Building your life God’s way

Psalm 127:1 says, “Except the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it.” Hebrews 3:4 declares that “God is the builder of everything.” Hebrews 11:10 reveals God as both “Architect” and “Builder,” therefore, God assigns it, designs it, and then He builds it.

Notice, except God assigns designs and then builds the house, those who toil will labour in vain. God is in the business of building, and what He builds will last. And, everything God builds He guards. If you desire to build something that’ll endure the test of time, you must build according to God's blueprint (His divine pattern).

So the best way to build your life is to build it God’s way, and the way to build it God’s way is to use the same building materials. When God builds, He builds using four distinct types of materials; the rock of Revelation, stone of Consecration, the pillar Relation and beam of Generation. The foundation is made of rock, it’s frame is made of pillars and solid beams, and the walls are made of living stones.

The divine building process is this: God first lays a foundation on the rock of revelation (Matthew 16:18); He then finds and separates the living stones (1 Peter 2:5); next, He builds a legitimate family relationship by becoming the Father (Psalm 2:7; John 8:41); and finally, He builds upwards (on solid beams) from generation to generation (Exodus 3:15).

Scripture tells us that God is building a spiritual house, from spiritual stones, for the Father to live in. This house is built on the solid Rock of Revelation. So before God builds He lays an unshakeable foundation on which His family can remain, and this is the revelation that Jesus is the Christ. Outside of this truth there’s no foundation.

Thereafter, every living stone in the spiritual house (the temple) is separated, measured and cut according to the Chief Cornerstone - Jesus Christ. This is the act of consecration - declaring each stone sacred for divine purposes.

The next stage in the building process concerns “family,” because every stone must mature and grow out of a joining. There needs to be a Father relation created. It’s only by being joined together in relationship with the Father that the living stones can be effectively and correctly placed, and then set, in His house. These multiplied family relationships, and the effectual joining together of each member, is what makes the spiritual house strong. But it doesn’t end there, God always builds from generation to generation.

Revelation; Consecration; Relation and Generation. However, before even reaching the planning stage in this divine building process, another marvellous quality should be present - “wisdom.”

Proverbs 8:30 [from the Amplified] says, “Then I (Wisdom) was beside Him (God) as a master builder and director of the work.”

Wisdom makes the point that she is as eternal as God Himself, since she is a divine quality and a pre-creation possession of God. Before God created anything He was accompanied by wisdom. It appears that wisdom was beside Him as a ‘director’ when He was doing the work. So, why not ask yourself this, “If God chose to have wisdom by His side when designing and the executing His plans, shouldn't I be doing the same?”

In fact, in this passage of scripture, wisdom implies that she (wisdom) should be listened to because of her ancient and special place in God's building process. But beware! Wisdom (being likened to a woman) will spurn anyone who mistreats her.

You cannot neglect, ignore, abuse or take unfair advantage of wisdom and still expect to enjoy her favour. Wisdom is every bit a lady! She is jealous and does not look kindly upon unfaithfulness. Nor will she allow herself to be betrayed through lack of respect or little involvement. If you want the favour of wisdom, then you must favour her! Just like a woman, wisdom will treat you as you treat her. And King Solomon ought to know what he's talking about - he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines to learn from.

The Book of Proverbs compares two women to two kinds of wisdom. It contrasts God's wisdom, which is symbolised by a virtuous woman, to the wisdom of the world, which is represented by an evil adulteress. Solomon knew intimately about both.

He knew what it was like to find a virtuous woman (kind, tender-hearted and compassionate), and knew what it was like to live with a beautiful but vain, immoral and unfaithful woman who brings shame upon those who love her most.

God's wisdom is a woman we can embrace, a woman who will bless us rather than harm us. As we hold her, she will hold us tightly and preserve us. As we love her, she watches over us and protects us. As we exalt her, she promotes us. And when we include her in everything , she brings us honour.

Now, that's a love affair worth getting involved in! Something we should all be paying attention to daily.

1 Corinthians 1:20-31, “Where is the wise man - the philosopher? Where is the scribe - the scholar? Where is the investigator - the logician, the debater - of this present age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world's wisdom?

For when the world with all its earthly wisdom failed to perceive and recognise and know God by means of its own philosophy, God in His wisdom was pleased through the foolishness of the message preached, to save those who believed - who clung to and trusted in, and relied on Him.

For while Jews ask for signs and miracles, and Greeks pursue philosophy and wisdom, we preach Christ the Messiah, crucified.

Which to the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block that springs a snare-trap, and to the Gentiles it is absurd and utterly unphilosophical nonsense. But to those who are called, whether Jew or Greek, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

In Proverbs God's wisdom is likened to a woman. However, in this scripture we see clearly that Jesus is the wisdom of God. Therefore, in order to locate wisdom we must go back to the origin of all things. Back even past creation. All the way back to the Creator Himself.

We have seen that wisdom is eternal and is a quality that was with God pre-creation. However, if we read John 1:1-3 we discover this.... “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 nothing was made.”

Wisdom was beside God pre-creation, and was present also during creation. This wisdom was nothing other than the “person” of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God is Jesus, and He was with God (and He was God), and nothing was made without His involvement. God the Father chose to have wisdom beside Him, as a master craftsman and sole director of all the work of creation. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God!

You cannot build anything of value or substance without Jesus being your co-worker and director. When you found Jesus, you found wisdom, and the Wisdom of God has set up residence inside of you. However, the very Wisdom that helped create “all things” can remain dormant and inefficient in you unless it’s treated correctly.

Looking again at Solomon’s analogy, we can safe assume that Jesus Christ (the Wisdom of God) should be treated in this way:

He should be listened to intently because of His ancient and special place in God's building process.
He cannot be ignored or treated unfaithfully.
He must not be betrayed through lack of respect or lack of involvement.

If you want the favour of the Lord to manifest, then you must favour the Lord in every situation! Remember, before God builds He embraces Wisdom, therefore, before you can build your life, you too must embrace Wisdom. This means embracing the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. “For no other foundation can anyone lay, other than that which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

To understand this principle better, and to find a practical application, let’s try to define wisdom:

It is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; and the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application

of such experience, knowledge, and good judgement.

Wisdom involves: Intelligence, common sense, shrewdness, astuteness, smartness, sound judgement, prudence, logic, rationality and stability.

Note, you can possess all these attributes because they are contained in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only way you can start to build you life God’s way. Even before you plan, bring Jesus on board.

You must expect wisdom to be present very time Jesus manifests Himself. Wisdom is with you right now, and will be with you always! You need to constantly tell yourself that you are a wise person because you have Jesus - the Person of Wisdom - living in you!

The only ingredients you can bring to the table are experience and knowledge. The rest Jesus will provide. These include; good judgement, soundness of action or decision, common sense, shrewdness, astuteness, logic, smartness, rationality and stability.
So start with Jesus - start building your life God’s way!!!

Chris Demetriou, 03/06/2007