The message examined for this week is titled dealing with and
separating from Evil Human Foundations.
Foundation, in the
general sense is the invisible aspect of a building on which it main structure rests upon. The strength of the structure of
a building is largely dependant upon the kind of foundation on which it rests.
What is human
foundation?
Drawing from above
we may define the human foundation
as being made up of a person’s past deeds and activities, those of his ancestors, and entire family lineage (including
parents, grandparents’ etc). It is suffice to say that deeds of ones past lineage make up the foundation of an individual.
Why do we have to deal with human
foundations?
Just as a house, no matter how beautiful it may appear to be would not last if the foundation
is faulty, likewise the life of an individual cannot retain enduring success if the foundation is not addressed.
This is made clear by the psalmist in the following
verse:
Psalm 11:3
If the foundation is destroyed
what can the righteous do?
Here it is made clear that even one is born – again and living a righteous life if the
person’s foundation is flawed there is little one can do to achieve greatness or success in life. It is for this reason
that many children of God find it difficult to understand why it seems their prayers go unanswered. Why, a times success seems
to be elusive. It could be as result of a faulty foundation.
Going further, the psalmist notes that even the world itself
has its own foundations and they are not necessarily in order:
Psalm
82 :5
They
know not, neither will they understand they walk on in darkness all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
From this verse we may gather that most of the
confusion witnessed in the earth today is as a direct result of faulty foundations.
Before proceeding please take the following prayer points (PP):
-
Oh Lord, please repair
my faulty foundation in the name of Jesus.
-
I shall not build my house
upon a faulty foundation
-
How to deal with a faulty human foundation-Separation
A close scrutiny of the scriptures reveals that when God wants
to use a person he first of all deals with the person’s foundation. He does this through separation.
Examples of such
are seen in the lives of Noah, Abraham, Gideon, and David.
Noah
Prior
to the existence of Noah man continuously lived in sin:
Genesis 6:5
(5) And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually.
The bible states that God found righteous in Noah and chose to begin
a new foundation- one of righteousness, through him. He chose to cut of the old foundation of sin and build upon, through
the live of Noah, a foundation of righteousness:
Genesis 7:1
(1) And the LORD
said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Please let us pause hereto take this prayer point
·
Oh Lord, build a new
foundation of righteousness through me in the name of Jesus.
Abraham
Another biblical example of where the
Lord dealt with and caused an individual to separate from his evil foundation is the life of Abraham.
Abraham was from an idolatrous background. His grandfather, Nahor and father, Terah were from the Ur of Chadeles; a land
identified with idolatry. The book of Joshua states as much:
Joshua 24:2
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of
Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah,
the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.
God chose to commence a new foundation with Abraham.
He chose to separate him from his past in order to give him a new beginning.
Terah could not achieve his objective
of going to Canaan from Ur of Chadeles, he died in Haran.
Genesis 11:31-32
(31) And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his
son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto
Haran, and dwelt there.
(32) And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
This is the place where God wanted to
build a future with Abraham upon. But for Abraham to succeed where his father failed God had to separate him from his foundation.
To achieve this he told Abraham to separate from his father’s house, kindred and country:
Genesis 12:1
Now the
LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that
I will show thee:
Abraham however, erred as regards this instruction. He took along Lot, his nephew, who by definition was his kindred.
Genesis 12:4
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went
with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
The consequence of this error reflects in the life of Abraham’s and that of his children.
Lot became Abraham’s
first problem- they argued over land.
Genesis 13:7
(7) And there was a strife between the herdmen
of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled
then in the land.
The foregoing apart, God did not bless Abraham until he separated from Lot.
Genesis 13:14-16
(14) And the LORD said unto Abram, after that
Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward,
and westward:
(15) For all the land which thou seest, to
thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
(16) And I will make thy seed as the dust of
the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
Yet, there were still further consequences to
Abraham offspring as regards this error.
The Moabites and Ammonites where descendants
of Lot
Genesis 19:30-38
(30) And Lot
went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt
in a cave, he and his two daughters.
(31) And the firstborn said unto the younger,
Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
(32) Come, let us make our father drink wine,
and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
(33) And they made their father drink wine
that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
(34) And it came to pass on the morrow, that
the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also;
and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
(35) And they made their father drink wine
that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
(36) Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
(37) And the firstborn bare a son, and called
his name Moab: the same is the father
of the Moabites unto this day.
(38) And the younger, she also bare a son,
and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
The Moabites and Ammonites however became the main enemies of the children of Israel.
