Good morning everyone!
Happy first Sunday of the month.😁
It’s been some time since we last had a blog post, but 185 blog posts later, by His grace we are still here.🥲🙌
Thank you all for your support, for reading, liking and sharing over the years. Your encouragement and love means a lot.
Now let’s get into today’s message.♥️
I wanted to talk to you about the church and the need for it’s firm foundation.
It’s been on my heart for some time to share this message, especially during this time where most of us have or are still currently attending church virtually, due to the pandemic. First, let’s dive into a few verses from His wonderful Word.😊🙏🙌
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Colossians 2:6-10
“From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, although the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not been laid.”
Ezra 3:6
“When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the ordinance of David king of Israel.”
Ezra 3:10
“And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever toward Israel.” Then all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”
Ezra 3:11
“But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy,”
Ezra 3:12
“so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.”
Ezra 3:13
“Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem; but from that time even until now it has been under construction, and it is not finished.””
Ezra 5:16
“When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.”
Proverbs 10:25
“Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.”
Isaiah 28:16
“Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid”
Isaiah 44:28
“There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness.”
Proverbs 30:12
Okay, so let’s get into the message.
My Church Journey
We are are at a point in time where sadly a lot of Christians are leaving the church due to church hurt.
So what’s going on? What is the root of the problem?
Well before we get into that, let me just share a bit about my journey as a Christian.
I’ve been a Christian since I was born.😄
I was a Catholic and I can honestly tell you that I’ve always loved the church and God.
I loved going to church every Sunday, going to Sunday school, having my first holy communion.
Church was and still is very special to me.
I started going to Pentecostal church when I was around ten years old and I loved the change, it was different from Catholic Church and I was most especially so excited about gospel music, the way that we could freely express ourselves through praise and worship, and I could pray out loud 😄, but most especially I had a new understanding of how the bible was taught. I learnt about spiritual gifts, the fruits of the spirit.
I can honestly tell you that I had an amazing experience going to church, but I’d be lying to you if I’d said that I never experienced church hurt, because I did.
I never experienced church hurt in the Catholic Church, some have but that wasn’t the case for me. I did eventually experience church hurt in a Pentecostal church. I was heavily involved in the church, I loved serving. I would literally be at church everyday 😄 and yes, I had the time to be at church, because I did struggle to find work related to my degree when I had graduated. So I decided to use that time to serve, spend time with God and share His Word, hence the birth of DaFruits.😊
Serving in the house of the Lord was my everything, I loved being a worship leader in the main adult choir. Prior to this, I was involved in the creative arts team as a kid, and as a youth I joined the youth choir. Before I joined the adult choir, I had been advised not too, I was overzealous for the lord, I had so much passion, to me such advise felt strange. I had the gift to sing and I was definitely going to use it for His glory.
I didn’t understand at that time, why I was given such advice, but looking back it makes a lot of sense and I also have an understanding of why Christians are comfortable to just go to church and leave as soon as the service closes.
Serving God in the house of God was a blessing, it most definitely drew me closer to God, it pruned and strengthened me, but it most definitely had its challenges.
Listen, church politics is REAL and I faced my fair share of that, even from people that I least expected, but through it all I kept going.
Until I found that there started to be many problems for me, so much so that it felt as if things seemed to be working perfectly well for others but not for me. I mentioned about the struggle I had to find work, I always had a job praise the Lord. It was a job that I gained from my work experience as a 15 year old, but it wasn’t a job that I had expected to be in for almost a decade later. It also seemed that I would have to really struggle to get to where I wanted. There were other issues, some that I had no clue that needed to be addressed at the time and yet I was worship leader.
I was apart of the worship team, ushering the congregation into the presence of God, yet things were not right with me, with my situation, with my foundation.
Foundation, that’s something I had no clue of growing up, who teaches about your foundation in a Catholic Church?
It wasn’t a message that I remember hearing of when I first joined the Pentecostal church either.
Looking back, I thought that once you become born again, once you have your baptism (this was my second baptism and not the one I had as a baby in the Catholic Church) I thought there would be a sense of renewal and there was but not with the deeper rooted issues, not with my foundation. I thought that when I would sow and sow, give and give during these conferences, I thought that, that alone would resolve all my problems. (And I’m not saying don’t pay your tithes. You should pay your offering, pay your tithes and sow seeds as led by the Lord. I know for sure now that none of that was in vain and it has worked altogether for my good, at the time I could not see that. I also made the mistake of sowing on infertile ground. My blessings were blocked because my foundation was still sealed against me.
I have paid my first fruits and let me tell you as soon as I discovered how to pray it most definitely works).
When prophets would prophesy and call people out from the congregation, how I longed to be amongst them and hear a good word that would resolve all my issues, but it never happened. Rather, I remember being humiliated when it would come to such times, it would often be negative.
