A BUILD OUT OF THIS WORLD
Through wisdom is an house builded;
and by understanding it is established:
And by knowledge
shall the chambers be filled
with all precious and pleasant riches.”
(Prov. 24:3-4)
Have you ever designed your own home? I mean like, the blueprints. Have you designed it yourself and then even went on to build it yourself? Or maybe you purchased house plans already designed by an architect and then someone built it for you. Matt and I have considered the idea multiple times…and even considered how daunting the task might be… but I would think very rewarding in the end…
Though I’ve never designed nor built my own physical house, I do know that the first step to any successful build is having a skilled architect with designed blueprints, and then, of course, following those blueprints. A wise builder will follow the plan laid out in the blueprints. A wise builder knows that in order to get the final image of the blueprint, they must follow the blueprint all the way through the build. On the other hand, a foolish builder doesn’t follow the plan, which results in major defects in the home.
Maybe you’ve seen these foolishly hilarious building fails? In all these shocking fails, they end up with something they never even set out to build…. all due to not following the original blueprint, or possibly not having a blueprint to begin with. Then, just to name a few, the strength, warmth, endurance, and stability of the home are all adversely affected. When you build using wisdom, you never end up with something you didn’t set out to build.
Through wisdom a house is built… (Proverbs 24:3)
How does a house get built? Using wisdom, and the blueprint is the wisdom.
Now what about our spiritual house? Do you recall how the Bible says that we—individuals, immediate families, church congregations, ministers of the Gospel, the Body of Christ—have a spiritual house to build? Would the building of our spiritual house not be very much the same? You see, the natural reflects the spiritual. For every natural law, there is a higher spiritual precept from which it originates. If we can’t build a physical house without following a solid blueprint, why would we think we could build our family’s spiritual house without one?? If we can’t foolishly fly by the seat of our pants as we build a physical house, and expect to have something left standing in the end, why would we think we could do that with our spiritual home?
Whether we realize it or not, we’ve all started the build on our spiritual house. So, let’s ask ourselves, “How’s it look? How’s it holding up? Does my family’s spiritual house look anything like the “blueprint”? Am I even following the “blueprint”?
The more I grow in the Word, and the closer I get to the Lord, I see more and more how our Father is a Master Designer—a Master Architect—with a blueprint design for every area of our lives, all found in the Word of God. The blueprint is the final full image, the plan, the pattern, or the map, of what He designed us to become, but it’s up to us to build according to this blueprint, step by step, in order to come out with His result. The Word contains our blueprint for how to build our family’s spiritual house, too, and a wise builder will build according to the plan if they want the no-fail, no-fall results.
These things are very typical of how a natural builder would construct a natural house, and having worked around builders plenty enough, I know there are three main systems that make up the blueprint of any house: (1) Foundation, (2) Frame, and (3) Roof.
1. FOUNDATION: The foundation is the most crucial element of a house. If the house is not built on a solid, stable foundation, the house will fall—crumble—over time.
2. FRAME: The frame, or the pillars, beams, is the support system for every home. Without the frame, the house has no shape or strength.
3. ROOF: The roof is the covering and protection of the home. It includes all the materials and constructions necessary to be supported upon the pillars of the house. It embraces the frame and holds it all together, tightly. Without the roof, all the outside elements are allowed inside to harm and cause destruction.
Through [skillful and godly] wisdom a house [a life, a home, a family]
is built, And by understanding it is established
[on a sound and good foundation]
(Prov. 24:3, AMP).
