This chapter is devoted to the idea of learning to trust our Heavenly Father. In His word, both written and spoken.
Some of the greatest spiritual understanding and revelations come at the most unusual times. Usually during times of the greatest turmoil. When we finally get to the place of realization that we can’t figure it out on our own, sometimes we get just quite enough to hear the answer to an important question… “God… How do you see this?”
Four Foundations:
A few years ago, when our farm in Maine was still in it’s early stage of development, one thing became very apparent. The Lord was blessing us as His word promises. Our flocks and herds were multiplying and… we were running out of space fast!
As we were watching God do awesome things on the farm, we were also doing our best to work within the limits of what God is given us. But this wasn’t God’s plan, he doesn’t want us to work within the confines of what we are able to do, he wants us to believe him for the things that were not able to do.
Because we are stuck in the confines of our own understanding, we were working twice as hard, and limiting his ability to help us. My wife Karie, had been saying for over a year, “Mark, we need a barn.” I kept telling her, I know, but you don’t understand that we don’t have the money for a barn. I tried to explain to her the huge costs involved with a building project of the size we needed to have enough room for our flocks, herds and dairy. At the time credit and borrowing were not an option for us, because our credit had been ruined during the 2008 real estate crisis. We couldn’t just go to a bank and get the money to pay for the expansion we needed.
Now at the time God was teaching us a great deal about believing him for the things that we needed. So I began to ask God to give me the faith to believe for this new barn, and lo and behold He did. Side note: husbands, listen to your wives. I have found over the years, that women often have a keen sense, of hearing the Holy Spirit’s leading especially when we’re too busy, or too hardheaded, for God to get our attention. Listen guys, when your wife is saying something, especially repeatedly, that you know is truth, pay attention because it’s probably God, even if the idea seems impossible.
Then one day I get this great revelation, okay we’re going to build a barn! We had some money and some resources, and it seemed like it just might be enough, that with God’s help, we might just be able to get the frame of the barn up before winter. See when God gives you the faith for something, it’s as if a light is turned on in the darkness, and even though you are unsure about how the thing will come to pass, the impossible suddenly seems not only possible, but it is as if the possibility of it not working out becomes the impossibility.
Back to the barn… For weeks I struggled back and forth about how to do the foundation, four my mind was still limiting my ability to see God’s plan, because of my own inability to see past my own resources. To make it the size of that size, this style or that style, I was getting really frustrated. The problem is I know how to build it, in fact I know how to build it 10 different ways, but what I didn’t know was how to build it God’s way. I was also up against the deadline, summer was quickly coming to an end, God told me the roof would be on it by winter, and we were quickly running out of time to get the foundation poured before the cold weather set in.
Finally one day when my frustration got to its limits, I said, “Lord how do you see this?” I got quiet and I listened. Then the answer came, he showed me and spoke to me at the same time, “What about this? Will this work?” I replied, “absolutely Lord, that’s an awesome idea, it’s a full one third bigger than I was planning. That’s big enough to get in everything that we need, but where are we going to come up with the money for the extra concrete? Are you going to pay for it Lord?” His reply, “Of course I will son.”
Well sure enough a few weeks later, with the help of many friends, the foundation was poured. Even pouring the foundation was a miracle in itself, but that’s a story for another day. In fact every aspect of building the barn, from start to finish was nothing short of miraculous. Almost every part of the barn from top to bottom hold the story about God’s miraculous provision and grace.
The greatest question… Are You God?
For years in my early Christian walk, I struggled with the concept of God calling himself “I Am”.
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.
Exodus 3:14-15
Honestly, it just didn’t make any sense to me, until one day I was talking with God, about the miraculous ways that he had helped us in completing our new barn. The Lord started talking to me about the very foundations of the building, in relation to the foundations of our faith. It’s one thing to say that the foundation of your faith is Jesus Christ, but what does that really mean? Are you able to stand on that foundation, no matter what questions are asked of you.
No, our faith needs to be based not only on the idea of Jesus Christ, but on who He is and what He stands for. Ultimately that means who God is. upon looking deeper into this question, we have to come to the place where you realize that unless we can answer one simple question without wavering, our faith is built on nothing but shifting sand.
In the natural, a strong foundation can only be built when it rest directly on an immovable substrate. Scripture tells us that our faith needs to be built on the rock of Christ. But what is this rock?
In building the barn God showed me, through his careful planning and attention to detail that the strong foundation he is referring to can be summed up in four very specific attributes of His character. Just like the sides of a building work together to strengthen the entire structure, to leave out any of these key foundational attributes, leaves the structure of our faith standing on shaky ground.
So what are these for foundational aspects of God’s character that we need to be concerned with? Let’s go through them one by one.