The Foundation The Building The Capstone
Greg Manalli

The longer I am allowed the privilege of serving Him, the more sensitive I am to how I do so. My years of ministry has taught me that what I sow that I reap. I am concerned about my work being tried; 1Cor. 3:10-15. Life's choices have consequences. With that in mind, I have readdressed my ministry to be as certain as possible that I am "building" the way God wants me to. When I step back from my ministry, I should see Jesus, top to bottom. He must be the foundation, the building and the capstone.



Now foundations can be funny things. I once knew a man who put a second floor porch on his house and he did so by placing concrete blocks at the bottom and using them as foundations or footings for the porch. There they were, right on the ground with these sticks of lumber jutting up from them. Surely you know what happened. With the first rain, the blocks sunk into the mud and the porch took to leaning. It had to come down.



Everybody could see the weakness in that foundation. Ironic, that we don't see that our foundations are sometimes as shaky. Today's apostles must be about restoring the foundations of the body. Nehemiah saw the ruins and inspected the foundations of the walls before he undertook to rebuild. If the foundations were not in good repair, he would have had to see to it Neh. 3:11-15.



We can detect what is built by what is said and done by the people. They reveal what foundation is in them. The foundation determines how high the building rises. The foundation bears the whole. Just listen to members of a congregation talk and in due time you will find out the foundation. All kinds of foundations have been laid, including prophetic ones and Baptist ones and charismatic ones and word ones and so on. When their words and counterpart actions appear, we see what is built into the believer. What is built in also rises up.



Did you ever peer through a peephole at a construction site and watch the excavators dig deep down into the bowels of the earth? Amazing isn't it how far down they would go before they would go up. The foundation was being laid. Interesting, the foundation can't be viewed like the building can. I mean you can only see so much of the foundation after building starts to rise, but you can see all of the building.



The same is true with us. There is a hidden part where God works to form Christ. The hidden man of the heart must have Christ built into it. Then that life will come up and out.



How does Christ become the foundation? When He becomes all in all. When He is the Reason. When we can say, "for me to live is Christ", Phil 1:21, we are on our way. When nothing else can compete and gain advantage in my life, Christ is becoming the foundation and the "building". It is not that I can prophecy. I can prophecy because He lives in me by the Spirit of Christ. That is what is important. Christ's life is appearing, like a building rising up out of the depths, Col. 3:4.



The foundation and the building are not separate, they are one and the same. What I am rooted in produces the life that grows from it. This "building' then becomes the dwelling of God. He lives in this very structure. We don't build for ourselves. We build for Him. We dwell together with Him. The more we build Him, the more He moves in. It is not about us improving for our benefit, it is all about Him. Sure we benefit, but it is in addition to the whole deal.



This is a corporate and personal truth. The body corporate grows at the rate of the body individual. Every individual is like a building block making up the whole. We don't live for ourselves alone. If we think in terms of how I can get better without thinking of improving for the glory of our Lord, we will never be what God wants. We will only live in selfishness and self-serving. The wrong edifice is going up. Burn it up! Let's set a match to it now and start over.



Today's apostles have a Nehemiah task before them. Nehemiah's anointing will come on them as they seek God for it. Their " building " must be about Christ. The same passion Nehemiah had to restore the walls of Jerusalem must overtake the men and women of today. I pray this is being transmitted to all of the five -fold ministries. Pastors, teachers, evangelists and prophets all should share some part of this truth and have it incorporated into their ministry thrust.



From the foundation, to the body to the top, it is all Jesus. He is the capstone. The capstone is the top stone of an edifice in architecture. It represents the crowning achievement. Jesus is that. What is rejected of men becomes the highest and most elegant, Mat. 21:24. The top stone is the crown of glory of the building. Everything that is being built reaches up towards the top like a new shoot coming up from the earth. It was made to ascend. It must achieve its' determined height.



Likewise, the holy building which we are must rise to meet its' predetermined goal and be crowned with glory and honor. It is all of Him and by Him and for Him. Church is about the business of Christ who must be all in all.



What is in your mind today about what it is you do for the Lord, or I should say with the Lord? Are you about building a successful church or ministry or a successful Christian life? If it doesn't conclude with Christ as the capstone of all, then I ask you, what are you doing anyway? Do you want men to see you or what you have done? Then you have your reward. Do you want men and women to hear you and what you have to say? Then you have your reward. If on the other hand you live for Christ then you will want Him to exceed you and for Him to be glorified in all you do. He is not part of the work. He is the whole work. You will think like John the Baptist, and say, "He must increase". In our decrease, we must forget ourselves.