The Bible brings out these same three main systems in connection to the building of a spiritual house:
1) FOUNDATION: What is your house built upon? The Bible tells us exactly what the foundation of our house should be. The foundation of every prosperous spiritual house is rock of the Word of God. But not only the Word of God in and of itself… it’s what we do WITH the Word of God we know that determines our actual foundation. You’ve no doubt all read the example Jesus told of how a wise man builds, versus a foolish man, but we could all read it again:
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:24-27, ESV)
Great was the fall of it?? Yikes…. All because the foolish man didn’t build his foundation according to the blueprint. When we build our spiritual house upon the foundation of the Word of God (because we actually DO the Word of God) our house will surely stand firm, unmoved and unshaken no matter what earthquakes might tremble, and no matter what the enemy tries to rattle us with. When we build God’s way, we get God’s results. James 1 says it is the doers of the Word, not the hearers only, who get the results. And then, as we continue building our home God’s way, according to His blueprint plan, we are allowing HIM to build it. When your home’s foundation is right, it will withstand the worst of the worst.
Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it… (Psalm 127:1)
2) FRAME: The frame is the inner support system of the house. The Bible uses the word “pillar” as it pertains to the frame of our spiritual house. Webster’s dictionary says that a pillar is “regarded as reliably providing essential support for something.” Synonyms for pillar/frame are champion, backbone, and mainstay. The pillars, or frame, seem like a pretty big part, to me. And this is where the wife, the mother of the home, comes in. She is the heart of the home and responsible for the frame and support system of her home.
The word “house” as it is used in the Bible in the ways we are discussing is a noun meaning home, dwelling, family, the family or household itself.
Every wise woman buildeth her house (household, family): but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. (Proverbs 14:1)
Wisdom has built her house,
She has hewn out her seven pillars…
(Proverbs 9:1)
Two things about these scriptures stand out to me. First, she builds. She doesn’t tear down. No, she builds. And we’ll come back to this…
Secondly, she hews. What does that mean? To hew means to make or shape something, to form, to fashion, to chisel, to smooth…
It means work. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness… (Proverbs 31:27)
It takes work to look well to the ways of your household. It takes work to hew out the seven pillars of your family’s home. It takes work and effort to form and fashion, to smooth out, and to sculpt the heart of your family. While we won’t take time to fully discuss what are the seven pillars, we do know the effects of these pillars. The way she manages her household determines the atmosphere within. These pillars she has worked so hard on, “hewing” and building according to the Lord’s way, are what keeps her house standing, and standing upright at that. It takes effort and love and patience. It takes submission and obedience. It means yielding to the peace of God when anxious circumstances surround her home, or when strife tries to have its way. It means standing strong when the enemy’s evil comes beating against her home. It means trusting in God, hearing from Him, and doing what He says. When your house is framed right, it will withstand the worst of the worst.
Every wise woman buildeth her house (household, family): but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. (Proverbs 14:1)
If the Bible says a wise man builds his house on the rock, would it be built any differently by a wise woman? She, too, would build her household upon a rock—as a family in accordance to the way God sees households. How does God see households? What does this part of the blueprint look like? How would the wise woman build the frame and support system of her family’s home?
3) ROOF: This is where the ROOF comes in. A wise woman will build the frame of her family’s home under the ROOF. Seems like a duh-moment, right? However, if you look at the majority of “Christian-so-called-godly” homes these days, most seem to be missing this part, where their frame is not connected underneath their roof. And some are missing the roof all together.
In the natural, this would be considered one of those foolishly hilarious and shocking house-build fails. So, what is God’s ROOF-design for a godly household? What does the blueprint of this area of our spiritual homes need to look like? How does the frame connect to the roof? We can see it’s made very clear in the next two scriptures:
For the husband is head of the wife,
as also Christ is head of the church;
and He is the Savior of the body.
(Eph. 5:23)
But I would have you know,
that the head of every man is Christ;
and the head of the woman is the man;
and the head of Christ is God.
(1 Cor. 11:3)
Here is the real kicker: the godly wife is responsible for connecting the frame of her household to the roof. Not only does a wise woman (mother, wife) build her family with the awareness that they are UPON something (the foundation of the Word of God), she also builds with the awareness they are UNDER something. She knows that the roof can’t do his job unless the frame of her family, which is already planted on the foundation of the Word, is connected UNDERNEATH the roof. The roof is not a roof without the rest of the home built underneath of it.
