Sat. Jan 7, 2006                                Needing Wisdom

When I need wisdom, when I am challenged by the problems of life, the only place I know to go is to the word of GOD. There is no other help out there that truly works. Proverbs is a great place to start when you seek wisdom. It always puts things in the right perspective.

To receive the Word of God is to take it in, accept it. In the Hebrew, the word received here means to take, accept, bring, buy, carry away, drawn, fetch, get, infold, mingle, place, receive, reserve, seize, send for, use, win. To lay hold of, acquire, to take possession of, select, choose, capture. In order to do this, when we hear the Word of God, we must believe it. Faith comes by hearing Rom_10:17.

Jam_1:21 says it's able to save our souls if we receive the Word of God with meekness. Don't challenge it or try to twist it, just accept it. Don't try to make the Word of God fit your life style, but let the Word of God shape and change your life. Let it have free course. Let it govern your life. Jesus said the Words that he speaks are Spirit and they are life. Joh_6:63. We have to get in the Word for ourselves and know what it says.

In Psa_119:11 says he hid the Word of God in his heart that he might not sin against the Lord. In the Hebrew that word means to treasure or store up, to lie hidden in something, by covering over, to hoard, or reserve, to protect, esteem, lay up in a secret place. We should value the Word of God. Something you value, you spend time in, or with, or on. You guard it carefully. In this case, with the Word, we should not let it slip from our memories. Be always mindful of what is said inside the pages of this precious Book. Heb_2:3; 1Ch_16:15; Isa_17:10

2Pe_3:2.

Jesus said in Mat_6:19 to lay up treasures for yourselves, not on earth, but in heaven Mat_6:20. And in the very next verse Mat_6:21 he says where your heart is, your treasure will be. If the Word of God is your treasure, it will be in your heart. But to get it there, you have to read it. You have to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Joh_6:53-and if you look at what he's saying here, dig into the meaning of these words, and think about it, when you eat something, you take it into yourself, you consume it, you digest it, it becomes nourishment to your body. The Word of God nourishes your soul, your spirit. There are so many places the Lord emphasizes this-John 15 when he's talking about being the Vine, and how we must abide in him to bear fruit. He's the Word made flesh that set our example. We have to highly esteem his word and give it its rightful position. 1Th_2:13.

Back to Proverbs now, the Lord is exhorting us to have hearing ears, to apply our heart-and that literally means to stretch or spread out our heart, bow our hearts before his truth in total acceptance of it, to make a place for it in our heart, cause our heart to yield to His truth. To turn our heart back to him. He wants us to call out to him who bids us come. I looked up this word in verse 3, where he says "Yeah, if thou criest after knowledge" and that word criest- literally in the Hebrew it means "to call out to, properly address by name, that are bidden, call upon, cry unto, famous guest, invite, mention, name, preach, proclaim, pronounce, read. To summon, invite, call for, appoint. He told Jeremiah in Jer_33:3 to call upon him and he'd show him great and mighty things he didn't know. He said call, I'll answer you, and show you some things. So the Lord is giving us some great instruction here. He told the Psalmist, David, something similar: Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. (Ps. 50:15). Psa_86:7. David had that assurance, from experience. Deu_4:7; says he's right there, he's nigh us that call on him. What an awesome promise. No other nation or their false gods can claim such a lofty thing. None of God's people can say he has never answered any of their prayers or not made his presence known in their lives. He's an ever present help in the time of trouble. (Psa_46:1); he's nigh them that call on him in truth. Psa_145:18

1Ch_16:18. Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. When I dug into this, it stirred something in my spirit. When you call upon his name-that word name-it means you are calling upon his honor, his authority, his character. And all the power and majesty of that name. That name that is holy and reverend. To be feared and revered. That name that stands for truth, for love, for light. For matchless power beyond human comprehension.

