I was looking down at a corner of a bricked building, there was no roof and I could not tell how tall the building was. Bricks were steady and sturdy in place, fitting perfectly so that you could not see thru the bricks…there was no mortar. One brick took wings and flew off, then over further another one did the same. Yet no holes were to be seen in the brickwork….

Often when I receive a vision, I wait. I wait to hear more, I wait to know more, I wait to make sure it wasn’t me and my own imagination.

I want to be sure.

A few months back I was praying, during communion in church, when the vision written in the above paragraph flashed into my mind… and stayed. A number of times over those few months it has come back to me, and I have taken it to God in prayer.

Each time it is the same thing – People who once professed to love and serve God are now rejecting God and turning away. They choose of their own free will to reject the love and mercy given by their Saviour.

The one theme that has stayed with me is this:

1. At no time does God cement us in so that we must stay.

2. This makes no difference to God’s church being built.

“But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve… But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15 NLT

1. We are not cemented in.

Did you know that we come into God’s family by our own free will and we stay because we chose?

That is right. When we chose God, He does not say to us, “I have got you now”. Neither does He make us stay. It is our choice to come and it is our choice to go. In fact, the Christian religion is the only religion that has free will as a doctrine. Any “Christian” faith that says otherwise, is a cult.

In fact, God does not need to cement us into the faith that we have, because He knows exactly where we fit. What we lack in “the fitting”, He gives us part of Himself (without reservation) so that we would have help to fit. Then we actively work as the building block we were made to be in the body of His church.

Now just in case you are confused. This is how it works (simply put, of course). –

We accept the gift of salvation by realising that we are never able to live this life in rebellion and sin and turn our life over to God. He adopts as a child of God, and we now live differently in obedience because we now love the God we call Father, Lord and Saviour. This is not because we are “made” to, but because something inside us has changed and we find ourselves being different… and wanting to be different. The more we know Him and love Him, the more we want to change what and who we are. He gives us a part of Himself, the Holy Spirit who lives within us so that we have help to live while on this earth. We have now just become part of His special building called the church – working and living for Him on this earth.

Because we are not cemented in, and because it is our choice to stay, we can leave. We can forget the gift given to us, we can grow hard and cold, we can leave. And God lets us. Remember He did not make us come, He does not make us stay. This is why in the vision He allowed me to see that there was no mortar.

I asked God about the wings. Why the wings? God answered me in this way.

“Have you ever watched a bird take flight to go somewhere? It looks around, it picks its destination, and it lifts itself from one place to the place it wants to go.  People are the same when they leave Me. There is a reason why they leave. In the vision the flight was slow and steady, not in fright? People do not leave in fright, they leave because they have decided. Fear and hiding or running is not rejecting Me, they are simply not trusting Me. When people leave, they have long decided to find another destination. It is just that they have not yet lifted their wings to take flight.”

I sensed a deep sadness in God’s tone. God grieves His people leaving, but He will not stop them, neither does he step in their way to detain them.

You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but He was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple.

1 Peter 2:4-5a NLT

2. Being part of God’s building.

God’s church is not a building or a set of rules or doctrines – that is simply denominations and places where people go to fellowship with other believers and to hear about God’s word. “The Church” is God’s obedient and faithful believers everywhere, doing what God had given them to do and living the way He wants them to live.

Often when I speak to other Christian’s, I get the sense that they are very robotic, and they believe that there is only one way of doing something and only one way to be. Unformal and robotic.

This is not God’s way. You are you. He knows your past, He knows your personality, He knows your future. The fact that He knows, means that you are your own special version of God’s representative on earth, your own special part of God’s church. That is why we all fit together- not because we are the same, but because we are all different that we fit together nicely.

The church is God’s people everywhere; serving Him, being obedient to Him and living daily in the world. The most necessary part of being here, is to live daily for God…for all to see. This is why I saw like a building, you cannot miss seeing a building. A building is a visible presence that you cannot miss. The same with Christians. We become a visible – a known presence in the world we live.

We have the world that want to knock the building (God’s people everywhere) down and stop them from living for God in this world. We have the world that knocks our beliefs, and mocks our stand for God, morals, ethics and standards. But…it never stops God’s work.

People leaving God does not form holes in the walls, because His church is spiritual. The structure of God’s church does not change. It stands if people leave. It stands if people are jailed for there faith. It stands if we are martyred for our faith. People think that if they kill us off, or knock a few from their faith, that the work of God stops. No, it remains a presence simply because God is and will always be. Even in the darkest places of the world where you think there is no faith, God is reaching someone, and His church remains.

I want you to understand this – Even if the church buildings (as in the denominational building structures that we go to every Sunday) are not allowed to be there, we remain the bricks that are His church.

While we live, He lives. While we are here, His church is here. While we stay, we are the presence of God in this world – His church.

My prayer today is for those that are about to take flight. Maybe something has happened, and you are shaken in your faith. Maybe you want to live that life of rebellion. Maybe sin looks really good to you right now. A lot has gone on in your heart for you to even get to this point right now. My words may seem to slip over your head as you brush it off. You have made your decision, you are just waiting to spread your wings. So this is my prayer..

“Father God, once more I ask that you reach to the heart of this child, who used to be yours. I ask that your Holy Spirit would speak words to warm and touch this cold heart. Instead of looking to the next place to take flight to I pray that they will look at You and remember Your love. Thank you, Father, that you know them by name. I place them in Your hands Father, knowing that this is the only place to be. In Jesus Christ name, I pray. Amen.”

Stop for a moment. The decision you are about to make is a momentary one, not an eternal one. It is completely up to you. God didn’t make you come and He is not going to make you stay.