Knowing God and His Wisdom

A lot of people want to know what God is saying in this hour.  One thing for sure, God wants us to get to know Him.  And, God wants us to learn and teach about the wisdom He will manifest through us.

The book of Revelation shows that our end times will be a time of deception and evil.  False spirits will even deceive great men with lies and by performing wonders (Rev 16:13-14). Yet in God’s divine plan, He will keep us through knowing Him.  Intimacy with the Lord protects us from satan’s deceit and our own tendencies to stray after the spectacular.

We see a great war against God’s people in Revelation 12. Yet the way to overcome satan is plainly laid out for us during this confrontation.  God’s people overcame him “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”(Rev 12:11).

In getting to know our God and His plan for His people, we become familiar with His Son’s sacrifice for us.  Jesus, our Lord, purchased us with His blood (Rev 5:9).  God’s people not only begin their relationship with Jesus through His blood, but His blood washes them until they are dressed in white; we become overcomers (Rev 7:14). Knowing the power of Jesus’ blood causes us to trust His Righteousness to cover us.  We no longer strive for a righteousness of our own, nor justify ourselves to ourselves nor to our fellow man, for our worth is from Him who is truly righteous.  Paul came to a place where he laid down all the good he thought was in him because he did not want a righteousness of his own (Phil 3:9). Instead, he wanted to know Christ.

Satan is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10).  Putting our daily sins under Jesus’ shed blood allows us to stand in a position of victory over his accusations.  We then stand not in our righteousness, but in Christ’s righteousness.  When Paul speaks about putting on our armor for battle, he tells us to have our “breast plate of righteousness in place.” (Eph 6:14). When satan’s accusations come at our very inner being, our heart is protected, not by who we are, but by who Jesus is and what He has done for us by shedding His blood.  We need this powerful protection. However, we lose this protection if we “seek to justify ourselves in the eyes of men.” (Lk 16:15). Satan’s accusations can push us to do better and look better to ourselves and to others.  Daniel says this about our enemy;

“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

We will be very worn out if we seek to feel justified by our own actions.  The more satan accuses us, the more we will do to look good. Saints of God, this is not God’s plan.  We look good when Jesus’ blood covers our sins, and we become righteous in Him.

Satan knows that his justifications will cause us to value the things of this earth.  It’s a knee-jerk reaction on our part.  If he accuses us of being ugly, we will love vanity and seek for beauty.  If he accuses us of being incompetent at work, we will try to excel, taking on more to do to look competent.  And so our human nature goes.  But when we value the things of this earth and become a friend of the world, we do not love God (1 Jn 2:15-17). So satan’s schemes are ultimately to turn us to the world, and away from God.  And if he succeeds, we will not have the intimate relationship with God that protects us from satan’s lies.

God’s plan is for us not just to look good to the people in this world; He wants our lives to look good to Him.  In fact, the lives we live and the words we speak are called the “word of our testimony” (Rev 12:11) and by them we also overcome our enemy, satan.  In the movie “Men in Black” the secret service agents wore black suits.  Will Smith told Tommy Lee “I make this look good.” It’s a funny line, but fits well in this lesson.  The word of our testimony about our lives makes God look good to the world.  It also make us look good to the One who is the judge. Because our testimony is about Jesus’ life in us, and not our lives as we would live them on our own, we stand in Jesus’ accomplishments and are defended by His righteousness.

 Our accuser is full of lies and half-truths.   Let us never forget that Jesus’ righteousness lived in our lives and spoken through our mouths makes us look good, and it is our enemy who looks bad before God. In Romans we read;

“ Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Rom 8:33-34

Being justified in Christ and having His righteousness is the wisdom from the Heavenlies and allows us to overcome our accuser.

“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Eph 3:10-11). Amen.