Program: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 7th June, 2023
Transcript Summary
1. The recent emphasis has been on the issue of glory, and God has been painting the picture of glory to us from all sides. One of the emphasis that was coming to me recently is: “you need to give attention to your building”. The reason the Lord is connecting “building” to glory, is because there will be no glory without a building (Ps. 102:16).
2. "Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: For the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come". (Ps. 102:13). In the scheme of the programme of God, there is a set time for visiting Zion. And that set time is a time of mercy, a peculiar mercy which God prepared for Zion, a mercy unto Eternal Life (Jude 1:21). It is a mercy preparation for glory to come into Zion. This mercy is God’s favour to Zion. However, Zion has to be built to call for this mercy.
3. "For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, And favour the dust thereof". (Ps. 102:14). These servants are priests who stand in Zion seeking to become precious, elect, seeking to become living stones. Dusts come together to make rock (stone) over a process of time. Dust in this sense is not referring to waste, nor is it the dust that is flesh, but dusts that are being gathered to become stones, as they are the dust of the stones. The dust refers to believers that have begun to gather towards the course of Zion ‒ that is, to become a stone for the building.
4. “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, [5] Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). This Scripture means that when the Lord is coming, He comes as a “Living Stone” to “lively stones”. The “Living Stone” is the Son of God; “lively stones” are christs. Anyone who is able to journey to the point of becoming dust must of necessity become a stone; God would gather such and mould such into a stone.
5. “When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” (Ps. 102:16). There would be no glory without a building up. We can talk all we want to and hear all we want to hear about glory and the season of glory; but if we do not pay attention to our building, it would amount to nothing. Stones are needed for building. The set time to favour Zion is the time to gather Zion stones and make Zion the habitation for God.
6. "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;" (Eph. 2:19). This verse is referring to the soul, not the spirit. One can be born again and still be a stranger and foreigner. A soul that is not making the journey towards being translated to become a stone is still a stranger; he is not yet dust, he is still grass. The phrase, “fellowcitizens with the saints” is referring to saints of the household of God.
7. (Eph. 2:20-22). There are apostles and prophets of building. Although, they are not the foundation themselves, they have the foundation. One of such apostles is Paul. He said, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.” (1 Cor. 3:9). It is a prestigious calling to be a labourer together with God, even though this is not the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Such men do not have their own plans because they must follow God’s plan. Another example is Moses; hence, it was written concerning him that he was faithful in all his house (Heb. 3:5). “Labourers” are apostles and prophets who have the privilege of being raised to labour with God. It takes a lot to make such men.
8. God is extremely meticulous. He gave Noah and Moses all the measurements for building the Ark and the tabernacle, respectively. These were not suggestions, there must be no addition to or subtraction from what He specified. Anything God did not specify for the building was not necessary for it. If such is added to the building, His glory will not rest on it. The building has to be built according to specifications. This is why for God to make someone a fellow-labourer with Him, that person must have been disjointed and broken, because a person who still has his strength intact will bring suggestions to God that were not originally in the pattern God laid out.
9. (Hag. 2:8). Silver and gold are the substances God uses to build. They were also part of the materials used in the construction of the earthly tabernacle; although that tabernacle was a picture God enabled Solomon to capture concerning something in the spirit about the house of God. God will not dwell in a house made with hands (Acts 7:48). So the silver and gold God is referring to are not physical silver and gold, but materials that He will use to build a house that He will dwell in ‒ whose house are we (Heb. 3:6).
10. What the new testament apostles and prophets did, using the Old Testament Scripts to preach Christ and lay Him as foundation, is clearly a work of wisdom (1 Cor. 3:10). The materials they (including Paul) were handling were not like those Aaron handled ‒ blood, the life of bulls and goats ‒ but materials that had wisdom to divide the things contained in the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is the life of Jesus. It contains the ordinance of life and peace, which is the covenant of Christ; it also contains the everlasting covenant and the eternal covenant. Hence, it can only be divided by wisdom. When revelation comes to us, it comes through wisdom and understanding (Prov. 4:7). Wisdom can be likened to gold and understanding likened to silver (Prov. 16:15-16).
11. (Eph. 2:20-22). Jesus is the chief cornerstone, every other stone for God’s building must be joined to Him. One cannot be joined to Jesus if such is not like Him; such a one cannot find a place in Him. This is why we are admonished to do Christ. It is in Jesus that all the building fitly frames together. Every man is a building of some sort. If a saint does not pay attention to his individual building in God to the point of completion, such would not appear in Zion as a stone fit for the building of God’s habitation.
12. We are instructed to pay attention to our building because the time of visitation is coming. The set time to favor Zion is when the stones would be taken up because the Lord would come as a Living Stone to pick lively stones and qualify them as living stones. Living stones are stones after the order of the Son of God, because they would make up the house of the living God (the house of glory), having been built themselves.
13. (Eph. 3:1-3). Every labourer is a prisoner. One has to be taken as a prisoner to build the house of God. Without Paul being made a prisoner, the saints would not have gotten that dispensation of the grace of God. Like Paul, our sole occupation will be building according to the pattern. The building for God’s habitation is built with mystery; Christ is a mystery, the Son of God is also a mystery.
14. God is particular about building. We do not have much time any longer, this building has to be raised. What is required of us is to finish charity and get to the point where charity is fervent. Charity is a man that has been raised into a “lively stone”. Someone can teach charity and never become a man of charity. Such a person would be a cast away (1 Cor. 9:27); that is, such would be disqualified from being part of the stones to fit into Christ.
15. We must magnify 1 Corinthians 13 and consciously obey the commandments therein. That Scripture will solve a lot of problems and frictions that we have in our relationships (including marriage) if only we made up our minds to do it. For grace to come, one has to be willing. You do not need to wait till you feel like it, because you will never feel like it. Sometimes, you have to step out in obedience, even though it feels dry, because it is a commandment. Doing so, you are stepping out against a particular life formation that exists in your soul.
16. Charity is a commandment we must obey, and it is not dependent on how we feel. Every day gives us opportunities to do charity. This begins with a desire in the heart to do charity and finish it. We must continue to do charity until it becomes fervent; that is when it becomes a feast. It is in that season we find out that those to whom charity has not become a feast will become spots in our feast of charity (Jude 1:12).
17. God wants us to do God (charity); and this is not just in giving, but also in forgiving. Doing charity to the point of fervency would make us lively stones; because we need life to forgive. Those who cannot forgive still have a measure of death in them. Anyone living in death would not be qualified to be a stone that can fit into Jesus.
18. Every man on earth tries to secure his future/tomorrow, giving attention to it and working towards it. But giving attention to one’s building in God is more important. In fact, the real tomorrow is more than the tomorrow we live here on earth; it is everlasting, and not just a period of time. Just as we give attention to meticulously plan for our future on this side of time, we must do more for the eternal that really matters. Your building matters so much, because it would determine your eternal estate.
Blessings!