"When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory" (Psalms 102:16). We are being built up in Christ in order that we may be able to receive the love with which the Father loves the Son, and may be able to receive the fullness of Christ. The ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as our environment and circumstances, are all working together to bring us into the likeness of the image of Christ.

As soon as our change has been completed, He will appear on the Mount of Olives. We shall appear with Him in Glory and the world will be convinced that Christ was sent from the God of the universe, and that God loves the Church with the same love with which He loves His Son.

We must be made ready, in the meantime, and learn the lessons to be gained from each circumstance in which God places us. People are changed into the image of Christ in the situation where they are, just as the blocks of Solomon's Temple were fashioned at the quarry. God's workmen are exceedingly skillful, and in the Spirit's time the Temple of God will be erected with no forcing being necessary.

When we hear the sound of "hammering" (the sound of a believer being shaped by the various situations in which the Holy Spirit places him or her) we know the blocks are still at the quarry.

God is supervising intently the forming of each block in accordance with the specifications of His master plan. At the precise moment the "blocks" of the Temple of God will "flow together" and the world will know God has constructed His holy dwelling place. No man can assemble the stones of the Temple of God. We can, however, pray to the end that Jerusalem will be made a praise in the earth.

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. (Isaiah 62:1)

When Solomon's Temple was assembled it was filled with the Glory of God.

And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. (I Kings 8:10,11)

In God's house there are many dwelling places (John 14:2). If Jesus were to be the only dwelling place of God He would have told us. But there will be a multitude of rooms in the great house of God. Jesus went away in order to make ready a place for us. He will return for us in order that we may be with Him where He is.

It is His will that each of us become a home, a room in the Temple of God. Our being joined with Christ in the love of God brings great pleasure to God and Christ, and it is to this end that God has planned and operated all things in the world.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (I Corinthians 3:16)

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (II Corinthians 6:16)

To be continued.