Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

Matthew 7:24-25

The words of Jesus still speak to us today, directly where we need it the most.  In a day when things a shaking around us, and power ministries are reaching levels where the pressures cause great collapses in ministry, the “words in red” speak directly to the heart of the problem, as they have for nearly 2000 years.

Jesus said, if you have heard His words and do them, your house will be built upon the solid rock, and even when the storms come (and they will come), your house remains standing, no matter what pressures come.

This is not so in all of our churches and ministries today as we see it.  We see local churches with factions and splits and infighting, laden with political concerns that have nothing to do with Jesus’ instructions to the disciples, and do anything but demonstrate a love for one another that is visible to the world (John 13:35).  We have great revivals that end in scandal.  We have individual Christian lives lived in compromise and moral failure.  But, this is not church!  Not the way church should be…

Jesus came to tell us of a better way…

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

Jesus’ yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).  He is able to refresh the weary and heal the wounded.

But, Jesus indicated something most profound.  If we look at the failures of today’s church, according to Jesus, they all must be traced back to simply not hearing and obeying His teaching.

As simple and profound as that may be, let me illustrate.  How many political maneuvers in the church stem simply from trying to gain the praise of men, rather than God?  How many well meaning pastors or ministers, after discovering that a little more pressure might yield a slightly larger offering, use a soulish means to increase ends?  There is nothing of course wrong with presenting the best, biggest, truest heart of the Father towards giving, but if the motives are off, even if the “right verses” are used, then the result is tainted.  Bread obtained through theft may satisfy the belly, but it always turns bitter.

On the other hand, however, how many right intentioned pastors and leaders get wrongly labelled and judged for false motives by people sitting in the audience?  How many pastor’s hearts have been judged when they’re doing their best to advance the house of God by people sitting in the congregation?

Yet, the solution, according to Jesus, is not in a great amount of distance traveled, from here to there, but merely a “journey” of some distance straight down to bedrock.  You cannot build the church of Christ on any other foundation than the one already laid, Jesus Christ.  When Peter received by revelation that Jesus was the Christ (Matthew 16:17), Jesus began to talk about His church and saying it was to be built “upon this rock”, the man with the revelation.

But, the work of the Gospel is the work of unveiling, of unfolding, and of stripping us of our defenses, so that we are totally defenseless to the Holy Ghost.  Every part that we try to defend ourselves from Him keeps Him away from that part, and is vulnerable to attack from the enemy.  If we are to truly go into all the world and make disciples of every nation, do we have every nation of our own heart surrendered to the Master?

Leaders don’t fall because they’re stupid, they fall because there’s the unseen pressure in the realm of the spirit that weighs upon them.  Not many serious Christian ministers want their ministry to end in adultery, divorce, greed, and the like.  They sincerely want to please Jesus, but in that, in their heart, there are places that they have not been able to settle fully.  Greater faith always results in greater overcoming, but if at some level, we are living even in part for ourselves, on that day that Ephesians 6 calls the “evil day” and that Matthew 7 calls “the storm”, every piece matters.

It is the places of our weaknesses that we get tested, time and time again.  It is the places that we continue to buckle to fear and please others that we compromise our walk and allow other forces to influence us.  The people you let have influence over you will have a profound influence on your outcome, but it is ONLY Jesus to whom we should yield completely.

But, what is Jesus’ solution to the storm?  It is attitude, the condition of the heart, and its source or bedrock.

You cannot live for long in places of anger or unforgiveness without it destroying your walk.  You cannot be in habitual places of adultery or sexual immorality and consistently receive His power.  The places of breakthrough, in the end, do not come around every day.

But, Jesus called us to His faith, to simple trusting on the Father for His every proceeding word.  Man cannot live without that.  Jesus’ promise is that the Father will take care of us, no matter what our needs are (Matthew 6:33).  We can trust Him, even in the midst of the confusion.

Jesus said that there was no greater love than that a man would lay down his life for his friend.  Jesus demonstrated this very love on the cross for His disciples, and for us.  It is this very love mixed with faith that we are to walk in perfectly, which is often different than what many people call “love”, which results in the perfect life in Jesus.  Regardless of whether how far we are able to make it in this life, it is the heart set in that direction which must always be in us.  It is the heart that wants to, that would given enough time and enough help, simply out of love.

The house built upon the rock derives all of its strength from the rock it’s on.  As the winds and rain push upon the posts and beams, because the foundation does not move, the house continues to stand, so long as the frame does.  But for the house on sand , when the foundation shifts, even though the frame is capable of holding the weight, the house collapses, because there was nothing solid supporting the house.

So it is with us.  If we do not build on the foundation Christ, if we do not live according to His Spirit, if we do not base all of our emotional, material, financial, as well as spiritual structure solely upon Christ and His Kingdom, doing the will of the Father, we should not expect Him to preserve what we are attempting to build on another foundation.

But the life in the Spirit is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.  Not for self striving, or glorying or promotion, but simply for the sake of His Family, His name, and His great, great, great love.

Any house built upon that will stand, for it is His house (Song of Solomon 8:6).