BUILDING WITH FAITH

by Marsha Burns

We know that we have been in the season of our foundation being swept clean before we can rebuild at the leading of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3:
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Gold: Deity, heavenly perfection.
Silver: Redemption through the blood of Christ – the Chief Corner Stone.
Precious Stones: Qualities of the redeemed man:
1. Sapphire – obedience
2. Jasper – strength
3. Chalcedony – vision
4. Emerald – transformation
5. Sardonyx -- repentance
6. Sardius – forgiveness
7. Chrysolite – anointing
8. Beryl – authority
9. Topaz -- courage
10. Jacinth – unity
11. Chrysoprasus – generosity
12. Amethyst -- spirituality

1 Peter 2:
1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."

We have come to a deeper understanding about how we function as spirit, soul and body. And, we have spent time learning to pay attention to our inside chatter so that we can indeed take every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

So, when we quiet our inside chatter or our self-talk about our fears, unbelief, rejection … everything that is not Godly, what should we replace it with?

Faith! “he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

Jude 20-21 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

John 11
17 So when Jesus came, He found that he [Lazarus] had already been in the tomb four days.
18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away.
19 And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house.
21 Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 "But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."
23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
26 "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you."
29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him.
31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."
32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."
33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
34 And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"
37 And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"
38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."
40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42 "And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me."
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"
44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."


Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest:
Martha believed in the power at the disposal of Jesus Christ, she believed that if He had been present He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a peculiar intimacy with God and that whatever He asked of God, God would do; but she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha's program of belief had its fulfillment in the future; Jesus led her on until her belief became a personal possession, and then slowly emerged into a particular inheritance - "Yea, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ. . . " Is there something like that in the Lord's dealings with you? Is Jesus educating you into a personal intimacy with Himself? Let Him press home His question to you - "Do you believe this?" What is your ordeal of doubt? Have you come, like Martha, to some overwhelming passage in your circumstances where your program of belief is about to emerge into a personal belief? This can never be until a personal need arises out of a personal problem. To believe is to commit. In the program of mental belief I commit myself, and abandon all that is not related to that commitment. In personal belief I commit myself morally to this way of confidence and refuse to compromise with any other; and in particular belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ, and determine in that thing to be dominated by the Lord alone. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me - "Do you believe this?" I find that faith is as natural as breathing, and I am staggered that I was so stupid as not to trust Him before.

Our faith is perfected through our circumstances and our choices to believe or not.

Our faith becomes personal when we believe and see the manifest presence of God to save or to heal or to deliver or to provide or to give us wisdom in our own lives.

We hate the tests of sickness or demonic attack or lack or loss or trouble. Why does it have to be so hard?

It has to be difficult enough to cause us to have to exercise our faith and to trust God. And, when we do, we usually say to ourselves, “What took you so long?”

Mark 11:23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

1 John 5:14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was blind, but now I see! That place of faith never dims. It stands as part of our foundation forever. It is the silver that never burns.

Faith Tabernacle

http://ft111.com