In the first blog of this series we’ve established that the Christian God Jehovah is the one and only true God so all the other religions in the world are fake and their gods are false. It was our God who created the universe we see and everything in it, including us. This second blog will attempt to help us find out where God’s wisdom resides and how we can access it and use it in our lives. We know there’s overwhelming evidence to support and prove that the Christian God Jehovah is God, to the exclusion of all others. Since God created everything it also means the Lord knows everything as well; and I mean everything! Nothing is hidden from the eyes God. It’s just plain common sense that all knowledge and wisdom flows from Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth and King of the universe. Not only that; God was also gracious enough to give his wisdom to man in written form as our Holy Bible. Think of the Bible as our owner’s manual and you’ll have an inkling just how important our Holy Bible is to us and our well being. If we don’t know the Bible intimately we’re walking around blind to where we came from, who we really are and what we can become. God gave us the Bible so we could know him and learn about the Lord’s salvation plan for man through faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.
Psalm 102:25-27 – Of old You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Psalm 14:1 – The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.
Isaiah 1:18 – “Come now and let us reason together,” says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
We know that the entire Bible, from beginning to end, contains the wisdom of God. God speaks plainly and he doesn’t waste words. God tells it like it is. God’s word is truth and there are no lies or errors in the text of the Bible. For 2000 years detractors have been trying to prove the Bible is false in some way and they have all failed miserably. Every word and punctuation mark in the Bible God has put there for a reason, even though we may never know what that reason is. The Bible from start to finish is the revelation of Jesus Christ. We should be reading the Bible every day to internalize God’s message of salvation through Christ and his wisdom for living our lives. Our mind is the greatest computer in the universe and our mind absorbs as truth what we repeatedly see, read and hear. It’s just how our mind works. When it comes to our mind you’ve heard the old phrase, “garbage in and garbage out.” It’s true; so be very careful what your mind is exposed to. If you want God’s wisdom you need to program your mind by reading the scriptures on a daily basis, over and over. Think “wisdom in and wisdom out.” You need to study the Bible, the truth of God, until it becomes an integral part of you; until it’s settled in your soul as the truth of God Almighty, which we should obey without question. Then you’ll begin to understand what the Lord requires of you and you’ll act every day in accordance with God’s will and God’s wisdom. This is not an easy thing for us to do nor is it easy for us to maintain. We’re all sinners so our daily walk with God will be two steps forward and one step back. But it’s a necessary process the believer needs to follow as we walk humbly in fellowship with our God.
Psalm 119:97-99 – Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.
Psalm 1:1-2 – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but delights in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 19:7 – The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.
As a new Christian I sought God’s wisdom by just reading my Bible over and over. I would start in Genesis and read through to Revelation. I did that several times. Really that’s not such a bad way to go because at least it keeps you in God’s word on a daily basis. However, reading is not actually studying the Bible in depth because you’re not taking the time to meditate on what you’re reading and trying to understand exactly what God is saying to us with each word and the implications it has for our lives. Reading gains you knowledge but doesn’t do anything for understanding usually; that takes meditation and reflection on what God is trying to tell us. Now I study God’s word differently. I spend two thirds of my time reading the New Testament and one third my time reading the Old Testament even though the Old Testament is three times larger than the New Testament. Since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we live under the new blood covenant of Christ and the New Testament is more applicable to our lives. The gospels are the most important books in the Bible. The Old Testament is still valuable for us because it chronicles the history of God’s dealings with man. The Old Testament contains God’s wisdom literature which is critical for the believer’s walk with God. The Old Testament is still valid as God’s word but it’s not as important to us as the salvation message of the New Testament. I read the New Testament every year without fail but now I pick and choose where I start. When it comes to the Old Testament, I also pick and choose which books to focus on first because some books are a bit dry. I just read a summary every other year for Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
Psalm 18:30 – As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust Him.
Proverbs 23:12 – Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.
Proverbs 13:13 – He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
Proverbs 28:9 – One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.
