Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord".
Isn't this the primary goal of our lives? To glorify the Lord? Don't we want to give him pleasure? If so, then we must set about building him a house "made without hands", in other words, not made by man to glorify man but made by the Holy Spirit through men and women he has chosen for the task. I would imagine the wood used from the mountain, most pleasing to the Lord, would be the wood from the altars they had set up there to other gods. And for us, we should take the idols out of our hearts and dedicate the place they had in us to the Lord. He commanded physical Israel to build him a physical house, he is commanding us, spiritual Israel to build him a spiritual house, no less a house than the one Israel built (remember, he hasn't replaced physical Israel with us but rather grafted us into them).
"Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of Hosts, because of mine house that is waste, AND YE RUN EVERY MAN UNTO HIS OWN HOUSE".
Again, I can't stress strongly enough, the "every man unto his own house" spoken of here is the many denominations and churches within the denominations that exist on the earth today. Each one is a seperate "house" that people run to and inhabit and they are not God's House and they do not please him. Again he reminds us that they who do so, who live in and attend to their own homes at the expense of God's, will labor in vain. All their work will come to little until they attend to God's house. We are his house, every soul he has redeemed. We are living stones built up into a proper dwelling for God. It is a supernatural work that transcends all boundaries we might impose upon it. It is beyond our ability to grasp with our natural, carnal minds. We can only understand it through the mind of Christ, through the spiritual mind we gain through the Holy Spirit's presence within us. It is a fearful and wonderful thing to be a part of something we can not control, where we have to place complete trust in our God, really abandon ourselves to him. It is impossible for those in spiritual Babylon to do so. They cannot let go this way. They must remain in control at all times, or the leadership must, anyway. At it's most basic, it really is a battle between flesh and spirit. I'm reminded of the old song - "torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool...", well all who give in to the flesh will end up looking foolish. The carnal mind and spiritual mind are dire enemies and cannot coexist. But to resist the flesh and follow the Spirit will become a great sacrafice to those who do it, yet the reward is so worth it. Ridicule and scorn will be your portion because the majority of "christians" are followers of the religious spirit of the world, not Christ. Steel yourself now to remain gentle and kind to those who attack and accuse you, and do not hate them back. In so doing, you will find yourself being built as a proper house for the Lord and you will end up building others up in this his Holy love and forgiveness and mercy AND AS YOU BUILD HIS HOUSE YOU WILL FIND OUT ONE DAY THAT HE IS BUILDING YOURS IN HEAVEN. Attend to his house now and he will attend to yours in eternity. Amen.