My Father’s House

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. God bless every one of you that is listening; every one that is reading; the Lord bless you! Today’s program is called, My Father’s House. Let’s turn to John 2:13-25, Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. 

And He said to those who sold doves, Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise! Then His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for your House has eaten Me up. Jesus cleansed the Temple. In Luke 19:46 Jesus said, It is written, My House is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Jesus is zealous for His House, the Father’s House; He said, Make not my Father’s House a house of merchandise. Look at Jesus’ ministry: Did He sell books? Did He sell anything? Did He ever ask for money, or tell anyone how to give to His ministry? That’s all you have to do: just look at Jesus’ ministry! The Scripture says that some of the women who followed Him gave into His ministry. It says that Judas Iscariot, a thief, kept the money bag. Do you think that Jesus was at all concerned about money? He said, Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Jesus had twelve disciples, plus a large group of people that followed Him; did they lack anything? Let’s turn to Mat 15:29-39, Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way. Then His disciples said to Him, Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude? Jesus said to them, How many loaves do you have? And they said, Seven, and a few little fish. So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala. Chapter 16, verses 5-12, Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said to them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So we see here that all the people, when they needed food, God provided it through Him by a great miracle, not just once, but twice. 

Let’s turn to Mat 6:19-34, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I’m reminded of when Jesus said, Give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven. 

The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or what shall we wear? For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. In the King James Version it says, Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Those that followed Jesus lacked nothing. If He has called you, and you are following Him, you too will lack nothing, if you will keep His Words and truly follow Him to do the will of the Father. But if you have personal ambition and pride working in you, you will be tempted to get involved in things that He is not leading you into, where you will incur financial burdens that he never intended for you to bear. That’s how many ministers of God end up with buildings and programs, and all kinds of merchandise for sale; they have all kinds of ways to raise money, but Jesus is not there. Their zeal is not for their Father’s House, but rather for their own house. That’s the problem. God doesn’t need your buildings, your programs, your books or your CDs.  Jesus stood on a hill one day, and power was coming out of Him and healing all the thousands of people that were around Him. 

He had just spent the whole night before in prayer to His Father, and He had just chosen His twelve disciples. If we are called to minister, what do we have to minister but what Jesus gives us to minister as we follow Him. He said, Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. He sends you by His Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel: God’s sacrifice of His Son on the Cross for our sins, and it is the Spirit that gives life. He gives you His Words to speak by His Spirit, and they are life to those who can receive them. 

What do we have that we have not received? And why do we boast as though we had not received them? If any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man ministers, let him do it as of the ability that God gives, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. I’m going to say that again: unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. If you are building the house, your labor is in vain. He will build His House. He is building a Holy House: a habitation of God through the Spirit: the Father’s House.  Eph 2:19-22, Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. John 14:1-6, Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Jesus is the only way to the Father. 

The Father’s House is not a house of merchandise. It is a House of Prayer for all Nations. Wicked men have made it a den of thieves. They steal from God’s people who come there to pray and worship Him. Jesus said, Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing. The sheep’s clothing is the Word of God. They speak the Word of God; they appear to be ministers of God, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Let’s turn to 2 Pet 2:1-3 ,  But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 

And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. Verses 18-22, For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. If you are one of these wicked men, who have brought people into bondage in order to get their money, for you to live in luxury, while they labor and struggle to provide it for you, these Words are written to you: For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to his own vomit, and, a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire. Are we seeking to honor the Father? Or are we seeking our own honor? God has promised that those that honor Him, He will honor. Those that seek their own honor will be ashamed. Make not My Father’s House a house of merchandise. 

Interpretation of a message in tongues:

I am God Almighty. Those of you who are listening to My servant Rob this day, Give heed to these Words: Make not My House a house of merchandise! I Am the God of all flesh; My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all Nations, but you have made it a den of thieves!, you wicked men that do not fear Me, but seek your own honor and your own pleasure, and seek to have riches at the expense of My Gospel; at the expense of My Word being preached in Spirit and in truth; of my worship, My pure worship, coming forth through My saints; you wicked men I will judge, and you will perish if you do not repent! I call to you this day, repent!; turn from your wicked ways!; stop selling your merchandise in My House, says the Lord!