Fear The Owner

March 30, 2021

The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.

~Proverbs 14:1~

All of us dwell in vessels of flesh that were made by the Lord God. All of us are His to behold and He longs for us to take care of what He has made. I used to live most of my life moving from house to house every few years as we always rented vs owning. I want to use this analogy as an understanding of why it is so important to maintain something that is not fully yours. Whenever we would rent, we would be responsible for taking care of it. We would have to make sure nothing would be damaged and if it was we would be responsible to fix the damage. Living inside a house that is not fully owned requires a lot of carefulness and respect. There is a type of fear that says "if the home owner sees it this way I may suffer consequences." As a child of God, our bodies do not belong to us. We do not own them. We are His. "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

(I Corinthians 6:19)

It is our job to maintain it properly; to feed it with nutrition, to keep it up in good shape, to not defile it and to build upon it in holiness.

God trusted us with His "houses," it is now on us to be wise and maintain it as if it is still His property, because He is the One who bought us at a price; "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."

(I Corinthians 6:20)

It takes one to be wise to respect God in this manner, claiming everything we have to be His. This is total submission. Folks tend to have a hard time submitting completely without even realizing it. They quote the verse of James 4:7 all day long yet there are still things deep within them they refuse to submit to God. Submission means giving complete control over to the Lord, not keeping a piece of control and claiming to submit. The devil can make a way to sneak into that section of our life as we refuse to submit it to God. "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." (I John 3:18)

Words are words, yet with strong faith backing them up, they become powerful bricks we can build upon. They can cause life and death to ourselves. It is our choice to make to believe in what we are saying and doing what we are saying. God dwells inside of our vessels and gives us the help we require to make ourselves holy for Him each day. It is up to us to choose that route. We must desire to maintain our houses properly for Jesus. We should be carrying the same fear of the renter living in a home who is trying to keep everything up to par for the owner. We can either build oursleves up in Christ or we can pull ourselves down with the world. God is gentlemen enough to give us the free choice, for that is love. He is not one to force His way in, rather we welcome Him in and strive to honor Him each day. "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness."

(Psalms 84:10)

We are so blessed to be His doorkeepers, making sure that all things are as they should be according to His will. When we start to defile ourselves then we defile the house of God. "Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries." (Jude 1:8)

Let us not become as fools and lack reverence for our Lord's house. Without Him we would not be able to live in it to begin with. If we are unable to maintain our physical house, then what does our spiritual house look like? "The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, But who can bear a broken spirit?" (Proverbs 18:14)

There are things in this life that we will need to fight strictly spiritually. If our spiritual house is not being built upon we will not be capable of doing so. Feeding our spirits require much time communing with God personally and privately. "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

(Matthew 6:6)

It requires reading His living word and asking the Holy Spirit for understanding each time we read it. "But the word of God grew and multiplied." (Acts 12:24)

It requires praising and worshipping in song.

"Shout joyfully to the Lord , all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises."

(Psalms 98:4)

It requires being faithful to Jesus each day in what He needs of us to be refined back into His image. "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

(Genesis 1:27)

My friends, let us build our houses up for the Lord to be able to be proud of. For if we choose to pull ourselves down, it only makes the owner suffer more.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank you for creating me to be Yours from the foundation of the world. I choose to give my whole house to You and maintain it properly as You instruct. Lord guide me as I continue to search myself of any wicked way so that I may align to Your Image, as you intended me to be. I am so grateful of the love you shower me with, the mercy that endures forever and the grace that gives me strength to stand. Lead me today Holy Spirit in the way of everlasting so that I may build my house upon the Rock rather then upon the sand. Praises be to You whenever others notice the strong foundation of who I am, for it is all Yours Jesus. I love You. I serve You. I rejoice in all of Your promises and I receive them today in Your precious Name, Jesus Christ. Amen.