Peggy I 1:4 – is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house light waste?
The Temple of God in the believer versus the Temple within the 4 walls
The design of God for a lives is that we truly be the Temple of God upon the earth, his dwelling place. He does not want us to just have a divine touch, or simply a visitation. He wants to have his place of permanency in the life of each believer.
John finds himself in the middle of the vision of revelation when he receives a measuring stick.
Revelation 11:1 – and there was given me a read like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
God wants us to understand something of fundamental importance here. Measuring has to do with height, with different levels, with different G/rades of revelation. It has to do with setting boundaries between that which is consecrated to him and what cannot be touched by the enemy.
He shows something similar to Ezekiel, too. God desires to reveal to us is most sacred structures, and he wants us to conform to them so that he can set up his permanent dwelling in the Temple of our spirit.
Ezekiel 43:10 – the Son of Man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out there of, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, all of the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. This is the law the house; upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof roundabout shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
When the Scripture speaks to us about the dwelling of God in man, it does it in an exclusive context: to those who love him and keep his commandments, and not to everyone who calls him, Lord, Lord! The fact of receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior establishes us in a covenant of salvation, and it gives us a measure of the gift of God. The fact that he sets up his dwelling and someone is something deeper. He said:
John 14:20 – at that day you shall know that I am in my father, and ye and me, and I knew. He that hath my commandments, and keep it them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him. Judith saith on him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou will manifest thyself on the us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my father will love him, and we will come under him, and make our of bold with him.
Notice that the dwelling is not established into love and obedience to the word are proven. He will come to dwell where he finds a holy temple, according to the designs of his house. The angel tells John to measure 3 things: the Temple, the altar, and those who worship added. These are the 3 ingredients that God needs to find in us, in order to come and live there.
The principle that the Temple of God must be built in us is very important, since God will not establish his dwelling if there is no Temple or if there are only Bruins. When God told Moses that he wanted to make his dwelling among his people, first he revealed to him what the Temple was like. Then he ordered that the tabernacle be sanctified, and then he dissented in his glory to inhabit it. The Lord speaks to Hagy I to this respect, and, in our day, it is interpreted in a spiritual sense towards the church, which is the Israel of the spirit. And it says:
Hague EI 1:4 – is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?
Now, we do not think, as we have done for so long, that we see the building of the church as the temple of God. This is an abomination, since God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Does not refer to our physical houses either.
What the Lord wants to tell us is that our houses are paneled with all of the blessings that he has sent upon us, our talents, the riches of wisdom, our prosperity, health and so many gifts that we have received from him. But his house, the one that is on his holy mountain in heavenly places, that house in which one can only arrive in true worship, with hunger and thirst of finding him, that one is in ruins. That one is built, worshiping in spirit and in truth. Unfortunately, we have so little understanding of what it means to really worship.
Restoration of worship
The church has tried to sing beautifully, wanting to minister to him. But, if we analyze what we call worship, in large part their soft, beautiful songs, whose objective is not to render worship to God for his greatness. Rather their objective is that to touch us, Phyllis, change your heart, submerge us in his river, refresh us, etc., that would make us feel good.
Subtly our soul is pleased, while we change true worship for traditional songs, centered upon ourselves. In a service, perhaps 6 or 7 songs are sung directed towards ourselves for every one of true worship to him.
Something is wrong. Don’t you think? Worship and the reason we come together must be him. When we sing to him, our spirit is raised with him. When we sing in the direction of ourselves, the soul is the one that is raised. This is extremely subtotal, because apparently everything feels very spiritual, but the fruit is going to be anemic and fleshly. God is going to attract millions of people to the place where he is being raised up.
A new move of worship is flowing upon the earth, directed towards glorifying the greatness and majesty of God. The songs of this new generation will exalt all the attributes of God, and this will make his anointing, his presence, and his manifestation to send in a wonderful way. The spirit of the believers will be awakened and raised to new levels of experience with God and power.
When we worship in spirit and in truth, we penetrate the realm of his glory, the heavens open, and we can look at him with open face. And then we are transformed into his image.
Worship is not singing. It is literally converting yourself into the altar from which the river of God flows. It is not something that one can do. It is something into which you must transform yourself.
An angel took the prophet Ezekiel to experience the levels of this river. He first put them in up to his ankles, then up to his knees, and later up to his waist, until the river became so large that it could only be crossed swimming.
When the water is up to your knees, the flesh still controls, it decides. But when the river grows, it takes you wherever it wants to take you. There are no longer songs written by a songwriter – up to your knees. It is the flow from the very heavens, singing through your lips. It is a gush of water that makes robust trees grow on your right hand and on your left. It is a flow so powerful that it floods the spiritual realm and touches cities and even nations.
Oh, how he is seeking worshipers who worship him that way! Those who are his Temple have understood that the worship is not a moment during the Sunday service, but a way of life, and intimate communion, I bonding themselves with God and God with them.
