Thursday – February 25, 2016
Proverbs 9:1, 4 (AMP)
1 WISDOM HAS built her house; she has hewn out and set up her seven [perfect number of] pillars.
4 Whoever is simple (easily led astray and wavering), let him turn in here! As for him who lacks understanding, [God’s] Wisdom says to him,
Today we are reminded to pray for the seven pillars of society. Today I am highlighting the Pillar of The Arts, Sports and Entertainment all of which have deteriorated significantly. Now, let’s return to our study of Spiritual Warfare.
James 4:7-10 (KJV)
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Yesterday I spoke of the wisdom of listening to Brother James and submitting to God, resisting the devil and watching him flee from us. Notice he is fleeing from us, not from Jesus, not from the Heavenly Father, not from the Holy Spirit, and not from brother or sister so and so. He, the devil, is fleeing because of our being humble, our submitting ourselves to God, and the purposes of the Kingdom of God.
This passage goes on to say or give the instruction that we are to draw near to God and when we do He will draw near to us. Well how do you suppose that one draws near to God? It is not possible to be closer to God in terms of proximity. The drawing near has to do with our thoughts being like His, our words being like His, and our actions being like His. We draw near to God by being more and more like Him, working to please Him, to further the Kingdom of God. When we purpose to think like Him we are well on our way to having the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (KJV)
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
A natural man is a person who is not saved or born again. His or her spiritual man is dead and the mind is unrenewed to the Word of God. Those of us who are born again are expected even required to judge all things (ideas, words, actions) but we do not pass judgment on the consequences of those thoughts, words, or actions with regard to a specific person. In other words, we judge the thoughts (expressed), the words, and the actions we witness but we do not judge the person. 1 Corinthians 2:16 is an eye opener, let us meditate it for a moment. Before salvation, before the coming of the Messiah men could not know the mind of Christ for they were dead spiritually however we are not having been made alive at salvation by the Holy Spirit. This Scripture makes it clear that we can now know the mind of the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Anointing) and that we may instruct Him by reason of having the mind of Christ. Remember God moves on our words that are aligned with His thoughts, words, and will. If we don’t align nothing happens. Perhaps that answers some things. To have the mind of Christ at its foundation is to think like God.
Remembering that the Apostle James is talking to Christians. In he goes on to say that in addition to drawing near to God or as a part of it we, sinners, must cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts for we are of two minds.
James 4:8 (KJV)
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Hands in Scripture is generally referring to the power of the person just as a reference to the hand of God is referring to His power specifically the Holy Spirit. The hands also refer to what we are doing. He is saying that what is being done is corrupt, it is not in line with Scripture therefore we must bring what we are doing into line with Scripture, the will of God. He goes on to tell us is purify our hearts which is our thoughts, our inner most feelings but this also is making reference to our decision processes. It is where we decide what to listen to, what to receive, what to think on, what to speak, what is valuable and what is not. Your main problem James says is you are double minded. Remember what got Adam into trouble? God had told them to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You will recall that this passage started with this conflict of the flesh (physical wants and unrenewed mind) and the spirit. Being of two minds is confusion and God is not the author of confusion. Let each of us in all situation determine the will of God and go with that. Let me ask a crucial, a poignant question. What does it mean to cleanse our hands and to purify our hearts? Just how do we do that? It is done with the Word of God, the precious water that cleanses us from the inside out.
James 4:9-10 (KJV)
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
In James 4:9 above we are told to repent which is to think differently, to change our mind, and be sorrowful for we hurt the Master concerning our adultery, our disobedience before God that has frustrated the will of God and the purposes of the Kingdom of God and God’s purpose for us personally. James ends these observations and instructions with very good news. There is forgiveness and when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, in the sight of God, He and He alone will lift us up. It is like when you work for a company, you cannot lift yourself up, you must be lifted up (promoted) by the boss. The boss will promote us, life us up when we are submissive to thoughts, words, ways, and leadership of that particular company. Likewise so functions the Kingdom of God.
God is so good, until tomorrow praise His name.
By Pastor David R. Wood
