Let the House of God be Built is hardly a catchy title for a book which nevertheless contains boundless treasure along with a profoundly challenging message for today’s believers.
The title is taken from the Book of Ezra and relates to the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s Temple.
Prolific author Lance Lambert, well known for his stirring calls to acknowledge the place of Israel in God’s purposes, was writing towards the end of his life about his early ministry among fervent youngsters in Richmond, Surrey, on the outskirts of London.
After serving in Egypt with the Royal Air Force, Lance founded Halford House Christian Fellowship in 1954, inspired by the Hebridean Revival of 1949-52.
In their endeavour to rouse Christianity from its general stupor, he and his young friends began their own meetings, for which they were greatly ostracised.
They eventually purchased a derelict three-storey house and, through exercising total faith for all their needs including finance and furnishing, built up a hugely influential congregation that undoubtedly played a part in igniting the worldwide Charismatic Renewal.
By encouraging a restoration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the movement drew millions into the kingdom while also injecting new life among many established churches.
Key factors of the Richmond fellowship’s potent testimony were their absolute faith along with their total unity. Without ever announcing their needs, they simply got down on their knees and prayed. One visitor, asking how their ministry was financed, almost immediately witnessed the staggering answer to her question – in the form of a pile of banknotes pushed through the letterbox.
In counting the money, a staff member excitedly declared that it was the exact amount for which they had prayed. To which the visitor exclaimed: “I have heard of things like this but have never seen it with my own eyes.”
Linked with their shared faith was a powerful unity that bound them together. Decisions were not made democratically, but through unanimity. They wouldn’t go ahead with any project until everyone was agreed. And miracles – of finance and much else – abounded.
Their regular builder, Bill Richards, gave his life to Christ after noting the miraculous response to prayer for the £300 needed to pay for a particular job he had done. After witnessing a group of them on their knees, he saw the precise amount on the front doormat – all in £1 notes!
And one woman came to a communion service as an unbeliever – until she had a vision of Jesus as the bread and wine was being served!
I was intrigued to discover the several occasions that Jewish Auschwitz survivors played a role in building up the house through such gifts as priceless furniture and oil paintings. And it was no surprise to learn that Lance advocated teaching on “the whole counsel of God…including the salvation of Israel” as vital to a congregation’s health.
Lance made a big impression on me back in 1998 as speaker at a conference held in a Dorset cornfield titled Be Not Silent Day or Night, a quote from Isaiah 62 which continues “…till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch”.
After discovering his Jewish ancestry – his father and many members of his family perished in the Holocaust – Lance became an Israeli citizen in 1980 and lived near Jerusalem’s Old City.
He wrote the book under discussion when he was 80, evidently for the purpose of leaving a legacy of vital teaching on the Church. And his comments are especially pertinent in the light of recent developments in the Middle East.
“In my estimation the purpose of God for the Church cannot be completed without ‘the natural branches’ being regrafted into their own olive tree (Romans 11:17-26). The huge conflict in the Middle East and the world over Israel and Jerusalem is related to this!
“Satan and the powers of darkness know only too well that they have to prevent and block the salvation of Israel. The ‘regrafting’ of the Jewish people will signal the completion of the circle of world redemption and the fulfilment of God’s purpose for the Church.
“Is it any wonder that there is an enormous conflict and controversy over it? The fact that Satan has engineered so much war and conflict, and much more is to come, is evidence of how vital the salvation of Israel is to God’s eternal purpose.”
As for the wider Church, Lance asserts that every move of God over the past two millennia has been subverted by Satan within a few generations (or less) as their lampstands were removed through losing their first love for Jesus. And the lifeless institutional church has often become the ferocious persecutor of true pilgrims.
“If the testimony of Jesus is compromised or lost, the lampstand is removed from that congregation,” he writes. Lance died in Jerusalem in 2015, aged 84.
Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.
