Seeing the Desire of God’s Heart, the Building of God’s Dwelling Place on Earth

In the book of Exodus we see how God called Moses, prepared him, and sent him to deliver His people from the usurpation and tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt; God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand, bringing them across the Red Sea and into the wilderness so that they may enter into the good land.

The title of the book, Exodus, was given by man, and it does not express the entire history in the book; this book reveals not only the exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt but also how the travelled through the wilderness, how God took care of them and deal with them, how God brought them to the mountain of God, and how God revealed Himself to them and revealed the desire of His heart to them.

Actually, the main focus of Exodus is not the events at the beginning but the unveiling of God’s heart’s desire to have a dwelling place with man on earth.

God doesn’t want to merely dwell on the mountain where only some people can go and be with Him; He wants to dwell with His redeemed people, even in their midst (Exo. 25:8; 29:45-46), so He asked Moses to build Him a dwelling place. This is the desire of God’s heart. This is why God invested eighty years into preparing and training Moses. This is why God redeemed Israel from Egypt and brought them through so many things.

On the mountain, God revealed to Moses what is the desire of His heart, the longing deep within Him which was in God win in eternity past when He formed His eternal purpose and determined the way of His economy. In Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament, we see a vision of the desire of God’s heart, especially how the goal of God’s salvation is the building up of God’s dwelling place on the earth (Exo. 25:8-9; 29:45-46; 40:1-2, 34-38).

We need to advance in our experience of Christ so that we may see a clear vision of God’s heart’s desire, the building of God, and be joined to Him for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ for the preparation of the bride, the formation of the army, the coming in of the stone cut without hands, and the bringing in of the kingdom of God!

Seeing the Desire of God’s Heart, the Building of God’s Dwelling Place on Earth

The book of Exodus reveals that the goal of God’s salvation of His people from Egypt is the building of His dwelling place on earth. God brought His people at the mountain of God, and there He revealed to them what is in His heart – He wants to have a dwelling place on earth (Exo. 25:8-9).

The people of Israel saw the revelation of the desire of God’s heart through Moses, and we in the New Testament see it through the teaching of the apostles (1 Cor. 3:9b; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16). We need to advance from the base of the mountain (the outer court) to the mid-point (the Holy Place) and from there to the mountain top (the Holy of Holies) so that we may see the desire of God’s heart and be governed by this vision.

If we see that the church as the Body of Christ is the desire of God’s heart, the building of God today, we will be fully for the building up of the Body of Christ universally and we will do everything for the strengthening of the local churches.

On the one hand the building of God, God’s dwelling place, is universally the Body of Christ (see Matt. 16:18 – I will build My church, the universal church as the Body of Christ), and on the other hand the Body is expressed practically in the many local churches (“go tell it to the church”, see Matt. 18). This is also seen in Eph. 2:21-22, where “all the building is growing together in the Lord” (v. 21) – the universal church as the Body of Christ, and “you also are being built together” (v. 22) – the local churches.

If we have a vision of God’s building, we will care for the Body, live for the Body, appreciate the supply and covering of the Body, and build up the Body. If we have a vision of the desire of God’s heart to have a dwelling place, we will realise that this dwelling place is the universal organic Body of Christ, and we will be conscious of this, we will care for this, and we will live in the fellowship of the Body, receiving its supply and protection.

At the same time, we will live in the local churches, shepherding the saints by ministering Christ to them for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. We live in the local churches, standing on the ground of oneness in the reality of the Body of Christ, living in the fellowship of the Body, and relying on the prayers of the Body, the protection of the Body, and the warfare in the Body.

As seen in Eph. 1:5, 9, the good pleasure of God’s will, God’s good pleasure, is the dwelling place of God on earth, the church as the Body of Christ. Our God has a good pleasure; He delights in His Son, and His desire is to have His Son enlarged and expanded into a dwelling place of God and man.

When God became man in the Lord Jesus, He was filled with the desire in the Father’s heart to have a dwelling place; when He was twelve years old, He spent a few days in the temple, interacting with the teachers of the law, and later told His parents, I must be in the things of My Father.

Later in John 2, after cleansing the temple, the Lord said, the zeal of God’s house has consumed Me. Through His death and resurrection, the individual temple of God was expanded and enlarged to become the divine-human incorporation, the Body of Christ.

The fulfillment of God’s heart’s desire is the Body of Christ, the dwelling place of God and man; now God desires that the desire of His heart would become the desire of our heart. We can’t make it happen, but it helps to pray,

Lord, cause the desire of Your heart to become the desire of my heart. We want our life to contribute to the fulfillment of the heart’s desire of God. Bring us on with You to realize that the goal of God’s salvation is the building of God’s dwelling place on earth. Lord, may we see the church as the Body of Christ and may we live in the Body and for the Body. Grant us a heavenly vision of the dwelling place of God, the desire deep in the heart of God before the time began, and make Your heart’s desire be our heart’s desire!

