Solid Foundation – Part 2

Ten days ago, The Lord highlighted the restoration of ruined cities to me (Is 61:4).

Three times. 

He then led me to Psalm 118:14-15 AMPC, which says, “The Lord is my Strength and Song; and He has become my Salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents and private dwellings of the [uncompromisingly] righteous: the right hand of the Lord does valiantly and achieves strength!”

Psalm 118:15 TPT says, “…My loud shouts of victory will echo throughout the land. For Yahweh’s right hand conquers valiantly!”

Holy Spirit also reminded me of Isaiah 9:6-7 TPT, which says…

The responsibility of complete dominion will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be: The Wonderful One! The Extraordinary Strategist! The Mighty God…Great and vast is his dominion. He will bring immeasurable peace and prosperity. He will rule on David’s throne and over David’s kingdom to establish and uphold it by promoting justice and righteousness from this time forward and forevermore.

Friends, God is a finisher.

Even when circumstances look scattered, chaotic and impossible, God is sovereign and is still working to give ravaged places and even personal projects new life and bring them to a good, highly-purposed completion. 

He is never without a victory-strategy to bring greater restoration, making things better than before.

Even if we need an overhaul, it just means that our God is patient and will draw us nearer to make us more solid in Him. 

More solid like Him, the Foundation who laid His life down for us to live as “immoveable,” which means “will not budge.” And “stable,” which means unchangeable. And “steadfast,” which means “standing fast without buckling or giving way” (HELPS Word-studies).

“Mighty God” in Isaiah 9:7 means “the God of battle” and “Champion God” (TPT Bible study notes).

He will fight for us and never lose!

When God is in something, we can always trust Him to ultimately prove it to be victorious as we obey Him.

We must keep our faith in Him always, as He is seated in what He establishes and has a commitment to see us through.

What exactly is God igniting in you in this hour?

What is He leading you into?

How are you seeing Him touch your efforts?

What wonderful thing is The Wonderful One birthing through you for His Kingdom?

Verse 7 continues on, saying that God rules on the throne and over the kingdom “to establish and uphold it by promoting justice and righteousness.”

To “establish” here means to be set up, fixed, fitted, firm, made secure and enduring as we determine, with God, to be faithful.

As we rule and reign with Him, He sustains us, comforts us, refreshes us, strengthens us and stays our hearts with determination, truthfulness, right discretion and vindication that doesn’t quit. 

This is the God we serve. 

Never give up on His appointed times for justice.

They are solid ground that we can trust. 

God will not forget. 

Psalm 89:14 TPT assures us by saying, “Your glorious throne rests on a foundation of righteousness and just verdicts. Grace and truth are the attendants who go before you.”

Have you ever had an encounter with The Lord, where He reveals an important event up ahead for you that you know would be impossible without His intervention? Then He, not only confirms the event through two or three witnesses, but He consistently encourages you over time by revealing more and more bits until the event occurs?

By leading us in this “treasure hunt” style, God not only refreshes our hope, He awakens us more and more until the fullness of time for the event, where we fully mature to receive. 

We come to realize that The Lord had to go before us to set it up well in advance, because so many elements have to come into place over time in, not only our lives, but others.

All along, He leads us along a solid foundation of righteous character and conduct, further into vindication, as He sees it—justifiable.

This is a journey where we can trust Him implicitly as He leads us into His plan for righting wrongs.

Exponentially.

The Lord gave me a Word of wisdom in this regard, which is…

When we get honest and grow to a place of knowing better and fully forgiving, we receive better than what would have been.

This is a divine re-set as in Isaiah 22:20-23 by His grace and truth.

This is what is meant as surpassing victory, and it begins by believing the victorious work of the cross, our secure place.

Romans 8:37 AMPC tells us, “Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.”

Surpassing means “a large amount or high degree; exceeding, excelling, or extraordinary” (Dictionary.com). 

“Surpassing victory” means to “prevail mightily (Strong’s #5245) and to be “beyond conquer,” to the extent that we are “completely and overwhelmingly victorious” (HELPS Word-Studies).

I believe God, in His rich mercy and amazing grace, will do for the people and cities that turn to Him and prove to be uncompromising.

Revelation 3:21 AMPC assures us that “He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne.”

“…Thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere,  For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God…” (2 Co 2:14-15 AMPC).

To Him be the glory. 

This video-devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

Solid Foundation – Part 1

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

This video-devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.