# Building Our Spiritual Foundation ### Part 1 — What Foundation Are You Building?

Living in the Spirit : # Building Our Spiritual Foundation ### Part 1 — What Foundation Are You Building?

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*** Psalm 11:3 *"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"*

:** 1 Corinthians 3:10–11 *"But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."*

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## Two Levels of Foundation

When we talk about spiritual foundations, we must first understand that there are two levels of foundation.

There is the foundation Christ gives us, and there is the building we construct upon that foundation.

When we receive Christ, we receive new life. We are born again and established upon Christ and His finished work. That foundation is perfect. Christ is not the problem, and His foundation is not faulty.

But when we receive this new life, we are spiritual infants. Although our spirit has been made alive in Christ, our understanding, thinking, habits, and responses may still be largely influenced by the flesh.

This is why we must not remain spiritual infants for years.

We need to proceed into spiritual development and maturity. The objective is not merely to receive the new birth but to learn how to live from the new life we have received.

The more we develop spiritually, the more the life of the Spirit becomes our practical experience. As we build according to God's Word and learn to walk by the Spirit, there is less room for old patterns of life to continue dominating us.

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## What Are You Building?

Paul says, "Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon." The foundation has already been laid—Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to build properly upon it.

We build through our thoughts, words, attitudes, actions, giving, prayer, obedience, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. These become our works—the practical expression of the life we are building upon Christ.

Paul develops this further in 1 Corinthians 3:12–15. He describes what is built upon the foundation as different kinds of works—gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble. The day will reveal the quality of what each person has built, because it will be tested by fire.

This is a powerful distinction: the foundation determines what we are standing upon, but the quality of our works reveals what we are building upon it.

Some works will endure the testing because they were built according to God's will. Others will be burned up because, although the foundation remains, what was built upon it could not withstand the test.

Paul even says that a person's work may be burned while the person himself is saved, "yet so as by fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15).

Therefore, our concern should not merely be, "Am I on the right foundation?" We should also ask, "What kind of life am I building upon Christ?"

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## The Law of the Spirit

The life of the Spirit operates on a higher order.

Paul speaks of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2). There may be laws, principles, covenants, and consequences operating in different spheres, but in Christ, the believer has entered a new order—the order of the Spirit.

Even the Law of Moses, established by God Himself, has been superseded in Christ by the new covenant and the life of the Spirit.

The believer therefore does not live as one permanently trapped beneath former spiritual arrangements.

The principle of personal responsibility was already established under the Law: the son would not die for the iniquity of the father, nor the father for the iniquity of the son (Ezekiel 18:20). This shows that God does not intend for a person to remain permanently imprisoned by what came before him.

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## So, What Can the Righteous Do?

**Build.**

If previous patterns have influenced your life, do not spend your entire Christian journey investigating the past while neglecting the present.

- Build your mind with God's Word. - Build your character through obedience. - Build your relationships through love and forgiveness. - Build your life through generosity and righteousness. - Build your fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

Your past may explain some things, but it does not have to determine what you build today.

The foundation is Christ. The question is: What are you building upon Him?

This series, *Building Our Spiritual Foundation*, will examine the practical areas through which we build our lives upon the perfect foundation Christ has given us.

**Let us stop looking backward and learn to build well.**

Hassan Thomas Nenger Author, *My Divine Identity as the Righteousness of God* Living in the Spirit Series