In this message we come to the matter of the site of God's building. Everyone in the Lord's recovery needs to be very clear about this. The first thing the builder of a house must take care of is the site on which he will build. If he builds the house on the wrong site, that house will belong to the one who owns the lot. Hence, the site, or the ground, is crucial. If the ground is wrong, there will be a problem, even though the house may be built perfectly. Therefore, we all must know what is the site of God's building in His recovery.
Today we are surrounded by divisions. In the past, many of us have traveled from site to site, from division to division. In the early years of my Christian life, I traveled to three sites or grounds. I know some who have visited a number of sites during the period of a year. First they were with the Episcopalians, then with the Lutherans, and after that with the Methodists. After staying with the Methodists a short time, they visited the Assembly of God and remained there for a while. Following this, they contacted a number of independent groups. Perhaps this is the history of your Christian life. Are you still traveling in this way? Traveling is the positive word; wandering is the negative one. The reason you were traveling, or wandering, so much in the past was that you did not know what the proper ground was. You were trying to live the Christian life, but you did not know where to live it.
In 1960 I gave a series of messages in New York on the ground of the church. After one of the meetings, the leading ones expressed their appreciation and told me that I had rendered them a great help. Seizing the opportunity to strengthen them and to further impress them, I said, "Brothers, you have visited a certain spiritual place where people constantly talk about the Body and about the principle of the Body. You were told that we Christians should not be individualistic, but should be built up. However, those in that place did not tell you where to be built up. They talked about the building, yet said not a word concerning the site, the ground, of the building. Tonight we in New York are all happy with one another. But perhaps after a few months some of you will no longer be happy with the rest of us. Because you are unhappy, you may look for some place where you can be happy. You may go there, stay for a while, and then look for still another place. If you do this, you will repeat your history."
No matter how spiritual we are, we cannot be built up with others if we are not on the proper ground. Before we can be built up, we need to be certain concerning the site on which we intend to build. For example, before building a meeting hall, you need to have the proper site. It is impossible to build a hall without a site, for a hall cannot be suspended in the air. Many Christians today talk about the church and the Body, yet they have not seen the proper ground of the church. Because they lack the proper ground, the result is that they build up something one day and tear it down the next. Actually, they have not built up anything, because they do not have the proper ground. The only thing that can keep us steady is the unique ground.