On Monday morning of this week our family were greeted with the sight of three happy builders arriving to our house to start some long awaited work. We are now bracing ourselves for a few months of chaos, rubble, maybe a few tears and a new extension! As I was thinking about what has just begun I am aware that it all started about three years ago. It would be crazy to decide on building something, phone up some builders and say to them: "We want it there, just get on with it!" What we had to do was decide what we wanted. We had a vision in our heads of what the building would look like. We then told our architect to draw and design it. It then had to go to the planning department at the council. Then it got turned down so we had to redesign the plan and resubmit it. Then we received planning consent. Then we had to get a structural engineers design drawn, which gives the builders a detailed plan of what they need to build. Then they had to be submitted to the buildings regulations department to be passed. Then we had about five different building companies come to give us quotes. We then had to go through each quote and decide on who we wanted to employ. Now, hallelujah, we have lift off. What started off as a desire and a dream is now becoming a reality. But there has been a lot of preparation and planning in the interim period. We have had to be very patient and at times considered giving up with the idea. We still have a way to go, but it is happening!
God spoke to me years and years ago about leading a church. It would have been foolish at that point to suddenly drop everything and start leading a church. I would have been too young and far too immature (I sometimes feel that now). There had to be a lot of planning and preparation and years of waiting for this prophetic vision to be fulfilled. God had to remove a lot of rubbish and unhelpful roots from my life before He could start on the foundations. It is great to know that our Architect and Builder is God. His design and His workmanship are perfect. He is never early and never late. I think about all the great bible heroes and the promises they received. Many received them at a young age and yet had to go through a preparation period before they saw their dreams come true. David was anointed to be king as a young boy but had to wait years before God could entrust the throne to him. Joseph was promised leadership when he was a youngster and had to be taken through a series of very difficult circumstance before he got to rule Egypt and save the known world from starvation. Abraham had to wait twenty-five years before Isaac popped out. Abraham at one point tried to fulfil the promise by himself and ended up with Ishmael.
I don't know what promises are over your lives at the moment. But don't try and make fulfil the promise in you own strength or apart from God. You will just end up with a dodgy building that will be dangerous for you and for anyone else who comes close to it. You wouldn't want a bunch of cowboys building your house. You would want the best builder that money could buy. And yet our Father is the Architect and Builder. Not only does He make the plans but He does the building! How can we not submit to His ways and allow Him total freedom to be in control of our lives and trust Him to prepare us for the work ahead. Allow him to clear our whatever needs to go in your lives, so that he can lay the strongest foundation for the building ahead. God is on the move and He is constructing something monumental in our generation.
I am excited to see what our builders will produce, but I have to wait a few months for the final result. It will be painful at times and frustrating. But I only need to endure this for a little while before the joy of the new extension is finished.
For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross! What was the joy set before Him. Well, go and look in the mirror and there is the answer!!!
Whatever promise you are waiting for, be patient and submit yourself to Him and then enjoy the outcome. It is so much fun...eventually! God bless you as you read this. He is good!!!
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