My NKJV large print Bible contains 1,678 pages. That’s a lot of reading. By the way, use only the King James Bible. All the other Bible versions have been changed in some fashion by satanic influences to dilute the word of God by altering certain verses or removing them altogether. There are 66 books in the Bible; 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. Even though the entire Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ and the wisdom of God, some books in the Bible contain more Godly wisdom that others and we refer to those books as God’s wisdom literature. I’m referring to the five Old Testament books of Proverbs, Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Now, if we want to gain the wisdom of God quicker we need to focus more of our time on the five wisest books in the Old Testament. That’s just common sense. The most concentrated book of God’s wisdom is the book of Proverbs, written by King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. Our search for godly wisdom should begin and end with the book of Proverbs. Read from the book of Proverbs as often as you can to soak up God’s wisdom.
In fact, if a young believer had the discipline to read a different chapter of Proverbs every day of the month and then repeated that process over and over he would eventually become so wise that he would live a profoundly productive life in service to God. Try it yourself. We all want to be wise and my Oxford dictionary defines “wise” as having or showing experience, knowledge and good judgment. Wisdom is the “quality” of having or showing experience, knowledge and good judgment. The word quality means “general excellence.” Having wisdom quantifies how wise we are in many instances as being excellent in nature; top notch; above reproach, etc. In the scriptures a wise person is someone who shares the gospel of Jesus Christ with the nonbeliever in order to help save them unto eternal life in heaven through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So, if you witness for Christ and save someone you’re being wise. However, when you are wise repeatedly by witnessing for Christ over and over to as many nonbelievers as possible for as long as you live; that is wisdom. Being wise often and in great quantity equals wisdom.
Man is God’s special creation and God loves us so much he has adopted believers as sons and daughters of the Most High God so we will be royalty in heaven and rule with God. Seen in that light, we can understand that God’s number one command for us on this earth is to share the gospel message of Christ (the Great Commission) in order to save some nonbelievers to the kingdom of God. Every human soul God has created is priceless in his eyes so every witness for Christ is important because through it we may save one more for Jesus and be pleasing in God’s sight. Scripture says those who save “many” will build up treasure in heaven and shine like the stars in the firmament. God doesn’t quantify what he means by “many” so I use 1000 saved souls for heaven as my benchmark for “many.”
In the scriptures God calls a hundredfold a good harvest so ten times that (1000) seems like a good number to qualify as “many”. I mean, you want a number that’s difficult to reach but not impossible. So I work God’s harvest field trying to reach my goal of helping to harvest 1000 lost souls saved for the kingdom of God, primarily through “passively” spreading the gospel seed by distributing the gospel message in written form (tracts). But it all starts with saving one more for Jesus every day. That is my daily mantra and what I pray to God for every day. I witness for Jesus Christ through this blog and through my Christian tract ministry where I distribute tracts to inmates in our prison system. We can do nothing without the help of God but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Therefore, pray to God for his help with your witnessing and your ministry before the Lord. Join me and you too can shine like the stars in the heavens on the last day!
Job 28:28 – And to man He said, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.
Proverbs 14:27 – The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.
Proverbs 8:34 – Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors.
Proverbs 3:19 – The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens.
In many books of the Bible God tells us right at the beginning what spiritual truths are being shared. So if we read the first few verses of chapter one we can usually get a general idea what the book is about and everything else after that is just documenting the spiritual truth that is being shared by God up front. Proverbs is no different. In chapter one of the book of Proverbs God tells us to study God’s word for knowledge, understanding and wisdom. God then repeats this numerous times throughout the book of Proverbs to make sure we get it. When God says something more than once in scripture it’s important so we need to pay attention. To me the first seven verses of Proverbs chapter one not only tells me what the book of Proverbs is about, it also summarizes the wisdom of God that he is sharing with man throughout the entire Bible. To me the most important verse in Proverbs is chapter one, verse seven:
Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Fear in the biblical sense is to show awe, great respect and reverence for God because we know who he is and what he has done for us. Without the proper fear of the Lord we aren’t showing respect for who God is. It’s like slapping God in the face. As true believers we can’t even begin to seek and absorb the instruction and knowledge contained in God’s word until we fear the Lord. When we talk about having a relationship with God it all begins with our fear of the Lord. Without it God will have nothing to do with us and we’re on our own. Without a proper fear of the Lord we’re no better off than the nonbeliever who considers the word of God to be nothing but foolishness. In the second part of the verse God says that fools (nonbelievers) despise wisdom and instruction (from God’s word) and will not seek it. Proverbs 1:5, is another key verse for understanding God’s wisdom:
Proverbs 1:5 – A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel.
