GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 19
GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 19 ~ ~ “Proverbs 2:2 ~ ~ “Make your ear attentive to wisdom; Incline your heart to understanding.”
Shore birds like the oystercatcher search for buried mollusks by touch. They poke around in the sand, hoping to find a hard shelled mollusk. But if you have ever tried to find something that was hiding where you couldn’t see it, you know that this method of looking for something is not very efficient. But another shore bird, the red knot, seems to know just where to find its hidden food.
Scientists observed that the red knot, a type of sandpiper, (who also search for food by pushing their bills into the sand), was seven to eight times more efficient at finding buried food. Why?
The answer didn’t come until scientists looked at the red knot’s bill under the microscope. On the top of the bill they found tiny pits. Inside the pits they found cells called Herbst corpuscles. Scientists knew that other shorebirds have organs similar to these corpuscles that are used to feel vibrations from wriggling prey. They theorized that the red knot’s Herbst corpuscles sense pressure changes in the displaced water under the sand when a mollusk obstructs the water’s flow. Next they tested captive birds who were trained to find mollusks in pails of sand. Scientists found that if the sand was dry, the red knots did not do very well. But when the sand was wet, the red knots could indeed find the hidden mollusks, thus verifying the theory.
There is so much that the Creator put inside each of His creatures. But, He put much more inside of His children—those who have acknowledged the Lordship of Jesus in their lives. He has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us in wisdom and spiritual understanding and to guide and encourage us, and He Himself is always there for us.
As Father God made the shorebirds to be able to discern pressure changes, so He has given His children spiritual discernment to detect changes in the world in which we are living, and in the Church itself.
Prov 1:7 admonishes us to seek the wisdom that is offered us. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools reject wisdom and instruction.”
The prophet Malachi explains this in Malachi 3:18 ~ ~ “So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”
And Paul tells echoes the same thing thousands of years later in 1Cor 2:14~ ~ “But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
In Prov 3:5-6 Solomon tells us how to begin: “ Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
James 1:5 admonishes us to ask the only One who can give us wisdom: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
But it’s not worldly wisdom, which we must reject. It is only Godly wisdom that we ask for, James tells us in James 3:17 ~ ~ “ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy.”
This wisdom is the discernment of right and wrong, that Adam and Eve were seeking from the Tree of Knowledge, but it was off limits, because that true discernment can only come through oneness with Our Creator and Lord.
John 7:24 ~ ~” Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
The prophet Isaiah voiced this same Truth from God thousands of years before John:
Isaiah 11:3~ ~ “And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make decisions by what His ears hear;”
God simply put a physical apparatus into some of His creation, which creatures rely solely upon Him to use the gifts. These things are to show us what He has done with us, both physically and, more importantly, spiritually. One of these things is spiritual discernment and Godly wisdom. Neither of which we can obtain any way other than salvation and total reliance on Him.
In these times, this is becoming ever increasingly more important. It is beyond important, it is crucial that we rely upon Him, stay in His Word, and turn off the world— DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD!
OR, as Paul tells us in Col. 2:8~ ~ “ See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.”
Live in the Light of Our Lord 