The second message from the Throne of God is the message of overcoming, of the victorious Christian life. It requires that we, under the specific guidance of the Holy Spirit, forsake our comfortable security in the world and set ourselves to endure the rigors and dangers of building the Kingdom of God.

To those whose spirit God "raises" for the accomplishing of the building of the Body of Christ there is no spiritual rest, no satisfaction in the Christian life, until they turn away from the world and begin to seek the Lord.

God is creating an intense hunger for righteousness in the hearts of His saints. No longer can they be satisfied with a routine church life that up to this point may have been adequate and enjoyable. There is a fervent, undeniable hunger and thirst within them for a deeper experience with the Lord.

God is calling out His saints from the lukewarm churches. He has assigned them the work of building the Body of Christ into maturity in righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

The believers who are seeking the Lord, who are pressing forward in the Spirit of God, are not content to live in the flesh and the world. They pray and cry and seek until they find themselves in the center of God's will. They are hungry for more of Christ and that hunger cannot be satisfied until the strong meat of the Word is being fed to them.

The Jews who worked in the restoration are mentioned by families, in the Book of Ezra. People and their families are important to God. The Divine restoration is a personal move of the Lord.

The first action of the returning Jews was the offering of sacrifices on the Altar of Burnt Offering. The central message of the Kingdom of God is Christ on the cross of Calvary. When the cross is not seen and felt in our lives, we are not moving in the center of the work of the Kingdom.

Also, each of us must be taking up his own cross and following the Master every day. The only true Christian ministry is that which flows from the cross. When the minister is not crucified, is not dead to self-centeredness, it is personal ambition and not the Spirit of God that is working in his ministry.

The first strategy of the enemy was to attempt to join Israel and help with the building of the Temple of God. The Jewish elders promptly rejected such assistance. The world has no place in the things of Christ. The Church is not a social institution, it is the prophet of God among men. As such, the suggestions and influence of people who are not of God can only destroy all that the Spirit is building.

This does not mean God will not use unsaved people to help His saints on occasion. God does use unsaved people to help us just as He used the raven (an unclean bird) to feed Elijah. But such assistance is totally different from the instance where a church is compromising with the world in order to gain status and wealth and acceptance by the surrounding community.

To be continued.