The cathedral from which Christchurch, N.Z. gets it name in the center of the city was severely damaged in an earthquake almost three years ago. They say it is beyond repair. They have shored what was left of it up, but it is too dangerous to work on.  Could God be sending us a message?

“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain.
(Hebrews 12:26-27 RSVA)

“Because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18 RSVA)

Jesus came to earth and while He lived here in human form he was subjected to everything the enemy could throw at Him, yet He did now cave. He only did the works that the Father gave Him to do. He did not act out of His own free will as the Son of God to do anything for His own benefit, not even to save His own life. He died a cruel death on the cross and rose again in victory and led the captives of the wicked one in a victory march out of their prisons. He is still releasing men and women who turn to Him from their prisons today. In short Lucifer tried to shake Christ and he failed. The Unshakeable remained unshakeable to the end.

So, will God allow the Church to be severely shake as Christ was? The biggest test and failure of what is called “the church” today in in seeing if we will move by the power of our own wills, or will we wait upon the Lord for HIM to move? Is what happened to the cathedral at Christchurch happening in “the church” today? Yes, and it has only just begun. For hundreds of years organized religion has presumptuously been planting, building, marrying and giving in marriage without a single thought to what God wants done in their midst. They invent a program and then ask Him to bless it! How backwards this is.

Jesus told the disciples (the first “church planters”) that apart from Him they could do nothing. Organized religion in its haste to “do something” has ceased to look to God for the power to do their works and has turned to the power of the flesh, money and coercion to get it done. Jesus said you cannot serve both God and Mammon and the churches of men have been trying to prove Him a liar for hundreds of years. Mammon has one.

So, can the visible church be shaken completely down to its foundations? YES and it is happening right before our eyes, because it has become fixated on “the things which are seen” instead of on the “things that are not seen.” All the things that can be seen in Christendom and even in our own lives WILL be shaken and all that will remain is that which abides IN Christ Himself, the Unshakeable. Paul warned,

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw– each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
(1 Corinthians 3:9-16 RSVA)

First we need to be sure of what foundation we have been building on. Are you founded on the teachings of a denominational or church “founder”? Are you founded on “apostles” and “prophets” in your church? Are you founded on your understanding of the Bible? Sorry, these near misses won’t stand up to the shaking that is coming upon the earth. If we are to survive and are to stand before God and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” we must be founded on THE Foundation, Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Every plant that my Father has not planted will be rooted up.” In the days ahead each believer’s work that they have been building upon their foundations, even the One True Foundation, will be tested by fire and only the gold, silver and precious stones of the works of the Father will survive. Many of us who have gone out to “do great things for God” will suffer great loss. God’s works were finished from the foundation of the world that we should walk in them alone.

For we are his workmanship, created IN CHRIST Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 RSVA – emphasis added)