What is Wisdom? Wisdom is knowledge and experience combined to produce understanding. Knowing something and understanding are 2 different things. I knew about Jesus all my life. But it wasn’t until I experienced the life changing part of salvation, I really didn’t know Him. We think that we gain wisdom as we grow older. I had hope for it, but it wasn’t exactly the way it worked. Solomon asked God for wisdom to rule Israel. God gave him more than any man will ever receive. Then on top of all that God made him the richest man that ever lived. All through the ages man has tried to conquer the world. Solomon ruled the world through God. Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs in one day. In it he said, the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. God says that He will give wisdom to anyone that asks Him. All it takes is that you recognize that you don’t know and need God’s help. I have needed wisdom many times and have received it. Then refused to accept it and the results. It cost me when I didn’t listen to God. There are 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Word of Wisdom is the answer to a question that people are praying for. God will give you the answer and you in turn give it to the person who needs it. It is strange sometimes how it works. I have given a word of wisdom to people who never told me a thing. They would look at me funny and ask how I knew. God of course. God will give the answer to His people to help them live the life. God usually gives 3 of the gifts to His children. If their position with God requires more gifts, then God will give them. Every gift is important to God and must be handled with respect and reverence. If you are interested contact me at my email address below.
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When God started with man, He gave Adam power to be able to run the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned and were thrown out of paradise, God took all the power back. Man had to overcome everything to achieve anything. Man had no power from God. As God made covenants with man, He started giving some power back to man. The power was to work in the kingdom of God. Now each prophet of God was given special power to serve in their office. But this power wasn’t shared with the general population. What the prophets had just covered their work. The sons and daughters of God today have more power from God than all of the prophets. God wasn’t going to give His power for people to live in sin. When Jesus came He began to explain to His disciples how it all worked. The first thing that each person had to do was to accept Jesus into their heart. We call this a being saved. Then Jesus told them to wait for the Holy Spirit. He was going to give them the power to live the life. In the Upper Room, they all waited and the Holy Spirit came down. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. This we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They all began to speak in other tongues. People from many different countries heard their own language as the disciples spoke in tongues. God gave something special to man. He was giving back the power that Adam had. But there are conditions. Each person must first accept Jesus into their heart. Then each person must be baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. When these 2 conditions are met, then God will give the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Again the power of God isn’t for personal use or abuse. God will not give His power to a sinner. But if you are willing you can receive from God His gifts.
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Everybody has heard about the Temperance League. Carrie Nation sick of seeing people waste their lives with alcohol formed a league of women. They were going to do something about this problem. She finally got the US Congress to pass the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution. This amendment prohibited the sale of alcohol. She had the right idea but went about it the wrong way. If you want people to stop a certain behavior, you have to change a person’s heart. Then the behavior will stop. The only way I know to change a person’s heart is if God does it. No one has the power to change anything. Some good things came out of prohibition. People started saving their money. But temperance is an attitude of your heart. Moderation is what most people strive for. Look at our New Year’s resolutions. And you know how long that last. Most people don’t want excess in their lives. It leads to too much trouble. Unfortunately, people don’t want what God has because they think it place them in a cage. Actually it will do the opposite and set you free. Free to be as moderate and temperate as you really want to be. So temperance isn’t a bad thing. It actually is a good way to live your life. We have a saying, all things in moderation. Remember that it is the overindulgence that leads to sin. Let God show you how to live a temperate life.
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Being meek isn’t what most people think it is. Meek isn’t weakness. Before I knew the Lord, I wasn’t meek in any shape or form. I had a tongue like a razor. It was sharp and cut people all the time. I had learned how to use my tongue as a weapon. I am surprised that no one tried to shoot me. Many people got very angry with me. Even my family didn’t want to be around me. It was all the anger and bitterness in my heart that kept flowing out. God says that if you can’t control your tongue, you have no control over yourself. It wasn’t until I met the Lord, that my life began to change. One to the things that God wanted to teach me was meekness. So I wouldn’t get angry with people over a difference of opinion. Even if there opinion was rude or unkind. I learned to be gentle and meek with people so God could heal them. I learned to stand and take abuse that was unfair. Sometimes being ridiculed for being a Christian. God says that hard words don’t accomplish anything. All they do is stir up strife. Sometimes I can feel angry trying to bubble up in me. And I can hear some old comments I have made to people. But Jesus paid the price for me. So I don’t have to be that way anymore. I can be kind and meek with people so they can see God.
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The definition of goodness is moral excellence or virtue. It is not very often that you hear someone say that a person is really a good person. More often than not it is said of a person that does something special for another. But that isn’t the real question. The real question is how does a person become good. I have heard every expletive deleted about people. There are so many foul names someone can call another person you would blush. For the most part it is true. Man is so corrupt that you could easily lose faith in man every doing anything good. But there is a way that man can change into a good person. Man doesn’t have the power to change himself. People may stop doing things because it isn’t convenient. That doesn’t mean they have changed. Goodness has to come from their heart to be real. And the only way I know that it becomes real in a person is when God changes their heart and mind. Jesus said it Himself, there is none good except God. That’s a damming statement if I ever heard one. How does a person become good? The bible says that the goodness of God leads us to salvation. Because God is good, He is willing to bring us to the place where we can accept Him into our lives. Thank God for that. Looking back at some civilizations in the Old Testament, God purposely destroyed them because of their sin. That is a place you don’t want to be. King David, when he was troubled by anything, would recount the blessings (goodness) of the Lord. It builds faith when you do. God can turn anything corrupt into something good if we only let Him. Then you would become a good person too.
