LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Preparing the Materials
For the construction of the House, the appropriate materials are required.
Roberto Sáez
"And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building." (1 Kings 6:7) (Also 2 Chr. 6:14-19,23 and Matt.18:20).
The revelation of the house of God began in the Old Testament through many occasions in which God showed the true sense of what a habitation for God was like.
Perhaps one of the first revelations is the one given to Jacob, when he fled from his brother. Growing tired on the road, he took a stone and put it under his head, and lay down to sleep. That night Jacob dreamt that there was a ladder that reached up to heaven, and upon that ladder, angels ascended and descended. When he woke up, he: "Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I didn't know it. How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
That prophetic dream was taken up by the Lord Jesus Christ when he told Nathaniel: "Because I said unto thee, I saw thee underneath the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these; Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." The Lord was applying Jacob's dream.
A dreadful place
Later on, the apostle Peter would also take this figure of the stones, and would say that we are the house of God, built with living stones.
I once could understand why Jacob said that that place was dreadful, but now that we have understanding of what the house of God is, we do know why: the house of God is a glorious place, but it is also a dreadful place for the flesh, because the flesh doesn't prevail in the house of God. In the house of God we must die, we must decrease, deny ourselves, so that only Christ is seen. And this aspect is dreadful for us.
I don't know how dreadful experienced you have had, I don't know how much the Lord has dealt with you, I don't know what you have gone through, but I didn't know much about suffering until I came to the house of God, because I began to know myself exactly as others knew me, and then I began to experience God's dealings with me.
The construction of the house of God consists in this: that on the one hand, in order to be able to build, God first has to demolish. He said this through Jeremiah: "Tell the house of Israel that in an instant, if they repent, I will plant and I will build; but if they do not repent, in an instant I will pluck up, I will break down, and I will destroy." Through those words we see that God, on the one hand, demolishes and destroys, and on the other, plants and builds. He cannot build His house through our own nature. Firstly he has to demolish us and then lift up His Son among us.
This is wonderful; it is a process that takes us along our entire pilgrimage as Christians. If the will of God was only to save us, then it would be enough for God to have called us, that we could salvation, and be happy seeing Christ as our Savior, and then later God takes us away to His presence. What reason do we have for continuing to live, if that is all that God wants? If all that God wants is to save, then what do we do in this life?
But if God has another purpose beyond saving, if God has a bigger purpose with us, like building us, making us grow, a development that we might reach maturity, to be transformed into something superior, then He'll have us here the whole time that it is necessary.
Gathering the materials for the house
David had a very strong burden to build a house for the Lord. David was a very beloved man of God, and he chose a providential place to build the house: on mount Moriah. David had been very victorious in his life. But when he began to see that his territory had extended, and that he had great enemies surrounding him, he wanted to know the contingent that he had.
Then he sent for a census to be made. That displeased the heart of God, because until that moment, if David had won a battle, it was always because God was with him. And he never counted up the numbers, because the intelligence, the grace, the power, always came from God.
When David began to see that his people were diminishing - on one day alone seventy thousand men fell -, he went running to mount Moriah, to present a sacrifice. He saw the angel of God in front of Jerusalem ready to continue killing. Then he ran toward the mount with a sacrifice, and said: "God, stop this slaughter. What have the sheep done to deserve this punishment? It is I, Lord." And he humbled himself before God.
And when he saw that the anger was appeased, then he said: "This will be the place where I will build a house for God." Surprisingly, in that same place, Abraham, almost a thousand years earlier, had raised an altar of stones to offer up his son Isaac.
That place had an owner: Ornan the Jebusite. When Ornan saw the feat that David had performed for that sacrifice which he presented in that place, he said: "I will give this land, so that David can fulfill his dream of building a house to God." But David said: "How could I offer a sacrifice to my God that doesn't cost me anything?" Here is the principle of the gift, of giving ourselves to God, because we won't give something that doesn't cost us anything.
So David bought the property from this man. Years later, in the same place, when David knew that he was not the one who would build the house, but rather his son Solomon -David had spilled a lot of blood -, David's attitude was noteworthy. He began to gather the materials for the house. He gathered the stones, stones that were big and heavy, stones with six sides, like a cube. (The stones for the construction have six sides, each one perfectly refined). There in the quarry, the noise of the hammer and chisel was heard; chiseling those stones to give them form, so that one day they would fit in the house of God.
