Isaiah 66 begins, “This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting
place be?
2Has not my hand made all these things,
and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “This is the one I esteem: he
who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” [1]
Whenever one considers a
building – especially a building that will house a church, it is wise to first
consider the Scriptural principles for building. After all, we all know Psalm 127:1, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its
builders labor in vain.” [2] (More on that particular principle in another
blog, but for now it is enough to simply know that unless God is in the
building of the house/temple, it is not going to result in anything near a
house/temple for God.)
At KingdomLink.ca we are
considering the construction of a building that will house not only a church,
but also a school and outreach ministry.
It is our vision that it will eventually house several hundreds of
students, day offices for the outreach ministry and hundreds more
followers-of-Jesus. As such, it will be
a building built for the express purposes of expanding the Kingdom of God
(extending His felt presence in the world) and a building built very much for
His glory. So the principle of Isaiah
66:1-2 is very much in the forefront of our minds.
When I read the passage, I
hear God pointing out that all the world cannot contain Him (for the earth is
as His footstool), and that we cannot ‘give’ Him a building we make out of
physical materials because He owns everything in heaven and earth anyway. So to construct something and ‘give’ it to
Him is a lot like a child asking their dad for some money to buy a father’s day
gift. Now if that is where God stopped
talking we might be prone to give up here and now. But then the Lord says something very
interesting, “This is the one I esteem:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” The word here for ‘esteem’ is “abbit” – it
means to gaze, look, see, have regard for, catch sight of.
It is quite something I
think, to seek to build something to God’s glory – that He would acknowledge
that place, use it for His purposes and call it His own. But how much more an honor is it that He
would acknowledge and look upon us? In
fact, there is no greater honor than knowing the Lord, hearing His voice or
being indwelt and empowered by His Spirit.
The Lord is saying that if you desire to build something for Him, you
are best off to realize that He inhabits His people in a far more profound way
than He inhabits a building (for further study see John 17:20-26). And when it comes to using people for His
purposes, He is looking specifically for a certain kind of person. He describes those as “…he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”
These then are the prerequisites
to being used of God in a profound way – how much more so the prerequisites to
building anything for Him at all! The
questions we must ask ourselves then are:
1)
Are we humble? Do we have a right understanding of who we
are and who God is? We are His handiwork
and made for His glory (Is 43:7), but we are also like a vapor that is here for
a while and then gone (James 4:14). The
Lord’s purposes must transcend ours or we will not be building something that
lasts.
2)
Are we contrite
in spirit? The Lord is close to the
brokenhearted, and joy comes only after mourning. The Lord can speak best to those who
earnestly seek Him and cry out for His presence and help.
3)
Do we tremble
at His Word? Do we have a right
understanding of the eternal nature and purpose of what God has said
already? Is what we are purposing to do
align with His nature, character and what He as already said? Truly, if we have a Scriptural warrant for
building we cannot be stopped, but if we do not we cannot succeed.
The answers to the above
questions must be sought as individuals first, and then as a group. When you have your collective answer you can
know for certain. If you are not
humble, contrite or rightly standing on His Word - it is simply not to be
attempted. But if you are, then in great
confidence you can know that what you are purposing to build is God’s will and
plan (and therefore also blessed with His supply). Here
is wisdom.
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