Wisdom from the Book of Proverbs

Wisdom from the Book of Proverbs

 

The book of Proverbs in the Bible was written over a period of 200 years by Solomon and also perhaps Hezekiah and several other prophets from approximately 950 B.C to 750 B.C..  The main theme of Proverbs is this: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  (Proverbs 9:10) And also that God’s wisdom is the most valuable thing we can strive to obtain.

 

 The book gives many examples to prove these truths: (1) That wisdom is the most valuable of assets.  (2) that wisdom is available to anyone, but the price is high.  (3) That wisdom comes from God, not ourselves, and comes by attention to God’s instruction.  (4) That wisdom and righteousness go together. That wisdom apart from God is impossible. (5) That evil people suffer the consequences of their evil deeds. (6) And that the simple, the fool, the lazy, the ignorant, the immoral, the proud and the sinful are never to be admired.

 

Right away in the first chapter of Proverbs we are told how God will punish violent persons.  Let’s listen: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.  If they say, ‘Come with us.  Let us lie in wait to shed blood: Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause:……. We shall find all kinds of precious possessions.  We shall fill our houses with spoil:  Cast in your lot among us.  Let us all have one purse.” 1:10,11,13-14)

 

 “ My son do not walk in the way with them.  Keep your foot from their path: for their feet run to evil.  …Surely in vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird:  But they lie in wait for their own blood.  They lurk secretly for their own lives.  So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain: Greed takes away the life of its owners.”  ( (Proverbs 1:15-19)

 

Another proverb turns “Wisdom” into a person – a woman calling out to each person on earth, begging them to take her wisdom.  And promising those who do, protection and preservation. Here is the call to Wisdom:  “Wisdom calls aloud outside.  She raises her voice in the open squares.  She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city.  She speaks her words: ‘How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?  For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.  Turn at my rebuke, for surely, I will pour out My Spirit on you.  I will make my Word known to you.” (Proverbs 1: 20-23)

 

Sadly, as “Wisdom” goes about calling out to each one, many do not listen.  She has so much to give to anyone who will receive. She is deeply grieved and describes what will happen to those who refuse God’s knowledge and wisdom: “Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own ways.  And be filled to the full with their own fancies.  For the turning away of the simple will slay them.  And the complacency of fools will destroy them.”  (Proverbs 1:31-32)

 

Wisdom tells the one who want wisdom what it will do for them.  She says that discretion will preserve you.  And understanding will keep you. And deliver you from the ways of evil. And from the person who speaks perverse things.  (Proverbs 2:11-12) God’s wisdom will keep you from walking in the ways of darkness (verse 13b) And this wisdom will also keep you from the sexually immoral person, whose house lead down to death. (verse 16 and 18)      

 

And then this woman named Wisdom also describes the reward that will be given to those who received her Words and treasure God’s commands. “But whoever listens to me “to Wisdom” will dwell safely.  And will be secure, without fear of evil.  They will find the knowledge of God, because the Lord gives wisdom:  From His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.  He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.  God is a shield to those who walk uprightly:  He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of His saints.”  (Proverbs 1:33,2:6-8)  

 

 There are warnings to the person who is lazy.  The person who hates to work is told to see how hard an ant works to gather food for the winter.  If he or she refuses to work “poverty will come on you like a prowler, and you will be in need.”  (Proverbs 6:11) 

 

And to the wicked person there are more warnings. “The one who walks with a perverse mouth. …   He devises evil continually.  He sows discord.  Therefore, his calamity shall come suddenly:  Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.”  (Proverbs 6:12b, 14b-15)

 

And wisdom has this to say to the adulterer: “Whoever commits adultery lacks understanding.  He or she who does so destroys their own soul.  Wounds and dishonor, he/she will get and their reproach will not be wiped away. “(Proverbs 6:32-33)

 

Scriptures in Proverbs tell us that evil actions can become addictive. That evil persons are literally addicted to doing their crimes again and again. - Proverbs 4:14 and 16-17.  The thief must steal again and again, and the violent person must continue hurting more and more people. – or the same person over and over again. Very frightening! Let us read: “Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil. … For those who enter this path do not sleep unless they have done more evil: and their sleep is taken away from them unless they make someone fall.  For they eat the bread of wickedness.  And they drink the wine of violence.” (Proverbs 4:14, 16 -17)  

