Don’t hide your light put it on a stand so that everyone can see it. Luke 8:16.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. ... Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. - Psalm 84.
I, (and the collective 'we'), have been through a lot this past year, and in spite of all of it all, nothing takes away my love for this spiritual House, my House, that God has not only called me to build but the House that God has grafted me into.
Not because I'm the founder, because ultimately this is the Lord's House. Or, because you may think I "have to" be there, but because I love the Lord’s House and when I'm not there, I LONG to be in the House of the Lord with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Belonging to a Body of Christ where there is a manifestation of God's transformative power and presence, solid teaching, equipping, fellowship with real people and of course God's healing and restoration to make us whole, is such a blessing and a privilege.
When we become members of a church we are making a covenant with the Lord and the Lord's House. We make a covenant to be in it through thick and thin as we make public declarations in our membership welcome in.
It saddens my soul when it seems so easy for some to take such a commitment and covenant so lightly? I know so many who long for such a House of the Lord for all people.
I’m well aware of the many things that can cut in on our race, but God’s Word encourages us not to stay there.
The angel said to Elijah, ‘Get up’!
We get up and shake the dust off our feet and get back on track and in troubled times we don’t run from the House we take hold of the support system in it to help us up!
Why become a member and make a covenant with the Lord and in turn, the Lord’s House if you/we are not going to honour it? Why become members if we aren't going to participate?
I think there is a spiritual line being drawn in the sand in this hour.
Which side of that line are you on?
We either lift our other foot off the ‘one half’ or put the other one on the other side of the line. There is no satisfaction without wholeheartedness in the Kingdom. We must decide.
In marriage we don’t get married half-heartedly we are fully committed because we are in love.
When we make a commitment to be members of God’s House and we say all the things we say in our commitment welcome-in ceremony, it’s much the same. Scripture likens belonging to the House of God much like a marriage in that sense.
Rev. 21:1-9 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
“Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
Eph. 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...” vs 32 “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”
We the Church are called the Bride of Christ.
When our hearts are filled with love for Jesus, we are ‘ALL in’. Then things may happen and our love can grow colder than we think it is. (Read Rev.3:16-19).
In a healthy marriage, we work it out and push through because that love is stronger than anything.
But when we grow lukewarm or cold we don’t see the same value or priority through spiritual eyes any longer because an ‘invisible’ veil comes over us as we move more and more towards the other side of the line.
We have to PUSH through the barriers of pride and fear and all the stumbling blocks and come in! - it’s in the pushing that we grow.
It’s time to check your spiritual temperature and assess what has kept you in a state of ‘lukewarmness’ if this is you?
Sometimes the very things we pray for can become our idols and slowly take the throne or place in our life that Jesus should be. The problem is we don’t ‘see it’ that way or refuse to see.
If it doesn’t apply to you, then pray for someone that you know is struggling in this area right now that needs help in your circle.
It's time to ARISE and SHINE, so that the light of Christ within the church can rise upon all people.
But first, we have to get into the church to ‘be’ the church out there, equipped and ready so that our light can shine with the glory of God’s presence.
Regardless of the building we can still ‘get into’ the church and be participators. It’s about the POSTURE of the heart.
Thank You Lord for blessings me with this amazing family and spiritual House!
Love you all so much!
Apostle Deborah Bell
DGAN Network/DGFC
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