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.