2 Chronicles 20:1
(1) It came to pass after this also, that the
children of Moab, and the children of
Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.
Abraham sought to help Lot by taking him along with him.
Lot however represented the faulty foundation God was trying to separate Abraham from. As
a result Lot became a problem to Abraham and his children became a problem to Abraham’s
children.
Also, Abraham went into Hagar, Sarah’s
servant, despite God’s promise concerning Isaac. When God told him he would bless Issac Abraham reminded him of Ishmael,
requesting hat God should bless him.
Genesis 17:15-18
(15) And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai
thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
(16) And I will bless her, and give thee a
son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
(17) Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed,
and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years
old, bear?
(18) And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael
might live before thee!
Ishmael however was partially from a faulty
foundation his mother being a bond woman. The consequence of this is that the Arabs, being the descendants of Ishmael, (Hagar’s
son) are today the main headache of the children of Israel.
Once again Abraham’s mistake turned into
a problem for his future generations
· PP: Any mistake I will make in life that will be a problem to my lineage/children
in future die by fire
David
The life of King David is another example of where God addresses
with a persons foundation.
God separated David, from his father’s
house (Jesse) to make him King over Israel.
Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, while
Jesse fathered David.
David was the last of the eight sons of Jesse. However it is in him that God chose to commence
a new beginning. Prior to David no one in his family had ruled over Israel
but from his generation there was always a king from his lineage on the throne.
That aside David became God’s benchmark of future kings.
Below is the David’s lineage from
his great grand father to his seventh generation.
Boaz-Obed-Jesse—David—Solomon–
Rehoboam- Abijam—Asa—Jehosaphat—Jehoram
However, when God refers to the performance sheet
of Asa, the son of Abijam, he does not refer to him as the son of Abijam, (his biological father), neither does God refer
to him as the son of Boaz, Obed or Jesse his fore fathers. He refers to him as
the son of David
1 Kings 15:11
(11) And Asa did that which was right in the
eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.
From this we can see that God started a new beginning with David. In David’s family lineage God cut off the old foundation. Boaz, Obed and Jesse.
David became the benchmark- the reference point
in his family/
In the case of Abraham the old foundation from
Nahor and Terah downwards was cut off. Abraham became the reference point in his lineage.
From what we have read it is clear that God
wants to commence a new beginning, commence a new foundation with His children.
Please take the following prayer points:
· Oh Lord use me as a reference point in my family lineage
· Oh lord In my family lineage start a new beginning with me
Gideon
Gideon is another example of a person whom God
separated to commence a new foundation. Gideon was from an idolatrous background. His father was the High Priest of Baal.
God instructed Gideon to destroy his father’s altar. He further told him to build an
altar unto God and to offer the bull meant for the sacrifice on the altar of Baal upon the altar of God:
Judges 6:25-26
(25) And it came to pass the same night, that
the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar
of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:
(26) And build an altar unto the LORD thy God
upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of
the grove which thou shalt cut down.
That which was initially meant for the altar
of Baal was transferred to the altar of God. Through Gideon God destroyed the old order (foundation) in his lineage and set
up a new order, the order of God.
This is the instruction we receive in Romans 12 : 1
Romans 12:1
(1)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service.
To effectively serve God we have to separate from our evil foundations.
Not partial separation but total separation-
remember God did not bless Abraham till he separated from Lot. To separate from evil foundations
is to do things in a different manner from how our fathers did them.
It is to no longer identify with old tradition, culture and customs of our ancestors.
Once you come into Christ you must separate
yourself from those in your family who do not identify with what you now identify with.
Many still identify with those of our evil foundations
(father and mother’s household) our old sinful friends, relatives etc, even when they refuse to embrace Jesus Christ.
We still flock, identify and celebrate with them.
We refuse to be separated.
One is not saying that you should cut off your
family, but whoever refuses to embrace the Christ you now serve - whoever still insists that you still identify with your
idolatrous background must go.
Jesus said that it is those who do the will
of God who are his brothers or sisters.
To deal with your evil background you must separate
from it.
To separate from your evil background you must
stop identifying with it.
Identify with your new foundation.
Identify with Christ.
Prayer Points
-
Oh Lord separate me from
my evil family background in the name of Jesus
-
From my lineage downwards
we shall identify and serve the Lord Jesus Christ
-
Any evil in my foundation
affecting my relationship with God die in the name of Jesus
-
I shall not build upon
the evil foundation my fathers built upon
-
The evil foundation of
my ancestors shall not pull me down
