5-21-2016 THE MASTER BUILDER Part 3
Fourth, he erects walls, roof and
flooring
God sets the sun, moon and stars in
place (Gen. 1:14-19)
And God said “Let there be lights in
the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them as
signs for the seasons, the days and he years.
And let them be lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the
earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater
light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and He also made
the stars. God set them in the firmament
of heaven to give light upon the earth.
And to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from
the darkness and God saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
God establishes the structure for His creation and the
purpose for each. The sun and the moon
define day and night. They define the
passing of time, one day into another, setting the stage for the passing of one
season into another and finally the passing of a year. By establishing the days, months, seasons and
years God has set some parameters on His creation and how it should
operate. He established rules (‘laws of
nature’ if you will), what happens when those rules are followed and what
happens when they are not. He has
established what His creation should look like and now it’s time to do more
than just framework.
A man starts building the framework for his house and putting
up walls and a roof so his house can start taking ‘shape’, look like a house. He selects the right size and strength of
timbers to shape a solid floor, walls and roof setting up the framework and now
that the dimensions (parameters) of his house are set, he’s ready for the next
step – roofing and walls and etc..
Though my spiritual foundation has been laid, my ‘Christian’
walk needs to start taking shape, too.
My foundation has been laid, that is I know God created everything,
Jesus died on the cross for my sins so I confessed and repented my sins and
gave my heart to Him, and I know that I should keep the commandments. But what does all that really mean? I need to start getting some spiritual
structure into my life.
Knowing what God has done for me and understanding what it
truly means is not the same thing. Even Satan knows what God has done for man and
he has a better understanding of what it means than most people. He is not deaf, he’s not blind nor is he
stupid. He hears what we say. He sees what we do and he’s smart enough to
figure out when what’s going on and when w’re getting closer to God. If this were not true, he wouldn’t know what
our relationship was with God and he would never be able to plan a counter
attack to keep us from getting closer to the Lord.
So I build my framework by knowing God’s Word (the
bible). I have to read it, learn it and
understand it. In God’s Word I learn
about God’s nature, what can I expect from Him, what He expects from me and
about the relationship I should have with the living God who created the
heavens and earth. I have to not just learn
what the bible says start applying what I have learned to show myself approved
before the Lord!
I need to start talking ‘with’ the Lord. Anyone can spout off about how he feels or
what he wants from the lord and hope God is listening. Unfortunately for too many, once they’ve
‘spouted off’, their prayer ends and they go on their way. We can talk ‘to’ God and that’s actually
believing He truly hears us but once we’ve said my peace we cap it with “amen’
and thank you Lord’ and go on our way.
Or we can talk ‘with’ our heavenly Father and that means we now have a
two way street of communication with Him.
We still have our say, but then we zip the lip and listen to hear what
God has to say. If we have a question,
God may send us into the bible to show us the answer. He may answer us through people or the things
around us. Of course, we have to be sensitive
to what’s going on around us. Or he may
speak directly with us. 1 Samuel chapter
three, Samuel learns to hear the voice of God and yes we may have to learn how
to hear God. This is why we learn about
God’s nature (from the bible) so we can distinguish what may be our own ‘ego’
talking versus God actually responding to us.
Personally, I have a basic structure for my AM prayers. BUT Father interrupts that structure as He
pleases – and He does. I’ve been in the
middle of something when, all of the sudden, Father will use that to spring
into something He wants me to learn or understand. It get pretty neat because after He has had
His say, He brings me back to where I was.
My structure is set and my parameters for learning are set as
I put into practice what Father has shown me.
God sets the parameters for His creation, how it should look
and how it should function.
A man builds the framework for his house setting the
parameters for what that house should look like.
We need to read the bible, pray, interact with other
Christians and be sensitive to the world around us so we can recognize the
parameters Father sets spiritually for us so we can live for and glorify Him.
Fifth, Man starts bringing ‘life’ into his house –
shingles for the roof, siding for the walls and drainage for the floors, all
with purpose
God creates the animals, fish and birds and puts them in
their respective places (Gen. 1:20-23)
And god said “Let the waters bring
forth abundantly the moving creature that has life and the fowl that may fly
above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” And God created great whales and every living
creature that moves, which the water brought forth abundantly after their kind
and every winged fowl after its kind.