Although the Bible doesn’t come right out and say it directly in this verse it’s understood that the man of God should “hear” the holy scriptures spoken often (or read them), thereby increasing his learning or knowledge of God’s word and his wisdom. By doing this consistently on a daily basis the believer will be able to achieve an understanding that God requires our obedience. We cannot please God unless we share the gospel message of Jesus Christ with the nonbeliever. The more we witness for Christ the more pleasing it is to God. When a believer stands before the bema judgment seat of Christ on the last day Jesus will ask him or her, “Have you witnessed in my name?” If you can’t answer “yes” and you haven’t saved at least one person for the kingdom of God you won’t hear Jesus say the words we all long to hear which is, “Well done good and faithful servant.”
What most people don’t realize is that 90% of the saints in heaven will be there through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior alone; never having saved even a single soul for the kingdom of heaven through their witness for Christ. That is so sad! How can you please God when you don’t obey the command of God that is most dear to his heart? You can’t. Don’t let that be you! Get out there and boldly proclaim the gospel message of Christ because you know a secret every nonbeliever desperately needs to hear, which is the “good news” of their salvation through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Most people miss the importance of the second part of the verse which says the man of God should seek the counsel of other godly men when making important decisions. If a believer does this routinely he will rarely make a bad decision in life. Now, lets look at verses two through four:
Proverbs 1:2-4 – To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion-
All of the things mentioned in the above verses is what the wise man in verse five does on a consistent basis. To understand it better from my perspective verse five needs to be at the beginning followed by the above verses and not vice versa. Then the verses make more sense to me. It means the same thing but it just took me a little while to figure it out. God had his reasons for writing it this way even if I don’t understand it. God is never wrong so let’s leave it at that. What is obvious to me that God is telling us to study his word so that we may be wise to the point we exhibit wisdom in everything we do. Verse six tells us why we need God’s wisdom:
Proverbs 1:6 – To understand a proverb and an enigma, the words of the wise and their riddles.
God’s word is a living thing and it speaks to everyone individually as God reveals himself to man through revelations from the Holy Spirit. God speaks to us through the pages of the Bible and we speak to God in prayer. That is how we communicate with God. The more we pray to God on a daily basis and read scripture, hopefully also on a daily basis, the more we gain in knowledge about God and come to understand the spiritual truths of God. This, in turn, helps us to understand what God is telling us in his proverbs. To the nonbeliever the book of Proverbs is nothing but foolishness but to the believer it is the distilled wisdom of God. Abiding in God’s word helps us to understand the words of the wise and then how to incorporate those teachings into our daily lives. The wisdom of God’s word is all we need to live a happy, complete, and successful life in service to God. Read your Bible every day!
Proverbs 11:30 – The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
Proverbs 12:15 – The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.
Proverbs 11:14 – Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Psalm 33:11 – The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.
One of the things I really hate in this world is people thinking they’re worthless; that they’re suffering needlessly; and they think they have it so bad the only way out is to commit suicide to end their misery. That’s because weak-minded people are falling for the lies of Satan and he’s laughing his ass off about it as he drags the soul of each suicide victim down to the pit of hell for all eternity. Suck it up people and be strong! People have no idea what real pain and suffering looks like until they go to hell. Man’s lot in life is to suffer as Christ also suffered. God doesn’t put anything on us we can’t bear if we persevere. Taking the easy way out by taking our life doesn’t end the suffering. A nonbeliever who ends his life doesn’t go into peaceful oblivion. Look, the immortal soul has to go somewhere after death and the choice is either heaven or hell. There is no door number three.
