Sample Under Construction by cesarcastellanostv

COPYRIGHT

SARA CASTELLANOS © 2017

Published by G12 EDITORS SAS

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the THE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®, NIV ® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc ™ Used by permission of Zondervan All rights reserved worldwide Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version ® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc Used by permission All rights reserved Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc , Carol Stream, Illinois 60188 All rights reserved Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation Used by permission Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc , Carol Stream, Illinois 60188

All rights reserved Scripture quotations marked ERV are taken from the Easy-to-Read Version, Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International Scripture quotations marked ISV are taken from the International Standard Version, Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation All rights reserved internationally Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC eISBN 978-958-8824-71-0

Editing and design VisionArt Spanish Version: EN CONSTRUCCIÓN

Published by G12 Editores 2017

Translation Richard Harding Roxanna Bayat G12 Editores Sur América Calle 22C # 31-01 Bogotá, Colombia (571) 269 34 20

VisionArt Inc USA 15595 NW 15TH Avenue, Miami, FL 33169 Enero 2017

DEDICATION

To my husband Lau, my best friend.

I’m so excited to see the construction God will build in our lives.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Lau: Thank you for being my greatest encourager and my biggest support. I love you!

Cesar and Claudia: Your lives inspire me to continue building the incredible construction God has for me. Thank you for opening the way. I love you both!

Laudjair and Eline: Thanks for Lau! Thank you for welcoming me as a daughter. There is only gratitude in my heart toward you.

Johis: You led the way, you married a Brazilian! Thanks!

Lore: You play tennis when you ’ re 38 weeks pregnant. My hero!

Manu: My first leader, dance leader, roommate, boss and above all, friend Thank you for all these years of patience!

Mati: The athlete! I love you little bro.

My brothers-in-law: You passed the most difficult test - you made a good impression on me! Thanks for all your support.

Gran: The most stylish intercessor I know. I love you very much.

Rebeca: Thank you for introducing me to your brother! Thanks for being an incredible friend.

Adrian and Yecelin: You do everything with excellence and make things look

good! Thanks for everything!

VisionArt: Rich, Manu, Juanse, JuanK, Dani, Santi, Caro: THANK YOU! This book wouldn’t have been possible without you.

G12 Media: Juli, Lore, Raúl, Esteban, Miguel, Fabián and everyone else in the team, thank you for all your support! You guys are awesome!

My 12: A ministry of brave warriors. Thank you for dreaming big.

I will always be eternally thankful to Jesus, my Lord and Savior.

Foreword Introduction DESIGN Your beginning Your Name Change of Plan Jump

FOUNDATIONS Your Ground Anchored Different Your Door ROOMS The Room

FAMILY

The Waiting Room

Houses of Light

FOREWORD

Today’s technology allows us to see what is happening around the world. One of the television programs I enjoy most is called MEGA CONSTRUCTIONS. It is impressive to watch how locations where nothing existed are transformed into incredible skyscrapers, hotels, malls or major assembly plants.

As we read through the Bible, we find how God was able to use the faith of His servants to raise up dreamers like Joseph, liberators like Moses and warriors like David. Paul reveals that the Lord is the expert builder, who lays the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:10-11 NLT); God knows what materials we need to build - whether for a stable family, steadfast character, a successful career, a ministry with purpose, or a life surrendered at the feet of our Redeemer, who will keep us and protect us from all adversity. It is no coincidence that Jesus concluded His Sermon on the Mount with the parable of the wise and foolish builders, saying, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24).

“Everyone” leaves no one out. The opportunity to build correctly is within everyone ’ s reach. Our success or failure depends on whose teachings we follow. Anyone who chooses Jesus as their Teacher knows that He is no good luck charm - He is the Expert Teacher. We need to understand, examine and obey every teaching He has given us, knowing that our

decisions will help to build our destiny and the destinies of those around us on a firm foundation that no trial or testing can destroy.

From a young age, Sara has learned to build by laying the foundation of her life on her faith in the eternal Rock: Jesus. He is the One who will sustain us so that nothing will move us from the relationship we are building in Him. Sara shares step by step how we can ensure that what we are building lasts

Perhaps your life is surrounded by rubble, and full of disappointment and pain. But God, the Expert Builder, wants to lay a new foundation in your life, one that allows you to build what is true The plans He has prepared for you are only for good - to give you a future full of blessing (Jeremiah 29:11 paraphrase).

