GOD DWELLS IN PEOPLE NOT IN BUILDINGS.
One example of believers trying to live under the provisions of the Old Covenant is believers calling the church building the “house of God.”Most church dedication services I’ve ever attended were centered around the idea that the building they
were dedicating was the house of God. The ministers usually read about the dedication of Solomon’s Temple in the Old Testament; however, this leaves the impression that the church building is a house of God just as
Solomon’s Temple was a house of God. But nothing could be further from the truth!
Under the New Covenant God dwells in people—not buildings.
If people aren’t careful, they will put too much significance on a place—on buildings and on other material things.
For example, I know of a beautiful church in one state, and chiseled across the front of the building at the top, is a scripture from the Old Testament about the church being a temple of God. I get provoked every time I drive by that church. I think, Dear God, they’ve got a lie right on the front of the church building, and people go there and think it’s a holy place.
If we say any church building is the house of God in the sense that God dwells there, we’re wrong. In the New Testament, God does not dwell in any buildings made with human hands.
On the other hand, if we mean that a church building is the house of God because it is dedicated to the Lord and used for worship, that’s all right. But you must be careful that you don’t get out of line with the Word of God in this area because it is so easy to become taken up with material things in the sense realm—the natural realm which you can see—and miss the spiritual reality.
I was holding a meeting in Texas in 1951. After the meeting was over, I went down to east Texas to preach. Aman came up to me and said, “I hear you just left such and such a place.” And I answered, “Yes.”
He said, “What kind of church does the pastor have there?”
I asked, “What do you mean?”
He said, “How many does he run in Sunday school?” So I told him.
Then he said, “What kind of a revival did you have?”
I said, “Well, the old-timers said it was the best revival they’d ever had. (The church had been in existence for more than forty years.) They said it was the greatest revival in the history of the church.”
“How did your crowds run?” the man asked.
I said, “We filled the building up and had to borrow one hundred folding chairs from one of the local business places. We set the chairs down in the aisles and then we
moved the altar bench out and used that space to seat people.”
He said, “You moved the altar out?”
“Yes,” I said, “we took the altar bench out.”
“Well,” the man said, “I thought you got people saved.”
I said, “Yes, there were about one hundred people who responded to the call for salvation.”
He said, “How in the world did you ever get anyone saved without an altar bench?”
“Well,” I said, “I never heard of an altar bench saving anyone yet! I thought Jesus was the One who saves, not the altar bench!”
There is nothing holy about a piece of furniture. You can make an altar anywhere, isn’t that true? I know of people who got saved out in the cotton fields picking
cotton. They got saved going down those rows of cotton dragging a cotton sack! They made an “altar” out there on their knees between those rows. I also know of folks
who have been saved and who have received the Holy Ghost out behind a barn.
Certainly, people should be taught to be reverent to God while a service is going on or while the Spirit of God is manifesting Himself to minister to people. But if we are not careful, we can attach too much significance to natural places and things and miss the Person of Jesus, whom we are actually worshipping. And we can miss the reality of our own bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Document by James Akudugu