And in case you still don’t get it, the ROOF is the husband, the father of the home.
The Bible says that the roof of the spiritual home, the husband, the father, should be “One who rules his own house well, having obedient children under him with all respect” (1 Tim. 3:4, RGT).
Key word: UNDER him.
If a “wise” woman is going to build her house, which no doubt means according to the Bible way, she will build her house under her husband, who is the head. And because the frame of her house is built correctly, with this awareness, her children will also be under the “roof” with all respect. One definition online says that the frame and pillars are “a firm, upright support for a superstructure.” Seems to me that our households should be superstructures.
And to bring this home just a touch more, allow me to expound on Proverbs 14:1 even further:
The wise woman builds her house [on a foundation of godly precepts, and her household thrives], But the foolish one [who lacks spiritual insight] tears it down with her own hands [by ignoring godly principles]. (AMP)
Every wise woman buildeth her house (household, family):
but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. (KJV)
How would a woman who is supposed to be building her household end up foolishly plucking it down, or tearing it down, or pulling it down, with her very own “hands”?
Without getting toooo professor-like for you, that word “hands” in the Hebrew is actually translated “authority, strength, and overthrowing power.” So how does the woman end up foolishly tearing down the very household she is endeavoring to BUILD? She does it by using her “own” authority and overthrowing power, rather than supporting her husband’s authority. Rather than building up her household UNDERNEATH the roof, she has thrown off the roof or built it without the roof, and possibly doesn’t even realize she has done it.
The woman of a household like this makes decisions apart from her husband, she doesn’t follow his instructions or “get” his heart on matters. She takes matters into her own hands when she should be looking to the head. Instead of supporting his decisions and instructions involving the family, the disciplining of the kids, etc., she does it her own way. This is just one example of building apart from the roof. And it all has to do with the state of the heart.
A house built like this is a divided house. You can’t have a house with two roof systems. That means someone’s not doing their job, out of their place, and out of order. The Bible says a house like this, a house divided against itself, CAN NOT STAND (Matthew 12:25).
Again, in the natural, this would be considered one of those foolishly hilarious and shocking house-build fails. If we wouldn’t build the frame of our natural house on top of the roof, why would we think we could build the frame of our spiritual house upon the roof? It just doesn’t work. The frame is the support system for the roof to sit upon, and without a roof, you don’t have a home, just like without a frame there is no home. So, you can’t have one without the other, and you must have them in their correct order for this puppy to work. It hilariously doesn’t work naturally, and it should be just as hilarious and foolish to think it could work spiritually.
And why doesn’t it work? To see this further, we need to know what a roof does.
The roof is the shield, protection, and covering from outside elements. The frame is unable to help with this if she is not built underneath the roof. The roof envelops the home. With strong beams himself, he embraces the frame and holds it all together—tightly. He is the superstructure forming the upper covering of the home; the highest point; an upper limit. He is supported by the frame upon the pillars of the home.
He serves to protect his family and provides “thermal insulation” to his home. When your house is roofed right, it will withstand the worst of the worst.
So, to finalize, what are the effects of building our spiritual house according to the blueprint of God’s way—with a household built upon the foundation of doing God’s Word and framed underneath the head of the home?
The fruit of righteousness will be peace, and the outcome of righteousness, calm and security forever. Then my people will live in a peaceful dwelling, in secure homes, in carefree resting places. (Isaiah 32:17-18, CEB)
If we want this beautiful outcome of righteousness, we must be willing to build the right way. When we build God’s way, then and only then will the chambers of our family’s spiritual home be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
Through wisdom is an house builded;
and by understanding it is established:
And by knowledge shall the chambers
be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. (Prov. 24:3-4)
Building our house according to God’s way just flat works. Is God’s way archaic and outdated?? The world’s way would tell you that… but I think we can all see how the world’s way isn’t working! They are having house-building fails left and right, up and down, all around us! If we want to see different results than in the world’s marriages, we must be willing to build differently… God’s way. Are you willing?
Happy building,
Jessica