IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER?

Mark 6:1-4 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

Have you ever wondered why, out of any other occupations, that Jesus became a Carpenter or was given to be raised up in a family involved with carpentry before He entered into His ministry? Why not from a family who worked in the temple or maybe a family who had a feeding the poor ministry? That would make sense to the natural mind, right? But no, He grew up as a Carpenter!

Throughout the Old Testament the occupation of carpenters are mentioned 11 times. Each time mentioned the Carpenter played the vital role of helping to build or repair the temple of The Lord, among any other infrastructure or furniture and so forth.The carpenter does more than just put wood together. There is process of design, measurements and the help with tools to produce such fine craftsmanship!

Isn't it amazing how that a carpenter can take down a tree, cut it up and out of part of that tree make something that looks completely opposite to what that tree once looked liked? Sounds like what Jesus does with a life!

I always found it amazing that Jesus who was a carpenter by trade, dealt with wood most of His life and yet wound up being nailed to a big piece wood that was not constructed by His own hands, but rather by will of His Heavenly Father... through the hands of Roman soldiers!

What is witnessed in the natural gave way for the spiritual! Jesus' carpentry skills in the natural is has been applied in the spiritual! So perhaps you yourself might be in an occupation that seems to be a waist compared to that which God has called you to. I want to encourage you, where you are at is your ministry and is your training! God works all things together for good, as well as His purposes!

The Carpenter is The builder

The element or substance of wood is prophetic in the scriptures and represents humanity!

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Your works meant nothing before Christ but they sure mean something after Christ! Not that we can work our way to be saved, because we are saved WITHOUT our works, but by His work, which is to say His obedience to death on the cross!

Now we are called to be His craftsmen piece in the earth! The Bible calls us to be “trees of righteousness” or His right ways!

With some Master craftsmen you can tell their work or brand of work, if free hand, by the kind of cuts and curves they do. When no demand of certain pieces is asked for, they would probably add more detail and curtains of cuts or whatever they would like to do! So what would Jesus, the Carpenter build if He had the choice?

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build MY CHURCH; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

When Jesus said He will build His church, He is not constructing something by someone else's request of supply and demand! He said He will build His Church! That means however He constructs it; He will make it with His own signature design and cuts! This is why we must cultivate the ongoing internal work of The Holy Spirit. He is the one who cuts and shapes us more into the person of The Carpenter, Jesus Christ!

We are called to minister to the world, not pick and choose who or who we don't minister to or who is added to the kingdom. As a wood craftsman you may want to look for good healthy wood to cut into shape, but Jesus works differently! He takes the burnt wood, the least likely and He constructs it into something completely new and beautiful! He turns beauty out of ashes!

Carpenters and Masons

Throughout the Old Testament when Carpenters came into the work of God, stone masons came as well. 2 Chronicles 24:12 And the king and Jehoiada gave it (money collected from his chest) to such as did the work of the service of the house of the Lord , and hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of The Lord...

It is interesting how Jesus said to Peter upon this rock I will build. Carpenters needed stone masons in order to build upon! For any building there is a need to have a rock like foundation. Something strong and these stone masons came to lay the foundation. Jesus said upon this rock! What was the rock? It was the foundation! What is the foundation He will build upon? It was the foundation of His Christship, His anointing! Jesus is the rock, the rock of our Salvation and He said I will build upon that rock! He will build upon Himself!!!

Luke 19:37-41 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke (criticize, deal sharply) thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

Jesus wept over a city that didn't have a strong foundation, and because they didn't receive The Rock of their salvation, they missed the visitation of The Carpenter!

It was never Jesus' intent to actually rebuild a whole city's infrastructure per say, but rather to build up a people into the spiritual infrastructure of His Church! What makes up a city is the people, not the buildings. It was His intent to rebuild or restore the lives of people back to the infrastructure and way suitable for the dwelling of God Almighty!

The Carpenter is The Restorer

2 Kings 12:11-14 And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the Lord: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the Lord , And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the Lord , and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it . Howbeit there were not made for the house of the Lord bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the Lord : But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the Lord .

Before any of the interior decorations came into the picture, before any trumpets, any vessels, etc. first the repair or the RESTORATION of the house of The Lord had to be made.

