One of the verses that I use quite often in teaching God's Word is 1Corinthians 3:10(KJV). The Apostle Paul referred to himself as a wise master-builder. He said “I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.” This verse is pivotal to our success in life because in it God looks us square in the face and tells us that we've been empowered by Him! Deuteronomy 8:18(NLT) sets the context for building on the foundation that Jesus Christ laid for us all. It reminds us to “Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful.” The Apostle Paul reiterates this in 1Corinthians 3:10, and he also reminds us that God's empowerment comes with responsibility. Carrying forth this responsibility is the key to being transported from one level of blessings to the next!
God has poured an overwhelmingly amount of spiritual good stuff in us through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And it doesn’t stop there. Our cups run over! God's has positioned us under the fountain of His continual overflow! Every time that you and I invest this good stuff in others, we are continually and immediately filled with more. You might look at your life and determine that you’ve not experienced this. Well, I would like to assure you that you are well on your way, but I also want to warn you about the pitfalls that can easily gum up your pipeline to greater blessings.
The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:10 that he had laid a foundation. A foundation is the structure that supports the weight and framework of a building. If the foundation is strong, then a person can be assured that the house or building will be equally strong; but if the foundation is poorly constructed, the house will not stand. A strong wind can tear it to pieces. The Apostle built his foundation on the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, and if we look at Paul’s history, the fact that he was able to build anything is utterly amazing. He, at one time, persecuted God’s people, and he had great disdain for Jesus Christ, but he was converted on his Road to Damascus experience. He once used bad material and inadequate tools to construct the foundation of his life, but after he accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and experienced the love of God in the depths of his soul, this changed. Paul began to build a foundation so strong that you and I are now following the same blueprint and equipment that he used.
Paul was a flawed human being, and so are we. Despite this, he went on to do some pretty amazing things through our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This should be motivation and inspiration to us, because just as the Lord worked through the Apostle Paul, He wants to do the same through us. The fact that Paul called himself a wise master-builder gives us a very strong representation of our own ability through Christ. Many of us are allowing our lives to slip by us because we have not understood that we are empowered by Christ to build lives that are pleasing to God and incredibly fulfilling to us as well.
We might feel inadequate and ill-equipped because of the things we've suffered in life. We feel weak and don’t know how to pull ourselves out of that hole. Well, here’s the blockbuster revelation that’s going to send you skyrocketing out of that pit; your MIND is the dimensional transporter and the opportunity elevator. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 16:19 (NIV), “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” How do we bind stuff? Initially, we bind it with our minds. Your mind is a gateway for things to enter and impact your soul.
Your mind is also the tool that allows you to move from a dimension of darkness and despair to one of love and light. So many of us fail to comprehend the astounding brick-laying ability of the power of choice--the power of paying attention to what we allow into our minds so that we can cancel out the wrong thoughts. Because we have not understood the harm wrong thoughts can cause, we have allowed them to go unchallenged. We do not look at them consciously, and send them packing when we should.
Jesus Christ has given us the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. How did he deliver these keys? He delivered them to us through the scriptures. He spoke the words, and God inspired holy men to write those words down. As soon as we read the words that are written, the knowledge of what we’ve read informs our consciousness. Without the knowledge, the door—the mind--cannot be opened. We must understand that by spiritual definition, a key is a piece of knowledge--the very piece that opens the door!
Through the keys that Jesus Christ supplied, we can know resolutely that the choices we make are incredibly monumental. Those choices are spearheaded through our thoughts, so much so that whatever we bind and loose mentally and emotionally on earth, heaven will cooperate and bind and loose it there as well. If you build it and bind it here, it’s built and bound supernaturally. This is the potency of your mind and the brick laying ability of your choices. You build the foundation of your life through what you do, what you think, and what you say.
Paul knew that before his conversion, his mind was carnal, and he saw the devastation his carnal thoughts and actions had wreaked upon God’s children. He knew that the only way to gain true success is to partner with the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, and to allow the mind of Christ to rest, rule, and abide over his entire existence. This is the mindset that you and I must choose in order to see real change in our lives.
Some of us are binding some very negative things on earth through our choices and decisions. These things very often keep the blessings of God at bay; they position us away from that overflowing fountain of good stuff that continually pours from heaven’s doors. For instance, negatives like greed and pride are dream killers. When they have residence in our hearts, they will ultimately steer our decisions and choices in the worse possible way.
God has a plan for the universe, and He also has a plan for your life. Ephesians 1:1(NLT) says, “Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.” God wants your life to work out according to the plan He’s laid out for you, but He isn’t going to force you to alter your thoughts to the mind of Christ. He’s not going to empty your mind and heart of the things that keep you on a course that doesn’t intersect with His plan. This is your responsibility. You’re the master-builder. So if you wish to build your life with impure thoughts, or emotions that keep you bound in greed and pride, God will allow you to do this, but you will live a life beneath your privilege.
Living a life beneath our privilege is a life where strong winds continually tear down what we’ve built. After a while, God expects that we will wake up and realize that we’re binding some stuff that isn’t so pretty. He has something for us to do. There’s a person whose life we’re meant to impact—a situation that we’re slated to change for the better, but if we keep thinking the same way we’re thinking and acting the same way we’re acting, we’ll keep making the same choices and decisions we’re making. We’ll keep going down the path that leads us away from the one God has chosen for us.
So the better choice is clear. We have to structure our prayer lives in a way that we’re asking God to open our eyes and ears. There’s something under the radar of our consciousness that is causing us to miss out, and usually that something is cloaked in things like greed, bitterness, pride and arrogance, and other sins. If this is the case, ask the Lord to reveal it to you, so that you can confront it, lay a better foundation, and change the trajectory of your life.♦
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
"Your Dimensional Transporter” ,written for VictoryinJesusChrist© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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