From the Archives……..
I once shared with you how Brailee calls my home a castle. I also shared the meaning of the word castle, it means a fortified stronghold, in case you don’t remember.
I also realized that Brailee also calls our office building a castle, she calls it the big castle. I love that.
You know how when God is trying to show you something that he will tell you the same thing or have someone else tell you the same thing over and over? Or you will see the same signs or hear the same messages, different people but all on the same subject? That’s how it has been for me since Brailee began calling my house a castle and God revealed the meaning to me.
Everywhere I turn there is the word ‘castle.’ Then I came across a picture I had bought for Bryson’s room several years ago that says ‘Build a Castle.’ I knew God was talking to me and I knew he was saying ‘build a fortified place.’ I believe he is saying this to all of us.
I once received an email from one of our readers. She was telling me about a season of storms she had went through. She shared with me how God had told her to do something before the storms started but she didn’t understand what he was saying, therefore when the storms hit she was unprepared. God still brought her through, but these storms wearied her beyond words. What was it the Lord had told her? He told her to prepare her storm shelter…and he told her before the storms hit.
I have said it many times before in my writings…it is almost impossible to build a storm shelter in the midst of a storm. That is not to say that God won’t protect you in the storm or that he won’t bring you through…but wouldn’t it be so much better to have a place prepared to go until the storm passed? Yes, I think so too.
Personally I believe God warns us before storms hit. Whether we are listening or tuned in to his voice is up to us, but I believe he warns us. And if he warns us and we don’t prepare, we certainly can’t blame God can we? It would like me warning Bryson to stay inside because it was storming outside, yet he ran outside anyway. When he did that he would be vulnerable to the elements of the storm simply because he didn’t heed my warning.
I firmly believe God is telling me and the body of Christ as a whole to build yourself an ark; build a castle. No one else can do it for you; this is something you have to do for yourself. It is not difficult, when it would be difficult is if you waited until the storm began. Now is the time to build. Now is the time to prepare your fortified place of dwelling.
I realize I said this same thing last week, but my question is; have you begun building? The day the Lord spoke that warning to me, I pulled out a notebook and begin typing out scripture of what the Lord was leading me to pray and declare over me and my family. I studied and typed for hours. I was tired after several hours so I put my laptop aside and rested. The next day I went shopping with my Mom. The day after I had other things to do. That night God said ‘you are not building your castle, you have all the tools lying there but you are not using them.’ Ouch!
2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given us all things that pertain to life. In the Bible you will find every tool, every word, you will ever need to build a shelter for you and your family. You will have to take the time to find them, write them down or type them on a sheet of paper…but you can’t stop there. You will have to be diligent to declare those words each day. You see, God created the whole world with the words of His mouth. We must do the same thing. We create everything around us with the words of our mouth. Life and death are in the power of the tongue and we will eat its fruit, there is no doubt about it. What will you create with your words today?
God is telling us, prompting us, compelling us…build your castle. Why? So that when storms come, and they will come, we have a place that we have created to run into, in that place is peace, and financial security, and health, and His presence…in that place will be all we have need of. We will be able to go through every season of challenge with peace and come out without any harm or disappointments. Then others will see and be amazed and we will be able to tell them all about our God and how great He is.
I think Luke 6:48 in the Message Bible says it best and I will leave you with this truth from God’s unfailing word; “If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last.”
