Understanding God’s Word, receiving the gift of salvation, and committing ourselves to the live by the example of Jesus Christ gives us a solid foundation to live victoriously and abundantly in every wonderful way. This is all because of what God accomplished through our Blessed Lord. Jesus Christ is the blueprint that God has given us to follow. From his example, we learn to build our lives on a solid foundation and to continue adding to it as we live by faith. Every human being, no matter who they are, wants to live life to the fullest. This is innate in all of us. We want to express ourselves to our fullest capability, and we want to live more and more life. God created us this way, and He makes it plain in His Word that this abundant reality can only be achieved through Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 3:20-21(NKJV) gloriously proclaims, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” We shouldn’t make the mistake of taking this extraordinary news out of context. Our glorious Heavenly Father is pointing us in the direction of His perfect and infallible Will. When it comes to His plans, His thoughts, and His being, His Will is the vehicle that transports you and me to the place where we witness the exceedingly abundantly. When we operate outside His Will, there are no seats for us on that train.
2Corinthians 9:8(NIV) says, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” This is Good News indeed! God wants us to abound in every GOOD work, because this is what Jesus Christ did, and he is the blueprint of our design. Within the confines of pursuing every good work, God wants us to know that He is able and willing to bless us abundantly, so that we in no way have lack, but have all that we need. The operative words are ‘pursuing every good work’. This is what we do when we’re following the example of Christ. Following him every moment of our lives means that we are building our lives on his solid foundation, and this allows us to increase and expand beyond our greatest imagination.
When we don’t have a solid foundation that is built on God’s Word through Jesus Christ, we might desire to express ourselves in greater ways and to possess great and wonderful blessings, but we haven’t built a strong enough foundation to hold all that bounty. Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 12:48 that to whom much is given much is required, but many of us didn’t put on that truth and wear it like a second skin. Instead, we complained about things and blamed our dissatisfaction on everyone but ourselves.
Avoid spiritual ineffectiveness
Spiritual ineffectiveness is the condition of living beneath our privilege as God’s sons and daughters. It’s a condition of taking one step forward and two steps backward. It’s never having what we need when we need it because we lack faith in God. We don’t know enough about Him and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to live a more than abundant life. Because of this, life becomes a vicious cycle of dissatisfaction. To avoid spiritual ineffectiveness, we must humble ourselves and follow the leadership and guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It’s the only way.
Your motivation
Motivation comes from the heart and it’s the thing that tells God whether we’re following the blueprint or trying to come up with one of our own. Trying to come up with a blueprint of our own isn’t going to work out. We do this when we’re on the run from the person God has called us to be. We do it when we’re living life according to our own plan rather than God’s plan. This causes us to go against the grain of His love, and it takes us further away from the blessings we desire most. Jesus Christ said in John 6:38(KJV), “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” This was his motivation, and it must be our motivation as well.
Your desires and passion
The question we have to ask ourselves is whether we truly want to live for God. Answering a resounding ‘yes!’ is central to building the foundation of our lives on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our desires and passion drive us to get up every morning, and we must determine if they are inspired by our love for God or inspired by something else. If they are inspired by our love and honor for our Creator, we will greet each morning with gratitude that He’s given us another day to bring glory to His name. If our desires and passions are the things of this world like fame, money, materialism, or people, we will not meet God’s requirements, and that’s a problem.
Follow the blueprint
God is not forgetful. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that He knows the plans He has for us, and these are good plans to give us a future and a hope. He’s delivered on this plan. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. He has redeemed us from the curse of death, darkness, and destruction. Now we have a new life in Christ, and that life cannot be lived any old way that we choose. It must be lived with Christ as the Head of our lives in every way.
God has made the blueprint very plain to us. It’s the life of Jesus Christ! He is the most perfect person to ever walk this earth. Everything he did was to please and bring glory to our Heavenly Father’s name. He said in John 5:19(NLT), “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” This is our blueprint, and we must change directions and make whatever shifts are necessary to get this done and follow Christ.
Faith is right believing
We must be clear that our foundation is Jesus Christ, and he is the living Word of God. Our motivation, our desires and passion, and the way we live our lives must follow his example, but many of us are not quite there. So often we go to God with our prayer requests, and He hears them, but sometimes those prayers are not prayed in faith. James 2:26(NLT) plainly tells us, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” We’re asking Him to move on our behalves, all the while we’ve neglected to meet the requirements of faith, and Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we can’t please Him without it. Faith is right believing, and right believing must be backed up with the kind of works that mirror those of Jesus Christ; they must follow the blueprint of love and good works that he left us.
The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:10-11(NKJV), “10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Let’s remember always that we are master builders as well. God has given us this great honor, and we must know that it is our greatest privilege, honor, and responsibility to build our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. When we are fully persuaded and have a sold-out commitment to living our lives through him, God will be pleased and the doors of the exceedingly abundantly will continually be open to us.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Understanding the Blueprint”, written by Reverend Fran Mack. Edits by Kim Times and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.