Foreign Wives 2: Whose House?

"3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 'Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

7 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.'”Haggai 1:3-11

How much longer will we abide the demons that plague the House of God?  The foreign wives have inflicted another calamity on the Household of Christ's people.  They clamor for houses to be built for them--not just decent, functional houses, but paneled houses that boast of sweat and labor and hard-earned skill.  The Hebrew word for "panel" also means "reserved," or "treasure."  These foreign wives slide in where they do not belong and make burdensome demands on the Lord's people for riches and glory.

What are these paneled houses?  They are church buildings and church programs and events and conferences that are accomplished out of the strength of the flesh, not the strength of the Lord.  They are motivated by the honest desire to please God, but also the fear of going to Him directly and asking what He wants from us.  Coming together to worship and be fed is only part of who we are, Church.  But it has become the defining characteristic, and ALL of your human resources and personal energy and devotion have been poured into it, making it something unrecognizable from the true, living Body of Jesus Christ.  You see, a body is meant to receive signals only from the brain, the head.  The hand is not meant to make decisions on its own.  It rejoices in knowing and yielding to the head.  Why is the Body of Christ not allowed to be this, especially in the assemblies of Christ's people?  The hand strains and strains to move on its own accord, because this is the format that good Christians are supposed to use and we must not allow the Head to interrupt our schedule.  Why are you blind to this?  This is a foreign concept to the true Church!  Why have the clamoring voices of the foreign wives deceived you?   

Dearly, dearly beloved Bride, you have been sought after by a King who desires to lead you by the hand into new and wonderful territories of unlimited grace and power!  Why do you resist Him?

His house lies desolate outside the camp.  It is small, rejected, and more like a tent, so we feel like it is not worth leaving the glories of our steeples for.  Oh Bride, Bride, will you not go up into the mountains and learn of His heart, and bring into His House the good and true things that He gives you in the mountains?  

Do not let this foreign enemy, this hateful wife tell you that your true Husband never meant for you to have every good thing in Christ, but only some of it.  Do not listen!  You are diminishing the ministry of the cross whenever you say, "We should be content with church the way it is. Don't make mountains out of molehills!"  Your King died to give you something so much better than what you have.  How can you spit in His face by rejecting the offer of joining the holy priesthood of those who sit at His feet and receive Every Word?  

"As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  For it stands in Scripture:

'Behold, I am laying in Zion a Stone,
a Cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.'"1 Peter 2:4-6

Oh my beloved Sister, I labor for you as a bridesmaid should.  Choose the forsaken Stone!  Consent to be built up into His House, His Priesthood, that He might show you what sacrifices are acceptable to the Father through Him!  

You may feel ashamed and alone if you make this journey outside the camp, outside the grand worship centers, to the small tent, that holy prayer closet in the desert, but you will not be put to shame, dearly Beloved.

Do not continue laboring where the Lord is no longer laboring.  Let the foreign wives wail for their paneled houses--more youth group activities, more social interactions, more entertaining jokes and lights and sounds to keep us interested in a Word that is supposed to silence every other word--let them wail!  Those who only love the paneled houses will be revealed.  The products of their labor will be blown away and become nothing.  

He asks for us to bring the right sacrifices, bring the right wood into the House, be the living stones, that He may be glorified.  Come be the House.