"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgement" - Proverbs 9:10
What wisdom can we have without first acknowledging the Lordship of God? With healthy fear and reverence as a child has for a good, trustworthy and reliable Father. Recognising His position as Head and Leader of the family is imperative to wise living. Although He deeply loves his children and freely gives them all things pertaining to life, He will not fail to discipline where necessary - always for their own good.
"My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD or loathe His rebuke, For whom the LORD loves He disciplines, Just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights." - Proverbs 3:11-12
We must place our allegiance to Him above all of our hopes, dreams, desires and circumstances. Without Him all our insight and knowledge comes only from evil and impure motives. For He is the only one who can be called Holy and "good". Jesus was the only man to ever live on the earth who retained pure motives. Being directly fathered by God, Jesus never gave up His eternal inheritance as Adam did, but He retains it and shares it freely with us, His brothers and sisters, in the form of the Holy Spirit.
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” - Luke 11:13
Prior to the New Birth and receiving of the Holy Spirit, man can only rely on his own natural whims and desires for guidance. No matter how 'good' or favourable these desires appear at the time, they are unreliable at best and have devastating consequences at worst, being rooted in our natural 'sin' nature.
"Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on them, and to our God for He will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways", declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts" - Isaiah 55:6-8
"But a natural man 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. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no-one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ" 1 Corinthians 2:14-16
As Christians our eyes have been opened to the spiritual war that is being waged for our hearts and minds. Therefore we are responsible to spiritually discern and the basis of our thoughts, feelings and desires, with complete surrender to God and His Divine Will.
"We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ" - 2 Corinthians 10:5
The Good News is that in accepting the Spirit of Christ which was freely given through His once only blood sacrifice, we can share in His life-giving Spirit and henceforth gain truth, wisdom and Life!
