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That
He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory,
to
be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.
Let
the Holy Spirit examine your hearts concerning your motivations. Let Him
lay the right foundation so that your heart can not grow cold or be
hardened.
Heavy
storms are touching the body of Christ today. Organizations and churches
are shaken. On every level in life and in the hearts op people there is
also a shaking going on. When our Father is pruning certain parts of our
hearts, His reasons will always be to make us more fruitful. Our Father
wants to build His Kingdom through you.
Before
He can do that it’s of great importance that your foundation gets
strengthened. You can build as high and broad as your foundation can carry.
If the construction is weak or wrong, you will be limited in many things.
A house built on quicksand cannot stand and the constructor has to make a
new plan.
Now
is the time to examine your foundation. Let God examine if your ways and
walk with the Lord is strong enough. Correction under the light and in the
truth of the Spirit is the most painless way to be corrected. If we allow
the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts, He can put things in order.
Sometimes our actions are good, but we need to adjust our motives. It can
be difficult to discern somebody’s motives, yes, even our own motives.
We are specialist in covering our own motives. We sometimes exactly know
how to hide our wrong construction-motives, or we delete them for a while,
so nobody will notice. We even rationalize the impact of our weak
foundation, and even use them as an excuse not to break them down. If the
building we made looks nice on the outside, we call our plans successful.
But
the Holy Spirit exams our hearts all the time (Romans 8:27). If we neglect
Him, our hearts can be hardened and a more painful correction can be
necessary. The knife has to cut a little deeper. An intervention by the
Father, through His Spirit is always full of love. If you’re really open
for it, your life will be changed. Pruning brings better fruits and
greater blessings.
The
Lord talks to you in order to strengthen your foundation. Strengthen the
character and holiness of Christ in your life. Holiness and looking more
like Jesus are essential for a strong and right foundation. The Holy
Spirit even wants to go much deeper. He calls us to a deeper and more
powerful love.
Ephesians
3:16-18 “That
He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ
may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and
grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is
the width and length an depth and height –
Paul
writes here, that beside a good foundation, it also is very important that
we are grounded and rooted in the love of Christ. How do we get there? By
being strengthened by ‘His Spirit’, Paul says. By the power of the
Spirit of God faith will come to live in our hearts. So that all the
saints (these are all who believe in Him) would understand what is the
secret of God’s love for us.
These
verses teach us that next to a good foundation, it is also important to be
rooted in the riches of His glory. By the Spirit of God we will understand
and live according to the depths and widths of His love.
Do
you know that God allows you to go through difficult times in life? It’s
one of His ways to teach you new things. The Father allows it, that we
have problems from time to time so that He can teach us to walk in the
love of Christ.
God
wants to renew us today. He wants to reform is after His image. We need to
walk new ways with Him. These new ways give us the opportunity to
strengthen our foundation of love and will make us look more like Christ.
If we choose to walk the narrow road of humbleness, the Father will lift
us up in greater power and dominion with Him.
Attention!
God will check every action, word and thought. His will sift everything
till He is sure that the right foundation is built. If the foundation is
wrong, it will be out of His will. Many things that don’t have the right
foundation will stumble down.
Everything
that is motivated by selfishness and greed will be shaken down. Walls that
are supported because otherwise they will fall; will surely be broken
down.
Two
people can speak the same words, but with different motives. One will be
lead by greed, the other one by love. Same words, different motives.
One
will be founded in light and love in the strength of the Lord, the other
one on quicksand and a crumbling foundation.
Every
word or action that is not founded in unselfish love will be broken down!
Every
foundation that is built on manipulation of God’s will, will be
destroyed by fire.
But
a foundation, rooted in true love will shine inside and outside. The
Father is shaking His church back to His foundational message of love.
I
believe in the most high blessings, provisions and grace given by a loving
Father. I believe in the principle that a good foundation only can be
built in Jesus Christ. ‘To sow and to reap’ in love is the cement that
binds the foundation together. I believe in an abundant blessing and
prosperity. This prosperity has a very important goal. It’s not only
given to be a blessing for ourselves. The truth is that we can handle a
bigger blessing than others because of our prosperity and that this will
be very useful to build the Kingdom of God on earth. True prosperity is
giving with an unselfish heart.
