Last week we talked about how the foundation is the most important part of the development, structure, strength, and endurance of a home or building. It is the same in our relationship with God.
Most people have 2 incorrect foundations that their relationship with God is based on which causes conflicts in that relationship and our ability to hear His voice.
#1) Fear: We came to Jesus because we were afraid we were going to die (any moment) and we’re going to spend eternity in hell. Fear caused uncertainty about eternity and brought us to Jesus to remedy that uncertainty.
#2) “Rescue Jesus”: We found ourselves in difficulties, trouble, problems, hardships, etc. and we needed deliverance from these situations. We came to Jesus to “rescue” us or deliver us out of these troubles.
If our foundation is built upon fear, then we will find ourselves constantly in fear as to whether the Father hears us, or in fear wondering if He is mad at us and not speaking to us because of something we have done. We will be in fear that we have “messed up” too much or too often, and He is not speaking to us or will not speak to us. In fear that we are not “doing enough” for Him to speak to us – so, we struggle with “doing” (or attempting to “do more”) so that He will speak to us, or that we will be able to hear Him. This fear runs deep in the hearts and minds of many Christians and hinders many from hearing the Father speak with us.
If our foundation is built upon “Rescue Jesus” – delivering us from our troubles, problems, and difficulties, we will most likely find ourselves in areas of troubles, problems, and difficulties. We will then form a repeated pattern: we have troubles – we run to Jesus – He rescues us – trouble is over – we resume our comfortable life – troubles (or problems) come again – and we run to “Rescue Jesus” again (and repeat this pattern).
The problem with this foundation is: at some point in our life “Rescue Jesus” does not “show up” or “rescue us”: 1) as quickly as we thought He should.
2) Jesus did not “rescue” or “deliver” us from a problem, difficult situation, or hardship in a manner we thought He should have.
3) Jesus allowed us to “go through or walk through” a difficult time without “rescue” or “deliverance”.
We then become angry, disappointed, mad, or offended with Jesus because He did not answer, deliver, or “rescue” us as we thought He should have. This disrupts our line of communication with Christ and hearing His voice. At this time we say (perhaps not outwardly – but inwardly) “I’m mad” or “I’m upset at You – therefore I’m not talking to You, and I’m definitely not listening to You!”
Both of these foundations are incorrect and faulty foundations to build our relationship with Christ upon. Time, storms, difficulties, and hardships will reveal how faulty they actually are. These 2 foundations are about “self preservation” and “self interest”, they are all about “me”.
The New Testament says our salvation is built upon 2 other foundations. These 2 things are:
#1) Restoring a relationship with our Father in heaven and #2) We are welcomed into the Kingdom of God and we recognize and embrace a New King in our lives. That new King is Jesus.As we align our lives around these 2 foundations it will totally change how we see God and the world. As we recognize and embrace this “New King” in our lives we do receive the blessing of eternal life and He is our deliverer – the one who “rescues” us - but there is so much more.
Our foundation is to be Jesus Christ the “Cornerstone” and no other. He is the “New King in Town”. We were the “old king” who directed and lead our lives as it pleased us. In this new life, He is the “New King” with new life – new directions – new vision – new goals – new desires – a new way of living and doing things. As we develop a relationship with Him He will talk to us about these things and show us how to live them out.
Remember, relationship is key to everything. Never doubt that He wants us to hear Him!
Believe it, Seek it, Receive it! The King is enlisting warriors for His Kingdom.
The foundation is the most important part of the development, structure, strength, and endurance of a home or building. Jesus refers to the importance of a foundation of a person’s life when He tells the parable of the two men who built their homes, one upon a rock, the other on sand (Matthew 7:24 – 27 and Luke 6: 47 – 49). Jesus states that the rain, wind, and storms beat upon BOTH homes. The house, whose foundation was on the rock stood, the house on the sand fell.
The parable, or picture, Jesus is illustrating is about how a person builds his or her life. The foundation of each house (or life) being the key ingredient.
As we walk with Jesus it is important to recognize or know the foundation of our life. How did we begin our relationship with Him? What brought us to Jesus? What instructions, teachings, etc. did we begin our relationship with Christ? These instructions, teachings, etc. are what formed the foundation of our relationship with Christ. They formed our concepts and ideas of how we relate to Him.
