Joseph and Sonya Machuta
Hag 1:2-4
"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'This people says, "The time has
not come, even the time for the house of
the LORD to be rebuilt."'" (3) Then the
word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, (4) "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled
houses while this house lies
desolate?"
The Prophet Haggai prophesied, during the time that the people of Israel had been allowed to go back to Jerusalem, to begin to rebuild the temple of the Lord. This was the return from Babylonian captivity. Work had stopped on the temple of the Lord and they were busy building their own houses and pursuing their own agendas. Here, by the Prophet, the Lord asks if it makes sense that they should have finished houses while His house, the Lord’s house lay desolate.
Today, in this world of denominations and factions, the
people of God are busy making their houses beautiful, stained glass and fine
plush pews, while the true House, the body of Jesus is lying in
desolation. The factions grow with ever
increasing numbers day by day; dividing and growing like a cancerous cell. In the meantime, the world sees the
denominations and debate, and concludes that Christianity, is merely another
alternative of the relative choices that one has in life about what to
believe. There is no chance for the
powerful witness of the body of
Christ to go forth with crystal clarity.
When we ignore this, we continue to say, “the time has not
come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.” I proclaim today, that
the time is long since passed!
Look on to what else Haggai says:
Hag 1:7-11
Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways! (8)
"Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I
may be pleased with it and be glorified," says the LORD. (9)
"You look for much, but behold, it comes to little;
when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?" declares the
LORD of hosts, "Because of My house which lies desolate, while each
of you runs to his own house. (10) "Therefore, because of you the sky
has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. (11)
"I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain,
on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle,
and on all the labor of your hands."
Look at the
Spiritual implication of what is written here.
The spiritual drought that besets the land is the result of God’s
efforts. He blows it away! We may see a little harvest of anointing oil
and a small portion of fruit from time to time, but the heavy due and the new
wine and fat cattle are merely a thought of some future move of God. The plain truth is that the harvest is being
held in check because the house of the Lord is desolate. The Lord says to consider our ways. We are to rebuild the temple. This will take heavy lifting. This will require much hard labor.
Haggai goes on to
say:
Hag 2:6-9
"For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Once more in a little while, I
am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry
land. (7) 'I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth
of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD of
hosts. (8) 'The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,' declares the LORD of
hosts. (9) 'The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,'
says the LORD of hosts, 'and in this place I will give peace,' declares the
LORD of hosts."
So what is the
answer? What is the heavy lifting? What is the work that must be accomplished
to make the latter glory of the Lord’s house greater than the former
glory? The temple must be built on the
proper foundation. The foundation is
the Lord Jesus Christ and above that is the Apostles Doctrine. But, what is the Apostles Doctrine? Don’t we have it? Well, we will ask the question this way. With all of the factions that exist in
Christianity do we have it today? The
answer is absolutely not!
The truth is that
we all have pieces of the truth, but we must have our earth shaken. We must allow the Spirit of the Lord shake
our individual nations. What we must
do, is come together to search out the apostles’ doctrine by means of the Holy
Spirit, in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. This will require heavy lifting. This will require us to lay all of our
agendas on the table and examine them together with the Holy Ghost’s
direction. We cannot divide, but like a
family intent on ironing out differences so that it is no longer a house
divided, we must resolve to stay at it, until we have found the answers, and
further, that the Holy Ghost has witnessed to us as a group, that we have
indeed found the answers. At the end of
this will come a return of the Apostolic Doctrine, and the Lord will bless as
He promised in Haggai. The latter glory
of the house will be greater than the former.
No longer will
Larry King be able to have a Catholic Priest, John Macarthur an evangelical
preacher, and a new age advocate debating truth, for the true temple of the
Living God, the body of Christ, will be demonstrating in the Land, and Christ Himself will stamp his approval with a
greater works ministry, that is so profoundly miraculous, that the whole
world will take notice and see that the Temple of God is in the land.