 

There are more promises to those who run after wisdom and more warnings for those who run after evil.  “For the upright will dwell in the land.  And the blameless will remain in it.  But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.”  (Proverbs 2:21-22)

 

“But the path of the just is like the shining sun.  that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.  But the way of the wicked is like darkness:  They do not know what makes them stumble.”  (Proverbs 4:18-19)  

 

It seems that the book of Proverbs is telling us that we have a choice between good and evil.  There seems to be no middle ground.  Even Jesus said: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and He who does not gather with Me,  scatters” ( Matthew 12:30 and Luke 11:23)  Which will it be?

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

   

 

Strengthening Yourself in the Lord

Strengthening Yourself in the Lord

 

Scripture says: “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”  (Proverbs 4:23) Most of us try to take care of our bodies. But do we – do you - take care of your heart?  By heart –we mean the part of you that is “you”.  Your soul – your mind, emotions and will?   You are a spiritual being as well as a physical being.  And taking care of your heart – which is another word for your soul- is all important.  Scripture says: “from your soul flows the springs of life”.  (Proverbs 4:23) 

 

As Christians, taking care of our hearts means learning to receive our comfort and strength from God. Trusting and obeying God. Meditating on God’s Word, the Bible. Living a life of thankfulness and praise to God. And building our lives on the solid Rock. (which is Jesus Christ)

 

To strengthen our faith in God and to take care of our heart we can start by: (1) Pursuing God with all our hearts.  Cry out to God and pursue His will for ourselves and others.  Fast and pray. (Mark 9:14-29) Ask God for more faith and more love. For more of His Spirit. Scripture says: “He who comes to God in prayer must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  (Hebrews 11:6) Faith pursues God and believes that God rewards those who come to Him.  Scripture says: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”  (1 John 5:14)

 

 Jacob wrestled all night with God and told God that he would not let God go until God blessed him. God blessed him and changed his name from “Jacob” to “Israel” which means: (You have wrestled with God and have prevailed).  (Genesis 26: 24-29) God was very pleased that Jacob ran after Him and would not let Him go.  In order to strengthen ourselves in the Lord we must be more like Jacob and pursue God with all our hearts!

 

The second thing we can do to watch over our hearts and strengthen ourselves in the Lord is this: (2) Study the Bible and meditate on God’s Word.  Let God speak to you through His Word.  Do not feed your soul junk food or even worse do not feed on Satan’s lies, hatreds, heresies and poisons. Get a good concordance and go to a Bible believing church.  Fellowship with other believers.  Stand on the promises of your faithful God. All through Scripture God has given His children wonderful promises.  He promises us His peace so let us take it and hold onto it. God’s Word is food for your soul, and you cannot be joyful and strong in the Lord if you do not feed on His Word. 

 

The third thing we can do in taking care of our heart is this: (3) Obey God and obey His Word. Live a life of obedience to God.  Remember that God is good.  The goodness of God is the cornerstone of our faith. Everything God does is good and loving, joyful and merciful.  Scripture says that He can do no evil. He is a righteous Judge.  His commandments and laws are just. They are there to lead us in the ways of eternal life.

 

Confess your sins and ask for His forgiveness, which He promises to give. If you have bitterness, hatred or unforgiveness in your heart, confess it and give it to God.  He will take care of it.  Your soul will not prosper if you carry around unforgiveness or bitterness or hatred.  Also, Jesus calls us to have a servant’s heart.  He will give us joy as we serve others. Followers of Christ are to be humble.  Scripture says: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16;18)   

 

 If there is a commandment in Scripture that you are disobeying, confess it to God and turn from it.  Honor your parents.  Do not steal from others or take advantage of others or be greedy or bear false witness against others.  Do not covet what others have. And do not commit adultery.  Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.  Live a life of love to God and to other humans. Do not take God’s Name in vain.  Set aside time to rest and worship God.  And do not kill another person.  Human life is sacred. God calls on us to trust Him. Ask Him to help you trust Him more. Ask Him to guide your steps and listen for His leading.

