2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Kingdom thinking understands the tremendous responsibility that is upon the church when it comes to the welfare of a society, community, state and country. This verse makes it very clear that it is God’s people who are called by His Name that hold in their hands the responsibility in seeing the Lord forgive their sin and heal the land. We do our part and God will do His.
I have been thinking about this and asking the question: What is our part? I know it’s about humbling ourselves, praying and seeking His face and turning from our wicked ways, but what does this mean practically? This is the question that I have been asking myself and searching Scripture to find the answer for.
This is where the prophet Haggai comes in. I believe that his message is for God’s people today and in the next few weekly letters we will deal with this in bringing to a close this series on “Kingdom Thinking.”
King Cyrus of Persia let the Jewish people come back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Upon returning they undertook the task, but soon opposition and obstacles came and the work slowed down and eventually stopped as complacency and apathy began to set in. With this God was not honored. The people then went to build their own homes, worked their crops and basically forgot about the House of God.
For eighteen years this was the case until Haggai the prophet came on the scene with a word from the Lord. It is this word from the Lord that I think is very apt for us today.
In Ephesians chapter 2 we are told: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:19-22)
We see that we too are building a holy temple, according to Paul. We learn from Peter: “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)
When we look at the scene in heaven we see that there are people from every tribe, tongue and nation worshipping the Lord. “And they sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”’ (Revelation 5:9)
So when I put these verses together what does it tell me? The church, God’s people, like the Jewish people of old in Haggai’s time, are building a temple – a holy habitation for the living God. The stones that we use are not made out of granite, but are living stones made out of flesh and blood and these stones must come from every tribe, nation and people group in the world.
The question in my mind is this: How are we doing in building this temple? To finish the temple there must be stones from all of these different groups I mentioned. It is estimated that in the world there are still between 2,000 – 3,000 people groups where the church needs to be established, where living stones need to be gathered, polished and fitted into the temple.
When we think of the obstacles, the opposition from governments and evil people, this task is very daunting and the work of world evangelism is slowing down and in some places it has even stopped.
We are now beginning to see complacency and apathy settling in on the people of God especially here in the Western world. We find ourselves very busy building our own homes and thinking of ourselves so that God’s house is not being built and God is not being honored. What should we do?
In the next few weekly letters we will deal with this.