🚧 Under Construction 🚧

The Church is about to enter a period of being “under construction”. What does that mean? It means God will be measuring, aligning, adding, removing, and restructuring things within the Church. In other words, things will no longer look the same, feel the same, or be the same. New faces, new people, new ideas, and new things are coming to the Church. It’s time for believers everywhere to prepare for those coming changes. Are you ready? That’s what I’d like to talk about in this post.

Besides being plumblines in God’s house, which is especially helpful and important in seasons of construction, some prophets can also announce the coming seasons of God. For 35 years, I have been faithfully announcing the seasons of God to the Church. And we are entering a new season, not only of building, which we have had before, but of the Church itself actually being under construction — Christ Himself has begun the renovation, rebuilding, removing, replacing, and repairing His house. 

Why now? The Church has been in a dilapidated condition. Christ isn’t coming back for that kind of Church. No, Christ, the Bible says, is coming back for “a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.”.  Ephesians 5:27, NLT. And candidly, we don’t currently qualify as that kind of Church…yet. But before Christ comes, we will be that kind of Church, which means, major changes need to take place. Those changes mean major periods and processes of renovation — the removal of that which isn’t of Christ and the replacement of that which is of Christ. In Christ’s Church, the only thing that will be allowed is of Him. 

 “The Church is about to change and those changes and going to be radical, substantive, and, in some cases, subversive of what we’ve previously done.”—Scott Wallis

The Church isn’t our church — although we like to think of it that way. That’s my church, we might say. Or we go to that church — such and such a church with such and such a name — is another thing we might say. And I am not in any way denigrating that. What I am saying is this — the Church is about to change and those changes and going to be radical, substantive, and, in some cases, subversive of what we’ve previously done. Not that God will undermine what we are doing; rather, He’s seeking our cooperation. Hence, the prophetic announcement.

God uses His prophets to announce changes in the seasons to bring His people into alignment and agreement with what He’s doing. Although God doesn’t need to do things that way — He’s God and can do what He wants — He chooses to do things that way. Why? Because He’s not unreasonable or unrighteous in how He works with us. Remember, God’s nature is that of humility. He invites us to be part of what He’s doing. In fact, He wants us to be part of what He’s doing. That’s why Jesus was so happy when the Apostle Peter finally got it — “you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Matthew 16:18, NLT.

And right there, we have one of the most significant statements in the New Testament. Jesus clearly tells us His plan  — “I will build My Church”. In fact, as some have taught, Christ used a non-Jewish word — the Greek word, Ekklesia — to convey what He is building. And since that moment on the “coasts of Caesarea Philippi”, Matthew 16:13, Jesus has been building His Ekklesia — His Church, which is, His house that’s called by His Name. As He said in the Gospel of Matthew, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’” Matthew 21:13, ESV, and in the Gospel of Mark, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’” Mark 11:17, NLT.

Although that may be the kind of Church we want, that’s clearly not the kind of Church we have today. Further, we have a hard time identifying who is and who isn’t building the Church. In fact, some actually delight in tearing down the churches that others have spent years building. They might even say foolish things like “good riddance, look at all the evil they did”, which is usually in response to some act committed by someone in leadership who did something of great evil. I say, “Welcome to a fallen world filled with fallen people who are in desperate need of salvation — mostly from themselves and those evil things they do”. 

The Church hasn’t only been the home of martyrs, it’s also been the home of murderers. The Apostle Paul was both a murderer and a martyr. At one time, he was a murderer — scripture affirms “Saul fully approved of his (Stephen’s) murder.” Acts 8:1, Weymouth New Testament. This was the “wild eyed” and “crazy days” of the Apostle Paul before actually being called Paul. Rather, like his predecessor, he was a Saul. And as Saul, he went about “ravaging the church [and assaulting believers]; entering house after house and dragging off men and women, putting them in prison.” Acts 8:3, Amplified Bible. The Apostle Paul had been a crazy Murdering Saul. In Christ, he became the Apostle Paul, writer of the majority of the New Testament.

Only God! Yes, God can take a radical, crazy person and turn him or her into someone great in His kingdom. It’s time to stop seeing God through the eyes of our limitations. Rather, we must start seeing Him as He is — God. That’s who Jesus saw, for He said, “the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” John 5:19, NLT. We, too, must see what the Father and Son are doing. That’s where the construction process always begins — with fresh vision of who God is — where “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 16:17, ESV. Hence, the prophet’s purpose in seasons of construction and building — to bring forth revelation of what the Father and Son are doing right now. 

And that’s the reason for my announcement — we’re entering a period of being under construction as the Church. So, get ready!

Let us pray!

— Scott Wallis