He also gathered gold, ivory, wood from Lebanon, silver, brass; he gathered all the things that would be necessary for the construction of the house of God. There was something beautiful in his heart; a feeling of unworthiness: "I am not worthy of building the house for my God, I am not worthy to be considered to give You anything, because, what will we give you, oh God, if the whole earth is yours, if all the gold is yours, if all that we have belongs to you."
In his heart there was no envy of passing over the whole work to the one who would succeed him. What a wonderful attitude! And yet, he invited and challenged the men, the princes and the noblemen so that all their wealth be put together for the materials of the house of God. And I ask: Who can raise such a degree of obedience that not only the princes and the noblemen brought what they had, but also all the people were moved to collaborate for the construction of the house? How wonderful
The noise of the hammer and of the chisel
The glory of building the house for God corresponded to Solomon. Thus, that house which was a symbol, an external representative of a House which one day would be manifested - that House being us; what we are today. We are Bethany, the meeting of living stones. Stones that were cut out of a quarry, stones that were extracted from one place and brought to this place, so that the hammer and the chisel of God can begin to form them.
The pattern is Christ, and we are being conformed to His image and His likeness. We are living a transformation process; we are being modeled by the tools that are in God's hand. The building corresponds to Him and the Holy Spirit. Only He is doing this work, He is working for us; we have not come to work for him, it is Him who is working in us. He is the one that is forming us according to His will. Blessed is the Lord!
While we are here, we will hear the noise of the hammer and of the chisel. Although the noise is synonymous of destruction, and these blows seem to announce that our life is going to be destroyed, that our house is being demolished - that house being me, that house is my family.
When the noise of the chisel comes, it is the cross that comes to deal with us, to operate in us. It is this internal work of God that comes to demolish that which is deformed. And God will use men, and will use the circumstances of life to deal with us. So we will be chiseled by God, by men and by circumstances in order to be built up. Blessed be the name of our God!
Circumstances are things that God allows for our formation. The apostle Paul speaks to us a great deal about that: learning how to live victoriously over and above the circumstances; He teaches us to live happily in any situation.
But men are also used. There is a psalm that touches my heart quite deeply, Psalm 66:12: "Thou didst cause men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." For that reason men are riding on your head today. It may be our relatives. It may be some brother. It may be your mother-in-law or father-in-law. It may be your husband or wife. "Thou didst cause men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water...."
From dust to stones; from stones to beautiful stones
Curiously enough, we come from the dust of the earth. The day that we met with our Savior and when He called us, our name was changed; or rather, our nature was changed. Just as Peter was Simon son of Jonah. To be a son of Jonah was to be a son of a John, a common man. Peter was a common man who came from the dust of the earth just like anyone of us. But the Lord said: "you will no longer be called Simon son of Jonah; from now on you will be called Cephas (which means stone)."
Now, change your name, and allow the Lord to call you 'Cephas'. We are all Cephas. We are all stones. We will be transformed from common men, to living stones, to conform the house of God. But the curious thing is that these stones will one day configure the Heavenly Jerusalem, and the Heavenly Jerusalem is built with beautiful stones; not only with stones, but with beautiful stones. This Cephas which is a stone, in the Heavenly Jerusalem is a column, and is nothing less than a diamond in the house of God.
Diamonds are the most beautiful stones that exist, and the curious thing is that a man like Peter -although he had a rude and violent character, yet was also feeble and weak - ended up being a diamond in the house of God. And that is where we are going, to be diamonds in the New Jerusalem. And nobody will ever ride upon our heads, because the noise of the hammer and of the chisel is only heard here. In the Heavenly Jerusalem there won't be any more crying, nor will there be any more pain, never again will there be suffering.
