Raise up a standard against the enemy, this is the battle cry today for those who are alert to the onslaught on the nations of the earth by the anti-Christ spirit seeking to take control and govern God’s people. But this claim that God will do it partners with Matthew 16:18 “Now I say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build My church and the powers of hell will not conquer it”. Jesus directly speaks into Peter that now that He has had a revelation of who Christ is and knows who he is IN Him, he is “the church” the dwelling place of God and he is to build God’s church based on that relationship in Him. This is the one hell cannot prevail against, this is the church in which God will come in and raise a standard against the enemy of our souls. (Isaiah 59:18-19).
In Ephesians 1, we find amazing promises for His church of spiritual blessings, being predestined for adoption into God’s family, freedom, forgiveness, wisdom, kindness and understanding. There is the Holy Spirit who marks us with our identity in Christ Jesus, our guarantee for our inheritance. There is incredible greatness of power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him in the heavenly place, the place He rules with all authority over all things. This seat of authority in Ephesians 2:6, is the same place we are invited to be seated with Him and gain access to ALL of this”. How do we build THIS Church, God’s church, this powerful strong authoritative family of God on the earth?
It begins with building the house of prayer for all nations (Matthew 21:13) and right now that looks like dismantling what we have built with our own hands. It looks like Jesus coming in in a fierce anger, turning over tables and chasing out the thieves, the adulterers and pornographers, the liars, the manipulators, the sexually perverted. But we do not like the sound of that, it seems too harsh for our kind and loving God. But our God is also severe to the disobedient and the church at large has been greatly disobedient. Severity is an act of His love just as the discipline of a child is who has gone astray, and the church has most certainly done that.
Building is a collective corporate work in which Christ the Head, calls forth the body to labor with Him (1 Corinthians 3:9) as an extension of who He is on the earth. To co-labor with Him is to co-labor with each other and there lies much of the problem. We must work together in the work of the Lord but hand in hand, arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder doing what He has called us to do and letting others do the same. But we tend to think everyone should be doing what we are doing and how we are doing it, or they are not doing it right. Your lane and my lane do not look the same, your prayer and mine do not sound the same. God’s creative gifts and abilities He has given to each of us are to be used to build His house, His Kingdom and it takes all of us not looking to the left or right, just doing our work on the wall.
In this hour of dismantling the church and much of it is in a heap of rubbish, The Lord is going through the debris looking for His treasures that have been hidden in those places. He is pulling them out and setting them on firm ground, dusting them off and handing them a tool to work and a sword to fight. Nehemiah 3 gives us a clear picture of what that building should look like…Each working on their own section of the wall, building in front of their own houses. In this work, shoulder to shoulder we become the house that Yahweh built, a house of prayer with Christ as the head and we, functioning in our place as the body being led by the Holy Spirit is all that we say and do. This church will stand firm, based on right identity, this church becomes the raised standard as we stand in unity as one voice, the voice of the Lord being released on the earth.