When God Pulls You Out Of The Church Building

In our coming back from a move that changed our lives forever, we found ourselves attending our home church once again. We walked in, checked in our kids into children’s ministry, walked to the sanctuary and began to take our seats ready to worship. Then suddenly something felt off. Different. I felt a shift, a shift that seemed unexplainable. Nothing felt the same. Nothing was the same. Things were different. We attended a few more times hoping it was just an “off” morning or day…. yet nothing changed. We decided to try a different church. I had no idea as to why this was happening, it hurt me deep inside. My home church that now felt like it was no longer my home.

As we tried a few different churches I immediately felt the Lord begin to say it’s time to be removed, quit forcing to find a church. I still didn’t understand. Questions lingered. Questions that seemed unanswered. Questions I tried hard to seek and understand. Questions like:
“am I hearing you right Lord?”
“Why can’t we find a church like the one we all attended in our previous move that drew and captured our hearts closer to yours?”
“Why suddenly, moving back, we couldn’t find the ‘right’ church?”
“Is there something wrong with me?”

Nobody seemed to understand what I was walking through. Nobody had answers. And quite frankly, me neither. To say I was frustrated at what was happening, that’s the least of it. No church seemed to work in that season no matter how much I tried to make it work. But that was just it my friend. I tried on my own. I didn’t allow God to show me what He was doing in that time. I wanted to figure it out on my own. Leaning on my own self as if I knew it all. In which by the way, I don’t know it all. He’s taught me that long ago.

It seemed strange in a way that had me asking, “is this really happening could this be true? Could God even do this?”

It seemed lonely some days. You find yourself doubting and waiting for reassurance that this is what the Lord is calling for you in this season… tears falling, friends leaving, life moving forward, and you? Still unsure what was going on.

You hear negative statements left and right, only to feel neglected, and later questioning your walk with Christ.

It happened in the middle of 2018, but at the beginning of 2019, I began to obey what the Lord said. I pulled back from trying to force a church on us attending and began planting my roots deep within Him right here, smack down in the middle of my breakfast table.

He met me right here in my home. He showed up each and every time. With each heartbreak, each tear that shed, each moment I felt lost, when I felt lonely, even when I wanted to reach out to someone first He instead met me first and foremost. With each question I had, each doubt I faced, each disappointment I encountered and discouragement I felt, he was there. He never once left me hanging.

During the time he pulled me out of the church building, he began to examine my heart in a very profound way. He taught me how to examine my own heart too. And if I am being honest, it wasn’t pretty. I don’t think there ever is anything pretty about Him examining our hearts, but there is always healing in it all. There was things in my own heart I never knew was there. Heck, I’m not even sure if they would have been found if I continued to disobey God and attend church.

**Now please do not take what I am sharing out of context or to fit your “feelings” of church. I am in no way speaking poorly over any churches nor am I covering up for churches that are in the wrong. What I am continuing to share is about my personal experience and encounter with God.

It comes to no surprise that He is pulling, tugging, and leading others into this placement too.

The thing was, with me, I was comfortable being in the church. I was comfortable where I was. I didn’t like being in the uncomfortable. I wanted that safe comfort zone. He then showed me something I never realized… it wasn’t until he pulled me out… until he moved us out of our home city and into a new one… that I was serving people not God himself.

God began to pour into me in the places where I felt unnoticed in church, overlooked, and rejected, he not once let me stay stuck in that place. He not only pulled me away because it was necessary but because He knew it would be life transforming. He didn’t want me to be in a place where I would try to be seen, to feel noticed with acts, or performance. He wanted ME. My whole heart and being. He cared far more about my heart than the outside appearance and performance. These acts are the least of his cares because the heart is the matter of it all. It is the bridge and foundation of all things. He is a jealous God and wants all of you. He doesn’t want just a part of your heart, but all of it.

Being alone with God in the hidden places, as he examined my heart, I began to see how he was healing the inner pain that was deep and hidden within my heart. The hurt. The disappointments in life. He healed the brokenness and he began to restore in me something more better. More life giving. He showed me His power, His glory, His authority, His presence and immeasurable love. I was able to experience far more with Him within my home than anywhere else. I was able to hear his voice more clearer than I ever have. And he was able to remove the lingering bitterness and unforgiveness I carried and He then replaced it with wholeness, with His forgiveness and genuine agape love.

