OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS LIKE FILTHY RAGS

"The day of denominationalism is over. That which is highly esteemed in the sight of (religious) men is an abomination to God."

One night in 1980 I had this desire burning in me to stay up late to read the scriptures. As I was reading, it was like the Holy Spirit took over and suddenly I found myself opening the scriptures randomly and my eyes focused in the dim light of the oil lamp on the words, "To the Church at _____ (a locality)" then just as quickly I found myself opening the scriptures to yet another passage with the same words.... Over and over and over again until I had opened to every passage in the new testament with those words. I could not have possibly done so in the natural.

While this was going on the thought was burning inside me, "Lord, what does this mean?" "What are you saying?"

A Dream/Vision I also had In 1980...

In this dream/vision I was suddenly caught up very high in the air overlooking what appeared to be a subdivision of houses. The houses were all basically the same and were on both sides of a straight road. There were many, many of them. All of them had driveways that led to the road but I couldn't see where that road went to. Being a builder, I was somewhat impressed with all this.

I found myself observing this scene from high above for a time then just as suddenly as I had been caught up in the air, I found myself inside another huge house in the midst of a large crowd of believers worshiping God. I didn't recognize any of them but we were all caught up in the presence of God so much so that it was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I had been ushered into the presence of God many times before this in gatherings of believers but nothing anywhere near like this.

The presence of the Jesus was so powerful, so real, so permeating that if anyone had a question in their heart towards Him about something while they were worshiping , the answer was instantly revealed. As I looked around in awe at all this, a question came into my heart. "Where did all these people come from?" Instantly the words came into my mind,

"These are the ones that have come out of the houses you saw." (in the subdivision) [Note: I much later realized that this coming out was in our hearts]

I looked around in awe at the multitudes that were gathered in the presence of Jesus. He was there in the midst of it all. The gathering went as far as I could see. The house was like no house I had ever seen. God was the foundation and the floor. He was the very roof of the building. It was expandable for as many who would come to gather in His presence because the building had no walls. The foundation was laid on the earth but the roof was suspended from above so it didn't need any walls to hold it up. It was built by God and held together by Him and it was filled with the Glory of God Himself.

Then as quickly as I had been caught up, I was back from where I had been before the dream/vision.

The houses of men are built for the pride of men but the House of God in Jesus the Messiah is built for the glory of God Himself. There are no walls in His house. There is only the glory of God that fills those that believe from every nation on earth.

Is it possible that everything we are so proud of about "where we gather" and "who we gather with" named or unamed, that very thing to God is an abomination?

Even the Roman soldiers, when Christ was being crucified did not take a meat cleaver and chop HIS Body into pieces yet we think nothing of doing so ourselves.

Before this, I used to think that "ecuminical unity" was the unity that God desired but ecuminical unity is the upholding of the concept of the "subdivision." God's unity of the Holy Spirit is given to all believers in our hearts. The two are diametrically opposed to each other. In the one we endevour to create a unity but in the other the unity IS and we are commanded to maintain it.