Testing Our Spiritual Foundation

Plants and buildings are both biblical metaphors for discipleship.  Consequently, roots and foundations are the corresponding metaphors for solid grounding and endurance.  The best way to understand the power of being rooted in love, in faith, or in the Word of God is to think about other kinds of “rootedness.” People who have a root of bitterness, lust, greed, or fear find that their perceptions, attitudes, and action are constantly controlled by what has been growing in their lives for years.  Anger and revenge fueled by a root of bitterness is very difficult to stop.  In other words, it is hard to backslide from living out what is rooted in you.

Mike Bickle, referring to the testing of the house’s foundation, says there are three types of storms.  Two we will all face; some will face all three.  The first storm is the defining trial of your life.  It’s not just a bad day or a bad month.  It is the ultimate test of your life.  The second trial is at the end of the age, a tribulation so bad that if not cut short, the human race would not survive.  The third storm is when we stand before Christ as He judges every event, action, word, thought, and intention of the heart.  Whether our house stands or falls depends on how deeply the roots of God’s Word and God’s Spirit have grown down into out lives.  Foundations or “rootedness” is not 13-week class but a life-long pursuit.

Here’s what Jesus said about the importance of spiritual foundations:

Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a
wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the
streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it
did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  (MATT 7:24,25)

LOVE

Love is a very important foundation of a strong spiritual life.  The greatest commandment for us to follow is to love God with all our heart and to love others as we love ourselves.  Our hearts must be filled with divine love for God and people.  If we lack this love all our spiritual activities will be in vain.  This love will produce godly qualities in our life such as patience, kindness, humility, etc.  We must understand the fullness of God’s love for us.  This will fill us with great inner strength especially when we deal with unloving people.  The Apostle Paul was deeply rooted in the love of Christ and he was certain that nothing could separate him from the love of Christ. 

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:  Matthew 22 : 35-40 ; Romans 13 : 8-10 ; Ephesians 3:14-19; Romans 8:35-39; I Corinthians 13 : 1-13.

FAITH

Faith is a very important foundation of a strong spiritual life.  We can accomplish great things through our faith in God.  We can get answers to our prayers when we pray in faith.  We live by faith and we would lose great blessings if we lose our faith.  We cannot please God without faith.  We must be strong in faith even before we see the manifestation of the promises of God because we walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is the shield which protects us from the fiery attacks of the devil.  We must be strong in faith to overcome the attacks of the enemy and inherit the promises of God in our life .

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:  Mark 9:23 ; Mark 11 : 23-24 ; Hebrews 10 : 35 , 38; Hebrews 11:1, 6 ; 2 Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 6 : 12 ; Hebrews 6 : 12 ;James 1: 6-7 ; Ephesians 6 : 16.

WISDOM

Wisdom is a very important foundation of a strong spiritual life.  Wisdom helps us to make the right choices in our life.  Wisdom helps us to escape the snares and dangers of this evil world.  Wisdom helps us to enjoy the blessings of God and avoid needless suffering we can bring upon ourselves by our own foolishness.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  When we obey the words of Jesus we are like the wise man who built his house upon the rock which withstood all the storms that came upon it. The divine wisdom that comes from God is very different from the cunning and deceitful wisdom of Satan.  We need spiritual enlightenment to know the riches of the inheritance that we have in Christ and the great power that is available for us.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:  Proverbs 4:7; Proverbs 9 : 10 ; Proverbs 24 : 3 ; Matthew 7 : 24-27; James 3 : 13-18; Ephesians 1:15-23; Colossians 1:9-12.

GRACE

Grace is a very important foundation of a strong spiritual life.  The Grace of God brings us blessings that we do not even deserve .  We receive Salvation by Grace.  The Grace of God brings us favor in sight of God and man.  It enables us to accomplish great things for God which we cannot do in our own strength.  It can lift us from a low state to great heights.  Joseph, Daniel , Esther, David, Paul are examples of what the Grace of God can do in the life of a person.  Jesus was constantly increasing in favor with God and man.  The grace of God is a great protection and a shield in our lives to protect us from the dangers of this world.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:  Genesis 39 : 21 ; Esther 2 : 15 , 17 ; Luke 2 : 40 , 52 ; Daniel 1: 9; Daniel 6 : 3; I Corinthians 15 : 10; Psalm 5:12.

HOLINESS

Holiness is a very important foundation of a strong spiritual life.  Without holiness no man can see God. God wants us to be holy even as He is holy.  Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and must be kept holy.  Our body has been bought by Christ and does not belong to us.  Therefore we must glorify God in our bodies.  All our great works for God will not help us on the day of Judgement if we have lived a sinful life.  The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sins when we repent sincerely and ask the Lord to forgive us.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:  Hebrews 12 : 14 ; I Peter 1 : 15-16; I Corinthians 6:9-10 ,19-20; Matthew 7:22-23; Matthew 7 : 21.

