The Word of
the Lord came to me. The Spirit is expressly speaking to the Church
that the book of Haggai is a prophetic book for right now. Certainly
not the only book He is highlighting, but one of them. Listen -
Most of
self-titled “Christianity” has been dwelling in Babylon,
spiritually, though a remnant have remained in the land of promise.
In verse two of chapter one, the Lord says “This people say
the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built”
for they have ever been
building their own houses – every man doing that which is right in
his own eyes. V 4 - “Is
it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled (covered
panels on the inside – covering made and provided by man for men)
houses, and this house lie waste?”
For far too long, God's
house, made without hands, has been neglected, while men have built
and attended to their own houses, for their glory, not God's –
therefore, as we all pause from our busy lives, during this pandemic,
God is asking each of us - “Consider your ways.”
“Will you be made whole?”
“Go up
to the mountain (Mt. Zion)
and bring wood (from
the Tree of Life, not the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil any
longer) and build the (God's)
house! Every
believer is a “Tree planted by the rivers of water”
(living waters) “I
see men as trees walking”. Like
“living stones”, believers, souls, are the “wood” God is
using to build His house – these are they who are not mindful
of that country from whence they came out” for
they “desire a better country, that is an heavenly,
wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God (for
He is ashamed to be called the God of those who honor Him with lips
only, and not hearts) for He hath prepared for them a
city” whose builder and
maker is God. Again, the focus in Haggai is on God's house, long
neglected. You see – there came a day, Nehemiah, when God
instructed His people to leave (flee) Babylon and return to their own
land and build up Jerusalem – the earthly counterpart to our
heavenly city God (not man) has built – The New Jerusalem. Which
city are you a citizen of? Some believers dwell in the natural
Jerusalem, i.e. the focus of their lives is on the natural realm,
others dwell in the New Jerusalem and the focus of their lives is on
the realm of the spirit, above and not below, for that is where their
hearts are, therefore they have treasure there, in that heavenly
city, because they did not set their hearts on treasure found here
below.
Churches
under the spirit of Babylon, “looked for much and lo
it came to little” They
got so little of God's kingdom, they gave up seeking it and created
doctrines to excuse their lack of God's presence, His miraculous
anointing, in their midst. “When ye brought it home
(souls), I did
blow upon it. Why? Because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run
every man into his own house” (church,
denomination) “therefore (the
result of building your own houses and not God's) the
heaven over you is stayed from dew (heaven's
blessings, miracles, signs and wonders, spiritual sustenance, is
withheld from you – your houses will be dry, parched lands) and
the earth is stayed from her fruit” for
earth cannot bear fruit on it's own, without the touch and presence
of heaven (rain) – only those who abide in Christ, our resurrected,
heavenly new man, can bear God fruit here on earth – all other's
labor (birth pains) is in vain, that is to say, pride, for unless God
builds the House, it is built by pride in man's knowledge and
abilities, man's wisdom and man's ways, and this can never bear the
fruit of redeemed souls born of God''s will not mans. Man's will
cannot produce God's fruit.
“And I
called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon
the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil and upon that which
the ground bringeth forth, and upon men and upon cattle, and upon all
the labor of the hands” . This
then, is the fruit of pride – God will not bless vanity and pride!
He will resist it, and expose it in every human heart on earth as He
did Satan's in heaven. “Whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted”
“pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall”
yes, pride produces death, in the natural realm, as a sign of what is
happening in the spirit realm, and as a prophetic warning of the
coming eternal, spiritual death all will experience, who walk in
pride – when Jesus said the proud will be brought low, He means,
eventually, to the lowest parts of the earth, to hell.
So
a drought is a natural sign of a spiritual condition – the absence
of God's Spirit, likened unto rain. The ultimate death that the
absence of God's presence (which only His house made with His hands
has) brings, is the death of our souls. See the progression in verse
11 – The land, the mountains, the corn, ultimately affecting men
and cattle and THE LABOR OF THEIR HANDS – an indictment on all
houses built by man, all born of “man's will”, will end up
cursed. In dead, dry churches, they've become that way because of a
dearth of God's Spirit – a drought of God's words both Rhema
(spoken) and Logos (written) because it is only the Holy Spirit who
can correctly understand and teach scripture – men in pride try to
wield the Word in their own intellects and understanding which God
warns us not to do - “lean not unto thine own
understanding”. His
thoughts are not our thoughts, yet churches are full of “our
thoughts”, man's thoughts and the “ways of man”, not God's
ways.
