RANDOM GRACE, JULY 16-22, 2007
Monday, July 16
“He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”
Daniel 2:21NIV
Knowledge is “general awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths, or principles” it is acquired as “familiarity or understanding gained through experience or study”(encarta).
While few will dispute the definition of knowledge, many people in our present day world will dispute its source. Daniel 2:21 succinctly states that it is one of those things that come from God.
This is a fact in many respects. A popular adage of the computer world is “garbage in, garbage out.” The wealth of wisdom that we daily reap as we study nature and browse the cosmos is only possible because an intelligent being with the intention of teaching us, ordered it so. If He had put in garbage, we will be harvesting garbage.
God’s part is to provide the knowledge. He has, He does, He will. But the same verse qualifies it, not only does God provide, He provides to the discerning. For us to benefit from the wisdom God provides, something must be found in us -discernment, that is our part. Proverbs 18:15 says “the heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.”
Ask God for a greater gift of discernment and begin to log on to the knowledge He is trying to impart to you through the things you see and experience daily.
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Tuesday, July 17
“He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.”
Isaiah 33:4 NIV
What graphic imagery! Imagine a treasure room with three types of treasures stored inside, if a key to that room is made available to you so that you can go in and come out at will, will you use it? Will you take some treasures for yourself, your family, neighbors and friends? Will you lead them to the key and the room?
While trying to comfort the Israel nation, Isaiah let us into a secret. There is a rich store room of salvation, wisdom and knowledge. All we need to enter the room is the fear of the Lord. A healthy respect that makes us seek God’s opinion, treasure His words to the point of committing them to memory and doing our best to live by them. Knowing that if we fail to take His instructions into consideration, we do so at our own peril.
If we live in the fear of God, we will come to understand God- that is true knowledge. We will live by divine wisdom, and our human wisdom will grow as we learn from Him. Finally, we will be delivered from danger as we act in due time, forewarned by the Lord, who we obey. Ultimately we will escape the danger of eternal damnation.
Discernment is not enough, we must be receptive to the Lord.
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Wednesday, July 18
“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
Luke 11:52 NIV
Here lies the value of studying.
What is the key to knowledge? How was it taken away? Does that mean they can’t learn anymore?
Jesus did not give us the answers to these questions in the passage where he declared woes on the pharisees, perhaps because the answers had been revealed elsewhere in the scriptures. There they were, very concerned about people falling ill physically, so for knowledge they taught people the fear of germs- wash your plates before you eat. They were also concerned that the treasury of the temple may be empty, so they stressed the issues of tithe to combat their fear of poverty. The custodians of faith threw away the issues that relate to the fear of God, which our study has revealed, is the key to knowledge. They no longer walked in the fear of the Lord and by their inappropriately focused teachings they diverted others away from cultivating the fear of the Lord.
It is not for nothing that God was called “the fear of Jacob.” As a minister of God, man of God or child of God what is your greatest fear? What keys are you delivering to your wards? Do you accord the things of God a prominent place in your life? Your children are watching and learning. The wrong keys can never open the right doors. Worldly knowledge has increased, it is godly, appropriate knowledge that’s declining. We are now running a socially civilized but spiritually primitive culture.
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Thursday, July 19
“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.”
Romans 1:28 NIV
One of the abilities I admire in my wife is her ability to remember people, faces and names. Its like she has a pictorial directory tucked away somewhere in her head. But don’t expect her to remember what a building looks like- that’s my own fascination. We all have selective memory. Some people will recount a sports event, detailing every move, while others track the performance of the stock market.
Romans 1:28 warns us that even if we jettison every other knowledge, it will be perilous for us not to cultivate and retain the knowledge of God.
The school is supposed to be the center for the cultivation of knowledge. When a foremost country like America throws the knowledge of God out of its curriculum, no doubt we now have towns where nudity is the norm and same sex marriage is fast gaining ground. An African adage translates “he who falls into a ditch is a lesson for those coming behind,” here is wisdom for the nations who currently imitate everything American.
On the micro level, families and individuals that don’t retain and cultivate the knowledge of God will retain a contrary knowledge. Nature does not give room for vacuums. How are you doing in your family?
Music: “Our turn Now” by Carman and Petra
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Friday, July 20
“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD“Isaiah 11:2 NIV
There is a spiritual angle to knowledge. Isaiah was not describing many spirits, all those qualities come from the same spirit. We can not have the Holy Spirit selectively, if we reject the spirit of knowledge because He demands that we live in the fear of God, it’s only a matter of time before we realize that God’s wisdom, understanding, sound counsel and power have departed from us.
In this prophecy about the Christ, Isaiah reveals that productive wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge and fear of the Lord does not derive from mere study and experience. Rather, it is the spirit in us that attracts, filters and ultimately determines which kind of knowledge we retain and how we retain it. Like attracts like, if the spirit is evil, it will attract evil knowledge and use good knowledge for evil. Indeed, history has taught us that the very knowledge harnessed for good can be used for evil. Satan quotes the scriptures! Of all the motives in man, the spiritual is the most potent.
Do you want qualitative education? Cultivate the Holy Spirit.
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Saturday, July 21
“To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,…”
1 Corinthians 12:8 NIV
At what point does a fruit become a gift?
Every child of God naturally desires to know more about God and share their knowledge of Him. That is knowledge as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. But Paul tells us that there is such a thing as the “message of knowledge.” This ability is not given to everybody. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. A gift is a fruit manifested in a greater proportion so that the possessor has more than sufficient for his own spiritual health. The intention is that he should share it with the body of Christ. God is willing to broaden our capacity for His knowledge beyond our need, if we ask Him. Surely, a fount can never lack.
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Sunday, July 22
“Stop listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.”
Proverbs 19:27 NIV
Sometimes we feel its all futile. We conclude that there is nothing more to be gained from cultivating the knowledge of God. We want to call it quits. We sometimes think we are old, we have our fixed ways, we can’t improve, we don’t need instructions, we are not kids.
The words of Solomon echo to us through the ages. Knowledge is like food, you don’t need it only to grow, you also need it to remain healthy even when you have reached your full stature. The moment we stop listening to instruction, we begin to lose our desire for the words of knowledge, we stop seeking it and cultivating it. Eventually, it will reflect in our actions.
John 17:18 says “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” His words are the words of knowledge, there is life in them, they sanctify us as we study and learn from them. Sanctification is a continuous, never ending process. When we stop studying the word of God, our sanctification level deteriorates.
Even if you know the Bible inside out and your character is as set as mortar, you still need the knowledge of God, its fresh every day.
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This article has been contributed by ‘Yemi Ogunjimi.
To find out more about him please follow this link
http://blogtheword.wordpress.com/about/
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