rebuilding, better.

A series of prophetic images from the Lord, explaining the process of tearing down in order to rebuild, better.

I was lying in bed a few nights ago and was meditating on a verse that God had given me at the beginning of the season that I found myself in:

Jeremiah 31:28

In the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation. I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it. But in the future, I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up. I, the Lord, have spoken!

I felt as though everything – I mean EVERYTHING – had been torn down in my life, and that I was walking amongst the ruins, waiting for the time that the rebuilding would begin. I had practiced gratitude in this season, thanking God for the things that He had torn down and knowing that He was intentionally doing it because He wanted to build something better and more sustainable. However, this didn’t take away the pain.

I had felt like the past four years was a constant process of tearing down idols, old habits, mindsets, relationships etc. and refining and breaking me! It reminds me of Jeremiah 18, when the potter begins shaping the clay, only to start again.

Jeremiah 18:2-4

“Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So, I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.

Even when I have felt like I’m completely broken down, God has shown me that there was still more to be done.

A pot can be shattered, but it can also be crushed to the point where it becomes a powder. Shattered fragments are not going to be very useful in making something entirely new, but fine powder can be reused to create something better than before!

However, this process can be extremely painful and involve loss, grief and disappointment as we surrender our own desires to take up His. I’m going to be honest, in this process of breaking and crushing, I was growing quite frustrated and weary. The pressure was growing so intense that I truly felt like I couldn’t go on any further.

I was upset, as I felt that everything had been torn down or taken away. I felt empty, lacking and visionless. The rubble of everything that I once knew was overwhelming and it felt like I was wandering around the site of broken dreams. In this place I cried out, numerous times, asking “When will you restore my life, God?”

Some Visuals...

As I laid in my bed and was meditating on this verse I saw a sequence of images.

I stood behind Jesus, watching Him as He took apart a building, brick by brick. But also simultaneously, I saw a huge wrecking ball crash into the same building, causing it to fall to the ground, leaving a huge pile of rubble. It was being demolished. I knew it was a building that I had built, an area of my life that I had invested time and energy into, and through gritted teeth and tears, I questioned Him, “Why do you have to take it apart?”

He continued to take away the bricks, and in a very calm and steady voice, He said “We need to build a new foundation because this is not built to last.” I was shocked when He said this, as I thought it was built to last…but I was obviously wrong.

He then showed me another image, of a similar nature.

I saw a child building something with Lego. It had a typical green base and on top of it was a very mediocre building with a mixture of coloured bricks that weren’t perfectly aligned, rather just placed in random places. It looked like a building, but there was nothing magnificent about it. However, the child was joyfully singing as they built, proud of the way it was turning out.

The father then walked into the room and noticed what the child was building. He sat down next to them and said, kindly, “Child (daughter), this is going to fall down. It’s not going to last. We can do this better,” and He began to take it apart.

However, the child grew distraught, weeping and crying and shouting as they watched their father tear apart their pride and joy. They had grown attached to what they had created and built themself. They were proud of their work. They liked the way it looked.

“Why do you have to do this?” they cried, “stop taking apart my work!”

The father continued, calmy, knowing what He was doing.

The child grew frustrated, angry and upset and sat in the corner, sobbing. There was no way of restoring what they had built.

Eventually, the child settled down and came and sat back down beside their father. The father was already making progress on the new creation. It had a firm foundation. The colours were cohesive, and the structure was sound.

The father leads the process, and honestly, builds most of it. What He builds exceeds what the child had built by themself. It is more detailed, intricate and secure. It is magnificent – a work of art! It wasn't just a mediocre box of a building, it was more like a castle with dimension and shape!

In this moment, I had that revelation again, “Oh, oh God, that’s what you’re doing in my life,” I said, silently.

I tried to build something myself, and even though I thought God was in on the process, He wasn’t – or at least not to the point I thought He was.

And God was like, “Yeah, no, that’s not going to last. We need to build a new foundation. We need to build this together – better!”

I realised that I was like the child – weeping, crying and struggling to understand why things had died and fallen apart. “Why are you taking apart my work? Why are you tearing it down? I put so much at work and effort into that. I put everything I had into building that. And you’re just tearing it down,” I would wrestle. But eventually I would calm down as I realised that there was no turning back and come and sit beside Him again.

And as I sit with Him, just like the little child, I get to sit back and watch Him rebuild. A structure with a strong foundation – a masterpiece called my life.

The image finished with a bright smile radiating from the child as they looked on the structure in awe. “You’re amazing, dad! This is so awesome. You’re so skilled. You’re so talented. We’ve done so well!” They resounded.

It's a Joint Process

WE’VE done so well. That’s the part that gets me. The child didn’t do anything to help the father rebuild. If anything, they passed their dad the bricks and hummed a happy tune. Yet, God allows us to also take credit for the process. He allows us to be involved, even if He does most of the building.

I once heard someone tell a story about an elephant and a mouse. The elephant and the mouse run across a rickety bridge, and as they do it shakes and rocks. When they arrive at the other side, the mouse looks up at the elephant and says, “Wow! We really rattled that bridge!”

I believe that is what life with God is like. We don't really help Him much, but He still gives us the opportunity to claim the victory.

So, this whole series of thoughts and images made me think, if God torn down things in your life, maybe it's because you're a little kid and you tried to build something yourself. You think your work is amazing, but it's really not. (Sorry for the frankness). It wasn’t going to last. It wasn’t very beautiful. But once He actually comes in, takes the lead and rebuilds with you it will be so much better than you could have imagined and the joy on your face is going to be so worth the suffering, disappointment and confusion that you went through.

We face disappointment in the tearing down because we just can't see. We can't see exactly what God is going to do in the future. We think that our way is the best way, the final way. But, with Him it’s always going to be amazing – far better than what we can do ourselves.

So, trust that when he tears down, he's going to rebuild ten times better.

That's what I'm learning.

Building without God vs. Building with God

Building without God

Building with God