To worship is to become one with him. It is intimate communion that quiets the soul until only the spirit is heard. It is where the true union between heaven and earth is produced. The 2 realms begin to conjugate, and it is then that Christ is revealed.
Worshiping opens the prophetic dimension the so that you can see them with open face, in order to see his glory, in order to see the most wonderful angelic manifestations, and that, under uncovered heaven, we can have extraordinary, spiritual experiences. God is not seeking Sunday morning singers who speak in tongues, but a United people in intimate communion with him, people who are the temple and the very song of God, instruments of God in the hands of the spirit that he can play.
Oh, what a wonderful experience, to know that we were created for the praise of his glory, that within each one of us there are and innumerable quantity of instruments that he can play as he pleases. And when he does it, heavenly music flows from our mouse. It is not necessary to know how to sing or to take classes at the Conservatory. When you become his instrument, the heavens himself manifest. And, if you know how to sing, even better, but if not, God is made perfect in our weakness.
A transforming experience
A great truth about this is that we are transformed by what we worship. And someone 15, where God recruitment dates the worship of idols it says:
Psalm 115:5 – they have mouse, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: the of years, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusted in them.
I remember one time I cried to God so that he would give me his creative power. I was convinced that it was his will to teach us how to make things descend from the invisible to the visible. I want to a retreat alone to the mountains of Costa Rica. And God said to me, worship me as creator!
First, he confronted me with the twisted view I had of some of the creatures of his creation. At that time, I was terrified of fat, black, and Harry Moss. And it just so happened that I was eating dinner and, besides a table, there was an enormous window. As I was eating, a black moth arrived and rested outside of the window at the height of my eyes. I stared at it with terrible discussed, and I said within myself, how ugly you are! You can be more horrible!
At that moment, I heard the nearly audible voice of God it said to me, in a scolding tone, everything that I created is good, wise, beautiful, and I love it! Who are you to say that which I made is ugly? Perhaps you do things better than I? Then I put wisdom in camouflage into the wings of the moth so that they could defend themselves in that way from their predators? Isn’t it wise that I put fat in their bodies so that they could have energy to fly at night? Isn’t it wise and perfect all that I did? I made the night and its inhabitants, and I called them good, and I think they are beautiful. Everything that I created is good! I am the Lord of the day and the Lord of the night. You are repulsed because men have covered with curse my nocturnal animals, my cave animals and my birds of prey. I made them with my wisdom and they grown to see the glorious manifestation of my sons, who are to set them free with my power.
I felt the pain of the father. I had humiliated him for years as creator, and now I sought his creative power. I went for a long time, for my arrogance and stupidity. And I asked his forgiveness. And I began to worship him as creator, as wise and perfect creator.
Upon returning to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, I had to preach at a conference with my pastor, Ronnie Chavez. I asked God to manifest his creative power at that convention. While we worship then one of the sessions set apart just for women, I saw in the heavens too thick, rough stones of gold and diamonds that floated over us. Lord said, prophesy that they come from the spiritual to natural. And I did it. Suddenly, numerous women began to run to the platform with diamonds in her hands that had form supernaturally in front of them. We were full of joy. One woman, every time she closed her hand and opened it again, a new diamond was formed.
That night was also incredible, as during the entire service the people came and put joules of gold in my hands as an offering. They put so much gold in the my hands that there was enough to share with the rest of the preachers. Hallelujah!
To worship in spirit and in truth, in the language of the spirit, and new song, brings the manifestations of God. This is the most important part of his service and the part that the vast majority of churches and conventions eliminate. It is in these moments when he speaks, when he changes hearts, when experiences and healings come.
He seeking true worshipers, who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And this is going to make a great difference.
The restoration of the offering
One of the things that will be radically transformed in the church of the 20 first century is the concept of the offering. The excesses with regard to the offering became abominable in the last decades. And one extreme, is the miserable way in which people think that they can approach God, giving him their leftovers and robbing him of their ties. And, at the other extreme, is the prosperity movement in which some preachers miss the mark, completely giving an erroneous focus is far as the essence or the heart of giving offerings is concerned.
The principles are correct: given you will receive. The same as: God multiplies the goods of the joyful giver, and that God wants us to prosper in all things. The prom is a spirit behind the principal. When a person gives only with the objective of being prospered, he has lost the ensigns of giving offerings.
Giving offerings is an act of honoring God. It is the moment of the service in which we come to God to give him honor as father and his king. The vast majority of times the God speaks of being honored in the Bible, it has to do with the offering. You can pray someone and, nevertheless, not honor him. He says in the book of Malachi:
Malachi 1:6 – a son on earth his father, and his servant his master: it then I be father, where is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear?… And if you offered a blind for sacrifice, it is and not evil? And if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with the, or except I person? Saith the Lord of hosts. He said also, behold, what a weariness it is! And you have snuffed that it, saith the Lord of hosts
God has been immensely despised and offended in this aspect of the offering, because the people are so centered on the offering itself, that they believe it is truly a pain in the neck. Lord falls into the other extreme and converts itself into a matter of a financial investment, pushing aside the honor and salinity due to the father. The offering is indeed a way in which God blesses us economically, but it was not designed so that the focal point would be us, but him.
