Focus on Your Foundation

April 2009

Do you ever feel like you are back in first grade? Is the Lord dealing with issues that you thought you have moved on from? The Lord has spoken to me that He is firming up faulty foundations. Just as a house built on a faulty foundation will have many problems, including doors that don’t fit properly into their frames when closed, cracks in walls and ceilings, and perhaps even slanted floors or bathtubs, you and I will not be able to stand strong and be all God wants us to be if our “foundations” are not firm.

What do I mean when I write to you about your foundation? It’s simple: your foundation is the condition of your heart. Ultimately, everything about your life will be affected by the condition your heart is in. If your heart is wounded, you will see circumstances, opportunities, difficulties, and other people from the perspective of pain. If your heart is angry or bitter, all of life will somehow take on a volatile edge for you; you will be easily angered and eager to anger others. But if your heart is healed and whole, the foundation of your life will be strong and stable; your perspectives will be balanced, and your vision will be clear.

It’s Important
Psalm 11:3 reveals to us that foundations are extremely important in our lives when it asks: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” If our foundations—the conditions of our hearts—are not solid and whole, we really cannot do much because everything we do flows out of who we are—and who we are is a matter of the heart.

One of the reasons foundations are so important is that a foundations determine structures. Just think, the foundation of a building sets the parameters for its height, width, weight, and other dimensions. The same principle applies to us spiritually. The condition of our hearts, which are our foundations, set the limits for our lives—how deep we can go in the Lord, how much and how quickly we grow spiritually, our ability to fulfill God’s destiny for our lives, and other things. Faulty foundations will hinder our spiritual growth, limit our intimacy with the Lord and cause difficulty in our relationships with others. The condition of our hearts is so important.

Three Key Foundational Stones in Your Life
There are many foundational stones that contribute to your foundation—the condition of your heart. These include your prayer life, the way you interact with God’s Word, and your relationship to your local church and to the Kingdom of God. But I want to mention three things that are vitally important to the condition of your heart and foundational to your foundation:
• your relationship with God.
• your relationship with yourself.
• your relationship with others.
Because these three areas are so important, the enemy often attacks them, sometimes in ways we do not even recognize or understand. He knows that one way you connect with your destiny, purpose and life is by having healthy foundations, so he will attempt to cause you to have a distorted image of God. Or, he may subtly turn your focus in a negative way toward something about yourself—your height, the shape of your nose, the sound of voice, your shoe size, or anything else he can use to sow seeds of self-rejection in your heart. The enemy also has endless ways to work separation into your heart towards others; unforgiveness, judgment, anger, jealousy, bitterness or envy—just to name a few.

I urge you to be very watchful over these aspects of your life. Pray, apply the Word, and be diligent in every way to make sure your relationship with God, your relationship with yourself, and your relationships with others stay free from the enemy’s influence and full of the love, grace, and power of the Holy Spirit. That way, you’ll be well on your way to a good heart condition and a firm foundation.