+“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6 NLT).

Our heavenly Father has already drawn up the designs for your life, and despite everything you have had to live through, He will fulfill His plans in you. Simply allow God to continue making you into “His masterpiece.”

Cesar Castellanos

INTRODUCTION

If you had told me at the beginning of 2015 that I would be married and living in a different country by the end of the year, I never would have believed you! 2015 was a year when some of the greatest changes took place in every area of my life. All of my plans and projections for the future were transformed in an instant. It’s amazing how God can change our lives from one moment to the next Sometimes it’s hard to understand why, but that’s when we need to trust in His purposes. The truth is that when God is in control, He knows how to surprise us, He knows what we truly need and He knows what changes we need to experience. He is the architect and builder of our lives.

About three years ago, my sister Manuela and I traveled to North Carolina, and one of the places we visited was the Billy Graham Library. I honestly felt like I was in the Christian version of Disneyland and I was the overexcited five-year-old. I was captivated by seeing all the places Billy Graham had preached the gospel. I’m pretty sure everyone left the museum asking themselves, “What on earth am I doing with my life?!” (Maybe not quite as melodramatically as that, but that place definitely challenges you to do something great for God!).

There is a beautiful garden right outside the museum. As I was walking around and reflecting on my life (yep, sometimes I get a bit sentimental), I suddenly found myself standing beside Ruth Graham’s tombstone, Billy

Graham’s wife It was surrounded by the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen. I’m not an expert on flowers or anything, but they were pretty special. As I went to take a closer look, I could see that the epitaph read, “End of construction… Thank you for your patience ” Wow! Something special happened inside me when I read those words. I realized that our lives here on earth are construction projects that God Himself is building. We never stop being formed and shaped until the day we are ready to meet Him face to face. And that is when we are able to say, “End of construction… thank You for Your patience, Lord!”

Have you ever stopped to think about how patient God is with us?

Sometimes I wonder what He must think about the song and dance I make about life You know - that thing we do with our parents and siblings when we turn something small into something colossal. And the incredible thing is that we do it with God too. We don’t understand the process of formation, so we get scared, throw in the towel and decide to give up. We don’t see the bigger picture. The Bible says in Isaiah 55:8, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways… ” Most of the time, it’s hard to understand exactly what God is doing in our lives. We don’t understand why we had to pass through that fire, experience that time of testing or feel that pain We have so many questions but receive so few answers. But God is God - and He is the architect and builder of our lives.

Hebrews 11 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible and I recently found myself reading a verse that particularly caught my attention: “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (verses 9-10, emphasis added). God is the architect of architects and builder of builders. He really does know how to establish a foundation that nothing and no one could ever demolish If we think for a moment about the creation of the world, we begin to realize how perfect our God is. It was God Himself who

designed and created everything we see with our eyes today He understands the construction process, and He is an expert at making masterpieces out of the lowly and despised. He took the clay in His hands and created a human being in His own image and likeness. He made a glorious construction out of the most mundane thing in the world. God has shown us time and again throughout the Bible that He takes ordinary lives and constructs extraordinary works of art.

While God placed it in my heart to write a book some time ago, I knew I didn’t want to write about my achievements or things I might have accomplished in life, because to be honest I’m still pretty far off the goal. I feel like I haven’t made it yet, and there are still things that God is removing, refining and forming in my life I know I’m not the only person who feels that way, or the only one who knows they still have a long way to go. Both your life and mine are houses under construction. And like every good construction project, they are going to require planning, effort, and above all, time.

