God needs a Body III

2:37 PM by Christi Bowman

"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

13 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

19 "But if you ^[c] turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you ^[d] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, ...I will...reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name.

If we shut the doors to His temple (us) He will do everything in His power to bring us to rock bottom, and when we find ourselves at rock bottom we can pray and seek His face and turn away from being our own god and He promises to heal us. But, if we continue to live by our own strength He will not dwell in our mansion.

God dwells in people, not in buildings. We cannot go to church and expect Him to show up. People are The Church and He shows up, in us, wherever we are at "IF we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast (Heb 3:6)." But if we rely on ourselves, which most of us do, than He will spend His time bringing us to the realization that relying on ourselves will not work.

If most of us rely on ourselves and God is intentionally bringing us down because of it, than we are not a community of people bringing heaven to earth, we are a community that God is not raining on, instead He is causing life to devour and plague us. We cannot experience heaven on earth while living along side a community that God is bringing to rock bottom. God is still in the community that He is bringing to rock bottom, but that community needs to seek God's face and cease being their own god or God will reject it as His house.

You cannot show up at a church building on Sunday and expect to experience heaven on earth with the people meeting inside, at least not in America. Many of the people in our church buildings today believe in a God that helps those who help themselves, but God is not a liar when he says, with imagery, that community is heaven coming to earth.

If you have come to a place where you have sought His face and turned from being your own god...when you are ready to "hold on to courage and the hope of which you boast (Heb 3:6) " it is time to start your journey...your journey to finding your tribe...your journey to finding and finally dwelling in heaven on earth; and bringing heaven to earth.

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