TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 28TH NOVEMBER 2022)
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:11-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 332ND DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE!
We bless the LORD for giving us life. We thank Him for His great deeds in our lives and His amazing grace and mercy. He has been so good to us. We sleep each day and wake up because He watches over us.
We have been on a 30-day journey of faith with the Cry of the Spirit on practical wisdom. For me, it has been a journey where we have been enlightened by the LORD on so many things. We have seen the integral role of practical wisdom in our everyday lives and we are grateful to the LORD who made that possible. We have seen that without walking in practical wisdom, we will not be able to assemble in our lives what God has finished concerning us in Heaven.
We have seen that we may get married, but without practical wisdom we cannot stay married. We may be doing spiritual things well but without practical wisdom, it will not translate into positive results in our physical lives. A lot in our lives depends on practical wisdom, that is why the wisdom is the principal thing.
The Bible says through wisdom a life is built. Meaning, we will not be able to build our lives without walking in practical wisdom. We could be prayerful or doing spiritual things right, if we are not walking in practical wisdom, discernment, knowledge and understanding we will live miserable lives.
That is why true spirituality will make someone wise. Everything we do with God will always give us a portion of practical wisdom. If the God you are walking with is not making you wise, it means you are not touching the part of Him that make even the worst dummy the wisest person.
Yes, there is a part of God that we can touch that can make us wise. It is a part of His presence that imparts revelation knowledge, discernment, wisdom and understanding. If you are walking with God, touching other parts but not touching this one, you will still lead a miserable life despite your walk with God.
TO TOUCH THAT PART, THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD AS THE WORD MUST BE ESTABLISHED IN YOUR LIFE.
The Bible says;
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1-1-5 NKJV
When God manifest Himself in our lives as word, we experience Him as light. The Bible then says, the light we experience, becomes life in us – the very life we need to live. That is why people live miserable lives where God do not manifest in their lives as light. Their lives will lack the very life they need to survive a dying world like ours.
The manifestation of God in our lives as the world cannot be over emphasized. When God manifest in our lives as the word, He will shine Himself into any darkness that may be residing in our hearts, giving us an illumination that will result in proper decisions at an immediate present.
Understand that not walking in wisdom itself is a form of darkness, so when God shines in our hearts every form of darkness because light.
THAT IS WHEN WE CAN TAKE DECISIONS THAT CAN IMPROVE OUR LIVES.
It is so sad that many believers live in spiritual darkness. They do not walk in prophetic or redemptive revelation, hence not having the practical wisdom of walking in the laws of God and man.
The Bible is very clear that people who do not walk in redemptive revelation of GOD or in the wisdom of respecting the laws of God and man, will definitely find the earth too hot for them; they will perish. It says;
“Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man]—blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he.” Proverbs 29:18 AMPC
To perish means to pass away. It means to be destroyed or ruined by violence or things out of control. It means to disappear or suffer destruction. It also means to die spiritually. That is what will characterize a life that has no vision or a redemptive revelation of God; that is what will characterize a life that is not keeping the laws of God and man.
When we say the law as of man, we are referring to natural laws God stipulated for our natural lives not to be ruined or destroyed. Those are the laws you must study and keep.
The scripture means, if we do not want to perish in any area of my life, we should be led by the redemptive revelation of God for our lives. We should also keep the His laws for man.
Practical wisdom is applying walking according to the revelation of God’s redemptive knowledge for our lives. It is respecting the natural and spiritual laws that govern success in life. It is not placing our success in the hands of God without recognizing our part in the road to the success we look for.
We have seen some sources of practical wisdom. The first we saw was education. Through education we can learn the natural laws that governs things on earth and help us live blessed and successful earthly lives. That is why education, depending on the curriculum, is a key to success in life.
WE ALSO SAW EXPERIENCE AND PRAYER AS TWO OTHER SOURCES OF PRACTICAL WISDOM.
When we come into the prayer realm, God will begin to show us great and mighty things that we know not. Things we may not be doing right will be revealed. Leading to making proper decisions. I remember how prayer guided David in 2 Samuel chapter 5 and Joshua in Joshua 7 to solve the problems that were facing.
I encourage you to read those chapters of the Bible and see how prayer gave both Bible characters the wisdom to handle the situations they found themselves. They all moved from the prayer realm to take proper actions after a mind improvement session with the LORD in the prayer realm.
For me, prayer is more of a divine wisdom collection system than any other thing. It shows one what to do for GOD to act or for things that were not moving to move. I have always come out with a better mind after each prayer session. Yes, we may kneel down confused and ignorant but will definitely get up full of the knowledge of what to do.
By the mercies and compassion of the LORD we want to look at another source of practical wisdom – parenting. Our devotional text says;
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:11-12 NKJV
God created the earth and man for 6 days, and on the 7th day He rested. After resting, He saw that it was not good for man to be alone. Then He created a woman to help man form a family. That became the foundation of parenting. Therefore, a system that laid the foundation for Parenting was the first thing God created after resting. That system is called marriage.
That is why if you are going into marriage you must understand what you are going into. You must understand that you are about setting up a system for parenting. Which means you must not be a baby or ignorant. You must be matured enough to be a source of practical wisdom to your kids when they begin to come.
YOU MUST NOT LEAVE THEM AT THE MERCY OF HOUSE HELPS.
Understand that being ready for marriage will involve being ready to be a pillar of wisdom for kids that will come out as a result. That is why giving birth to children out of wedlock is very bad. Or bearing children with someone you do not intend to spend the rest of your life with.
God’s laws demand that we do not go into child bearing until we have become a pillar of wisdom for a generation that will come out of our loins through child bearing. Until we can be parents, we should not go into marriage or attempt having sex with anyone. That is the rule.
But most of us break it and end up having kids who grow without parental wisdom to guide them in life. They grow like trees in the forest and become wild in their characters. They grow without practical wisdom and end up doing very destructive things in life. Some unredeemable.
If you had ever sat before an adult who grew without parents and hear the stories of the terrible things they went through, you will understand what we are sharing this morning. A child who grow without parents or without wise parents will be a wreck in life, except GOD helps him or her.
Parenting was designed by God to be a source of practical wisdom. If We do not follow His ways of getting and staying married, we will be destroying this pillar of practical wisdom for the next generation.
We pick up from here when we return tomorrow.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“The reward of humility and the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the obstinate and willful; he who guards himself will be far from them.
Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 26:4-6 AMPC