God is fair and just to all his creatures, which means God is reciprocal in his dealings with believers and nonbelievers alike. What God does for one he’ll do for the other, but at opposite ends of the spectrum. That means the believer’s soul goes to heaven upon his or her death to be in the presence of Jesus while the souls of dead nonbelievers go to hell within the earth to be in the presence of the devil. Believers receive their glorified bodies when they meet Jesus in the air and when nonbelievers go to hell to meet the devil they receive their condemned bodies. The condemned bodies of nonbelievers in hell will be rotting corpses full of worms and maggots. If you don’t believe me go read Mark 9:44, 46, 48, where God says, “Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” That’s why Satan is called the god of this world; but ONLY for the nonbeliever! On this physical plane a nonbeliever is a slave of Satan and when they die they go to hell where their soul will belong to the devil forevermore.
A believer’s soul belongs to God from the moment they are saved. God will judge all nonbelievers only once at the Great White throne judgment which occurs immediately after the millennium. Think of hell within the earth as merely a temporary holding cell for the souls of dead nonbelievers until they can be judged by Jesus on the last day and sent to the big house (the lake of fire and brimstone) for all eternity. Satan is the warden of hell within the earth and his demons are the jailers. The inmates of hell will be those nonbelievers who die in their sin. Satan and his demons hate our guts so the souls of nonbelievers will be tortured by these demons 24/7 until it’s time for God’s judgment at the end of the 1000 year millennial reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. I’m guessing the pain and suffering of hell within the earth will be as bad, or almost as bad, as the lake of fire where both nonbelievers and demons will end up on the last day. This why both places are referred to as hell. Don’t allow yourself to fall into the clutches of Satan because he and his demons will inflict pain on you 24/7.
If you know someone who is considering suicide please intervene and tell them what their fate will be if they go through with it. Please talk them out of suicide and make them understand they don’t know the result of what they’re planning to do. Don’t let Satan harvest their soul or yours without a fight! I can’t think of a better way for a believer to serve the Lord than focusing on suicide prevention as a personal ministry. There are 50,000 suicides in the United States every year and one million worldwide. We also know there are many more suicides than those reported. The sad part is it’s the second leading cause of death in the 15-29 year old age group when people are in the prime of life. More people die from suicide than from violent criminal acts. The highest suicide rates are in Russia and the countries of southern Africa because they are primarily godless countries. A believer could start or volunteer in a suicide prevention center or man a suicide prevention hotline. A believer could start a blog that focuses on suicide prevention and sources of help for those thinking about suicide. Just think; if you could save just one soul from committing suicide and going to hell that would be very pleasing in God’s sight because every soul is priceless in God’s eyes. This is a personal issue with me because I’ve lost family members to suicide. If you’re a believer without a ministry consider getting into this fight for the lost souls of hurting nonbelievers who are considering ending their life.
Every believer will look back on his earthly life as the only hell they ever knew. On the other hand, every nonbeliever will in hell will one day and they’ll look back fondly on their earthly life fondly as the only heaven they’ll ever have known. This dramatizes the vast gulf between heaven and hell; between being saved and lost. In the spiritual world there are no gray areas; only the polar opposites of good and evil. So why then would nonbelievers want to check out of this world early by taking their life and lose out on going to heaven or any hope of salvation? Ignorance is the only answer I can think of because millions of people do make the choice to commit suicide every year because they don’t know God or the implications of that fateful decision. If Satan can convince a nonbeliever to take his own life the devil wins and he gets to keep that soul in hell forever.
The nonbeliever doesn’t know God and his salvation plan for man are theirs for the asking. Please listen to me. Each person is a special creation of God destined to live forever in heaven in the presence of Jesus; if we don’t screw it up. All man has to do is believe in God and by faith accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That’s it! It’s so simple anyone can do it! God makes it so easy to go to heaven but it’s our free will choice to make. Failure to acknowledge God and failure to believe in Jesus buys us a one way ticket to hell so choose wisely. Even the angels in heaven are in awe of human beings because they know we’re the adopted sons and daughters of God Almighty and we’ll be royalty in heaven one day. I’m providing some scriptures that show who we are and what we mean to God:
You are loved:
Jeremiah 31:3 – The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
You are chosen:
John 15:16 – (Jesus speaking) – You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
You are special:
Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
You are important:
1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
You are forgiven:
Psalm 103:12 – As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
You are created in His image:
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.