Know Ye Not

I believe we need to get and keep an accurate picture of who and what the CHURCH really is. We are his church. Church is not a place, a building or a meeting. It is a people. A Called Out people with whom Jesus is in love and wants a relationship. Everyone together who possess His Life are called the Ecclesia, the Church, the Body of Christ. The individual members of the Ecclesia are called Christians. They are the in-Christed ones. They abide in Him, and He abides in them.

I read this a long time ago and saved it in a folder. It is such an accurate picture of the church that Jesus is building without human hands. This is not to say that there are not people in religious purposed buildings who love Him and seek Him. Remember, most of us went that route before we got where we are now. "There, but by the grace of God, go I". Yes?

Instead of being bitter, regrettful or judgmental about my time in the organized church, I am thankful for it, even grateful for it's nourishment. It truly was a safe, nurturing place for me to develop. BUT, it is also true that it doesn't have the food to continue my growth and that it was time for me to break out of its confinement.

So while we can hate the deceptions and grieve the gaps in our brotherhood, we must not lose sight of the fact that God has His purpose in the buildings, the programs, the meetings and most importantly in our brothers and sisters who are in them. Amen?

This is the vision:

Now imagine that the Lord wakes you up one night and says, "Come up hither, and I will show you the Church." You expect Him to carry you down the street to the Family Worship Center or across the country to where the crowds say they are experiencing revival; but instead you find yourself rising high into the air, leaving the earth behind, and in the blink of an eye you travel beyond the edges of the temporal universe and into the spirit realm, seated with Christ in heavenly places, there in the throne of God. Seated with the Lord and looking back down upon the world, we find from this perspective that the cathedrals, the church buildings, the worship centers, the sanctuaries, the denominational offices, the seminaries, the tithes and offerings, the membership drives, the movements, all vanish from sight. Everything melts away. He does not see the Assemblies of God, the Southern Baptists, the United Methodists, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, or the Roman Catholics. He does not see Charismatics or Fundamentalists or Bible Belts or Christian Conservatives or Religious Rights. He does not see the building devoted to religious meetings as anything more special or significant than the grocery store or barber shop.

He sees pastors, yes, but strangely, He does not see every director of a non-profit organization who owns a building devoted to religious meetings as a pastor. And it is not just the pastors that are different from our heavenly observation point. Everything seems odd. Backwards. Apostles are not where you expect them to be, and they are not doing what you expect them to be doing; neither are prophets, evangelists, or teachers. Yet, they are right where He wants them to be, doing exactly what He wants them to do. Interestingly enough, He is not concerned with a rise or decline in church attendance because He does not see the Church as something which can be attended. Hmmmm.

Standing next to Him we see as He sees. We realize when we look upon Christendom that all God sees there is His Church, the Ecclesia. He deems those who abide in Him, those who possess the Son, as those who have Life. His Church is not declining, it is growing because His Life cannot be contained or restricted. His Ecclesia is outside the matrix. His Church is spiritual, and as such, it is eternal, transcending time and space. Just as He is, and does.

You look upon His Face and see the curve of His smile, so you follow His gaze - and there it is, the living stones and precious gems which make up His Church. You couldn't see them before, because you were right in the middle of it while still on earth. But now, far removed from it all and looking down upon it from the Lord's perspective, you see that the living stones are being assembled together into a brilliant, gleaming, dazzling building which covers the entire earth! An angel stands apart from it, shouting, "100% pure: never touched by human hands!" You zoom in closer and discover that the stones and gems are not literal stones and gems, but people! Wonderful, beautiful, joy-filled people, joined together into a striking mosaic of vibrant colors, a tapestry of interwoven beauty, a medley of lives in perfect twelve-part harmony, all pulsing with His heartbeat, His Life, His Essence. You begin to weep at the unadulterated purity of it and oneness of it. There is no spot, wrinkle, or blemish to be found. Only God could make something this gorgeous. Only God. Only God. And there, in the midst of this wonderful place, you see what makes it so splendid... There HE is, walking around in the midst of this Temple, adding living stone upon living stone, precious gem upon precious gem, and what do you hear? Singing? Yes. The Living Stones are crying out in praise. And He is smiling, and ...whistling while He works.

Jesus is building His Church. Then, as quickly as it began, it is over. You open your eyes and find yourself back on earth, having returned to your three dimensional world. It's a sunny day, the birds are singing, the church bells are ringing, and you see men, women, and children walking down the street, carrying their Bibles. You rush out into the road and grab an elderly gentleman. "Where are you going? What's going on? Why are you so dressed up?".

