Sorry Guys, I’m not sure what happened, but there is a 10-15 second window in the middle in which no audio recorded, not even on my backup copy. I was talking about kingdom community and intentionally asking God to bring you the right people for you to commune and do life with.
Foundational Texts
Proverbs 1 (NKJV)
The Beginning of Knowledge Proverbs (:1-7)
“The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion— A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Shun Evil Counsel (:8-19)
“My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother; For they will be a graceful ornament on your head, And chains about your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, And whole, like those who go down to the Pit; We shall find all kinds of precious possessions, We shall fill our houses with spoil; Cast in your lot among us, Let us all have one purse”— My son, do not walk in the way with them, Keep your foot from their path; For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood. Surely, in vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird; But they lie in wait for their own blood, They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; It takes away the life of its owners.”
The Call of Wisdom (:20-33)
“Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words: “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord, They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them; But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil.””
Key Takeaways
* Community matters. Do not allow yourself to be led and fueled by the crowd — you must have your own moral compass and that compass should be calibrated by Jesus. Peer pressure and guilt by association can lead you away from what is right and just in God’s eyes. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are”. When you are consistently with and around people who are not rooted in God, you will eventually be influenced by them and start to look and act like who you are around. This doesn’t mean that God will not use you in places that don’t yet know Him; however, that should not be your inner circle and primary community. The goal is to make sure that you are rooted, grounded, and abiding in the right place.
Recovering addicts are encouraged to hang out around different people and different environments, not the same people they got high with nor the same places they used to get high. The same principle is at work here, willpower alone is not enough. Eventually, they will be influenced and enticed by those people/places and end up right back where they started.
* In each season, we are simultaneously learning, relating, and teaching. Reach up, reach laterally, and reach back.
* As you are seeking God’s wisdom and being transformed by Him, your habits and your relationships will be transformed as well. There will be people who try to shame you for your growth, make it seem as though you’re acting like you’re better than them, etc. — you have to ignore the outside noise and continue forward on the path that God has set forth before you. People who are upset by you working to better your life are not meant to grow and go with you into the next level. If you lose friendships, family ties, or connections because you have chosen relationship, intimacy with, and obedience to God, He will not let you go without. He will fill that void and bring you people who help you grow closer to Him instead of away from Him. He will bring you people that pray both with and for you, people whose love for you is not conditional nor based on what you can do for them — just trust in Him, continue walking it out, and watch how every aspect of your life evolves and develops beyond your imagination.
* God’s wisdom is readily available to us, we simply have to seek and receive it. Ignorance is not bliss in the kingdom of God.
* What you build without the wisdom and guidance of God, you are responsible for sustaining on your own. That means, when calamity comes, you will have to bear the consequences of your actions & decisions. That doesn’t mean that God is not ready to provide you with grace, mercy, and forgiveness if you turn to Him with a repentant heart, because those things He gives willingly — not because of who we are but because of who HE is. However, there are some storms that you will have to weather in order for what you built without Him to be dismantled so that you can begin to rebuild anew under the instruction of His care.
* God does not expect perfection, He expects obedience. When you are walking with Him, earnestly and consistently seeking Him, He will let you know if you misunderstood something, made a mistake, or turned in a wrong direction. God will help you to reroute and you will catch these things swiftly because you are constantly abiding in His presence. The path with God still has it’s obstacles, difficulties, pains, and hardships; however, the difference is that these battles are not yours to fight, you don’t bear the brunt of the responsibility, you don’t have to figure things out on your own, and your victory was declared long before the battle revealed itself. You just have to keep the faith and keep your eyes on God, allowing Him to work everything out for your good just as He said He would.
* When obstacles come your way, trust in the word that God gave you, instead of giving all of your attention to the problem. The solution, the provision, and everything else you need lies in your obedience.
* Those who intentionally operate with the motives to cause harm to others are blatantly laying a trap for themselves that they cannot see. What they have laid in wait for someone else will turn back to them — we see this in 2 notable incidents in the bible, Haman & Mordecai and Daniel & the governors/satraps:
Esther 7:9-10 (NKJV)
“Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.” Then the king said, “Hang him on it!” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.”
Daniel 6:23-28 (NKJV)
“Now the king was exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God.
And the king gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions—them, their children, and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den.
Then King Darius wrote: To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, And steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, And His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, And He works signs and wonders In heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”
* Be careful who you endorse and who you put your name behind — operate with Godly wisdom in this and allow God to lead and guide you when it comes to who to do business with, who to promote, etc. Allow God to guide you based on what He knows about the heart of people so that you are not deceived by outward appearances.
1 Samuel 16:6-7 (NLT)
“When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
* Be still and wait. Keep being obedient to what God has instructed you for this season. There may be some things you need to experience, people you need to meet/talk to, etc. in order for the answer God has released to make sense, so just continue to walk it out with Him until you are properly positioned to receive the answer that God has for you. Don’t be dismayed by not yets or perceived delays.
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