Buildings and programs are not the temple of the Lord; His people are. We don’t go to church; we are the church 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our structures and organizations will never be a substitute for what He called His church to be. Only His people can be this church.

       As we have covered, men have done great things for the Lord, and the Lord will bless the things done for Him as much as He can. However, He will not inhabit those things. He only inhabits what He builds, and He is building people of whom He is the Head.

       The apostle Paul summed up His purpose in Galatians 4:19 as being “in labor until Christ is formed in you.” He was not working to get the Lord’s followers to come into any certain form but to see Christ formed in them. There can be a big difference in this. He elaborates further in Colossians 1:28: “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.”

       What good is the most glorious temple if God is not in it? If He is in it, it will not be the temple that gets people’s attention, regardless of how glorious it is. The Lord may bless what His people build as much as He can, but He will not inhabit anything He does not build. So, to be His dwelling place, we must seek the presence of the Lord above His blessings. His blessings are wonderful, and we do want more of them, but they must not be our primary devotion. Good can be the worst enemy of best if it eclipses our devotion to His highest.

       The great buildings and institutions that men have built for the Lord will come to an end, as we are assured in the book of Revelation. We will cover this in more detail later, but first we must understand that many of God’s people are in these works at this time. Even more confusing to some is how God’s blessing is in many of these works, but He blesses them for the sake of His people. But as we see in Revelation, there will be a time when He calls His people to come out of them. Then, we will see many who assumed they were born again truly get born again. The first wave of the coming harvest will mostly be those who claimed to be Christians because of their devotion to man-made institutions getting radically saved and becoming true disciples.

       Those who seek to be a part of what God is building—not men—must follow Him, not men. He is the Builder and the Head of His church. Such churches are rare in the earth today. I have traveled the earth for many years and have not yet found one. Even so, there are many great works that are preparing His people to be the dwelling place He is building.

       We have had the Lord visit several times at MorningStar and manifest Himself in spectacular ways. At times, we’ve had a lingering presence of the Lord with us for weeks, but He did not stay. We are going through a profound transformation of our ministry now, seeking to be more aligned with what we’ve been shown to be coming, but we’re not there yet. We’re not there yet because we are resolved to let Him build us into what we’re called to be. We are praying for the grace to never give up seeking to attain the highest purpose we can have on this earth—to be His dwelling place—as are others. I pray this for you: that you will never give up seeking the city that God is building.

       We have learned that one brief encounter with the manifest presence of the Lord can accomplish what a lifetime of teaching cannot do. After one little glimpse of what God is doing—what God is building—it is not possible to be impressed with what men are building. Any encounter with Him plants an insatiable desire for Him. This is the ultimate quest, the greatest cause.

       When this has captured our hearts, and we begin to see that He is building His dwelling place out of people, we will expend ourselves helping people become what they are called to be out of our love and desire for Him. When this becomes the compelling devotion of His people, it will be a sign that His glory, God Himself, is about to be manifested to the world again—in His people. He is in us now, but rarely manifested. This will change when the glory of the Lord fills His temple. Then, we will become the “city on a hill” we are called to be, shining His light to the world.

© 2026 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.