The Lord’s Return Depends on the Building up of God’s Dwelling Place on Earth

We need to spend much time with the Lord to be in His presence, not just to touch Him in a general way but to be infused with a vision of His heart’s desire, God’s dwelling place on earth.

It took Moses forty days and forty nights to get such a vision infused into him, and it will take us a lengthy time to be in the Lord’s presence throughout the years to have the vision of what is in God’s heart. We need to be under the clear and transparent sky to see God and the vision of His heart’s desire to have a dwelling place with man on earth.

Everything depends on the building up of God’s dwelling place. Our Lord really wants to come back: He wants to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom. Only the built up church, according to God’s desire, can be the stepping stone into the age of the kingdom.

In the church life, we must do a complete and varied work, from preaching the gospel to shepherding the new ones, perfecting them, establishing local churches, and prophesying in the meetings, but all these must be governed by the desire of God’s heart of having a dwelling place on earth. Our praying, growth in life, meeting with the saints, shepherding others, having home gatherings, and everything we do should be one with God’s goal.

To God the church is His house, His dwelling place, and to Christ the church is His Body; the building up of God’s dwelling place on earth is the building up of the Body of Christ. When our Lord comes back He’s not coming back for the Body but He will return as the Bridegroom for the Bride who has made herself ready.

The building up of the church as the House of God and the Body of Christ is the preparation of the Bride. What comes out of Christ is the Body (as Eve came out of Adam), and what is presented to Christ as His counterpart is the church as the Bride of Christ.

Our Lord is observing the situation all over the earth, and when He senses that the Body has been built up in the local churches to the degree that He needs in this age, then He will return, and the bride will be raptured just before the great tribulation begins. This will initiate the greatest dispensational change the earth has ever seen, and while the Antichrist is raging on the earth, the Bride is in the wedding feast.

Toward the end of the great tribulation, the Bride will become the Army, and she comes with the Lord to defeat the enemy; the bridal army will destroy the enemy! Then, the army will become the corporate stone with Christ, the stone cut without hands, striking the toes of the great human image, obliterating the human government from the face of the earth, and then growing to become a great mountain – the kingdom of God – filling the whole earth!

All these will happen in three and a half years: the Body becomes the bride, the bride becomes the army, the army becomes the stone, and the stone becomes the mountain filling the whole earth to make it the kingdom of God!

We need to be constituted with the weighty Christ to be the stone, we need to be trained and skilled in warfare in the Body to be the army, and we need to take care of the Lord’s satisfaction as the Bride; all these depend on whether or not in the local churches under the vision of the desire of God’s heart the church is built up as the Body of Christ.

The Lord’s return is not far away: we may be among the firstfruits, but everything depends on the building up of God’s dwelling place on earth. We can carry out this building when we have the vision of the desire of God’s heart wrought into our being so that it burns within us, and no matter what happens to us, this vision will drive us on, motivate us, energize us, and govern us until the Lord will obtain a built-up church as the Body of Christ so that the Bride would be prepared for Him to return!

Lord Jesus, cause us to see that Your imminent return depends on the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, the dwelling place of God on earth. Lord, we give ourselves to You to be infused with You and gained by You so that we may be building members of the Body of Christ. Constitute us with Yourself as the Weighty Christ, train us to be fighting the battle in the Body, and increase our love for You that we may be the Bride. Lord, we give ourselves to You for the building up of Your Body! Come, Lord Jesus!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 80 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (2), week 12 / msg 12, The Vision of God in a Transparent and Clear Heaven and the Heavenly Vision concerning the Desire of God’s Heart to Have a Dwelling Place with Man on Earth.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # And let them make a sanctuary for Me, / That I may dwell in their midst, / Our prayer is “Lord, we give ourselves to Thee, / We’ll be the builders for Your economy.” (Song on God’s dwelling place)
  # No longer I alone that live, / But God together lives with me. / Built with the saints in the Triune God, / His universal house we’ll be, / And His organic Body we / For His expression corp’rately. / And His organic Body we / For His expression corp’rately. (Song on God’s heart desire)
  # In God’s house and in Thy Body / Builded up I long to be, / That within this corporate vessel / All shall then Thy glory see; / That Thy Bride, the glorious city, / May appear upon the earth, / As a lampstand brightly beaming / To express to all Thy worth. (Hymns #840)