Is Your Foundation Faulty? (Part 1)
What is your foundation? Is it faulty?
In the Luke 6:46-49 Luke records Jesus speaking of two foundations. One built on rock and one with no foundation at all.
In Matthew 7:24-27 the second foundation was built on sand. If the foundation of a house is not built well, when a flood or any disaster happens it will not stand. The Bible often uses the word house to represent you as a person. So we must build our lives on a firm solid foundation with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. When we do this, we will then be successfully.
Ephesians 2:19-22
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Remember we are now the temple
1 Corinthians 6:19 NRSV
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?
How are you building your temple? Is your foundation firm, with Christ as the cornerstone? Or do you have a faulty foundation?
Have you ever experienced patterns in your life that you cannot seem to get a hold of? You date the same people with the same character issues but with a different name and face. You try to stop living paycheck to paycheck or pay off all your debts but end up right back to where you started. Or patterns you may notice in your family. Grandparents were poor, your parents were poor, and now you are struggling with poverty as well. Or seeing that many in your family are divorced, never married, have miscarriages, are unsuccessful, got molested, abused, or cannot finish school.
Unfortunately, we are not born into life with a clean slate. We are born in sin, and we are born with the problems of our generations. Babies can already be born with issues depending on what they experienced in the womb. These memories get stored as implicit memories. Implicit memories are our unconscious memories. When we are born and even while in the mother’s womb, we are experiencing life. But we do not remember them as we grow up. These memories and experiences are still stored in our unconscious minds. They will affect us in the present, unintentionally.
Because we are all born in sin we are born with a faulty foundation. Depending on your family bloodline it can be faultier than another. A bloodline of believers is going to give you a better foundation than a bloodline of non-believers, pagans and idol worshippers. Like those born into generational wealth have a better start financially, than those who are born in poverty.
Everything from our past and our family past matters and it is naïve to think it does not. This is why often in therapy we ask about and explore your history. As well as your family history. If you go to therapy and they never discuss your history I question whether you are getting good therapy. When we notice unhealthy patterns, we must get to the root of it. And it will always go back to your childhood. The foundation of where it all started gives us information on why you behave and think the way you do. Understanding the root can make it easier to change.
Ignoring your past does not make things in the present better. Because it is still influencing the way you think and behave. I don’t care how positive you try to be. This is when we start seeing people practice toxic positivity. Emphasizing the positive so much they ignore or invalidate genuine emotions and issues. This can be harmful. This typically makes it hard for people to deal with emotions such as sadness and anger. And at times they may feel guilty if they feel that way. There is no reason to feel guilty for feeling human emotions. Unless you handle them badly or take it out on someone else but just feeling it is not a sin.
Toxic positivity avoids human emotions. This means you will never learn what your emotions are trying to tell you. Emotions are information. Do not ignore them. This will prevent your growth because you are not facing the challenges in life the way you need to grow.
When you start digging into your foundation it can be a huge challenge. You must be ready to face whatever may come up and not ignore it when it gets hard. To understand the present, you must look at the past. Our past and our family’s history as well. Here are some practical things you can do to help.
Take a look at your past then make an inventory of what is going on in your life? What negative, unhelpful and sinful patterns do you notice? Delays? Financial struggles? Anti-marriage, trouble having children? If it's generational you will notice you and others in your family with the same struggle. Not only you or one other person. If that is the case, you may be struggling with generational curses Deuteronomy Ch 27 and 28. There are blessings that come with obedience to the Lord and curses that comes with disobedience.
Pray and ask the Lord what is at the root of your problem? Because most likely you may miss something. Write down what you think God is telling and showing you. These issues from our past or our family past may have created a stronghold in your life. What is a stronghold? They are not necessarily a bad thing. The Lord can be a stronghold for us. Stronghold is a place that has been fortified so as to protect it against attack. Psalm 27:1, Nahum 1:7
We can be fortified in the Lord or in sin. When we are fortified in The Lord, he will protect us from the enemy. If we are fortified in sin then that gives room for the enemy to oppress us, use us and torment us. The oppression within us will stand strong and lead us to do things against our will, like addictions. We may want to stop but feel we cannot. This is because you have a stronghold on you.
We may fall into addiction and have impulsive behaviors. What sins or addictions feel like they are fortified in your life? It feels like everything you try to do; it is still oppressive and holding you down. The stronghold as I stated could be something that started way back in your generation. So take note if you see these strong holds in your family tree.
The evil stronghold typically has a strong man or the chief spirit in charge. What does it mean by the strongman and how do you find him? Matthew 12:29
Remember house represents people.
The strongman lets us know what the root of the root is. Sometimes what we think is the original start of our problems might be deeper. Let's say someone is an adulterer. From that will come lying, deception, manipulation, anger, and lust. If lust is the strong man until that is dealt with dealing with the lying alone won't make the big change you need. Or it can go even deeper than that. You may find out that it is the spirit of rejection that is the strong man. So then that must be addressed for all to disappear and not reappear. If rejection is the root and the lying and anger are the branches. You cannot only cut the branches off because they will grow back. You must cut it off at the root.
The strong man has no problem sacrificing the smaller demons to make sure he is not found. One minister (I forgot his name, but I heard this on the we need to talk podcast). One minister called them the suicide bombers in the kingdom of darkness. The spirit of lying will sacrifice itself so you think to yourself “oh okay, all done. I’m good now”. But then you notice something is still going on, I’m still cheating, lustful and then the lying returns.
This is because as Matthew 12 tells us the strongman needs to be tied up to take back the house. For you to have true deliverance you must find that strongman, tie him up and cast him out. He can only be cast out by the name of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit. They will kick those evil spirits out and send them to hell where they belong. This strongman can also be generationally inherited. If your family did not kick out that strong man you will have to, if you want to be free.