Having a relationship with Christ and the Father is all about communication. The ability to hear His voice and directions in our lives is vital to our walk and growth with Him. I would say that our greatest struggle, in our walk with Him, is the ability to hear His voice. Sometimes we get it and hear very well, more times (than we are willing to admit) we miss it, we do not hear His voice or can’t hear His voice.
In my seeking to understand this dilemma, I have come to know that the problem is on our side – not His! I’ve come to understand that the problem lies in our foundations. If the foundations are not correctly formed, the house (our life) is shaken or falls apart when storms, heavy winds, etc. come.
For the most part (in Christianity) we have come to Jesus based on 2 messages – or 2 different reasons. These messages or reasons brought us to Christ and were the foundations upon which we started and formed our relationship with Him. They shaped and formed our concept of Him. Our relationship with God is dependent upon our concept of God.
I would like to present to you, what I believe, are 2 incorrect foundations which cause conflicts in our relationship with Christ and the ability to hear His voice.
#1) Fear: We came to Jesus because we were afraid we were going to die (any moment) and we’re going to spend eternity in hell. Fear caused uncertainty about eternity and brought us to Jesus to remedy that uncertainty.
#2) “Rescue Jesus”: We found ourselves in difficulties, trouble, problems, hardships, etc. and we needed deliverance from these situations. We came to Jesus to “rescue” us or deliver us out of these troubles.
Both of these reasons are blessings and promises provided by Christ in salvation. But, there is a problem when we build our relationship based upon these 2 foundations.
Salvation is all about a relationship! Salvation is first and foremost about restoring the relationship with our Father (GOD) which was lost because of sin in the Garden of Eden. These 2 foundations distort that relationship and keep us from hearing Him correctly.
Next week I am going to share how these 2 foundations distort your hearing and present to you 2 foundations that will change your life and the way you walk with God.
We come to Jesus to escape the “fires of hell” only to find out that
“our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), He has
“eyes like a flame of fire” (Revelation 1:14), that He is a
“refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:2), and that
“fire will reveal and test” our work and service (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
So, we ask,
“What is going on here? I ran from a path that was leading me into the fires of hell - now to find I have run into a fire, while running to God! What’s up with that?!”The answer? One path was leading into eternal destruction. The other path is leading toward eternal fruit.
When I speak of eternal fruit, I am not just speaking of a reward that we are to receive after death and crossing into Heaven. I am speaking about a life which brings true “life” into this Earth and into the lives of other people – NOW – in our years here on Earth, and will remain even after we have passed into Heaven.
While it is true that there is a fire that brings eternal destruction, there is also the “Fire of God” that feels and seems as though there is destruction taking place also! There seems to be a lot of pain, anguish, frustration, sadness, loss, and hurt when His fire is at work in our lives.
In John 15, Jesus speaks of a purging and pruning process in our lives. He states that the goal and purpose is to
“bear fruit” or to
“produce fruit” that will remain (endure, be long lasting, eternal). He also states
“the Father is glorified” when we produce this fruit (John 15:8).
When purging and pruning take place (i.e. when we are going through the fire) it is often sad to see so much cast away or burnt away. It appears (and feels) that there is a great loss! At one time, what appeared as abundance to us, we now find was “nothing but fluff”! What we thought was fruitful and fulfilling to us was neither fruitful nor fulfilling to the Father. What seemed to fulfill a desire and bring us pleasure was not fulfilling the desire and pleasure that the Father had for our lives.
During these seasons of purging and pruning, we must remain steadfast. To remain steadfast is to remain faithful, to not give up, quit, or give in to a distraction or detour that seemingly pulls us out of the fire. These distractions and detours comfort and relieve our souls and flesh, but bring no fruit to the Father or to the Kingdom of God!
I close with a quote from Michael Molinos’ book, “Spiritual Guide”, written in 1687:
“There is the fire of inward pain.
It is fire which presses you through much sadness, hurt, depression,
discouragement, frustration, and loneliness.
It is a fire which will press you into God, or even drive you away from God.
It is a fire which will, if allowed to have its complete work in us,
purify our motives, desires, goals, and ‘reason’ for all that we do!”
Original Posting Date: July 20, 2009
While praying during our first prayer meeting for our Prophetic Ministers Fellowship conference at Sanford Florida, July 17,2009 I saw a “vision” or picture in my spirit of a huge warehouse filled to the brim and I heard these words “These are the days of preparation..” so I grabbed a piece of paper and began to write these words.