WILL OF GOD

The will of God is a very important foundation of a strong spiritual life.  We are called to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for our life .  We cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven if we do not fulfill the will of God in our lives.  We must strive to fulfill the purpose for which God has chosen us.  Our thoughts and ways are much different from the thoughts and ways of God.  We must submit our ways to God and allow Him to form us as a potter forms the clay into the vessel of his choice.  Each one of us has a unique role to play in the body of Christ and we need not compare ourselves with others.  We need not feel inferior or jealous if anybody is given a different responsibility.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:  I Corinthians 12 : 12 - 26; Jeremiah 18:1-6; Isaiah 55: 8-9; Philippians 3:12-14; John 15:16; Matthew 26:39; Matthew 7 : 21.

HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is a very important foundation of a strong spiritual life.  Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit we cannot be witnesses for Christ.  The Holy Spirit develops our Christian character to help us produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.  He imparts spiritual gifts to us to serve God powerfully.  He reveals truths to us and guides into divine revelations.  He is our comforter and a constant source of encouragement in our Christian walk especially when we face trials and tribulations.  We enjoy great blessings when we have a close fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:  Acts 1: 8; Acts 2:17-18; I Corinthians 12 :7-11; Galatians 5 : 22-23; Romans 5:5; John 16 : 7-14.

~Bits and Pieces of sermon by Dr. Stanley Vasu

JESUS THE LION OF JUDAH

We are to watch to see what God will say to us (Habakkuk 2:1) I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

The End of this Age or The Last Days

This is the showdown days of the two lions. We as Christians know the out come of this showdown and The Lion of Judah will end the rein of Satan the devouring lion. The devouring lion will become the one who is devoured by The Lion of Judah. This is foretold in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, and the Lion of Judah vanquishes all His enemies and all of us who belong to Him come with Him. He sets up His Kingdom on earth for a thousand years and after that to rein forever and we with Him.

It is interesting that the Scriptures in many places speak of the last days and in every case where the Scriptures speak of the last days, you find that it is a precise description of the day and the age in which we live. The Bible is filled with prophecies of the last days just before the Lion of Judah releases the power of heaven on Satan the devouring lion and all those who have rejected Jesus, The Lion of Judah. These days are called the tribulations, the day of the Lord or the wrath of God on the earth. Whereas all those who have received Jesus as their deliverer and savior will be kept from those days. We will be taken out of the world by Jesus and taken to a wonderful and safe place in heaven and we will all receive our immortals and glorified bodies and forever be with Jesus.

As stated before, Jesus came into the world as fully a man and fully as God. He came as a lamb to be slaughtered for the sins of all mankind, because a just God can only accept the blood of a sinless man for the atonement of sins of man. Jesus was that man, completely sinless even though He was tempted just like any other man. He had to suffer the cross and the shedding of His own blood in many ways to fulfill the requirements of God for the forgiveness of all of our sins that separated us from God. Jesus chose this death willingly because He loved us so much. He did this so no one has to be separated from God and spend eternal torment apart from God, but instead enjoy being in the presence of God in heaven having an eternal life with Him.

Isaiah 53 describes the life of Jesus while on earth as a man. This was Jesus’ first coming to earth and we now await His return (the second coming) to earth to rule and reign over all the earth. His first coming was as the Lamb for slaughter, He died on the cross but He was resurrected on the third day as the Lion. Take a look at what the scriptures have to say about that resurrection day. All four of the Gospels are in agreement in reporting the facts of the resurrection. These details vary with each Gospel, they do not contradict each other, but when they are all taken together they give a broad picture of the events of that day.

How Do We Know We Are In The Last Days?

If you watch the news of the day many say that December 21, 2012 was to be the end of the world or the Apocalypse of the world according to the Mayan calendar and other cultures that make Mysticism part of their religion. According to the Bible quoted in Matthew no man knows the day or hour. The world was not going to end on December 21, 2012.

With that being said, just what does the Bible say about the Last Days? According to the Bible there are periods of time called dispensations when certain events took place that identified that period of time as different from any other time. These Biblical Dispensations are broken down as follows.

Age of Innocence – The creation of the earth – Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 3:19 - This time was marked by Creation (God created a perfect world without sin), Obedience to God’s word, Disobedience to God’s word (enter the serpent, Satan the devouring lion) and the beginning of the Curse and Death of mankind. Remember that Jesus the Lion of Judah is Jehovah (Yahweh) of the Old Testament. In John 1, John testifies to this fact; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Age of Conscience – The fall of man – Genesis 3 through 7 - This time was marked by the beginning of the blood sacrifice for the atonement of the sin of man, Wickedness entered the world when Cane killed Able and all kinds of abominations toward God took place by man and the fallen angels (these angels mixed their DNA with the DNA of women resulting in giants in the world). This was followed by the Flood of Noah’s day. The world had become so evil and so many “hybrid” giants so filled with evil that God could do nothing but destroy them to preserve the few “pure” people left on earth.

