For the Lord to build His dwelling place among men is the main reason He did not take His authority over the earth immediately after His resurrection. His main purpose for this age is to seek a bride and a family to dwell with forever. After this, He is using this age to prepare workers for His coming kingdom on all levels, determined by their level of love and devotion to Him and His work in this age.

       The church that men have built is almost a perfect antithesis to the church the Lord is building. Even so, the way to find what He is building is not by being reactionary to the false, but by even more resolutely seeking truth. We’re not called to be negative or reactionary but to walk by faith in Him.

       The apostle Paul said, “If I were still seeking to please men I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (see Galatians 1:10). We all must make this choice: whether we will please God or men. The best known among men will likely be little known in heaven. The most well known in heaven will seldom be well known on the earth.

       By being devoted to pleasing God rather than men, Paul became one of the most well known in both heaven and earth, and even in hell. When the demon jumped on the Jewish exorcists that tried to use the name of “Jesus that Paul knows,” the demon jumped on them, replying, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" (See Acts 19:15.)

       Those who become false are not usually trying to serve the devil, but rather themselves. Nothing undermines and destroys the true service to God as much as selfish ambition. The false church built by men was not built by men seeking to do evil. No doubt, many sought to glorify God, but they ended up releasing more evil upon the earth than Satan and all the demon worshipers together. How? Why?

       The fruit of the “good” side of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is still poison. Fallen, human goodness brings death, not life. The good intentions of men almost always seek self-recognition, which is perhaps the widest open door for the devil and his minions, just as it was in the Garden. We must have a higher vision than just doing good works for which men will praise us. We must seek the glory and recognition of God in all things, that they will testify of God for Who He is and what He has done. If we have truly seen the cross, we will realize how profane it is to seek any glory due to Him for ourselves.  

       The antichrist is not just against Christ, but it seeks to be a substitute for Christ. The devil will be very happy to have us doing good works to gain acceptance with God. This is one of the biggest diversions from the cross of Jesus, where we can alone find acceptance with God. We must not serve God to gain His approval, but from a position of having His approval by the sacrifice Jesus made. Then, our righteousness will be from His cross, not our own.

       The followers of Jesus are commanded to take up their crosses and live lives of sacrifice, but we must never do this to be considered righteous or to gain either the recognition and approval of God or men. We do this out of love for the One we serve and in devotion to the greatest cause there will ever be. We have all likely met those who were putting more faith in their cross—their sacrifices—than the cross of Jesus and His sacrifice.

       We likely all have some self-seeking and self-recognition mixed in with our motives when we are young in the Lord. We must not let this stop us from serving, because if we do, we are still letting our self-centeredness rule. When we serve out of obedience—by His Spirit, His goodness and power, not our own—He will grow in us, and our self-centeredness will decrease. The ultimate Christian maturity is to be able to say honestly what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20: “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.”

       Spiritual life and maturity in Christ do not come by works but by walking with the Lord. “Enoch walked with God, and he was not” (see Genesis 5:24). Likewise, it is as we walk with the Lord, and behold His glory, that the veils are stripped from us so that we see Him. By this, we are changed into His image, while ours just fades away like the moon does when the sun rises. Then, we become His dwelling place.

       So, to recognize the antichrist, we simply need to recognize Christ. Never forget that is why we were given Revelation.

 

© 2026 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.