"Get your hands off me, you crazy idiot! It's Sunday morning, and I'm going to church!"

"You've seen the Church??"

"Seen it? Of course I've seen it. My great-great grandfather helped build that church!"

"No, I mean have you SEEN the CHURCH," you repeat emphatically. "The Church that JESUS is building!"

"I don't know what the devil you're talking about, young man. Now let me alone, or I'll be late!"

You let him go and before you know it you are swept along by the crowd and find yourself sitting within the four walls of a building that calls itself "First Hypocritical Church, International." The service is just beginning. The pastor approaches the lectern and announces, "Let us all stand and sing!" Not sure what to do, you join in the chorus: Know ye not, know ye not, ye are the Temple?Know ye not, know ye not, ye are the Temple? Know ye not, know ye not, ye are the Temple? Ye are the Temple of the Holy Ghost!

At the end of the song the pastor appears at the lectern again and matter-of-factly shouts, "Isn't it good to be in the house of God today!" It's more of a statement than a question. And all the people say, "AMEN!" Hope rises! The House of God! Maybe he's seen it too! Forgetting where you are, you stand up and excitedly shout, "Have YOU seen the House of God, brother?"

"Amen!" He replies. "It's good to be in church this morning!"

"Amen!" the people agree.

"No, wait a minute," you interrupt, mouthing the words ever so slowly and deliberately, as if you were talking to a deaf lip reader. "Have you SEEN the CHURCH, brother? The Church that JESUS is building?" All heads are turned now, facing you.

The old man, one of the deacons, whispers, "That's the weirdo I met on the way to church this morning!" The pastor is growing impatient. "This IS the church, brother. Hallelujah!"

"But sir," you press, "KNOW YE NOT YE ARE THE TEMPLE???" The silence is deafening. "You are the Temple. WE are the Temple! Jesus is building His Church! I've seen it! It's a wonderful House of Living Stones, filled with His Life! We are the Church that He is building! We are the Living Stones, the Precious Gems! I saw Jesus, and He was smiling and placing the stones together, and..."

Some teenagers on the back row are giggling.

"I've seen it! It's true! The stones... the jewels... it's gorgeous!"

The people are looking at the pastor to see what he will do. Slowly it dawns on you. You realize that to them you are an alien from another planet trying to communicate something that is so real to you, but it is totally foreign to the rest of the world.

Desperately you grab the man standing next to you by the shoulders, thinking to shake it into him. "You don't believe me... But it's true! You sing about it... but you don't believe it! YOU ARE THE TEMPLE! You have to believe me! I've seen it! Jesus is building His Church!"

The ushers are making their way over to your place in the pew. Sweating and shaking, you look around the sanctuary, wild-eyed. "No, something's wrong here. Everything is different... this isn't the Church! I mean, you're calling it church, but this isn't what I've seen at all. No, the Church is... is... One Flock with One Shepherd, not divided up into denominations and sects! It's a mosaic of people! It's a tapestry of rich colors! It's a medley..." You begin to sob. "Listen to me! Know ye not ye are the Temple?!?"

The congregation is uncomfortable and agitated. The old deacon is ashen-faced, glaring at the pastor to put an end to this. "Friend," the pastor finally manages, "if you'll go with the ushers I'm sure we can better minister to you in private. With every head bowed and every eye closed, why don't we go to the Lord in prayer right now." While every head is bowed and every eye is closed, except the pastor's head and eyes, the ushers quickly hustle you out the back door. The pastor smiles. "and the church said... AMEN. Amen. You may be seated. Well, praise the Lord. Today my message is entitled, 'What It Means To Be A Christian'. Turn in your Bibles to...".

*************If God would grant you a moment by His side and allow you a fleeting glance at His Church you would at once understand what a pitiful substitute we have in Organized Religion. There is no vanity so deep as religious vanity, nothing more sickening and diametrically opposed to the heart and ultimate purpose of God. And we who are in Christ Jesus ARE seated with Him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)

If God is pleased to grant you this vision of His Church then you will come to appreciate it as a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because to see things as He sees them is true Wisdom and Oneness with Him and His people. A curse, because to see things as He sees them will ruin you for life, for you will never again be able to accept the surrogate, the counterfeit, even the good, at the expense of the Holy. His Church, His Treasure, how holy and pure and wonderful and unspeakable it is! Before you would casually call this thing and that thing "church" just like everyone else does and find it socially acceptable, but now your skin will crawl and your stomach will twist in knots when you hear others call some building the "house of God", knowing full well that His House is not this dead thing made with human hands!

The full article can be read at: www.watchman.net/articles/escape.html