Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Rock. We must build our born again spirit with the Rock formed in us there. How can He be formed in there? Through our obedience to everything that the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us. When we obey Him, we are building our lives on the Rock. When we do not obey Him and everything He has commanded us, there is no Rock in us. The Rock is formed in us through our obedience to Him. So, if you hear His words put it into practice. Do not be stubbornly disobedient to Him. You are the one who is going to pay the price for your own foolishness. Your destruction will soon be complete if you continue disobeying Him, and that, if you do it stubbornly.
Do not settle for a superficial life whereby you obey Him sometimes and disobey at other times. Do not obey only when it suits your upbringing, culture, convenience or even for show only. Obey everything He has commmanded. Only then will the Rock be formed in you eternally.
What is a flood? What is the torrent compared to in this parable? Yes, the testing of your faith. No one escapes the many testings of his or her faith that comes along the way. Everyone will be tested. But, who will remain, is what this parable teaches. Only those who have Christ's divine nature eternally formed in them will remain. Have you thought why the foundation of the house was required to be rock? Eternity, yes, the rock symbolises eternity. Only Christ's divine nature in us is eternal. The sinful nature of the Devil that gives you temporal pleasures is not eternal. It will be destroyed by God's fire in you when you obey God the Holy Spirit's leading towards Christformation in you. The fire of God will burn up this chaff, which is the sinful nature of the Devil in you. God the Holy Spirit becomes that fire in you when you choose to put ot death all the misdeeds of the sinful nature in you.
Many mistake the persecutions of men as testings of their faith. The persecutions of men are the doings of evil men. There have nothing to do with God. They come from evil men and they would have to pay the price for their willful sins, one day. Indirectly, they originate form the Devil who control these men who are bent on obeying the sinful nature of the Devil in them. Reasons for persecutions could spring from jealousy, envy, strife, factions, divisions, disobedience to God, hypocrisy of the highest level, fear of losing their freedom to live in sin, greed, covetousness, pride, arrogance, stubborness in their sins that they have been practising all this while and so on. They may have an appearance of holiness but do not be decieved by them. Persecutions will arise from them.
The "flood" and the "torrent" what are they? It's the turmoil in your soul. Only when you have the divine nature of Christ formed in you, you can withstand the "flood" and "torrent" of the soul..
1 Cornthians 3:1-6
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