My prayer is that you would once again come face to face with your Creator and yourself through this book, and that you would be able to enjoy every stage and season of your life. God already has every one of your days planned out, He already has the architectural designs for your life, He has already prepared the foundation, and now it’s simply up to you to surrender your all to Him, understanding that your life is a masterpiece - UNDER CONSTRUCTION

DE SIGN

YOUR BEGINNING

/ CHAPTER ONE

I can clearly remember the day the construction of my new life began in the country that would soon become my home. We were still a few months away from the wedding, but we needed to start looking for the perfect place to begin building our new life together as a couple

One morning, Lau, who was still my fiancé at the time, told me that his parents had a surprise for us. I didn’t know what to expect, so I got ready as quickly as I could and headed out to discover my future. Within a matter of minutes, I was standing in front of an eight hundred square meter plot of land. I was in complete shock as my future parents-in-law told us that this was the gift God had placed in their hearts to give us It wasn’t just the land - their gift also included the construction of our house. I’m not really one for crying, but I could genuinely barely believe what was happening. I wanted to jump around, cry tears of joy and hug everyone all at the same time! Thank God I was able to contain my excitement slightly. This all happened on a sunny Thursday afternoon - the people who know me well know that if I remember what day it was, it’s because it was incredibly important to me.

The very next day, we had our first meeting with the architect to begin planning all the details of the construction project. The first thing she asked us was, “Where should we begin?”

The question hit me like a ton of bricks. I had no idea what to say and I definitely didn’t know where to begin. That was the moment when I realized that perhaps my calling in life was not to be an architect! As I didn’t have even the slightest idea of what kind of house I wanted, I did what every woman does when she doesn’t know what to do: I went to the bathroom! The restroom is the place where we find relief (not the way you ’ re thinking… although… yeah, that too!) when we need a place to be alone with God. It always works! I knelt down and prayed a short yet sincere prayer: “Holy Spirit, You are the architect of architects Help me to design this house. I don’t know where to start, but You do.” I was like a different person when I went back into the meeting. I told the architect exactly what I wanted… even where the bedrooms should go and how high the ceilings should be. Lau just looked at me in astonishment, as if to say, “Who are you and what did you do with my fiancée?” Even I was surprised at the words that were coming out of my mouth. The architect ended the meeting with the words that would determine the course of the entire construction project: “That was a good start!”

A DIFFERENT DESIGN

/My parents always said they only wanted two daughters. I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am that God changed their plans! Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here writing this! It’s incredible to see how God is far beyond what we can see or understand. He is in control of the visible and the invisible! Although my parents had their plans, God is an expert at creating circumstances to fulfill His purposes and implement His design. A change of plan meant that my sister Manuela and I were born, and my mom and dad became the parents of four girls.

Many of us hear about our beginnings from our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles… They tell us what we were like when we were little, what we did and didn’t do, whether we were happy, angry, crybabies… everything we know about how we began is based on what they say. Perhaps some of you never had that opportunity; maybe you don’t have a family you can ask about those things, yet you long to know more about your roots. Whether we have a family or not, whether we know our parents or not, we all had a beginning.

Jeremiah would have been able to relate. He too was searching because he also wanted to know about his roots. God knows that human beings are curious souls, and that we are constantly searching out answers. He knows that we endeavor to know it all, and in His infinite mercy, He has left us the manual of life: The Bible - that piece of heaven that we hold in our hands every day. The Bible is the book where we will find the answers we need and all that God wants to reveal to us.

+“The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart ””[1]

Jeremiah was looking for answers, and God answered him. It is as if the Lord was saying, “Jeremiah, your beginning was found in Me!”

The book of Jeremiah begins by saying, “The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin ”[2] A priestly family was a family that had privileges and a calling. Now Jeremiah came from such a home, so I wonder why he was seeking to understand what his roots were. Might he have known that his family wasn’t what determined his beginning, nor the purpose of God for his life?

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

Our beginning doesn’t come from our family - it is our Creator who

determines our foundations Our story didn’t begin in our mother’s womb or on the day of our birth. Our origin is found in the heart of God. The Lord told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you… ”[3]

The expression “I knew you ” comes from a Hebrew verb[4] that means: to know someone at the deepest level. This means that even before Jeremiah was born, God knew him completely and had a plan and design prepared for his life It was as though God was saying, “Jeremiah, I knew you before you ever existed in your mother’s womb. I already had a special design in mind for your life.” It’s important to understand that God doesn’t design accidents; He creates purposes.

