I am convinced that in 2022 that God wants us to build His House in our cities. God gave instructions in His word what is on His heart. There is also a pattern in the Bible on how to do it. We read in:
1 Kings 6:7 NKJV
(7) And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.
Haggai 1:3-5 NKJV
(3) Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:
(4) “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
(5) Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.
The term ‘paneled houses’, is a symbolic picture of the local church. The Lord is saying that the people were just focusing on building the local church. God’s purpose is much more than only the local house or local church.
He wants us to build the ‘Temple’ in the city, town, or the village we live in because the Temple lies in ruins. This Temple is not being built with human hands, including concrete and bricks.
Let us look at the picture that we find in the Bible.
God intended silence when Solomon’s temple was built. In building the Temple now, God is requiring no noise which is symbolic of no striving nor quarreling between His people.
The preparation of the hewed and smooth stones was done in the quarry. Coming to the temple, the stones were fit-ready to be placed in their required position according to the purposes of God.
What does that mean? Symbolically, the quarry represents the local churches and the Temple is the church in the city, the corporate body of Christ.
Numbers 27:16-17 NKJV
(16) “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,
(17) who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.”
According to these Scriptures, God set a man, in the local church as the pastor, the spiritual leader, the set man over the congregation. In the city church, there is a corporate setman. It is a group of fathers of elders, pastors, spiritual leaders who act as one voice in the city.
We continue to read in Numbers 27:17, that without the setman, the congregation of Lord will be like sheep without a shepherd.
In Haggai 1:6-7 we read…
Haggai 1:6-7 NKJV
(6) You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
(7) This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.
In Haggai 1:5 God says that ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’
In Haggai 1:7 The Lord Almighty says ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’
It is two times that God said in Haggai 1, consider your ways or give careful thought to your ways. God continued to mention some consequences if they would not obey, the building of His Temple in the city.
In a similar way, God invites us to be part of this process in our cities, towns, and villages. I repeat ‘Consider your ways / Give careful thought to your ways’!