The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of life and building. In these chapters we have been considering life and building in the Song of Songs. We are not for the study of a book. We are for God’s goal and purpose which is life and building. In other Christian writings, it is difficult to find one book that puts these two words together. Have you ever read such a term, “life and building”? We may have heard the word “life” in Christianity, but we have rarely heard the word “building.” And we have never heard these two words together, “life and building.” Yet the central point of the Lord’s recovery is life and building.
Satan is so subtle. He has distracted nearly all of the Lord’s children from God’s purpose through many good, scriptural, and spiritual things. Although there is nothing wrong with prophecy, many have been distracted by it. Others have been distracted by many other good subjects. The Bible is an all-inclusive book. Many things are in the Bible, but they are not the main goal of the Bible. The main goal of the Bible is life and building. Nearly all of the sound, scriptural subjects have been utilized by the enemy to distract the Lord’s children from life and building. Satan is happy if we spend all our time on so many scriptural things, as long as we do not see the building. As long as we do not care for the building, and as long as God’s eternal goal cannot be accomplished, Satan would be happy.
Many good teachings which on the one hand are helpful, on the other hand are distracting. Good, spiritual, and scriptural helps can become a frustration to us. Any point of spirituality can become our distraction. As long as we are content with what we have, we are frustrated and distracted. It may be something genuinely of God, yet it becomes a distraction from God’s goal and purpose.
Many of us realize that the Catholic Church is quite devilish and even demonic. But we must admit that thousands of heathen have been brought to the Lord by the Catholic Church. Many devoted people are Catholics, spending all their time in prayer. But, though many have received help from the Catholic Church, they have been fully distracted from God’s eternal purpose. Not one of them cares for God’s eternal purpose. All have been distracted and frustrated.
Other Christians are also distracted by desiring to be spiritual, powerful, holy, and many other things. No doubt these are all good, but they are not God’s purpose. God’s purpose is not in our being powerful, holy, or spiritual. These very things have distracted many Christians from the central point of God’s purpose.
The central point of God’s purpose is that you and I were predestined to be stones for His building. God has no intention that we be merely spiritual. God’s intention is that we be stones for building. We are not to be stones for any kind of exhibition, but for God’s building.
Christians today talk much about the four Gospels. They admire the miracles done by the Lord and all His teachings, but not many have ever noticed this verse in John’s Gospel: “And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone” (John 1:42). When Andrew brought his brother Simon to the Lord, the Lord changed his name to Cephas, which simply means a stone. The first day he met the Lord Jesus, the Lord indicated that his destiny was to be a stone. He did not say that Simon’s destiny was to be anything else. The Lord’s intention was not merely to save Peter, but to make him a stone.
Two or three years later, the Lord reminded Peter again about his being a stone for His building. In Matthew 16:18, after Peter said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.” Based on the revelation of John 1:42, the Lord’s word in Matthew 16 should be translated in this way: “And I say also unto thee, That thou art a stone, and upon this rock I will build my church.” When the Lord used the word “Peter,” He meant a stone. Peter recognized Him as the Son of the living God, and then the Lord reminded him that he was a stone for the building up of His church.
It is clear that Peter knew what the Lord meant, for later in his own writing, he wrote to the believers, “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). We all have been predestined to be stones. Our destiny is to be living stones built up as the spiritual house of God. We must realize that this is not someone’s opinion or concept, but the central point in the Word of God.
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