Building For God v. God Building For You

As ministry leaders, faith-based authors, Kingdom of God speakers and podcasters – it’s easy to get in the business of building. In the name of God, we want to build businesses, podcasts, teams, social media audiences, systems, relationships, courses, products and content that bring people closer to Jesus. That’s holy work, good work and work that we feel called to. There is just a clear line of differentiation in how we go about building – you can build for God OR God can build for you.

This might not seem like that much of a differentiation in the natural, in the earthly kingdom, but it’s a huge differentiation in the supernatural and the Kingdom of God. The first version of building is self-controlled, self-managed, self-dependent, self-reliant and self-motivated. Everything in this kind of building rises and falls with you, your mood, your abilities, your energy, your feelings and your capabilities. This version of building might get you all of the praise, but also leaves all you with all of the fall out, missed deadlines, pressure, bills, under-performing posts and broken systems. When you carry the glory, you carry the weight of the glory.

But, the second version of building, the one where you allow God to build for you – that version is life-giving. That version relieves the pressure off of you and allows God to carry the weight of the glory, that only He can. You relinquish control to God, allow Him to manage your ministry, depend on Him for your every need, rely on Him for guidance and wisdom, and get motivation from Him – the never-ending source of life. There is nothing you have to muster up, when you allow God to build for you. When God builds for you, the account always balances, big problems are easily managed, you are surprised with new opportunities you couldn’t have acquired yourself, and you operate with others in a lightness that doesn’t exist in the other verison.

David learned this lesson in 2 Samuel 7 when he wanted to build God a house, but God told him He wanted to build David a house instead. That in itself is so impactful – we think we know the next thing that we should build for God, instead of asking God what He wants!

So, when David was given pause by God about building Him a house, he paused, sat down before God and prayed. My initial reaction to this is utter panic, because if I stop in the middle of building something, I might lose momentum or get stuck. But, the truth of pausing in God’s presence, was best said by Eugene Peterson in “Leap Over A Wall”: “Biblical not-doing is neither sloth nor stoicism; it’s a strategy.”

David entered into God’s presence and the results were eternal, while the house he wanted to build God was temporal. He traded in his plans for God’s plans and in return received a promise with eternal impact – a kingdom that wouldn’t die with him, the same kingdom we get to be a part of now.

The Kingdom of God isn’t for us to build, it’s for us to surrender to God to build in and through us – that’s how He gets the glory, and we get the pleasure of working with Him in the here and now.