Temple Builders Ministry
Articles are "excerpts" from our book called "Temple Builders" written by John Lucas
Temple Building
1 Cor 3:12
Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
Now we
continue with the analogy in Corinthians. We have been given two sets of three
building materials. The first three are gold, silver and precious stones and the
second set given to us are wood, hay and stubble.
Gold, silver and
precious stones are materials used in building Solomon's temple.
IKing 6:21-22
And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold.
Gold
represents Deity and Divine Nature. You are but a stone, but God ANOINTS YOU
WITH HIS OWN NATURE! Stone is overlaid with Gold in the temple to symbolize, you
clothed with the nature of Jesus.
2 Cor 5:1-4
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Using
Gold as a temple building material is teaching the Word with life, totally
dependent on God and BEING the very message you are preaching, this is what
causes us to be “clothed upon” with the “house from heaven”.
We shall be clothed with the gold of His Glory and we shall not be
“found naked”. It is the word
spoken on God’s authority and not tainted by the soulish nature of man.
Observe what Paul says about the ministry that used gold as a building
material.
2 Cor 2:17-3:2
For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as
of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others,
epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
Ye are our epistle written in our
hearts, known and read of all men:
This
message that I am ministering to you right now is of nothing, unless first I
speak in Christ, and then you receive it and become this message of Christ that
I am teaching, to be read of all man. I
can preach for growth and produce a people that never grow, but Paul's ministry
produced a people that became the very message of Christ that he preached.
Many preach from “where they are”, that is they preach from an
immature place of struggle that God honors because He is after the hearts of His
people. However God has a more
excellent way, a way of obedience that preaches from “what you are”, that is
from a life completely dealt with by God in maturity that penetrates the hearts
of God’s people for eternal change. Paul
did not need a piece of paper that said “Paul is a man of God, an Apostle”.
Paul instead said that the people who were saved, changed and bore fruit
was the only recommendation he needed. Paul’s
ministry produced a people that laid down their lives for Jesus Christ.
This should be convicting for every minister, I know it convicts me of
how I must allow God’s grace to work through me - to others, in labors
abundantly.
2 Cor 3:3-6
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
If one
ministers based on his ability to stir the hearer or generate response from the
crowd, then he has become self-sufficient and taken thought of himself. How
often one can witness this very thing in the church. How often have you seen
Paul's attitude? Only God makes any of us ABLE ministers of the Spirit. The
letter killeth!
The
“letter” is building or ministering with wood or anything other then total
sufficiency of the Spirit that giveth life.
There are many that preach Christian activities and Christian duty; the
end result is often times the letter of Christian doctrine instead of the Truth
of Christian doctrine that sets free. For
instance you can listen to a nice message about breaking habits and in your
natural strength you attempt to heed this word but what you found instead was
death. Even if you were successful
in the breaking of that habit you still experienced a bondage that separated you
from a trusting relationship with Jesus.
The world can break habits, but Jesus sets the captives free that we may
experience intimacy with Him. It is
so easy to turn a intending good Christian activity into law that produces
bondage. Be led of the Spirit in
all that you do and in all that you say and the result will be, that which
pleases God. I am NOT SAYING “you
do not have to put away sin”, I am saying … do not put it away apart from
the grace that God gives. What is God saying to you NOW?
That is what He will give grace to perform in you NOW!
You can preach the message of "how to be born again" to the woman at the well and deliver the message of "living water" to Nicodemus. Both were messages of Jesus, but Jesus delivered the message at the ordained time based on relationship with the father. He delivered the word of "living water" to the woman at the well and "how to be born again" to Nicodemus.
Jesus said that He spoke only as He heard the Father.
John 7:16-18
Jesus therefore answered them, and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or {whether} I speak from Myself. "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
This is
the ministry that gets its Word from the tree of Life in the garden instead of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of Life does not boast of
knowledge, which becomes proud. The tree of Life type of ministry gets it
knowledge through the relationship of walking in the garden with God.
Gen 2:9
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The body
of Christ, the temple of God, will always have two trees set before them. Life
or death, spiritual or natural, TWO HOUSES. Both will use scripture. When you
choose the tree of knowledge of good and evil you will then know scripture apart
from God, and when you teach your message, you will then separate your hearers
from God. It is making yourself god of the word. It is making yourself god of
the messages you teach. Maybe you say "But it is my favorite subject"
or "It is the message I always teach".
But when you teach from what you ate from the tree of Life you can agree
with the scripture: "take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer,
or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what
ye ought to say." What then
are we saying through all of this? We
are simply speaking of a life that is Spirit led in all we do and say, it is
simply a relationship to God whereby we ask Him, we check with Him FIRST.
