He Guards The Paths Of The Just And Protects Those Who Are Faithful To Him
Seek Knowledge, Wisdom, & Understanding
PROVERBS 2:3-11
“Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path. When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,
”Proverbs 2:3-11 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/pro.2.3-11.NKJ
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Wisdom’s starting point is God and His revealed Word, the source of “knowledge, revelation, and understanding”.
Indeed, wisdom, as is knowledge, revelation, and understanding, is a gift from God, but to receive it, you must earnestly seek it. And because understanding and revelation is all hidden from the rebellious, it takes great effort to find it and use it.
But if you really desire it, ask God, for He is faithful to give it all.
God told us the importance of knowledge through Hosea, saying “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.“
Hosea 4:6 NKJV
Finding the pathway to knowledge and wisdom is an uphill struggle and very strenuous, but once on the path, you will soon come to understand that true wisdom is from God, and He will guide and reward all who are sincere and persistent in their search. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”
James 1:5-6 NKJV
God wants to bless us with wisdom and victory, but it will not come to those who continue to drift through life acting recklessly or irresponsibly with His gifts and resources.
We believers need to focus on God’s plans, rather than our own, and be faithful to stay focused and use our God-given gifts and resources according to His plans and purposes.
Furthermore, we must be aware that the deceiver is never far away, studying our every move and weaknesses before he brings individual trials, challenges, and temptations our way.
He attacks one’s mind with ungodly desires of status, riches, and whispers of deceit and sends false prophets and teachers to fill our minds with lies and false doctrine, and he’s good at it.
Just as God uses the wicked, so Satan uses Gods naive people to deceive, distract, and hinder many of faith.
Like the fake news media he deceives by activating our emotions that we believe his lies, and also by using emotional blackmail to manipulate and control.
Emotions are not a tool of discernment, and are easily activated by half truths.
Discernment comes from fact not fictional claims, and is proven by the Holy Spirit within.
Fear is one of the major weapons of the devil, with it he brings bondage and control. He also uses anger and rage to bring confrontation, conflict, and confusion to bring clarity to his lies and ultimately divide the church.
To overcome such deceit we believers need discernment and clarity of the Holy Spirit.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.“
I John 4:1-6 NKJV
Discernment is a spiritual gift (1 CORINTHIANS 12:8-10), and therefore ask in Jesus name and it will be given (MATHEW 7:7-8; JOHN 14:13).
Furthermore, my brethren, we must cooperate with God, living right by the leading of the Holy Spirit (GALATIANS 5:16-26), presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service; not being conformed to the things of this world, but rather, being transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (ROMANS 12:1-2).
Furthermore He will then protect us and keep us from the pride and greed that so easily ensnares us. When we do our best, God will do the rest.
To gain wisdom, we must first trust and honour God; we must realise that God’s Word reveals His wisdom to us, and we must make a continuous series of life-long right choices, avoiding moral pitfalls. We must, when making mistakes or sinful choices, repent and learn from them and change direction.
To gain knowledge, we must study the word, asking the Holy Spirit within for understanding and revelation, and piece by piece, He will remove the vail that hides the truth from us (2 CORINTHIANS 2:16) and knowledge and understanding will grow from within.
My brethren, our walk with God is not always going to be easy; the path is narrow and difficult and brings with it many trials and sorrows.
But many have already run the race and with God’s help and have victoriously crossed the finish line.
Like you, not one of them could take their riches with them; we all leave this world as naked and empty handed as we arrived on the day we were born (ECCLESIASTES 5:15).
The things of this world are all to often too important to us. Whether our home, car, bank balance, status, or even our ministry; they are temporary and not necessarily God’s plan for us.
If we are going to serve God to the full, we must let go of our plans and allow God to bring in His.
That is to say, we must live our lives with our hands and hearts wide open and let go of that which God wants to remove, including possessions and people, however valuable they may seem to be, so that we can walk in the Spirit according to God’s plans and purposes, and run the race God has for us.
My beloved, “There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their owner to his hurt. But those riches perish through misfortune; When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, To go as he came; And he shall take nothing from his labor Which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a severe evil— Just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind? All his days he also eats in darkness, And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger. Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.”
Ecclesiastes 5:13-20 NKJV
God doesn’t want us to live in poverty, quite the opposite, but it is not good to live beyond our means.
““Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Matthew 6:31-34 NKJV
My beloved, we must get our priorities right, therefore, seek God and His righteousness above all else, and then ALL shall be added to you.
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV
All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.
God bless you all.