We can desire certain things from God and there is nothing wrong with it, if anything we are called to desire things even spiritual gifts, but many of times God withholds hanging the ornaments of promises in your life because there are some breaches that have to first get fixed up.

What is the point of furnishing a home that could fall apart at any minute? Not only would the house be ruined but also everything that was decorated on the inside will fall to ruin!

Like a child being given up for adoption. Before that child is given over to a family, the family undergoes a background check to make sure that that family and even their house is in tact. Why their house? Because the state of their house is a reflection to the adoption agency of the state and livelihood those who dwell there! If the family is in ruin, the house or family unit would be in ruin and the adoption agency doesn't want to risk that orphan to be in a condition of break down!

John 2:19-21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I (The Carpenter, the builder, the restorer, the lifter of your head) will raise it up.Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

Before the power of the Holy Spirit was personally and FULLY experienced by whosoever followed Jesus, there had to be a resurrection and then a restoration!

A restoration of Jesus taking His rightful place at the right hand of the Father!

The right hand of God represents FAVOR and BLESSING.

Jesus represented God to man and represented man to God. Jesus was and is the second Adam and the “go-between” between humanity and God. His place to the right hand of God showed that He was "as the son of man" restored back to being 2nd in command over the earth! But when we look unto Jesus as God present in the earth who was and is God, we see Him sit at the place of full command and authority as King of all kings and The Lord over all lords!

When Jesus sat down in the place or position of authority, power was immediately given unto his disciples. If we are identified in Jesus at the cross, we are still identified in Him at the throne as God's right hand man!

Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

We are all gods in the sense of the authority and domain! But our identity is in Christ who is King of all kings and Lord of all lords!

Acts 2:32-33 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. (All because man was restored in and through Christ as heirs unto righteousness, children of God, those of a royal priesthood!)

Restoring man

Luke 23:39-43 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.

The thief asked Jesus, the Savior and Carpenter if He would Re-member him when He entered into His Kingdom. In other words, would Jesus, this Carpenter who has the power to give life to whatever He touches, would He take the life of this thief, this life fallen apart, tarnished, broken and put him back together?

Also consider when we take commune at Church meetings. Jesus said, as often as we do, to do this in RE-MEMBERANCE of Him! This doesn’t mean He fell apart, but that we as His body are called to be knitted together by the Redemption and love of Christ! Re-membering Christ and what He has done for us, so that we might be in unity and not divided!

The Carpenter is The Furnisher

The supplier of furniture.

Isaiah 41:7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer (encourages) him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

Religion will encourage you to stand around the cross but relationship with Jesus will get you on the cross! We are to be fascinated/ fixed upon the love of God, the same love that nailed His son, The Carpenter, The Builder, The Restorer, The Furnisher, The Savior upon the greatest and most valued wood craftsman piece the world has ever seen! The cross of Calvary!

Isaiah 54:16-17 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord , and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord .

Have you every hung up a picture and stood back and saw that it looked crooked?

Sometimes it is so obvious that it is, but for me it has to be perfectly straight or else it throws off everything in the room. So I get my leveler and I level the picture according to the instrument of the leveler. Finally when the leveler says it is correct and I step back to look at the picture, according my personal perception it still looks slightly off and crooked! But now what I am referring my perception of the picture to is according to the leverage of the ceiling and floor. According to the foundation and infrastructure of the room or the house!

To many times we begin to look at the certain pictures or certain self images that we hang up in our mind concerning ourselves and settle for it to be postured in the way that seems right to us! But when Jesus THE CARPENTER moves into your life, into His house, His residency and sees the crooked things we have displayed, Jesus will make the adjustments needed not according to your perception, but according to the infrastructure of the life He called you to live, the house He chose to dwell, the residency He chose to occupy!

Jesus makes the crooked things straight but when we allow our own perception of ourselves to not be measured according to the word of God, we continue to carry on and still have things out of order in our own lives!

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

It is when we allow The Carpenter named Jesus to go to work on our life, then we will know that it is not of His trade to keep us as a rotten piece of wood, but rather to hand pick us, cut us, shape us, mold and sand us into more like His image that He will bring our through the fire and unto perfection and furnish the great workmanship of His hand on our life!

The master pieces that this Carpenter provides by using the instrument of His Word is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, peace, joy, power, and all so that your life, His dwelling, might be thoroughly furnished!

Is not this The carpenter?

God Bless