V
12 – Remember the remnant! “With all the remnant of
the people” “Obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words
of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord God had sent him, and the people
did fear before the Lord”. You
may be a part of God's remnant on earth today, dear reader – if so,
the hallmark of God's remnant, then and now, is this – they
hear and obey the voice of the Lord! They
honor and take heed to the prophets of God, whom God sends (yes,
there are false or immature prophetic voices – please don't let
them negate the real, for of a truth, God has raised up anointed,
mighty prophetic voices to speak to our generation). If you've
allowed the Holy Spirit to lead you out of Babylon, or to have
avoided it all together, then you have a holy fear and respect for
the Lord and every word He utters – you tremble at His name. You
reverence Him. You desire Him above all the thoughts and ways of man,
with his many traditions and temptations, nay, you want to give Him
glory, not any man. You are His bride! You are The
church, not a
church. You are THE Body, who answer the cry of His heart to go
deeper, ever deeper, ever more intimate with Him. Everyone is quoting
Psalm 91 during this pandemic, yet it begins by saying “He
that dwells in the secret place of the Most High”
and
how many who quote this are dwelling there? His remnant is. To you
God says, I am not only known to you as “Jesus” - “The Lord
saves” but I am also your “Emmanuel” - for I am with you, lo
even unto the end of the world, saith The Lord.
“Then
spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord in the Lord's message
unto the people, saying, I am with you saith the Lord”.
What
a precious promise from our wonderful God, but it is only to those
who hear His voice; the mark of His own “My
sheep hear My voice and another they will not follow”
- it
matters not if His voice comes from His lips directly to your heart,
spoken by His Spirit, or from a prophet or apostle or fellow saint,
or from His written word, His voice is still marvelous and life
affirming and His words are still
“Spirit
and they are life”.
In
verse 14, the Lord stirs up the spirit of the people “and
they came and did the work IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD OF HOSTS, their
God”!
The
result of God's voice, His words, in our lives is ACTION! Hallelujah!
This should always be the result of God's commandments to us - “Arise
and be doing!”
not
endless services where everyone SITS AND LISTENS, instead of going
(into all the world) and speaking (the gospel to every creature).
Building God's house takes “all hands on deck” - Leaders,
apostles and prophets, teachers and evangelists and pastors, are to
provide God's blueprint for building His house, His people, into a
fit habitation for His Spirit, for His bride will be full of His
Spirit without measure, as the Groom was, in these last days, but it
is the people that do the actual building, with a building trowel in
one hand and a sword in the other, it is the Body which edifies
itself in love, building itself up in it's most holy faith. God's
Aholiab's are rising again! (EX:36:2).
Hallelujah! “Aholiab” means “Father's tent” and
his co laborer “Bezaleel” means “in the shadow of God” - God
is calling us all into His “Tent” to abide in His shadow! Now we
come back to Psalm 91! God is raising up men and women with, not a
father's heart but THE Father's heart, who are “wise hearted” and
“willing hearted” to prepare a house made of “living stones”,
God's people – these leaders are like unto the eunuchs who attended
to Esther, preparing her for intimacy with her king, anointing her
and teaching her how to please Him and so are God's leaders today –
Eunuchs who will not dare touch His bride in an unclean way, for
their own gain, pleasure or glory. Their entire focus is on
presenting Him with a pure and mature bride, who will be eternally
pleasing to Him, for it was Esther who was able to intercede to king
Ahasuerus on behalf of her people, saving many and it is the bride of
Christ who will intercede in this generation on behalf of her people,
those who are not intimate with the King, but are still counted among
His own, and will save many.
Chapter
2, verse 4 – Now “be
strong”,
ye leadership of God, “be
strong all ye people of the land (of
promise, who have not longed to go back to Egypt, nor cowered in fear
or unbelief at the prospect of entering their land promised, though
it be full of giants – powers of the air, rulers of darkness in
high places “For
I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts!” Praise
God The “I AM” is with us! Not the “I was” or “I will be”!
“According
to the Word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so
My Spirit remaineth among you: FEAR YE NOT!” When
God delivered you from the “land of sin and death” - your own
personal Egypt, your flesh, by the blood of the Lamb applied to the
door of your heart, when He “Passed Over” you and spared you the
curse of eternal death and damnation, He led you into Pentecost -
the “land of abundant life”, full of the milk of His word and the
honey of His heart, where He pours forth His Spirit into you and out
of you and He is saying to you now “My
Spirit remaineth in you- fear not!” Fear
not all who stand against you, who hate you and resist you at every
turn, who deliver you up to death, who spitefully use you, rejoice
for I am with you, for so it was with My prophets before you. Fear
not, precious flock, the princes and powers of the air, the rulers of
the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places
(men's hearts, haughty and proud), fear not the plagues and
calamities coming upon this world – for I AM with you, saith The
Lord. Who can stand against you? For yet once, it is a little while
and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry
lands (both unsaved and saved humanity) “and
I will shake all nations”even
now, as I am doing with this present pandemic “and
the desire of all nations shall come” to
My house which you are even now beginning to build properly “and
I will fill My house with My glory, saith the Lord of Hosts”.
Oh
the glory that is coming and even now is! “The
glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith
the Lord of Hosts”,
for
how much greater is the House made without hands, according to the
will of God compared with the house made with hands, which God
humbled Himself for a time and a season to dwell in, yet has
forsaken, having torn the veil in two? “And
in My house alone shall men have peace and rest, in these days of
great tribulations, the beginning of sorrows, the birth pains of
which I prophesied. Selah.
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