To say I was okay with him removing me from the building… never. I was not okay. It ate me up and I began to sink deep in disappointment, loneliness, unsureness, doubt. I’ve seen others move on with life. I felt as if my family and i were just another member who left and no longer mattered. That inevitable pain lingered… yet God restored that pain and healed it with His greater good. I never knew why he wanted me out the church building. It never clicked. Until this year, the end of 2021, where it made more clearer than it ever was.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, I had seen many walking around feeling depleted, hurt, angry, experiencing a loss of joy, their foundation shaken, I had seen many believers feel at a complete loss when the church doors closed. My heart ached for these people.

And there it was, God began to reveal yet another thing to me in that time. Many were comfortable, stuck, into the building and not God themself. Many felt they couldn’t experience or encounter God at home only the church building. If we are attending church, who are we attending church for? Is it for people? Is it for us? Or is it for God? Right then and there, He showed me that I was once that one, way before the pandemic hit. The very one who relied more on man than on God himself. More on the building structure than the All Power, All Knowing God. Ouch!

In my time alone at home with God, he brought to me exactly what I needed to grow, to stretch, to mature my walk with Christ. The exact studies. The exact podcasts to listen to. The exact sermons to hear to get my ears plugged into truth. It was all provided. I never lacked anything in that time. He provided just as He always does, just in who He says He is: Jehovah-Jireh. I found myself delighting more in His ways and presence than… well I was never able to fully grasp the experience before. I was too self focused rather than God focused. And thats the truth my friend.

I never been one to think I’d be out of the church building. I was always the one who never missed a Sunday, attended every event and carried my bible each time. My original thought was “I can’t miss a day in church because you’re neglecting God.” But this was just it…. a wall of religion that needed His attention, His breaking, and His outpouring of love to cover. I believed a lie that said “too bad now you have to wait until next Sunday to experience God.” Gosh, only if I could tell my younger self that it was a darn lie that needed to be demolished immediately. But yet, I am so thankful for where I am now….

Many miss a day or two, and you know what? That is okay! If our heart is aligned with God’s Word, reading it daily, praying to God daily throughout the day, turning on the sermon and worshiping God right in our living room floor, God will still show up! He will even show up in your car at a red light as your music is blasting and snotty tears are falling down your cheeks. Ask me how I know??

While nobody understood why God called me out of the church building, nobody agreed, nobody even had the answers but only quick judgment… God knew and he showed me why. He pulls certain people out of the church building for a few reasons.

To grab your heart and attention.
To retrain your mind and renew your thoughts.
To show up MIGHTY in your life when you are struggling to experience Him at church.
To reveal Himself BIGGER than you’ve experienced Him before.
To connect your heartbeat with his.
To wooo you in, drawing you closer to a place of intimacy.
To protect you from falling for man and get your focus on Him.
To realign your heart, cleansing, pruning, caring for because he cares about our heart more than our appearance.
To show us what He is concerned about in us.
To grow in us more of His authority showing us how to use it properly.
To break the walls down of people pleasing, people chasing, man following, serving people not God, pride, and so forth.

There is countless of reasons He does this… it is only He that can reveal to you the very matter in why He is doing it. And I know, not everyone will agree with this message. Quite frankly not everyone will agree with what God tells you to do. But this should not matter to us. What should matter is us obeying Christ and christ alone. Doing as He says to do, with a wholehearted servants hearts who loves Him with every fiber being within us.

Now we are not to neglect community. Nor neglect praying or seeking spiritual growth. God does in fact want us surrounded by other believers just as He says “where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst among them.” But I will say this…. He provides us people in who we need in that time. He provides, as I mentioned above, all the sermons, worship music, bible studies and readings you need. You are His beloved and He cares for you. He loves you. He adores you. He will not leave you wondering alone without His helping hand. He is forever faithful, forever present, forever all knowing. He knows all that you need and will need in the future and present. With Him you will lack nothing. He works in the most mysterious ways, ways that our human minds can’t even think He could work in such a way. But I will say this, He will do what He needs to grasp your heart, your attention, and full focus to be solely on Him.

So in case you are wondering, if it can be true that God pulls His people out of a church building for a season, however long it may be… it is inevitably true.