I asked God for wisdom, and He gave me fear and inexpressible understanding. He showed me the delusion of the world, which filled me with hopeless frustration. He showed me by allowing me to feel the weight of it in my spirit. The weight of delusion. The weight of sin. The weight of sin on the scales of justice is immovable by our own effort. We are crushed under the weight of our sin and the world groans, just as my spirit groaned when I understood the things God showed me that I have no words to express. There are no words to express our sin, nor the weight of it. So, I thought to myself, "What words could possibly get through to this generation? What could be spoken, what could be said that would open their eyes? What could be uttered that wouldn't be a breath of vanity?" I thought these things because I understand that all truths spoken which are constructed by the mind of man are a wasted effort which bears no lasting fruit.
We are a generation that constructs our own truth. We are a generation trying to live off of the fruit of our own mind. We spend our lives building the tower of Babylon-- constructed by bricks of clay made by our own effort, and fired by the flames of our own ingenuity. We pride ourselves on building our own towers to heaven, not realizing that they are towers which lead to judgment. We assume once we reach the top of our tower, we will see the pearly gates at the entrance to the kingdom of God, but that is not so. We are tower builders who build towers in ignorance and pride, the tops of which only lead to the judgment seat.
The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord. We are a generation that has much knowledge, yet it is our increase in knowledge which has led us away from God and caused a gross lack of fear and reverence for our Creator. Our knowledge has made us genuinely ignorant. The beginning of wisdom is very far away from a people full of pride-- both secular pride and spiritual pride, both political pride and religious pride, both atheistic pride and theistic pride. "I am proud I had an abortion!" "I am proud I have never had an abortion!" "I am proud to be gay!" "I am proud I am not gay!" "I am proud I am a Republican!" "I am proud I am not a Republican!" "I am proud to be Christian!" "I am proud I am not a Christian!" Even now, there may be some reading this who say, "What is wrong with having pride in such things?"
Everything.
Everything is wrong with having pride.
But for the grace of God, you would be the very thing that you pride yourself that you are not. But for the grace of God, you would be a sinning fool. But for the grace of God, you would have regret upon regret. But for the grace of God, you would wander in wickedness until your Creator mercifully snuffed out your wicked wick. Scripture says pride goes before the fall, which means the only immediate future to look forward to for those who walk in pride is the stripping of their ego and their flesh in the purifying fires of humility. Does this message attack your sense of well-being? Those of Jeremiah's day felt the same way. I hear so many in the church say, "We need to preach the truth of God's word!" As long as it's not preached to them.
Wisdom is not what I expected it to be. I expected wisdom to be a knowledge based on intelligence. But I am still as ignorant as I ever was, perhaps more so now, because now I recognize the true depths of my ignorance. What I have come to understand is that wisdom is a knowledge based on fear-- because that is what you feel when you truly know God as He is-- worshipful reverence and the terror of His greatness and majesty, especially in light of our smallness and inadequacy. I asked God for wisdom and He gave me exactly what I asked for, but not what I was expecting. He gave me fear of Him and inexpressible understanding that I am incapable of explaining. Even now, words elude me.
So much wonder, so much beauty, so much marvel,
that I can only behold You--
I cannot communicate what I behold
I can only behold with spiritual perception
because my mind cannot contain it,
nor can I translate it into human words--
You are too much
There is so much of You
and so very little of me
What words would You give us, My Lord?
What would Your words be to this generation?
~
Why should I give them words?
What good would words do
when they have no knowledge of Me?
They must first have knowledge of Me
before they will understand any words I give,
otherwise all your speaking and word-smithing is vanity.
You may as well speak poetry to a pig.
My words to this generation are trampled
because their minds and hearts
are already filled with their own knowledge.
They do not desire to know the way of the Lord.
They seek their own way,
so I will give them the path they desire:
the path of delusion,
the manifestation of their own obstinacy and pride.
If they would desire righteousness and truth,
their heart would lead them to Me;
but they desire pleasure, idleness and distraction.
My character is blasphemed because of ignorance,
saying, "Why does He put us away to hell?"
Not understanding that it is their own heart
that sends them there, not mine.
My heart is for them to know Me and My love,
My heart is not against them for destruction.
But even so, my judgments are righteous
and if I send to hell, I send to hell.
Because by their own unrighteous words and deeds
they stand condemned.
Ignorant children,
you are deceived by your own heart and you reject Me--
the only One Who can ever save you from its desperate wickedness,
"For the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked-- who can understand it?"
Who among you wants to hear a word of humility?
Who among you wants to hear a word
commanding you to sit in the dust?
Here is My word to you:
Sit in the dust to be reminded you are dust.
The stiff-necked do not want to hear the word "bow";
the self-righteous do not want to hear the word "repent."
As a sow seeks out mud to comfort her parched, dry skin,
so this generation seeks words of comfort
so they do not have to face their own filth.
The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan with every kind of power, sign and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, in order that judgment will come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness. (2 Thess 2:9-12)
But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me. So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways, how soon I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes. (Ps 81:11-14)
Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity,
for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,
and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,
Who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.
For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions.
Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women
and burned with lust for one another.
Men committed indecent acts with other men,
and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
The have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice.
They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful.
They invent new forms of evil, they disobey their parents.
They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
Although they know God's righteous decree
that those who do such things are worthy of death,
they not only continue to do these things,
but also approve of those who practice them.
You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another.
For whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself,
because you who pass judgment do the same things.
And we know that God's judgment against those who do such things
is based on truth. (Rom 1:24-2:2)
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