I hardly missed those all night services, mid week services, conferences, early morning services, best believe Samantha would most definitely be there.
I had a desire for change, to know who I was in Christ, but I also had a desire to serve God. Yes, I had time but I loved and I still love the Lord, I wasn’t serving for anyone else but Him.
So, it came to a point whereby there were so many problems happening at once for me, that was in and outside of the church. It was at that point that I knew something had to be done, but I did not know where or how to start.
I attended deliverance meetings but it didn’t get to the root, it was deeper than being slain in the spirit, it was even deeper than rolling and screaming on the floor that didn’t get to the root cause of the issues that I had. In saying that, I wasn’t even close to being aware of what the issues were, I mentioned it being about work, struggling, the delays, it was even deeper than that.
I wasn’t getting to the root of my problems and it was from this that I knew I would have to leave. That was very difficult, because I had been going to that church from when I was child through to adulthood and leaving was difficult, but I was so desperate for change, to receive true deliverance that I knew it was time. I wasn’t planning to abandon the church altogether, no I needed the church more now than ever but it was time for me to move on to where I could really resolve the problem.
Now let’s jump out of my personal journey for a minute.
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.
Matthew 22:14-15
There are many different churches, there are many that are called, there are also many ideologies, doctrines, but remember that there are always only few. Few that are chosen, few that preach Jesus and the message of the cross, there also very few that will teach on the importance of knowing and dealing with your foundation, there are few that will teach you how to pray and deliver yourself.
There are many churches, but none are perfect. I eventually moved to a different church and it was difficult, isolating even, it’s not that it was perfect church, just like I mentioned there is no perfect church, the only perfection we have is Jesus.
The church is imperfect because we make up the church and we are imperfect. That does not mean that we should not set a higher standard, we must especially those that are the leaders within the church, the congregation looks to the leadership, the leadership comes from God, it all starts with the head. We must be, we must set a good example, by His grace, we must different, we must be set apart.
So😊, I’ve now left the church that I had attended for so long I enter the new one and it’s a ‘do it yourself ministry’.😄
That was very different for me, there ways were also very different to what I was used to, it wasn’t bad, but it was different. I was determined to not allow myself to be distracted, my focus was to ensure that I got the change that I so desired to have.
Let me tell you, when I began to pray the correct prayers then correct things began to happen for me. I needed to understand the prayers that would target the root of my problems, that would deal with my foundation. I started to realise what I needed to deal with in order to move forward.
You see I was leading, I was sharing the Word of God, but I had no idea that I needed to deal with so much within my own life and it’s no wonder things were not working for me.
I was glad that I dealt with the issues before they dealt with me. I was glad that I began having revelations, I was moving forward spiritually.
You know, often the deliver, needs deliverance, just look at all the great leaders in the bible, even the leadership of today in the body of Christ. We all need deliverance, and so we have no business leading others if we have not dealt with our foundation, it’s very important.
Sadly, that’s what’s going on today.
I discovered how to pray the correct prayers, but it didn’t mean that issues of life would stop coming my way. Remember, Jesus said to pray without ceasing, in Christendom we ought to pray continuously.
Confronting the Problem – Dealing with Foundation
Now, I’ve expressed how long I’ve been in the church and how long I served, so it angers me if really does bother me when Christians are called to being pastors based on influence and not on service. It really does bother me, they bring in strange messages, strange ideologies, they are invited to conferences and then confusion sets in, and they run away leaving the congregation divided.🤷🏽♀️
The ones that called the influencer pastors, are not following the Word of God, because if they were then they would understand really what it means to be called.
The foundation of the church that is not based on Christ, but is based on an infiltrated message can never stand. It really does bother me, when those that were called not by God, take on the pastoral role and when things go wrong they run away. The question is why did you accept the role of being a pastor when you’ve never served? The crazy thing is, hardly anyone is asking that question, no ones asking where did you serve? Who did you serve under?
They just take on the role and we’re wondering why the foundation of the church is becoming so rocky?
The foundation is wrong, so how can it stand?
The foundation of many members of the body of Christ is wrong.
Listen, I’ve given you myself as example a Christian for many years, but my foundation was wrong, so how can things works, it’s like juxtaposition within itself.
You know the reason behind the frustration of a lot of the youth going to church and the reason why, sadly a lot them don’t know God even though they are being dragged there is because they are frustrated. A lot of parents leave dealing with their foundation later in life and in turn, it affects their children and now their children have to fight the fights that their parents did. Now the children have to deliverance meetings and prophesy conferences. I’m telling you, dealing with our foundation is so important.
Deal with your foundation, before it deals with you.
Fight the fight before it’s too late.
““Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:”
Matthew 7:24
“and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”
Matthew 7:25
““But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand:”
Matthew 7:26
“and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.””
Matthew 7:27
“And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching,”
Matthew 7:28
‘There are many born again Christians that are not disciples.