And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them saying “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water
in the seas and fowls multiply in the earth.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
God starts bringing life into His creation, the birds,
animals and the fish, large and small, each designed with a specific purpose. God’s world is looking more and more like
what He wants. Now when the bible says
whales the Hebrew word is tanniym which means whale or dragon or serpent
indicating of great size (no extra charge).
A man adds exterior walls to his house, a roof, floors, interior
walls, plumbing and electrical systems so his house can start taking on ‘life’
and be fit to live in. Of course, he
will still need the ‘finishing’ touches – and that is day six.
Spiritually, Father starts solidifying our lives in the
things we need to know to continue to grow.
We have a very basic foundation or understanding of our relationship
with the Father but now He’s bringing us into a deeper understanding of what
that relationship really means. We know
that the greatest commandment is to love Father with all our heart, mind, soul
and spirit but what does that really involve?
Jesus tells us that ‘love’ is the basis of everything the prophets
talked about, the ‘ten commandments’ and all the ‘explanatory’ commandments
that evolved from them. All of these is
an explanation of what God’s love means and how we might implement that love into
our lives. And that takes time.
For me, it has taken more time than I care to admit but I
cannot lie it has taken the better part of forty years for me to get to a point
in my life so Father can start showing me some deeper things which I need to
know.
I was ‘saved’ in a Southern Baptist Church and even though I
was learning bible, all I really knew was that Jesus saved me. I had been ‘saved’ about five years when
Father introduced me to the Charismatic movement. Everyone I met was hopped up on the blessings
and promises of God, but something was lacking.
Many whom I encountered in this movement were willing to ‘cut corners’
to make God’s blessing come to pass. It
just didn’t seem right and I never heard them talking about our
responsibilities or our obligations towards God and our fellow man. Even though I had friends who were, I never
got very involved with the Charismatic movement. It just seemed ‘unbalanced’ to me. Because of this, knowing that Kenneth Hagin
was one of the main early proponents of the movement, I steered clear of any
and all things that he put out – until 2015.
At that time, at the church I attend, we were doing a study on how to
enhance our walk with the lord. As it
turned out a book of requirement was Hagin’s “Understanding the Anointing” and I’m
glad to have read it. I discovered that
Hagin’s teaching was very balanced and the things he talked about in the book
were things Father had been exposing me to over the past several years, even
before I started attending my current church.
Hagin described things I had been learning and experiencing. My opinion on brother Hagin changed
dramatically.
After the Charismatic experience, Father took my family and
me through several Pentecostal denominations and independent Pentecostal fellowships. In between my S. Baptist experience and my
current church Father also took me through several ‘mainstream’ churches, Independent
Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic. He was building my roof, floors and walls
with an understanding of common denominators and differences between the
various denominations.
He also had taken me on a private study, not just on the
Christian denominations but on basic common factors and differences between
many of the world’s major religions and though I never attended any I read
material from detractors and from that religion’s own sources so that I might
have a balanced view of each of those religions.
Talk show host and news analyst Bill O’Reilly has what he
call the ‘no spin zone’. That is, he
tries to give both sides of a subject so the listener can make up his own mind
about the subject. This is kind of what
Father was doing with me, giving me pros and cons so I might have a balanced
concept in helping me understand why we were making the choices we were making. And that included even not being in church
for more than one season. Not that I would recommend that, but I just didn’t
seem to fit in anywhere at times but I learned a lot.
I am currently in what is considered an Apostolic/Prophetic
church. An independent church but our
pastor is responsible to a number of ‘senior’ Christians who advise and counsel
her (yes, I have a woman pastor). As if the
Holy can’ do the job, Father has provided these sources to assure she doesn’t
get off track.
Father continues to expose me to ‘new’ things and when He
does, He takes me into the scriptures to show me the validation. I’m lovin’ it!
God brings life to His creation with the birds, animals and
fish and gives some fullness to that creation preparing it for the final
touches.
A man finishes the basic construction of his house, roof,
walls, floors, windows, doors and the like as he prepares to add the finishing
touches to help it to look and maybe even function a little better.
Father brings a greater fullness into our lives through our
experiences which help us to grow and gain a deeper understanding of our
relationship with Him so He can add the ‘finishing’ touches into His temple
(us) so we can carry His love to those around us and do it with reasonable
knowledge and understanding. And then,
to share it in His love.
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