Built to Be the House of the Holy Spirit and Chosen to Be a Holy Minister

1 Peter 2:1-10

Click here for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

We Are Being Built to Be a Spiritual House.

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes,
desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 2:1-10

The first thing that is done before putting together a puzzle is to clean off a space so that all the pieces lay flat. We remove whatever clutter that is laying on the space where the puzzle is to be built. When our body is being built to house the Holy Spirit, we do the same thing by cleansing our insides of things that complicate the building process. We want to strip away malice, deceitfulness, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking.

Preparing room for the Holy Spirit would definitely include rejecting the thing that has power over physiology and pollutes our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and what we say. It enables the image of the beast to live and speak through a person. It makes war with a person who is dedicating themselves as the building of the Holy Spirit. It wants to sit in the temple of God, our body, as if it were God, “…it opposes and exalts itself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that it sits as God in the temple of God, showing itself that it is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 As it lives and speaks through a person, they are conformed to their place in life by what they say and do. They are conformed to their mark in life as they are groomed to the mark of the beast.

What we want to include in the building (our body as the temple of the Holy Spirit) is the Holy Scriptures, which enables us to discern thoughts, feelings, and emotions. We want to be like a newborn baby who craves milk, which is the milk of the Word of God, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:11-12

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are a building stone, similar to the same way that Peter was, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18 As I read this portion of 1 Peter, I am being built up as the Church of the Holy Spirit, so Peter is indeed a rock on which the Church is being built. As we share the testimony of Jesus Christ, like Peter is doing, we are a stone on which a Church is being built, “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Although we are a stone for building the Church, Jesus Christ is the chief building stone. Everything that we share about the Bible has to be based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which could be summarized like this, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 Jesus Christ was rejected by the people of this world, but He is precious to God. The people in this Christless world rejects us also because of the testimony of Jesus, but we are precious to God.

 Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone.

The white bottom block in the above picture is a chief cornerstone. During the times of Jesus Christ, a large building block of stone is laid on a foundation before anything else is built. That is the chief cornerstone. Its purpose is to square the whole building perfectly with the angles of the chief cornerstone. Without the chief cornerstone being in place, the walls would be skewed, the floors off angle, the roof would not be fitted properly, the doors not placed correctly etc.

“Therefore, it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone, and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

1 Peter 2:6-8

Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone by which our body, the building of the Holy Spirit is built. God chose Jesus for that very purpose and whoever believes in Him are not put to shame. For the Believers, He is precious because we square all of our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and words by Him. But to those who are Christless, their internal life is not squaring to a house fit for the Holy Spirit, they are making their body the seat of government for the blasphemous thing which forms what they think, feel, do, and speak.

The world shows that things are not squaring or clicking together for them as the masses in cities around the world are experiencing violence, severe substance abuse is everywhere, not to mention environmental problems such as global warming. The present system of this world is like a house that is destined to collapse because it is not squared properly. When the chief cornerstone is laid in a corner of this world’s foundations, we see that the walls, doors, roof, nor anything else is properly fit.

Without Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone, those of this world are boasting about the global “democracy” that they are building, but it collapses in the global tribulation. Jesus Christ will return as the Lord of lords and King of kings, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.” The teachings of Jesus Christ are offensive to today’s world, and they stumble over Christianity as they pass their Christless laws in the name of human dignity, human respect, esteem, love, support, democracy, and humanitarian compassion. To them Christ has become “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

We are a Chosen Priesthood to Glorify the Name of Jesus Christ.

“They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

1 Peter 2:9-10

By being disobedient to the Word of God, those who govern by the thing which is able to form thoughts, feelings, and behaviors stumble in trying to build a global “democracy.” God has called every person on earth to conform to His Word through Jesus Christ, including the Jewish people, but “They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.”

Everyone who allows their body to be assembled as the seat of government for the thing which forms thoughts and feelings and enables the image of the beast to live and speak through them, are contributing to the global chaos. As followers of Christ, we are to reject its manipulation over our mind and heart. Its Christless ways are offensive to the Holy Spirit who is the only One who can contain lawlessness, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8

As followers of Jesus Christ, we welcome the Holy Spirit, and we want our body to be built on Jesus to be the house of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in us glorifies the name of Jesus and yearns to spread the message of the Cross. “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Through Christ, we are set apart from the masses within the “democratic” society of the beast to be a peculiar and special person to Him. All of us Believers have had to come to God through Jesus Christ, and we have obtained grace and mercy for the forgiveness of sin and to inherit eternal life.

---

“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11