Use Wisdom

“For the Lord grants Wisdom! From His mouth comes  knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to be honest. He is a shield to those who walk integrity. He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to Him” - Proverbs 2:6-8 NIV

People tend to admire the wisdom, power and riches of others. But God puts a higher priority on knowing Him personally and living a life that reflects His justice, righteousness, and love.

Wisdom comes in two ways. It is both a God-given gift and the result of diligent searching. Wisdom’s starting point is God and His revealed Word, the source of knowledge and understanding. In that sense, wisdom is God’s gift to us. But He gives wisdom only to those who earnestly seek it. Because God’s wisdom stays hidden from the rebellious and foolish, it requires effort to find it and use it. The pathway to wisdom is strenuous. But it is only on God’s path that we discover His true and reliable wisdom. He will guide us to it and reward our sincere and persistent search.

God gives us wisdom and victory, but not for drifting through life or acting irresponsibly with His gifts and resources. If we are faithful to Him and keep His purpose for us clearly in mind, His wisdom will become a shield against foolish temptations and allow us to focus on a life of integrity. 

We gain wisdom through a constant process of growing. We grow in wisdom as we trust and honor God, when we realize that God reveals His wisdom through His Word, we must make a lifelong series of good choices and avoid decisions that compromise our integrity and we must learn from our errors when making mistakes.

This is what the Lord says, “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boast, boast about this: that they have the understanding to know Me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight”, declares the Lord. What do you want people to admire most about you?

The Spirit of God

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed” -Isaiah 61:1 (NLT).

Yeshua was identified by the Father as: "My Beloved Son," and He was anointed by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, and walked in Spirit and Truth. Yeshua lived His entire life in complete and utter dependence upon God, content to lay aside His eternal glory and pray in humble obedience: "Thy will not mine be done." "The Holy SPIRIT of Israel's Lord GOD Almighty rests upon ME." And in the Gospels, we see a beautiful fulfillment of this verse where the Lord, as Israel's appointed Messiah King, went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was His custom. There, He stood up, unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and found the place where it was written: "The SPIRIT of the Lord GOD is upon ME."

Yeshua was the visible representation of the invisible God, and He only said and did those things that He heard from His Father in heaven. Yeshua was uniquely qualified to apply this glorious prophecy to Himself, for He had indeed been anointed of God to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to those that were captive to sin, and freedom to those that were enslaved by Satan.

The mystery of God is bound up in Truth, so that the Words of the Father can be spoken by the Son Who is the incarnate Word of God. The inspired Scriptures are the unique, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us," and those that were present beheld His Glory: "The Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth."

The call to go into all the world as Christ's witnesses continues to be the mission of the Church today. Members of the Body have been placed as witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, but also in Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australasia, the Middle East, and in every remote part of the world.

You and I are His witnesses today, in the place where God has chosen to plant us. May we be willing to die to self, live to Yeshua, and be led by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the glorious gospel, in the power of His might, to whomsoever God puts into our path. The power believers receive from the Holy Spirit includes courage, boldness, confidence, insight, ability and authority. These are needed to fulfill your mission.

Trusting God...Trusting His Love

“Those who know Your Name trust in You, for You O Lord, do not abandon those who search You” - Psalm 9:10.

"I know the 'unknowable' name of YHVH." His name is “I Am that IAm” or as many call Him “Yahweh”. He is truly a gracious God, full of loving-kindness and goodness. He is a faithful, forgiving, and merciful, Who is long-suffering towards those who believe in the wonderful Name of the only begotten Son of God.

No wonder this Psalmist of Israel penned these words: "Those who know Your Name put their trust in You." How could we not trust in this eternal God of Grace Whose grandeur is unlimited, Whose power is unrivalled, Whose tender Mercy is everlasting, Whose Grace is sufficient, and Whose deep, unconditional Love is unsurpassed.

Collectively, we are the Church of God, but each one of us is an individual member of His spiritual Body. We are many living stones that are being built up into one, grand, spiritual house, in which dwells the Holy Spirit of God Himself. And we who have put our trust in Yeshua are blessed to know His Name and to enjoy intimacy with Yeshua. Never let us doubt the promises of God's Faithfulness to all who are His children, by grace through faith in Yeshua. Just as God continues to remain faithful to His people Israel, so He continues to remain faithful to the Church, which is the Body.

Just as His promises to Israel will all be fulfilled one day, so His precious promises to the Church are all 'Yes' and 'Amen' in Yeshua, our Lord, Who loved the Church so much that He gave Himself up because of His Love for her, and He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. God will never abandon those who seek Him. To seek God means to reach out to Him, to surrender our hearts and mind to Him. We find Him in the Bible, in prayer, and in fellowship with others. This promise does not mean that if we trust in God we will escape loss or suffering; it means that God Himself will never leave us no matter what we face. Trust in the Lord without wavering. Trust in Him with all your heart.

For we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His Marvelous light!