And when you cry after knowledge, you are crying out for understanding and wisdom. If you do these things, you'll understand the fear of the Lord. He'll teach you things about himself that will naturally produce and awe and reverence as well as a fear of the Lord in your heart. (Jer_32:40)

You have to seek after it. To pursue it. To hunger and thirst for it. Be unsatisfied with anything less. He said in Isa_45:3 if we did, he'd give us the hidden treasures of darkness. He'll expose the workings of darkness and teach you how to fight. He'll expose things you don't know that you don't understand of his power and love for you and what he wants to do in your life. He'll unlock it all to your mind, open your understanding to the riches of the truth of God. He's promised to give wisdom, and knowledge, and understanding. (Pro_2:6-7) He's promised to guard, or keep the path of judgment-that means he'll make sure what he's promised, he'll perform. He'll keep the word he's declared, he'll shine the light so we can see where to go, so we don't walk in darkness. He'll preserve the journey, the path, of his saints. He'll attend to and protect it, he'll keep a watch over his people, and draw them and steer them whether it's with the rod, the staff, or his comforting presence of his Holy Spirit, in the right way. He said that still small voice would be behind us saying "This is the way, walk ye in it." Isa_30:21.

He says in verse 9 then we would understand righteousness and judgment and equity, every good path. We'll know the difference between right and wrong, we'll know what God's said he will do, what he's promised, declared and decreed both on the righteous and the wicked. God has determined some things, and it will stand. That's what the word judgment means. God's determined the order of things, he's decreed and declared, how it will be and that is how it will be whether you are on the right or wrong side. Then we will understand every good path. When we get these things, and they are freely offered (2Pe_1:3-4)

to us, and when we get them, they will preserve us. In v. 11, of Pro 2, the word discretion, it means a plan, follow God's plan, and it will keep you, preserve you. But on the other hand if you follow the devil's plan, this word applies both ways: "a plan, usually evil (machination) sometimes, good;; a wicked device, intent, invention, lewdness, mischievous, thought."

If you understand the reality of the judgment determined on the wicked and the righteous, you will be preserved from and delivered from the path of evil. You will have what you need to keep you from following the crowd that is headed to destruction. If you understand that the when you forsake truth, and forget God, and walk away from him, to follow those whose ways and words are crooked, who delight in sin, and deceit, and mixing with those who have totally opposing ideas against what is right and Godly, scripture says none that determine to go that way ever return again to take hold of the path of life. None that stay there, that stay in their rebellion, they won't have life. They will have death and destruction. They can't see without the wisdom and understand God offers, where they are going. They've been blinded by the devil (2Co_4:4) to the truth.

God offers his truth. He's calling everybody "whosoever will come, come," but if we don't give his word its rightful place, we will be led astray, or deceived. And everyone has a chance for God offers it freely. He states clearly that those who reject him will get what they want-eternity without him. God is light, he is life, he is love, he is truth, he is pure, holy, Without light, you have darkness. Without love, there is only hate. Without truth, there is lies and deceit. Without purity and holiness, there is only evil and corruption. The devil has so blinded people to what they are-like Esau, taking lightly, and brushing off, thumbing their noses at, in exchange for darkness, corruption, and evil. For eternity. Darkness that can be felt. Hell fire that burns and never consumes. Never goes out. The wicked, (morally wrong, condemned, ungodly, guilty man) will be cut off (destroyed, cut down, perish) from the earth, and be plucked out of it.

To be wicked, all you have to do is reject the forgiveness God offers, prefer your own way, reject the truth of God's Word for the foolish "wisdom" of this world, and ungodly means "unlike God", guilty in their sins because they did or would not come to the blood of Jesus and admit their sin and ask for the forgiveness that is freely offered. It doesn't say you have to be a major criminal or really bad person. Just reject what's right in favor of wrong. Trade truth off for lies. Trade light for darkness. Life for death. This is why we must really pray fervently for the young people. Without the covering of prayer, without people praying the blood over their young selves, they are sitting ducks for the satanic snares and lies that are so deceptive. That so appear to their young and inexperienced minds appealing.