Remember the story of the two men who were building a house? One built his house on sand. He didn’t do anything wrong; he was not called a sinner or wicked, but he was called foolish.

Another man built his house on the rock. His foundation, which was invisible to the public, was deep and strong. In fact, the whole house rested on it. When a storm came, the house with a solid foundation endured.

If you clean up your private life from sin, yet fill it with the sand of selfishness, you can still build a great house, but if a storm comes, it will be destroyed. If the devil can’t make you hide sin privately, he will try “plan B,” which is for your secret life to be full of sand instead of rock. If you no longer hide sin but don’t host the Holy Spirit, you are still susceptible to the trap of the enemy by living a life full of busyness, focusing on the cares of this life, and on the deceitfulness of riches. The consequences of building on sand may not seem as bad as hiding sin, but its effect is not God’s perfect will for us. 

We get strong winds in the Tri-Cities where I live. One time, during a strong wind, the tree next to the trailer park where our church is located toppled over. The tree fell down like a pencil being balanced on its tip. The roots were totally exposed and although they were extremely thick, they were terribly shallow. The tree was big, but the roots were small, therefore, the wind was able to knock it down from its standing position. This is exactly what happens to us when we stop hiding sin, but we still live shallow private lives, void of living in the Scriptures, or spending time with the Holy Spirit.

Focus more on growing in your roots than growing in your branches. Roots grow deeper when they go lower into the ground. The same is with us, when we go lower in humility we will grow deeper in Holy Spirit.

This blog was written by Vladimir Savchuk.

Pastor Vlad is the lead pastor of Hungry Generation Church, an author of “Break Free” and “Single, Ready to Mingle” and a founder of free online school “Vlad’s School.” To download free e-books, sermon series, small group study guides go to vladimirsavchuk.com