The Lord is judging us on how we handle things in His House. He warns that we have allowed decay and demoralization – to the point that His House is on the list for “Sub-Standard Housing”.

The Lord is saying man is choosing to call a building not up to code – CHURCH. The current condition of the church is slated for shut down due to code violations.

¹² And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, ¹³ And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. Mt 21:12-13 (KJV)

The world is supposed to be the stage for the church, but the Body of Christ has allowed some bad actors on the scene.

Jesus gave man the keys to His House while He went on vacation with His Father.

² In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:2-3 (KJV)

He left the refrigerator full of food. Bible God’s Word. O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Psalm 34:8 (KJV)

He left logs for the fireplace. For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24 (KJV)

He left water. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:38 (KJV)

He left us a way to stay cool. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; Acts 3:19 (KJV)

He left us movie passes Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11 (KJV)

The Lord is saying He wants “Old Church” not old-fashioned church.

Old church describes the early church in ACTS 2, where believers had all things in common. Old Church was united in Christ Jesus and on one accord.

Old-Fashion Church rebukes the Lord by saying, “We are going to do things our way.

My momma was a hell raiser in church so I am going to do the same.

Church leaders continue to lead people down wrong paths with unrepentant hearts.

Old – Fashion church craves entertainment instead of worship.

Many congregations believe because they have a debt free building – that the church belongs to the congregation to do as they please.

No man can ever own what belongs to the Master Builder.

The Lord is shutting down Old-Fashion church that operates in hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, and everything but love.

The Messiah is going to judge the current church, just as He did in Judah and Jerusalem.

He is banning His house of covenant breakers – who commit spiritual murder.

The Lord is ridding His house of those who have stained hands with the blood of unsuspecting, blissfully, ignorant people.

People are coming to the House of God looking for the “Real Jesus”. Instead, they are getting actors performing on the world’s stage.

Some church leaders have resorted to giving a washed down, watered down word, that has nothing to do with the Cross of Christ, His death, burial, resurrection, our recovery from sin, and the rewards of eternal life.

The Lord wants us to focus on Eternal Life, saving souls, and to detach ourselves from a temporary home on earth.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. Proverbs 11:30 (KJV)

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Jon 9:4 (KJV)

The world offers a substandard way of life. This is why the Lord is calling us to rebuild His House so we may enjoy the comforts of His love.

Jesus is telling us do not distract truth from His houses – when this happens He does not receive the worship, He craves.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24 (KJV)

The Lord is giving us a beat down through chastisement. He is trying to get us to say, “I ain’t going do it no more.”

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3:19 (KJV)

My mother use to give me whippings in my early childhood. It depended on the severity of my crime how punishment came.

When I did something bad, the whippings turned into beatings.

My mother’s discipline made me feel like I was nailed to a cross. If I ran things would be worse.

In a beat down, the pain was so great I began to say, “I aint’ going to do that no more”. This was a form of repentance.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1Jhn 1:9 (KJV)

The church is in the “Beat down” stages – the Lord is spiritually beating us into His perfect will.

God has given the church opportunity to cough up sin – so we can come out of Satan’s chokehold. Most are refusing.

Sin of man is the headliner for news ALL OVER THE WORLD.

We know what everybody is doing because the Lord is exposing deeds of darkness.

People suffering from traumatic weather conditions are screaming louder than ever before.

Every place in the world is reporting unusual climate conditions.

Climate change is the Lord’s way of being a Meteorologist – determining which way fire burns –, which way floodwaters flow – and how the wind shall blow.

God does not predict whether He controls the element.

¹ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. ² Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. ³ There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. ⁴ Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, ⁵ Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. ⁶ His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Psalm 19:1-6 (KJV)

The church has chosen to delay rebuilding God’s house – Therefore, He is asking us to consider our ways.

The Lord is tearing down glass houses, our padded dwelling places.

Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Haggai 1:4 (KJV)

People of God have gotten so comfortable with their house and forgotten the Lord’s house lies in ruin.

⁵ Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? ⁶ Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? ⁷

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? ⁸ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. ⁹ Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

 ¹⁰ And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: ¹¹ And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. ¹² And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isiah 58:5-12 (KJV)

Jesus is letting the world see what it looks like to have a house out of order.

Storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, and the like are totally destroying homes and disrupting lives.

Haggai warned people of his day how conditions looked when they refused to rebuild His house. Today we are receiving the same reminder.

³ Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, ⁴ Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? ⁵ Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. ⁶ Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. ⁷ Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Haggai 1:3-7 (KJV)

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7 (KJV)

America is reaping what she has sown – this country starting out building a foundation for God’s truths. Along the way, America became greedy and forgot about God’s vision.

³⁴ O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. ³⁵ A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. ³⁶ But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. ³⁷ For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Matthew 12:34-37 (KJV)

America has fallen to the slums of sin. Politicians and governments are doing everything to hold onto America – using carnal weapons.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)  

America does not NOW AND NEVER WILL own America. This country belongs to God.

¹ A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. ² For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Psalm 24:1-2 (KJV)

The Lord is urging the church to rebuild spiritually. Haggai (Chapter 1) encourages the builders to renew courage in the Lord, renew holiness, renew faith, and trust.

Although Haggai is considered a Minor Prophet, his messages stirred up people to rebuild the temple in which the Messiah shall come.

Haggai’s words are stirring us up to today to consider our ways of doing things.

The Lord is trying to show us that we are not going to have anything to put back together (rebuilding man’s house) – if we do not rebuild His House.

Devastations will continue happening if the, church does not repent, and get back to first love status with the Lord. If God sacrificed Jesus – then what about us?

King Cyrus of Persia, allowed the Jews an Exodus from Babylonian captivity so they could return to their homeland for the purpose of rebuild the temple.

However, they had interference and opposition from the Samaritans, which delayed building.

Sin is interfering with what the Lord has chosen for His house. Nonetheless, we have a commission to finish the work we have started.

These are the building blocks for rebuilding the Lord’s house:

¹ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 ⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, ⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; ⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; ⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. ⁸ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 1Corinthians 13:1-8 (KJV)

The Lord is asking us to consider our ways and put the focus back where it should be on His house.

¹ In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, ² Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.

³ Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, ⁴ Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? ⁵ Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. ⁶ Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

 ⁷ Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. ⁸ Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. ⁹ Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

 ¹⁰ Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. ¹¹ And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

 ¹² Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD. ¹³ Then spake Haggai the LORD’S messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.

¹⁴ And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, ¹⁵ In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Haggai 1:1-15 (KJV)