While my mom was pregnant with me, she was traveling around Colombia, campaigning for election to the Senate of the Republic. At that time, the roads in Colombia weren’t as good as they are today. During one of her many journeys, my mom started to experience bleeding and everyone suspected a miscarriage. When she went to the hospital, the doctors couldn’t explain how I was still alive. That was a wakeup call for my parents. My mom immediately canceled all of her road trips and focused on taking care of me. The doctors thought it was chance that I had survived, others said it was good luck, but my mom knew that there was only one explanation: God had a better plan in mind. God has a blueprint for every person ’ s life. The Word says that He has no favorites; we are all His children, we are all His creation, we are all His design. The Lord Himself constantly reminds us that He is our creator and the architect of our lives Isaiah had this same revelation:

+“I am the Lord, and I made you. I am the one who created you. I have helped you since you were in your mother’s womb.”[5]

Let’s read that part again slowly: “I am the Lord, and I MADE YOU.” You are not an accident. Maybe your parents didn’t plan to have you, but God already had a plan in mind for your life. Maybe you were a surprise to the world, but you arrived at the very moment God had been preparing. The psalmist understood this and said, “You watched me as I was being formed in utter

seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”[6] Wow! Each moment has already been laid out. God already has the blueprints for your life and He has your days marked out before any of them come into being. He already has the designs for the beautiful construction He is raising up.

Sometimes we don’t see the purpose of our days, but the Bible rightly says, “The Lord will work out his plans for my life - for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me. ”[7] You and I are made by Him; we are the clay in the hands of the potter or the blueprints in the hands of the architect. We are God’s treasured possession. Your birth was part of God’s divine plan, not an act of chance He has designed every part of your life and your body, and He knows you incredibly well. He planned the color of your skin, the country where you would be born, and most importantly, He created a purpose for your life. If anyone knows how to create a good design, surely it’s God. He has been designing since the beginning of the world. The apostle Paul wrote, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. ”[8]

An artist always thinks about the idea they want to transmit before creating their masterpiece. Fernando Botero, one of Colombia’s most famous artists, is known for the unique style that characterizes his work. Each piece of art has his essence - everything he creates is size XXL, or to explain it slightly more formally, he creates objects that are of a more exaggerated volume than usual. That is his essence. Women, animals, fruit, objects - all of his works of art have the same style and are all super-sized You and I are God’s masterpiece. We have His essence and seal within us, and we are made according to His design. Thank God that He doesn’t leave us quite as voluminous! He makes us perfect in Him.

BEYOND WHAT I CAN SEE

I have had the privilege of meeting many people with amazing callings. What impacts me most is that many of them didn’t have the beginnings you might expect. Michelle is one of those people. She’s part of my team of 12 in Bogota and an extraordinary leader. I am increasingly impacted by what God is doing through her life But it wasn’t always that way Her beginning wasn’t all roses and kittens. Michelle’s parents had been living on the streets for three years, heavily influenced by drug addiction. They went from city to city selling handcrafts to survive. While they were in the city of Cartagena during one of those journeys… Surprise! Michelle was born. I am in no doubt that Michelle’s life is a miracle When she was born, the doctors gave her just a few hours to live. Because of her parents’ drug addiction, she was born with epilepsy, which the doctors said was incurable. In the midst of all these things, it’s amazing to see how God used her birth to change something in her parents’ hearts. They decided to go back to Bogota and get their lives straight, and that was where someone spoke to them about Jesus.

The incredible thing is that God already had a plan for Michelle’s life He had planned out the family, the city and the country where she would be born. Everything that happened after her birth was part of God’s perfect plan, which not only included her own salvation and that of her parents, but also that of thousands of people who have met Jesus thanks to the ministry God has entrusted to them

Do you now understand that nothing happens by chance? And that God had a plan for Michelle’s life and family even before she was born? If you were to meet their family today, you would never think that this was how they began. No matter how impossible it may seem, God prepares the perfect way to find us and completely change our circumstances so that His plan can be fulfilled (I will speak about this a little later) His design in you is way beyond what our natural eyes can see.

[1] Jeremiah 1:4-5

[2] Jeremiah 1:1

[3] Jeremiah 1:5, emphasis added

[4] (ydati) Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Francis Brown, C Briggs, S R Driver, HENDRICKSON PUBLISHERS / 1996

[5] Isaiah 44:2, ERV

[6] Psalm 139:15-16, NLT, emphasis added

[7] Psalm 138:8, NLT

[8] Ephesians 2:10, NLT

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