One way God helps us build a sure foundation is through local churches. He sets pastors over us to teach us the Word of God. We all need a pastor— someone in authority we can go to for advice. We can bounce our ideas around with them. We can tell them the thoughts we have that we believe are from God and we can get their advice. There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors (Proverbs 11:14).
You can't run from meeting to meeting to meeting, from church to church to church and expect to build a strong foundation. You've got to hook up with a local church body and attend regularly in order to mature properly.
There's nothing wrong with attending other meetings, but believers who always are running here and there usually are unstable. They never will amount to much, because they've not been in a local church body that helped them build their foundation.
Gifts and Experiences
Another way people circumvent building a strong foundation is by looking to spiritual gifts and spiritual experiences. People fail if they try to build their lives on a spiritual gift or experience. Many preachers in the past made this mistake.
Spiritual experiences are good to share when the Holy Spirit leads, but you can't build your life on them.
It would be easy for me to try to build my ministry on the trip I made to heaven when I was 8 years old, because everybody's always asking about it. I could have a big ministry in a few months' time based on that one story, but my ministry wouldn't last. After a while, everybody would get tired of hearing about it. (The devil has ways of promoting people and ministries, too, you know.)
You cannot build a lasting ministry on some new revelation, either. There aren't any new revelations! Live in the constant revelation of God and His Word. Don't seek something wild and different to draw people. That kind of thinking won't hold you when the storms of life hit.
I read many books and magazines today that are not written by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Some ministers have skillfully promoted themselves. They've built big ministries with many loyal followers. Yes, they have truth to give out, but when the tests and trials come, they're destroyed.
We don't need to be like that! We don't need to build our lives or ministries on a spiritual experience, a spiritual gift, or a so-called revelation. We need to build it on the sure foundation: God's Word.
"The grass withereth...but the word of our God shall stand for ever."
—Isaiah 40:8
During the great Voice of Healing days, many healing ministries flourished. Not many remain today. But back then, if you could just get to one of those meetings, you'd get healed. When that healing revival ended, almost all of those ministries collapsed, never to be heard from again. Why? Because their ministries were built on a spiritual gift, the gift of healing.
When you begin to take your eyes off Jesus and His Word and look to something or someone else, you are headed for failure. You've got to keep your eyes on Jesus Christ and not let the things of this world get between you and God and His Word.
Some people put their trust in the paycheck they get every week. Others put their trust in other people or in their reputation or education. All of those things are subject to change. The only thing that never changes is God and His Word.
"For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled..."
—Psalm 119:89
I remember putting my trust in someone else for a time, and I was badly disappointed. One night I was in Hicksville, U.S.A., crying out to God about it. I'd finished ministering, and I was back in my hotel room alone. I laid on the floor crying out to God, "God, You left me."
He said right back, "No, I didn't. You left Me!"
"I did?" I asked. "What's the problem? When I preach, there's no power anymore. When I talk, nothing comes out of my mouth but skinny words— and You know I like fat words full of power. What's wrong, God?"
The Lord told me I was putting my trust in other people and not in Him. It was causing me all kinds of worry, because the people were changing on me. People change, but God doesn't. He changes not.
The foundation of God—His Word—is sure. Nothing else around you may be sure, but He is. David said,
"Some boast in chariots, and some in horses: But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.
They have bowed down and fallen: But we have risen and stood upright."
—Psalm 20:7,8, NAS
You can stand upright at all times, too. When you go through problems, don't run to the world; don't run to the natural; don't run to some deep, new revelation, experience, or gift—run to the Rock! Run to the only foundation that's sure. Run to Jesus and His Word!
Many times when trials and tests come, people fall apart. When they try to put their troubled lives back together again, they find they can't. If you get into the Bible and stay there, you'll never fall apart. Your world might seem like it's falling apart all around you, but you will stand. If you've built your life and ministry on the sure foundation, you'll never fail.
Run to the Rock. It's never cracked. It's never faltered. It's always been there. Rest and stand on that Rock. The Word of God is where you belong. It's where you need to put your trust. The Word works. There's no quick key to success. It's the Bible that insures success.
The Word of God is your key to success, whether it is the written Word or the Word spoken to your spirit.
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
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