 

The fourth thing we can do to build ourselves up in God is: (4) Be thankful to Him. Scripture tells us to give God thanks in every situation.  (1 Thessalonians 5:18)   Live a life of praise and thanksgiving. Rejoice in the Lord always!  Live in the romance of a loving and good and faithful God.  Scripture says that God lives in the praises of His people.  Spend time praising God. Give Him your heart in worship.  Scripture says: “Therefore, they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming in to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd:  Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden,” (Jeremiah 31:12)  Is your soul a “well-watered garden”?

 

The fifth thing we can do to take care of our souls is: (5) Feed our hearts on what God is doing.  Do not stumble over what He does not seem to be doing.  And do not dwell on your disappointments, or on the people that tried or are trying to hurt you. Scripture instructs us to fill our minds with the helpful people in our lives, the beauty of creation, and all the good things around us. (James 1:17) And, to remember that God is the source of everything good.  Scripture says: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father…” (Philippians 4:8)

 

The sixth thing is: (6) Learn to trust God and live with the unexplainable.  That doesn’t mean that you don’t try to find explanations.  But give up your right to understand everything that happens that doesn’t seem to make sense. Learn to trust God with the unexplainable.

 

 We read in the Bible (in the book of Job)  where Job, a good man of God, struggled to understand why God would allow him to lose all of his children and all of his wealth and covered him with boils when he had been such a good man and had tried to serve God.  Job insisted that God should come and give an answer to him.  God was the defendant and he was the prosecutor!  Do we ever do that with God?

 

 So, God showed up and assured Job that his terrible loses did not happen to him because he wasn’t a good and faithful man.  That there were realms in the universe that he, Job, could not understand.  And that the God who knows everything and has all power and who created the world and makes it all work together, could also be trusted to take care of us, even when it doesn’t look like He is taking care of us.  That we don’t see the whole picture and still we are called to trust God.  Job fell on his face and worshipped God and promised that even if God killed him, he would trust Him.  God blessed Job and healed his boils and gave him more children and gave him back twice the wealth that he had had before.

And last but not least, to build up our hearts, we need to: (7) Do good deeds. Be good stewards of our time and money.  Help the poor. Pray for others and share the gospel. Take care of our family and be faithful to our spouse.  Ask God to lead you.  When Jesus comes again to judge the world and when He divides the sheep from the goats, the sheep are the ones who fed the hungry and who took care of the sick. (Matthew 25:35-40).  Jesus tells them that when they fed the hungry it was the same as feeding Him. And when they helped others it was the same as helping Him. While we are on this earth let’s  be Jesus’ sheep and help others.

 

Scripture says that Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. (John 15:51) We get all of our strength from Him.  We can do nothing without Him. Let’s go out and walk in His Ways and His Holy Spirit will go with us to guide us Then our souls will be like well- watered gardens. 

 

I took much of this blog from Bill Johnson and Randy Clark’s book “The Essential Guide to Healing”  .         

 

 

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How Do We Get Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed

How Do We Get Faith as Small as a Mustard Seed?

 

Jesus told his disciples :”I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.”  (Matthew 17:20) Jesus’ disciples were upset.  Jesus had given them His authority to heal  and they had prayed for a little boy to be healed, but the boy was not healed.  So, Jesus lovingly healed the child.

 

Discouraged, the disciples asked Jesus why even with His authority, they had not been able to heal the boy.  And Jesus answered that they could not heal the boy because they had too little faith.  So, Jesus encouraged them by telling them that all they needed was just a small bit of faith – as small as the smallest seed - the mustard seed.

 

  Some of us pray for healing for friends and loved ones but they are not healed.  Does that mean that we, like Jesus’ disciples, don’t have enough faith? If so, then how do we get more faith?  Even a little faith the size of a mustard seed?

 

Randy Clark, a faith healer, insists that we cannot work up this faith on our own.  That this “mountain moving” faith comes from God as a gift. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of faith. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit gives each of us a spiritual gift, “For to one is given the word of wisdom, through the Spirit to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another the gift of faith by the same Spirit to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit.  To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits to another different kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues.  (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) 

 

This mountain moving faith is not normal faith.  Dr. Clark believes that this kind of faith is a gift of grace from God, enabling the believer to have the faith for a specific outcome in a specific moment – like a healing, or for a person to accept Christ as Savior.