God gives us the privilege of being able to honor him. And this is a very important way in which we minister to him. This has to be a sublime moment. It is not about passing the offering plate to collect the money and doing it however it occurs to you, as a necessary, but bothersome part of the service.
No! God says, I want are those who honor me and those who despise me will be held in low esteem. The offering is saying to God with her goods how much we appreciate him, how much we honor and acknowledge him as the most important being in our lives, that he will receive the best of us. To give offerings is a form of worship in which we are recognizing him, giving him our lives.
Money, one way or another represents life. It is the produce of hours a were, of struggle. It symbolizes ideals, things that we desire, well-being, etc. But is also the parameter the guide uses the measure to whom he will surrender to riches and to whom he will not.
He says in his word:
Luke 16:10 – he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if he have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who should give you that which is your own? No servant can serve 2 masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other
God wants to give us inconceivable things from his spiritual and material riches, as well as from his power and his wisdom. The one that understands what it is to love God, gives everything without reserve; he gives him his life and, with it, everything that he possesses. These are the ones that God will honor, giving them his kingdom, his honor, and his riches.
But here Jesus mentions another master, the one named Mammon. He is the God of the riches of this world. Jesus calls him master, or boss, because a master is someone who is obeyed and served.
Mammon has a kingdom and a terribly strong structure with which he dominates the kingdoms of the earth and a vast majority of Christians. This spirit governs in a subtle way and is very difficult to detect by the people of God. Unfortunately, being ignorant of his devices is one of the principal causes that impediment us from possessing what is ours.
His purpose is to be master, and even of the saints of the most high, so that he can control our lives and Jesus will be hated and despised. Can Jesus be hated and despised by a Christian? Absolutely. This is what the Lord says we do when we submit to the orders of Mammon. One day, the Holy Spirit revealed to me how this demon acted. He told me, Mammon has a voice, and he talks to his people, saying:
I am your master. I control your finances, your emotions. I’m the one who tells you what you can do and what you can’t do. I determine where you can travel and if you can travel. I decide where you by your close, and what restaurants you can go to and which ones you can’t. I’m the one that says how you can treat the servants of God and what I do not allow you to do for them. I am the ones that the sides how much you can give for an offering and how much you can’t, and if I want to, if you to either not. I decide was school your children go to, and to which hospital you can take your family. Remember, I am the one that makes your budget, and I determine what you can do and what you can’t, because I’m your master. When you have to make a decision, I’m the first voice you hear.
I torment you with anguish whenever I want. I have the power to use your temperament in order to also affect your spouse, and I enjoy seeing how you submit to me. I love how you obey me when I tell you, you can’t pay for that trip to go to the Christian conference. Or when I tell you to be dishonest and you sneak into the event. I love it when you rob God. That is why I control your offerings, so we can never have control and I can continue telling you what you can and can’t do.
I’m the one that puts a loathing in your heart about offerings. I want you to continue hating Jesus and of being me. Remember I’m your master, and you will be me.
This monologue of the devil can be as extensive and chilling as you want. But immediately reveals clearly that Jesus is not Lord over a majority that sing hallelujah and that tell Jesus that they love him, but their heart is governed by Mammon.
Jesus was so set against the spirit that he put a thief as a treasurer. Why? He wanted to tell him, my kingdom is not ruled by money, but my father’s power. I have a need, catch a fish with gold in its belly. If the people are hungry, multiply food. If the line runs out, turn water into the best wine. Money does not decide what I can or cannot do, but my father in heaven.
Jesus received many offerings, because the purpose of the offering is to honor God, not to sustain the kingdom. The kingdom of God in its work sustain themselves with the supernatural power of God. The power produces and attracts riches. God can use money for his work or not. The solutions in the ways in which the kingdom operates are not necessarily going to require finances. Many offerings lack the supernatural power that they should have to bring blessing because they are taken in order to cover expenses.
The offering of God’s never had as its design covering expenses. It was always honor the most high, and when he is worshiped in this way, he takes care of meeting the budget.
Occasionally we see voluntary offerings in the Old Testament in order to raise funds to build the tabernacle or the Temple but these were never the command from the altar that is the principle of presenting ourselves before God, honoring him. They are extra gifts that God certainly blessed, like where the homes of the saints for the poor.
The Lord is very pleased with a cheerful giver, one who gives things away freely, the altar is to give her, and these givers were certainly walk in the great Lessing of God. My focus in these lines, however, is that the lost honor of the offering return to its proper place.