Vision Of The Construction Site

"Do not lie to one another,

since you have put off the old man with his deeds,

and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge

according to the image of Him who created him..."

-Colossians 3:9-10

In this vision, I was standing in a living room. This living room had crisp, clean white lines. A nice white sofa, white walls, white flooring. Everything was decorated with a nice white, and it was spacious and open. Even though everything was white and crisp, it was clean and inviting, so pure and holy.

And as I was standing there, I suddenly realized the Holy Spirit was standing opposite me, and in His hand was a clipboard. He was going through and checking things off and making notes. He also had a hard hat on and a construction vest. He was friendly toward me, but it was also very clear that He was here on official business to get work done!

As I was watching Him look at His notes on this clipboard, I suddenly heard an explosion outside the window. My attention was drawn to these floor to ceiling windows on the other end of the living room, and I saw that outside there were workers blowing up the ground to expand onto the house. I moved to watch the workers blow the ground up and as I did, the Holy Spirit turned to me with His full attention and said, "Oh, don't worry about that." And I looked at the Holy Spirit and said, "I am worried about that!"

I knew instinctively that this was my yard! And these workers were blowing things up in it! The Holy Spirit looked at me and said, "You keep your eyes focused on Me, you look at Me. Don't worry about what We're doing outside." And I looked at Him and said, "But how can I not be worried about what You're doing outside, because it affects me." With tenderness He responded to me, "All you need to do is stay here with Me, in this living room, in this space. Stay with your eyes focused on Me."

After He said that I heard another explosion outside and I turned with my whole body and asked, "What are They doing?" And He said, "Well, We're breaking new ground." And I asked, "What for?" And He said to me, "For more."

And then He began to download this idea of understanding to me that when there are bombs that are going off in our life, whether that's relationships or jobs, family or friends, issues with bosses or coworkers; that when there are things that begin to explode in our lives, that's the Lord breaking new ground for more.

He's unearthing things from the soil in our soul, dirt that's embedded in our hearts. We usually don't realize there were sinful thoughts, desires or emotions in our relationships or lives until the dirt is displaced and it reveals the rubble that must go. We don't realize that we're holding onto things selfishly, or that we react in certain ways personally, because it's a blind spot. The Lord is in the business of blowing up our blind spots and calling our attention to them, so that we can deal with them. He wants us to move through past trauma, work our way through issues, so that we can let them go once and for all and move into the more He has for us.

Sometimes He allows explosive situations to show us just how easily we get rattled by outside situations, and let our gaze slip away from Him. And sometimes He orchestrates scenarios so that we're made aware of places in our heart and soul that require our attention. Because if we don't know that there are dark places in us, then we don't invite Him into those areas to do a new work.

Sometimes we're so rattled by the bombs that we don't realize it's the Lord doing a new work, breaking new ground, expanding us for the more He has for us. Stay with the Holy Spirit in these moments. Let the Lord do what He needs to do so that we can move forward with a bigger temple, expanded territory, ready to receive more from His hands.

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

whom you have from God,

and you are not your own?

For you were bought at a price;

therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,

which are God’s.

-1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Renewed In Knowledge

In Colossians 3:10 Paul uses the phrase "renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him." This word renewed in the Greek is anakainoō and it means to renovate, to cause to grow up or make new, to be changed into a new kind of life as opposed to the former corrupt state.

So when the Lord brought me into this vision with the Holy Spirit, He was showing me the renewal process that happens in our lives as we move into greater glory in Him. The word knowledge is epignōsis, which means recognition, full discernment. This word is used in the New Testament to say 'of the knowledge of things ethical and divine.'

Let me tell you a secret I have learned from Him. I have learned to ask of the Lord to help me discern what is happening behind the scenes in any situation that bothers me. In the past I had a tendency to create my own narratives about a situation, without asking the Lord what was true. And then the Lord one time gave me a dream showing me that my desire to write the script left me with an inaccurate (and very false) perception of what was going on. So not only was I wrong about peoples' motives or actions, I believed the wrong thoughts because I had created them!

I learned that whenever I try to put the pieces together with my limited knowledge of a situation, that I'm almost always wrong in my estimation of what is happening. The Lord showed me to come to Him and say, "help me discern accurately what this is about!" And now when I ask, I receive the fullness of His knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes. I get to see what is hidden, and it draws me closer to the Lord in the process.

We can do the same thing with ourselves. Perhaps there are parts of us that we do what we do not want to do, to quote Paul again. So come to the Lord and ask, "where does my desire to do this thing come from? Why am I driven by my old man? Lord I surrender this part of myself to You. Give me full discernment into this area so that the hidden things can come into the light, be exposed, and You and I can work through it and I will be completely renewed."

Today if there are bombs going off in your life, let them! Let them explode into the dirt. Let them remove debris and rocks and rubble. Let the Lord do His job! And learn to see the Holy Spirit as the Overseer of your construction site, the Lord's holy temple.

I know it's tempting to take our eyes off the Lord and put it on our surroundings. Don't! The Holy Spirit is saying to you today, "Keep your eyes on Me. Stay here with Me. Rest in the living room while I do the work outside that needs to done. I'm expanding your temple, I'm making room for more. I'm adding more rooms, I'm laying new foundation. You have prayed and asked for bigger blessings, for greater territory, for increased responsibility. I heard your prayer, now let Me do the work that needs to be done to answer your prayer. Stay with Me, eyes on Me. And we will get through this together."

With joy always,

Jessica