Matthew
16:18 says: “And
I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My
church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
The
original Greek word is ‘You are
Petros’. Petros
(fragment) is used here as a part of a rock. So Jesus tells Peter: “You
are a part of the rock.”
Then
Jesus asks Peter: “Who do you think I am?” (Matthew 16:16). Peter
answers: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus than
answers: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
Actually
Jesus tells Peter: “You, Peter, are a piece of rock in Me, a piece of
rock that is growing in Me. I will continue to build on this strong rock,
because you are in Me and I am in you. This is the foundation that I will
build My house on. It is built on love and nothing that is dead of sinful
will load this foundation with assaults from Satan.
On
this Petra I will build My church. In Greek Petra
is described as another rock, more specific the rock that is the
foundation, or the rock of the true ministry. Here the Lord Jesus tells us
that He is the strong rock that we can build on.
On
this rock He will build His church, we are a piece of it, a fragment, and
a little part of the good foundation. The church, your organization, and
most of all you yourself must be built on this strong foundation, this
rock!
Matthew
4:23 tells us that Jesus traveled around preaching the Gospel of the
Kingdom. What is the Gospel of the Kingdom?
Matthew
22:37-40 gives a clear answer about the true meaning of the Kingdom. You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Daniel
2:31-49 shows us a prophesy about the foundational rock we need to build
on. It clearly shows us what happens if we build on quicksand.
A
rock will break lose from the mountain without help from men. The iron,
bronze, clay, the silver and the gold will be destroyed. This rock will
destroy all kingdoms and make and end their dominion. On the same moment
God will found a kingdom that will not be destroyed in eternity. The
dominion will not be passed on to another people.
Kingdom
will come after kingdom, soft as bronze with kings that reign over all
that is given to them. With power over mankind as well as over animals.
Every kingdom will be less than the one before, the third one soft as
bronze will rule over all the earth. The fourth kingdom will be hard as
iron. Like iron destroys everything, like kingdoms with feet and tooth
made of a mix of iron and clay. This means that these kingdoms will be
divided; the foundation will be soft and weak.
Can
we learn a lesson from these verses? Jesus is the rock that will break
lose from that big mountain of divided kingdoms. These worldly kingdoms
have statues of gold and silver with riches at their feet, made of iron
and clay. He will destroy these false kingdoms.
The
Gospel of the Kingdom is simple. It’s true love for the Father and love
and compassion for your neighbors.
In
John 21:15-17 Jesus asks Peter three times: “Do you love Me?”
Peter
answers: “Yes Lord, You know everything and You know I love You.”
Jesus
says: “Then tend and feed My sheep.”
The
true foundation Gods wants to build His church on is made of true love.
Love
for Him and love for the people.
This
is the foundation the Father is shaking today. It needs to happen because
all our actions, thoughts, attitudes, churches and ministries and most of
all we are not driven by love.
Do
we preach and teach a false gospel, with a foundation of quicksand? The
father will shake everything and let every evil thing burn in the oven.
Everything
that is built on love – God will continue to build His kingdom on, and
His love will be multiplied.
Allow
the Holy Spirit to examine your heart. Every good work that is build on a
foundation of love will expand in a beautiful way and every multiplication
will be for the Kingdom.
Everything
that is not build in love will be shaken by the Father and thrown in the
oven.
Allow
the Holy Spirit to examine your heart for the right motives. Let Him put
the right foundation here so that your heart will not grow cold or hard.
Heavenly
Father, again we ask You to baptize us with fire.
Holy
Spirit, we ask you to pour out the love of the Father in our hearts.
Please
help us to answer in love, to speak with love, to act with love and to
live Your Word on earth.
We
ask You Lord, let us shine to Your honor.
Let
Your Spirit renew our hearts, by bringing in the light every hidden motive
or ambition that is in contradiction to Your love.
Keep
our hearts with a pure image of Christ.
Let
Your love overwhelm us every moment of the day.
We
ask You to give us a strong, true Foundation.
Wash
us with the precious blood of Jesus and fill us continually with the Holy
Spirit.
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