Age of Human Government – Post flood – Genesis 8 through Genesis 11 – Noah’s three sons multiplied went out throughout the earth – Nimrod and the Tower of Babel – Nimrod was a type or shadow of the anti-Christ to come at the end of the age. At this time there was only one language and they all followed and worked together for Nimrod and evil again began to beset the earth. So God confused the people by giving the people many different languages to confuse and scatter them so they were no longer one people and they could no longer work together.

The next two dispensations are grouped under Israel. These two represent the beginning of God’s promise to Abraham that he would be a great nation forever. Even though these two dispensations end at the beginning of the church age this is not the end of Israel but only a brake in their promise. Israel is destined to be a nation under God for all eternity.

Age of Promise – Abraham is called by God to leave his father and native land and receive the promise of God for his life and his descendants forever. God promises Abraham and his descendants that he will be given a land to dwell in forever. Here we see four generations from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob’s twelve sons, who become the twelve tribes of Israel. Through his seed will come the messiah, Jesus Christ, The Lion of Judah, The Savior of the world. His descendants’ go to Egypt and become slaves in that land.

Age of Law – Moses leads the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt and they receive the Ten Commandments during their forty years in the wilderness. The Israelites enter the promise land. They rebel against God and are scattered through out the world. At the end of this age we find Israel under Roman rule.

Church Age – Jesus, the Messiah, is born in Israel and at about age 30 He begins His ministry, but most of the Jews reject Him as their Messiah. Jesus dies on the cross for the sin of all man kind, past, present and future and He is raised back to life on the third day. By His death on the cross and His resurrection He has reconciled man to Father God once again. Jesus has twelve disciples who carry on His work and brings His message to the world. Jesus’ testimony has gone around the world up to this very day. Because for the most part the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, the good news that Jesus brought was taken to the gentile people to make the Jew jealous. God’s attention was given to the gentiles in this age, but at the end of this age it will once again be on the Jewish people. This time is called the great tribulations and the return of Jesus to earth to rule for a thousand years and after that forever. This is the age that we live in and we are at the end of that age. How do we know that these are the days that we live in the end of the church age? By the Word of God, the Bible, in this book all of mankind’s history is laid out in prophecies found though out the scriptures and by Jesus himself in His own words found in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament.

Before you think I'm all about doom-and-gloom there are a few statements I need to make. These statements are the simple truths of God.

• You are living in the greatest days that any generation has ever lived.

• You were born for this time and this place; you were destined to live in these days from the foundation of the world.

• You will witness things from God that no other generation has ever seen.

• You will do things that no other generation has ever done.

• You are greatly LOVED and FAVORED by God.

• No other generation has been given such an assignment from God as this generation. (I will explain this as we look at the last days.)

• You live in a day when the Lord’s Peace is the only peace in the world.

• You live in a day that is filled with the GRACE and Mercy of the Lord for all that call and believe on HIS name.

• You live in a day where you will see the supernatural provision of the Lord poured out on His people.

• You live in a day where the GLORY OF THE LORD will be all around you and you will feel the weight of that GLORY.

In Hebrew, the word for glory is "kavod," it also means weight. The glory of God is a tangible thing, sometimes you can see it as mist or fog or it my manifest it’s self as a heaviness pressing down on you. God's glory is coming and is on His children in these last days because God is shaking everything, but with His glory upon you, you will not be shaken.

The Lord is exposing His true remnant of believers to the world. These are men and women who have endured the necessary shaking and training by the Holy Spirit and have allowed the glory of God to give them the required substance and weight they need to present the true gospel of Jesus Christ, The Lion of Judah in this last hour. Others will see them standing and will marvel that they are not moved by what is going on all around them. They will be at peace and have all the provisions they need, while other around them live in fear and are in great need. Then they will want to know what causes them to remain secure and steadfast in their faith in a world of ever-increasing volatility and uncertainty.

Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:27)

Jesus is coming first like the lamb, but as the King and Bridegroom for His Bride, the Church. This is everyone who belongs to Him and are ready to meet Him in the clouds. He is taking His bride out of the way before He releases His Roar as the Lion of Judah on those who have rejected Him and have worked against Him and His Kingdom. You see, all that belongs to Him have nothing to fear of the future; He is taking care and protecting His own just as a Lion protects His Pride...Jesus will come for His church, His Bride, and take her out of this world to a place that He has prepared for her during the time of the judgment of the earth called the great tribulations...When this comes about "The Lion of Judah" will unleash His wrath upon the earth as described in the book of Revelation. The LORD will roar from Zion. This will bring about an end to the world government of Satan and men in one great last battle called Armageddon and usher in the rein of Jesus Christ for a thousand years.

These are truly spectacular days to be alive in Christ. To be an eye witness to the fulfillment of Bible Prophecy, that was given over 5000 years and now is coming to pass right before our eyes.

This is truly a time to raise your voice in praise and worship to our King Jesus, The Lion of Judah.

Hallelujah and Amen !!!!!!

~Bits and Pieces of Freedom for all Ministries