It is then that He will bid us to do His will. He will pick the place, He will pick the message and He will
give ability to speak it. Our part
is to “seek His Glory”, the Glory of the One Who sent us.
This is
another place where hearing God is important.
A walk in God’s garden is two-way communication.
How do we know what to teach if we are not listening?
How do we know where to go if we are deaf to what heaven is saying?
Many Christians must learn God’s voice.
How do we hear? The sheep
know the voice of the shepherd because they spend time with him.
In prayer, in Worship, in the Word – day and night.
The
second stumbling block will be the devil coming to you and convincing you that
“you can’t hear God” when in reality you are already hearing God – you
just don’t realize it. As long as
you are a sheep spending time with God, know this, He is speaking!
Do not let the devil convince you that “it was a coincidence”.
Do not let the devil convince you that “you just happen” to be in the
right place at the right time. The
thought that brought you there was God. The
desire that brought you there was God. Learn
to recognize those thoughts that sound so much like us – ARE HIM.
Learn to recognize those desires in your heart are God speaking to you
from His throne. Learn to recognize
those slight impressions are God’s way of leading and not pushing His sheep.
IKing 7:51
So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the LORD. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the LORD.
The
Silver of the Temple is stored up and it also overlaid the stones! Silver means
redemption in the Bible. Silver vessels were stored in the house of God to
symbolize a tremendous building material - A vessel of honor to be used of the
Master to minister redemption in this "ministry of reconciliation"
entrusted to them. Some will not receive it, even as Judas threw down 30 pieces
of silver in the temple and went and hanged himself. There will be Judases that
will rather suffer the judgment. Silver
in IKings 10:27 is typified as stones which are used for building. Silver is
refined and purified, speaking of how we should preach the unadulterated Word of
God.
Ps 12:6
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
The three Hebrews TRUSTED in purity - in the fire that was heated seven times hotter.
Silver as
temple building material is the purity of the gospel without spot or blemish.
The character of a man that does not habitually live in love will taint the
gospel of our Lord. A man’s
opinion of what a scripture means or what he was always taught will mar the
gospel of Jesus. Purity is found
broken before the Lord with a soul that has been dealt with by God. It is a man
who can come to the Laver found in the temple and seeing his reflection will
discern what manner of man he is. Then by the water of the word, he will apply
it to those areas that are unlike Jesus and thereby makes himself a true priest,
who can come boldly to the throne of grace to minister unto the Lord and then
unto His people.
Many
times when we come to God we are soiled. What
is it that soils us? Maybe an
activity that does not please God – an activity that He does not put His stamp
of approval on. Many times we feel
soiled because the words we spoke forth were not spoken in Christ.
Walking in the Light habitually should be our hope so that we may avoid
this soiled condition when we approach God in His Holiness.
2 Cor 7:1
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
We must
become a Holy people. Holiness and
maturity go hand and hand, one does not happen without the other.
As this verse says, we must “perfect holiness in the fear of God”.
Not much fear of God, not much holiness will come forth. In 1983, we had a guest speaker at our church named Joy
Dawson. She walked in the fear of
God as I had never seen demonstrated. She
told of a story where she had made
a remark to someone and she had unknowingly “slighted the truth” somewhat.
By all Christian ethics it would have been so slight as to have never
noticed, but for Joy Dawson who walked in the fear of God it brought her to her
knees. She wept for what would be a
slight error in our walk, yet for one
who has matured in God’s holiness it brought great eruption.
She grieved even as the Spirit in her grieved, for our words must become
as true as Him Who is Truth. This
is the spiritual reaction of one who walks in the fear of God, to not offend the
Holy Spirit of God. In many of our
cases we should not be weeping, we should be wailing for our sins that have
grieved God. As David said in Psalm
51 – “Against you, you only Lord have I sinned”.
We will build with silver even as we FEAR GOD.
Hag 2:7-9
And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.
Send comments to John R. Lucas -
For offerings:
423 Mondra Ct.
Lakeland, Fl 33809
For booking information:
(941) 853-1816 Eastern Standard Time
Temple Building | Articles | Prophecies | Christian Sites | Maps of Israel | Download Book | | Barry Taylor | Temple Builders Ministry
Temple Builders 3rd Day Network Main PageThis site was donated by iThink, Inc.
Internet Provider in Winter Haven, Fl.
This site does not charge any fees to the ministries that are hosted here.
Designed for Internet Explorer 4.0 Browsers, Java Support and Real Audio & Real Video enhanced.
Last update of this menu was 12/20/03 09:33:34 AM
©1999 Temple Builders Ministry All rights reserved. Terms of Use.