 

  Jesus commands His disciples to “Have the faith in (or of) God” (Mark 11;22) We cannot be commanded to have something that we don’t have!  But Dr. Clark says that in this verse, the word “have” has been translated from the active form of the verb (have) which means “to take hold of (something) or to grip or seize”.  He believes that Jesus is commanding His disciples to make an effort to take hold of, or to seize the faith of God.  To ask God to use us in any way He wants.  To give us the power to hear His voice and to heal through us if He so wills.

 

Perhaps that is part of the reason why the Bible often encourages believers to fast and pray.  The believer really wants more of the Holy Spirits’ power and is asking for God’s answer in a need. Scripture says that our heavenly Father gives gifts to those who ask for them or really want them and humbly wait on the Lord to receive these gifts.  And fasting promotes a humble spirit in us as we wait and lay our out requests before our heavenly Father.

 

  I don’t believe that our heavenly Father wants a ho hum or casual prayer quickly thrown at Him for the big miracles we need from Him in our lives.  I think He wants us to ask and seek and knock and keep on knocking. So, if we are asking God for the faith to believe that He will make a loved one’s blind eyes see, we are not asking for normal faith.  It is a special faith for a special need. This faith for healings and miracles is a special gift from God related to the operation of healings and miracles.  But we can ask for it.

 

 Scripture says: “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.  If a son asks for bread from his father, will the father give him a stone?  …Or if he asks for a fish, will the father give him a snake?  …If you, being sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”  (Luke 11:9,11,13) Here, our heavenly Father promises to give us His Holy Spirit power if we ask Him.

 

Dr. Clark says that the kind of faith that comes from God as a gift, is not there all the time.  You cannot create this faith, but it is simply given by God as a gift.  Dr. Clark mentions one of the other gifts that Scripture says the Holy Spirit gives to believers – the gift of knowledge.  (1 Corinthians 12:8-9)

 

 Randy Clark says that often there is a strong connection between the gift of a word of knowledge and the gift of faith. A word of knowledge from God allows us to know the specific will of God in a specific situation, and that causes great faith to rise up in our hearts for answered prayer for a healing or a prayer request. Faith is an important part in almost every healing or miracle from God.

 

Mary Healy tells a story of how the Word of Knowledge (one of the gifts of the Spirit) was used as a tool for evangelism.  Mary had a friend, a Catholic priest.  This priest was on the phone with a woman named Susan, an unbeliever who began to ask the priest some questions about God.  The priest saw an opening to share the gospel and began telling Susan about God’s love and how He gave His Son, Jesus to die for her sins. 

 

As they were talking, an image came into the priest’s mind of Susan looking at herself in a mirror, with her earrings on. And Jesus was looking at her with great love. The priest decided to take a step of faith and share his impression with her.  He told her that he saw the Lord Jesus looking at her as she was looking in her mirror, with her earrings on.  He got more words of knowledge and he told Susan that: “The Lord wants you to know that He sees your beauty and delights in you, and that no matter what you’ve done in the past, He loves you and has a plan for your life.”

 

There was silence on the line for a minute or two.  Then the priest heard Susan crying and saying: “How did you know that?”  She then shared with the priest that a month earlier she had fallen into a black hole.  That she had done things in her past that she felt were very bad and that had ruined her life.  And she felt like she was worthless.

 

 But earlier that day she had put on a new pair of earrings and looked at herself in the mirror and she wondered if there might be hope for her somewhere. She accepted the priest’s challenge to read a book about Jesus and she promised to come to church and learn more about God. The word of knowledge that God gave the priest – the impression he got while talking with her - was given to help Susan have faith in Jesus.  And later she gave her heart to Christ and joined the church.

 

Susan probably would have not had the faith to start going to church or to believe in Christ as her Savior if the priest had not shared with her the “word of knowledge” that he received from the Lord.  The priest was supernaturally shown something about her that he wouldn’t have known without that “word”. - or mental picture.  The body of Christ shies away from these supernatural gifts because sometimes they can be mis-used.  And there are false prophets and fakes pretending to have spiritual power.  But the Bible promises that believers will be given these spiritual gifts to use here on earth for His glory.