Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
I had a dream in which I was on a construction site with Jesus. He did not appear in a glorified form, but as a man, however I cannot describe how wonderful it was working with Jesus. Everything in me came alive! We were squaring the foundation so we could construct a building. I thought about Him being the Chief Cornerstone (Luke 20:17) so I understood we were setting the cornerstone, the Lord Himself, into the building. The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, vitally important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.
Since I returned from China last year the person of Christ has occupied the thoughts of my heart. At first it seemed a little peculiar because it was like going back to the beginning of my Christian experience. However, it is not peculiar at all since Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone and all other stones are set in our lives in reference to Him. All revelation, visions, callings, etc., must be in reference to Him or the structure of our lives will be off. We will be like a house built on sand.
A builder hired a young man for a summer job to do the many non-skilled tasks involved in building homes. One day the foreman had the young man cut ten boards five feet long each. The young man measured the first board with a tape measure and cut it. He then used the board he had cut to measure the second board and because it was easy he used each board he had just cut to measure the next one. When he brought the boards to the foreman there was only one board, the first one that was the right length.
That speaks of the way we tend to live our Christian life. We see someone who we consider to be spiritually successful and copy them, not knowing they copied someone who copied someone. Churches and ministries do the same thing. We see a church that is thriving and prospering and we go to their seminars on how to thrive and prosper not knowing they copied it from someone who copied it from someone and so on.
It is not that we do not sit under other men and women’s instruction, of course we do. We are to disciple others and be discipled ourselves in order to grow and mature as believers. The issue is we tend to take our eyes off Jesus Himself and lose Him in the midst of what appears outwardly right and good. It is much easier to copy other people, ministries or churches than have a relationship with the Lord Himself. If we really know Him we will recognize when it is Him speaking or revealing Himself through other people, etc. and we will also know when it is not Him. That is why praying to receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge (personally know, acknowledge, recognize) of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:17) is so important.
In the dream everything Jesus was doing, I was doing. If He was looking at something, I was looking at. If He was squatting down, I was squatting down. I was like a little boy following his daddy’s every move. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19-20). The Father was central to Jesus’ life, He was the standard by which Jesus lived and acted. Jesus should be central to our life and the standard by which we live and conduct our life on this earth.
Many Blessings, BW