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Most people think that gentleness is weakness. But it isn’t so. Gentleness takes great strength of character. I have found that men of great strength both physically and spiritually are gentle. I worked for a Christian radio station during the Year of the Bible in the United States. I interviewed leaders from most denominations. What I found is that these people were very kind and gentle toward me. It surprised me. I was expecting them to be corporate types, rude and arrogant. One day when I was running a Christian bookstore, a little old man walked in to the store. He was selling books. His name was Hubert Lindsey. I didn’t know that he was an important prophet of God. He was very gentle and kind to me. I enjoyed talking to him. He was a very powerful man of God. If you don’t know who Holy Hubert is just google it. God showed me many people and how they lived their lives for God. I have met so many great men and women of God. They all had one thing in common. They were gentle. It took a while for me to learn to be gentle. I always thought that being powerful wasn’t being gentle. Jesus always went about loving people. Seeing about their needs so that He could win them over. God doesn’t carry a big stick and hit you on your head when you sin. God calls our name and gently brings us back into the kingdom. When you look for a Christian, look for a person who is gentle. I tell you a truth, because that person who is gentle knows God.
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You know how you put up with your older brother. Ever since you were a little kid. I thought this is longsuffering. As annoying as my older brother can be, this isn’t longsuffering. Having to put up with my stupidity all those years I thought I was the master of my destiny. Now that is longsuffering. Oh yea, I thought I was invincible. I was just showing how much I didn’t know. My parent tried to show me how to live the right life. I thought they were just stupid. It turned out I was the stupid one. That was longsuffering on their part. When I was 8 years old I gave my heart to the Lord. I didn’t know what had happen to me. I just kept living my life like I wanted. Of course, I get into as much trouble as I could. It wasn’t until I was 28 years old that I surrender to God. God put up with me all those years just so I could became a child of God. This is what I call longsuffering. Loving me through all those years and still accepting me back. Then I began to learn what longsuffering really is. God had me to love the unlovable, the socially unacceptable. People who would praise God one week and then get drunk or stoned. Then come back the next and praise God. If it has not been for God, I would have walked away from these people. One man God had me to love and he refused to listen to God. All his life I loved that man. He was so messed up he refused to change. When he died, it hurt as much as losing my brother. This is how much God is longsuffering toward us. He loves us all of our lives. He is willing to take us back after all the years of wondering. The love of God is beyond anything we can comprehend. It is because God is love and longsuffering.
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What is Peace? I can tell you what it isn’t. Peace is not the lack of turmoil. It isn’t a circumstance or situation. You can have peace in the middle of the worst possible situation. My peace has been tested a lot this year. I have an illness that I caused myself. I am taking medicine for it. My younger brother died this year. I have been discouraged by many circumstances this year. But the one thing I have never lost is the peace of God. I didn’t start out that way. God had to put me through the paces. You know if you ask God for something, you are liable to go through a trial. When I ask for boldness, God put me in situations where I needed boldness. When I asked for patience, God had mercy on me. I was deluged by annoying people. One in particular person used to insult me every time we met, especially at church. I wanted to lay hands on her suddenly and repeatedly. But God said I had the problem. So I begin to pray about this person. What happened is that she became a blessing to me. And she never changed. But I had changed for the better. All through this trial, I still had the peace of God. People look at me and say I am weak because I don’t fight back. I don’t fight back because I don’t need too. God is my avenger. The bible says let the peace of God keep your mind and heart. You can only do that if you trust and believe in that person. I started out with one goal in mind, which was to get to heaven. My Father called me to go home to Him. And the peace of God will take me all the way home.
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In 1983, the United States Congress passed an historic bill. And how it got through Congress was also historic. This historic bill was sponsored by a congressman who was dying of cancer and he wanted to do something significant. He took his bill and posted on the wall of congress. Anyone who wanted to sign it could. There was no debate, no filibuster or no arm twisting. It just passed through Congress. This historic bill was The Year of the Bible. The first time since the time of Christ has a nation declare a Year for God. You wouldn’t believe what happen to this nation. The Gross Nation Product was higher than the pass 20 years. Prosperity came back to this country. Christianity became popular. Churches filled up. People were excited about being an American. Imagine trying to get that bill through this congress. It would take a miracle. Gallup Poll took a survey of the American people. They asked what are the three most important things in your life. The American people responded with a usual answer. It was a strange as the bill itself. The American people said that what was most important in their lives was love, joy and peace. If you don’t know these are the first three gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is what God gives to His children. It is what we need to live in this world. It is also what we did to show that God is alive and well. Joy especially in these times. Joy is that constant knowing that all is well in the world. That God is in control of everything. As God says, the Joy of the Lord is my strength. So rejoice and be glad for this is the day the Lord has given to us.
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Free Will is the ability to make decisions on our own. It doesn’t mean we will make the right decision. But we can make them. I have known many different kinds of people. Not all of them were Christian. Over the years I have tried to explain what Christianity really is. Some have understood what I was saying. Others have looked at me like I was crazy. However everyone has a free will to make a decision about God. Not everyone that proclaims that they are Christians are. Jesus said you would know them by their fruit. He was describing what man does with his life. If they are producing things in their life like, joy, peace, love, longsuffering, temperance, meekness, faith, gentleness and goodness. I worked for a man that ran his Christian business like a corporation. And he always wondered why his employees were always angry with him. There are Christians who measure their success by the world. And they wonder why they are so empty. God isn’t against commerce. God wants His children to succeed in all of their endeavors. Our free will isn’t a license to sin. We are to use it for God’s purpose. You have to understand that Adam lost paradise with Saul lost his kingdom with his free will. Pharaoh Ramses lost his kingdom when he chose to fight God and Moses. How many people do you know that lost everything because they used their free will the wrong way? I am talking about Christians and others. How many people do you know that surrendered to God and their lives were blessed over and over again. Free Will is a great thing, but without the power of God it can’t be controlled.
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