When I look at Peter's life I see myself in a mirror. I am so similar to Peter. I don't know if you can say the same thing. When I look at Peter, I also see Jacob in him. And Jacob, as we know, is the prototype of an astute man who manipulates in order to get ahead. We find that the Bible uses this language: "House of Israel, house of Jacob, house of Levi." In the Scripture, 'house ' doesn't refer so much to the material building, but to the 'family'. And when one looks at Jacob's family; the children that he had, we can see Jacob's characteristics in each one of them. In Genesis 49 you can see some of these characteristics of his children. If you want to know the violence that was in Jacob, you only have to look at his children.
And just think, this Jacob is also considered in the Heavenly Jerusalem, because the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles will be the foundations of the Heavenly city. And when I think of the defects of these men, it fills me with hope. When I think of the type of children that Jacob had, it fills me with hope, and I can say that everything is for our good.
What can we say of Peter, that impetuous Peter, that hasty Peter, that Peter who made errors every time and who had so many imperfections? He was being transformed day by day by the Spirit of the Lord, modeled to Christ's image.
We know that diamonds are formed in immense temperatures. Under our feet, in the heart of the earth there is a broth of minerals which are boiling at 5000 degrees centigrade. This hot broth sometimes comes up out of volcanoes, and igneous rocks are geologically formed. Upon the contact with the cold temperature, they become hardened, such to the extent that they become the hardest rocks that exist in the earth. But there is another type of rock that suffers a metamorphosis. These are the rocks that become diamonds.
When these minerals come out from the inner part of the earth, and are placed in contact with ice, with winds, and with cold temperatures, the temperature rises from 5.000 to 100.000 degrees.
Then comes the humidity, then the cold, and this material is what is transformed into these beautiful stones. In the Bible twelve appear, and they are those that the priest placed in his bosom. Why did he place those stones there? Because Israel was to be transformed into those stones. Blessed is the Lord!
Thus, upon knowing that the beautiful stones are not something that existed from a beginning, but rather in a certain moment they were transformed, when applying the factors of temperature, and of humidity and of cold, then we know that it is good that the Lord makes us go through fire and through water.
Let us not think it strange when we are going through fire or water, because it says: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." The Lord will allow the flames, and will allow the fire, and will allow the chariots to pass over you, and that the noise of the chisel and hammer be heard. With what objective? Does God only want to make us suffer for sufferings sake, or does He have a higher purpose? Truly, he has a sublime objective with us, and that is that Christ be formed. And remember that with a higher temperature, the stone will be even more beautiful: while there is more suffering and more testing, we will be more like Christ. We will be transformed from glory to glory.
We are in the house of God, brothers. From our weakness, from this clay, from these stones that we once were, we are being transformed until we become a diamond in the house of God. The diamond is a transparent stone that, when light is applied to it, it gleams and a rainbow appears. Blessed is the Lord! What glory awaits us!
The grazing of the stones
We are in the house of God. There is something paradoxical happening. There is a demolition, and a construction happening at the same time here. Something is wearing out, something is falling, something is crumbling. But at the same time something is arising, something is being lifted up. Blessed is the Lord!
There is a time for casting down stones, there is time to pick them up. This is a day of restoration; it time to gather the stones in the house of God, to be edified.
Brother, God has chosen you. He wants to smash what has to be smashed, he has to take out what has to come out. God has to transform or to change what has to be changed. In the house of God we are formed, in the life of the church, in grazing the stones against one another, we being perfected.
There are many things that have to be corrected, but, who will the Lord use for our correction? Who will God speak to me through? We said that He himself will do it. He will use men, and will also use circumstances. And as we think of this, we know that God is doing His work. He put a great and surpassing power in us, a great power, which in each one of us is able to transform death into life. It is the power of His Spirit that is operating from within to transform us.
But He is also using men; not only the church, also men from outside. He is using brothers. It often seems as if time passes in the church, years go by, and changes cannot be seen.
I would like to offer some advice: In the house of God we need to be corrected; we need to assume a solemn commitment so that any brother, in any moment, be it opportune or inopportune, be it the appropriate person or not, be it an older brother or a younger brother, be it whoever God wants to use for my correction, I want to listen to it.
Because it is bad for us not to be told what we are really like. Because in an incomprehensible and mysterious way, I don't know exactly what I am like; but others do know me just as I am. And God reserved this wisdom for His church, so that in the house of God we correct each other, we bear with one another. Blessed is the Lord! Amen.