These are the days of preparation, restoration… consecration.
NOT days of miss steps… of being a coward… no not of self-promotion or self-protection.
These are days for supernatural people to press in, to press on… to go deeper, stronger, longer.
These are NOT days of natural men or natural thinking.
These are days to prepare to fill the warehouse (in preparation for the days ahead) with only things that are eternal…that will last. My wise virgins fill up your lanterns with Spirit’s oil… Spirit’s wisdom. Fill up to overflowing… running over to last.
The preparation plans are already drawn up by the architect of heaven… ancient wisdom. Don’t go by that which seems right, My Spirit leads the charge… My Spirit gives direction that will lead and protect from pitfalls that could trip you up.
In each of your lives are arsenals full of weapons divinely created from every single scrap and experience and wisdom’s keys gleaned from past training experience… from past training exercises. I WASTE NOTHING. (Here I saw crumbs and pieces that when we had gone through these experiences had appeared like great failures, hurts and disappointments, broken dreams etc. … and I saw the Lord sweep up all those pieces and place them on these shelves. Then the Lord took all these bits and pieces and make tools/weapons of them.) I built bombs and rifles and high powered laser missiles that are laid up for these days ahead, that will destroy and break through the walls that the devil (in a vain, last ditch effort) will try to raise to block My plans for you- My Prepared Ones (those who have loved Me, who have loved My Word…who with yielded hearts have allowed the Spirit’s work of consecration and change.) These will be days of miracles and signs and wonders for My Prepared Ones. For the wise virgins will find it to be oh so much easier than those who are not ready. In future days you will be even overcome at times… feelings of great thanksgiving will arise, for every single test you have passed… for every discipline of the Lord will be your future strength, your future arsenal.
These are days of preparation. Cut off every tie that binds… remove all that is unnecessary… they will only weigh you down. You don’t want anything in your “backpack” that only will be weights. Life giving water and bread of life are your priorities. Let love be your guide. He will be your guide… He will never fail you… lead you astray.
Remove all debts (money and spiritual debts i.e. things left undone that should have been done in which Holy Spirit has been dealing with you)… clean house… forgive and release. THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY MANDATE!!! Be the initiators of kindness, release, forgiveness, bridge building… AND BE QUICK ABOUT IT!
It’s a time for no wasted energy… no wasted time….but of getting ready. Throw away the unnecessary in these days of preparation. For those who see and know My Spirit you can feel the rush of wind that shall pour out as the door begins to close. (This door was like 2 or 3 stories high and was massive in size and weight and I knew it was the door that closed the end of this age, the end of the age of man… the end of the last days and as it closed it was like when there is a storm outside and you close the door, all this air comes rushing out.
(Prayer: Lord help Your leaders to be prepared that we may prepare others!)
Original Posting Date: July 20, 2009
(A Vision Statement)
We are created to have the same goals, desires, dreams, and ambitions as our Father God, and they are to be realized (first of all) here on planet Earth - before we graduate into the future.
Our Father, God, intends to bring life on Earth under His order, and He intends to use us, the believers, to do it! If you are in Christ, you are called to extend His Kingdom Franchise on Earth as a junior partner.
We are called to discover His management principles of life, relationship, and stewardship that are revealed in the Scriptures; to practice them personally and with others; and let the Holy Spirit train you as to their proper use and appropriate application on a daily basis.
Like Jesus, we are to seek every possible opportunity to extend the Father’s Life and blessings to all men and in all situations. We are also called to apply godly stewardship and care over the resources that are entrusted in our hands.
We are responsible to root out the enemy / competitor (Satan) from our own life and our family. We are to look for opportunities to attack the gates of hell and liberate those whose minds, morals, and lifestyles have been imprisoned by Satan’s world system.
We did not just get “saved” - we got drafted! You are in His family business to extend it both within you and externally to all the earth.
This family business runs on laws and guidelines that we are expected to learn and apply in an ever increasing and excellent fashion, in our daily lives and activities. We are to be trained and educated in the Master’s Business (our Father’s Business).
The eternal question we answer is: “What type of student / employee will I be?” Are we looking out for ourselves and our personal retirement program in the sky? Or are we looking out for the extension of the Father’s Business and His desires here on Earth as Jesus did?