When you come to Jesus, there are two pathways to go through; Power and Salvation.
The reason why you need power and salvation when you come to Jesus Christ, is because if you don’t have power the enemy will mess you up. The baptism of fire is what is needed as a born again Christian.’
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””
Acts 1:8
‘Jesus Christ is should be our only message.’
‘Stay Humble Or You Will Stumble.’
As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17
As in water face reflects face,
So a man’s heart reveals the man.
Proverbs 27:19
We need to rebuke in love, if we don’t we may be the ones to cause many to be led astray. If we are being honest with ourselves, many are twisting the Word of God so that they can continue in their sin, they don’t want to let go of it and so they twist it so that they can comfortably stay within sin.
Salvation comes from the Lord and if we turn from Him it can be taken away, do not be deceived. If salvation cannot be taken away, then there would not be a hell, and there would not be Christians in hell.
Grace abounds, but grace is not a license to continue in sin.
The Lord says come as you are, but you most certainly and definitely cannot remain as you are. It just doesn’t work that way, and if we really knew the Word of the Lord as we say we do, then we would know that.
We don’t understand discipleship, what it means, what it takes to die to self, to pick up your cross and follow Him.
Coming from someone that served for many years, there was a point where I felt I would just be in the pastoral role and that was that.
Everything else wasn’t working for me, my passion was just there, but God has even more that He wanted me to do, so many skills that He did and does not want to go wasted. There is a time for everything. Imagine I stepped into the pastoral role when my foundation hadn’t been dealt with? It might not have been as soon as I stepped into that door but definitely I wouldn’t have been able to stand.
How can one stand if their foundation is unstable?
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Matthew 7:24-27
Jesus is our Rock, Jesus is our Firm Foundation, Jesus is our Precious Cornerstone.
Brethren, we know, that Christians make up the church, Christians make up the body of Christ.
We’ve become familiar with attending, services, conferences, gatherings fellowships.
We pretty much understand the protocol of ‘church going’, but there are very few that understand the basics of a firm foundation.
Jesus is the firm foundation of the church, He built it upon Peter and through Peter, many followed Christ, not Peter but Christ.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:8
Matthew 16:18 tells us that satan can never prevail against the church, the church must and will forever stand.
‘In this life the foundation to everything we do is crucial.’
So, why is it when things go wrong in the church, then we blame the church?
Why not blame the source of its foundation?
Have you forgotten about Aaron’s sons?
They were priests, yet they disobeyed God and
God did not destroy His altar.
No, He destroyed those that disobeyed Him.
God even warned Aaron not to mourn after his sons, but to continue in fellowship.
(See Leviticus 10)
Brethren if the church is based on Jesus our firm foundation, then it must and will certainly stand.
We must pray for the grace and mercy of the Lord.
God is faithful and loving, but He is also a God of judgement.
Like the strange fire that Aaron’s sons presented before God, we have been presenting strange messages in the house of God and the congregation has been embracing them.
Where can we hear sound bible teaching, and not just noises, vibrations, meaningless gatherings, showing off more of self and less of God?
Holding gatherings that never holds substance, blinded by colourful decor, and totally missing the true message of the Cross.
We all want the flesh to feel satisfied but none of us wants to make the flesh feel uncomfortable.
We ought to satisfy the spirit.
We have embraced the strange messages and allowed them to flourish, without questioning its source.
If only we understood the power of the altar, then we would know that it’s not everyone and anyone that we would allow to preach from the sacred altar or the Lord.
We must be born again, we must repent, we must know our foundation and be delivered.
Remember that often the deliverer needs deliverance.
Read the bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will understand.
People are rejecting church, even going as far to denounce Christianity all together because they are looking for the perfect church.
‘There is no perfect church
The moment you step into it, it becomes imperfect!’
Billy Graham
If the church is not about the building and only about the people ‘who make up the church,’ then why is there so much emphasis throughout the bible on building, rebuilding and restoration of the ark of the lord, the tabernacle of meeting, the temple and finally the church?
I’ve written a post about this a few years back.
Why does revelation speak on the seven churches?
Why does Jesus say that He will build His church?
Brethren the church, the building is relevant and important.
Serving in His house is very important.
We fellowship, but in doing so, we must not abandon the church.
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:25
We talk, without knowing.
We have created our own ideologies.
There’s no hunger to even study the bible in its entirety anymore.
Where is the source, where is the substance, where is His undiluted Word?
Have we lost it?
What are we doing?
We’ve got to get back to basics, we’ve got to get deeper into His Word.
God is not a God of confusion but a God of order.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:17:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
We must deal with our foundation, before it deals with us.
We must pray for the grace and mercy of God. We must pray that His Truth must be revealed so that we may prevail.
We must stop disregarding the church, we must come together in unity, get back to His Word, get back to the heart of worship , get back to the church.
God bless you and thank you for reading.
DaFruits 