Solid Foundation – Part 1
By Margaret D. Mitchell
The title of a sermon, I heard nearly two decades ago, has always stuck with me: It was Keep Your Tent Pegs Light.
While I don’t remember the sermon, I realize God has highlighted this title to me recently to remind me of an important message for this hour:
That we are to continue to walk in holiness as we move forward with God and grow in His promises.
First, we must believe that we have one solid foundation, which is Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth and Christ’s resurrection life within us (Jn 14:17, 1 Tim 3:15).
1 Corinthians 3:11 AMPC tells us, "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
Acts 17:28 says, "For in Him we live and move and have our being..."
We know that Christ, as our firm foundation, doesn't change; but He changes us.
In this, we get to trust Him as we walk through the process of transformation to greater promise, which is God instilling His higher standard as He defines our path and delineates our boundaries—first inwardly, then outwardly.
Like Abraham and the Israelites, who moved with God into the unknown-to-them, we are to grow in the grace of pulling up stakes, departing from our past and moving from glory to glory as God continues to pour into us and out of us.
We are to continually acknowledge Him and rely on Him during increase, as graciously held pegs re-set into holy ground (Is 22:23).
Move by move, every time the ancients of faith pierced the ground with their pegs of identity, purpose and commitment, their faith had an opportunity to grow; and their houses became increasingly established in a secure foundation of glorious new dominion with The Lord.
Like them, we are to go from Him to more of Him in our soul.
From more of Him to much more of Him.
And from much more of Him to much, much more.
Psalms 18:31 TPT asks, "Could there be any other god like you? You are the only God to be worshiped, for there is not a more secure foundation to build my life upon than you."
So, in this journey of consecration and fruit production, we are to keep our fierce focus on God and live in the honor of worship to Him alone, turning from all wickedness (Is 26:13, Pr 3:6, Is 19:13).
As we align with our Chief Cornerstone, He will strengthen us, reveal what we need to know and ultimately deliver us into an expansive reward to make His Name great (Ps 119:38).
Our full dependence on God invites His fulfillment of promise (Jn 1:16).
Just like Joshua, who was known to be carefully obedient, and Caleb, who was known to be wholehearted, our reality-walk will expand and go long from believing God’s promises; to acting on them; then to experiencing the manifest heart of God, which is to have and to hold Him in the possession of good, exponential fruit. For His glory.
It is a walk where we experience all the pieces come together.
We can be encouraged in this process by Ephesians 2:20-22 TPT, which say:
You are rising like the perfectly fitted stones of the temple; and your lives are being built up together upon the ideal foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, and best of all, you are connected to the Head Cornerstone of the building, the Anointed One, Jesus Christ himself! This entire building is under construction and is continually growing under his supervision until it rises up completed as the holy temple of the Lord himself. This means that God is transforming each one of you into the Holy of Holies, his dwelling place, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you!
So, in order for our reality to change for the better, we have to embrace The Lord’s higher ways and keep Him first and center as He reveals Himself and delivers us.
We must believe God at His Word beyond our circumstances and trust that He sees us as deserving such an inheritance through Christ, our Savior, who makes a way by grace where we could not go otherwise.
We must willingly come to operate in the kind of balance that excels in both God’s Spirit and applied wisdom to the practical—remaining on solid ground.
This balance is the key to, and the fruit of, a life built on a firm foundation that is stable and, therefore, does not waffle or waver but produces what God intended.
For those who are not there yet, there’s hope for those who remember Him—the repentant and the willing.
He offers us an example in Isaiah 19:18-23, where we see people in five Egyptian (worldly) cities turn and commit themselves to God in worship and intimately knowing Him as their Lord. As a result, God revealed Himself as a promise keeper: He healed and restored them, and He called them His people.
So, friends, how about you?
Are you ready to faithfully walk on the solid ground of wholeness, where you will see your life come together in purposeful ways?
Are you ready to trust God more in a greater role? To establish His Kingdom even more in the earth through you as you abide in Him?
There is no need to fear; but there is a need for faith, as God raises a standard, does a new thing and helps us move past our past in His overcoming grace (Is 43:18-19).
Join me next week for Part 2 of Solid Foundation.
Margaret D. Mitchell is the Founder of God's Love at Work, a marketplace outreach purposed to share God's greatest power source - the love of Christ.
Originally published Sunday, 19 July 2020.
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