Wisdom Part 2

Hosea 4:6: “My People are destroyed (brought to nothing, rendered harmless, ineffective, defeated, perish, to be cut down, their voice is silenced) for a lack of knowledge (knowing).

      One of the first words the Lord spoke to me as a fairly new follower of Christ was this verse. My response to Him was, “Lord, give me that knowledge.” This request led to a journey in His Word for over 35 years now. Not only did the Lord tell me the problem, He put a hunger and thirst in my heart for the knowledge, understanding and wisdom of His Word. I take no glory because it was all God's doing. All I did was act on the desire He put in my heart. Little did I know that in order for God to answer my request to want His knowledge, understanding and wisdom, it would take hours and hours of daily study over years and years—seeking and searching—to have the understanding I have now. Whatever God calls you to do will take sacrifice. Jesus illustrated this on the cross of sacrifice. Love requires sacrifice. The sacrifice of Jesus was the greatest act of love the world has ever known. He sacrificed all in order that we might gain all.

       God answered my request for His knowledge slowly, progressively and steadily. As I did my part, God did His part. I remained in His Word daily for 8-10 hours, and He was true to His Word. My knowledge increased and then He gave me understanding which led to wisdom. Jesus in His flesh body also grew in wisdom.  It is my honor and pleasure to share the wisdom He has so generously given me with others. This is why I write these teachings on my website as well as in books. I share His wisdom with others with a prayer and hope that they too will be established and strengthened by them so they can carry out their God-ordained purpose as well.

       Wisdom is the greatest gift God can give you. Cherish it. Seek it. Love it because God is Perfect Wisdom. God outlines the benefits of His wisdom in Proverbs 3.

• My son, do not forget My teaching, but keep My commands (commandments) in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. God wants to write His Word in our hearts--the place of love. He doesn't want us to get so distracted by the cares and concerns of life that we forget about Him and His Word. The reward for doing this is prolonged life and prosperity. I don't know about you, but this motivates me! God always has a blessing (reward) for us if we obey Him.
• Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Jesus was bound by Divine love and faithfulness both to His Heavenly Father and to us.  Since the Godhead is motivated by love and is Faithful and True to us, God wants us to carry love and faithfulness in our own heart both toward Him and toward others. The reward of doing this: Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
• Next is trusting God – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. We can't trust in the understanding of our fleshly nature; we must trust in the Lord who is all wise and whose ways are mysterious because He sees what we don't. He alone can direct us into the straight (holy) and right path. Our flesh will deceive us, but God never will. We have to know Him by studying His Word and letting it guide us into the path that God wants for us. The reward for doing so will be blessing.
• Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil. The fear of the Lord (reverential awe of His holiness, glory, power, goodness, love, grace and mercy) is the beginning of wisdom. We aren't to be wise in our own eyes but must humbly seek God's wisdom in any situation and be guided by Him not by our flesh that deceives. God also says in this verse that we are to shun evil. Evil (sin) does not bless. It is contrary to the ways of the Lord and wants to steal, kill and destroy what God wants to unify, bless, prosper and multiply. The devil works through our sin and fleshly nature. It is the love and nature of God in us and His wisdom that will keep us unified, blessed and multiplied.
         Many marriages are destroyed because the two that God put together and said that “no man should put asunder” didn't follow the ways of God when problems came along. As a matter of fact, many of these fractured marriages don't even put God in the mix. Instead they let the ways of their flesh take over in anger, bitterness, condemnation, judgment, retaliation, revenge and so on and so on. The only result that can come out of these emotions is division because they are flesh-driven and not God-driven. And that's just what the devil wants. He is the divider, not the one who unites. God works in oneness! If you say you love God and then turn around and act completely contrary to what God would have you do, then God isn't really guiding and directing your life. You are. The antithesis to this is to act with the heart and ways of God who is pure, perfect love. “Love never fails.”
         The Bible says that God is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.....” Psalm 103:8-14 God is like a parent who loves their children. Even though the child is disobedient and does things that they shouldn't do, you still love them. Of course, you correct and discipline them, but your love for them is not hindered. This is the way of God's love. God wants a marriage to work with the same unconditional love that corrects but doesn't reject.
          If God loves us with this abounding love and forgiveness, ought we who owe Him all that we have and all that we are not love and forgive others in the same way and not retaliate? If God doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, should we not have the same attitude to others? Should we treat others harsher than God treats us. Love by its very nature makes us vulnerable. Grace, humility, listening and reasoning with God and each other will restore any union between two people that is threatened. But God has to be brought into the situation. God said in Isaiah 1:18, “Come, now let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...” God wants us to reason together to address problems always toward a solution. God makes our sins white as snow. We don't deserve this because God hates sin. He does it out of His love for us.
         Two stubborn wills will never unite! God is angered by stubbornness because it is the opposite of humility and submission which is to be the attitude of sinners. (Judges 2:20-21)   Each person must look within-- not without – to see what needs to be changed in them to make a relationship work. No marriage makes it through the effort of one person and no marriage breaks up because of one person. This is a reality that we all have to understand. None of us are perfect. None of us had perfect parents. We all carry both the good traits and the bad traits of our parents. And only God can turn those bad traits around if and when we are willing to own them. Humility and submission to the will of God is the only way this will happen. We must put down our own will and take up God's will in order for change to come. This will make for a more perfect union. Flexible and bending hearts are the only way love and marriage can be sustained. This is the Godly way.
• Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine. Since all that we have is a gift from God, we are to honor God and His Church by giving to support it. God is the one who gave you intellect and the ability to gain wealth, therefore, He is to be honored first. Again there is a blessing for so doing....you will be filled to overflowing.
• My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves as a father the son he delights in. God's discipline is because He loves us and doesn't want us to go the wrong way. God will go out of His way and to any extent to bring us back to His ways so we can continue to be blessed and a blessing.
• Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand, in her left hand are riches and honor. Notice that wisdom is referred to as a woman, Why? Because she symbolizes the Bride of Christ made up of both males and females, Jews and Gentiles, bondservants and free who are building the House of the Lord whose foundation is the wisdom of the Word/Jesus. Wisdom is more profitable than riches. They can't even compare to wisdom. Therefore, God says, “Get wisdom!” Proverbs 4:5 Where do we get wisdom? Out of the Book of Wisdom – The Word of God.
• Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, those who lay hold of her will be blessed. Wisdom's ways are pleasant and peaceful. Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those that grab hold of Wisdom will be blessed.

       In Proverbs 9, a woman is building a house. She has cut seven pillars out of a rock to uphold it. She is a picture of the Bride of Christ building Christ's Temple in the hearts of humanity. The Rock from which the seven pillars were cut is Jesus. Last week I taught on the seven Spirits of Christ that He will have in perfection and fullness...in other words, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Then I taught on the seven pillars of the New Testament that are to be the characteristics of believers. Next week, I will teach on the seven pillars of the Older Testament that will uphold the House.  It is important that you see that the Older Testament and the New Testament harmonize because they are both a revelation of Jesus Christ...in the Older Testament hidden, in the New Testament Christ in His incarnate body and in Revelation in all of His glory.