We have the smart phone and we have smart computers. Voice and face recognition programs allows us to do more with computers. We are leaning towards ET or an artificial intelligence and it all makes you wonder if the movie the Terminator is not so far off the charts! I find many Christians shut themselves off to the rest of the world when it comes to learning. I am in the field of technology. It’s like being a doctor. You have to do a certain amount of continuing education to keep up in modern medicine. Same with software, a new computer graphics software package is coming out about every year. I join professional groups and IT user groups to keep up with this skills and I work for a college and school that is in IT for thirty years now. My life has been evolution itself from going from data entry to using various word processors, using an IBM-PC, to programming with mainframes, to drop-down object-oriented programming language, and web development.
The Bible says “knowledge will increase.” But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge." Daniel 12:4
What many people have not harnessed is their subconscious mind. People in church are not keeping pace spiritually with the natural world. There is an evolution of knowledge and modern medicine has increased our life span, but have we become this lackadaisical church on a cruise ship, stuffing ourselves with food and pleasure?
Christians should be increasing in wisdom and increasing in strength. I don’t want to be the same place spiritually where I was 40 years ago when I met the Lord: They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Psalm 84:7
We can pray to God daily for wisdom like Solomon did on handling the affairs of this life, and how to minister to others who are hurting. It could be praying about a financial matter. Before I go talk to another widow I pray for God’s wisdom or before I go to a Bible study, I pray for God’s wisdom in sharing. I also pray that God will give me favor with the people he wants me to have favor with and open doors where he wants doors open in my life. If I perceive that people are not receptive to his word especially the leader of a Bible study, than I take that as a sign to go in another direction. Life is too short to force doors open if favor is not flowing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" 1 Kings 3:9
For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
Jesus grew in wisdom, stature and favor and Joseph had favor. It takes favor with man to go through the right doors of opportunity (the right jobs). Any time I’ve gone to seek a job, I’ve asked God for favor. At times, I had two job offers at the same time. Then I had to ask God for wisdom on which job I was to accept. I claim favor for doors to open up with people.
And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men Luke 2:52
Joseph found favor and Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned Genesis 39:4. Because of his favor, he had a little incident with Potiphar’s wife (a little too much favor with a married woman) where it got him thrown in jail, but even with that it lined him up to meet Pharaoh’s servant and tell them their dreams and then that lead to telling Pharaoh his dreams and being second in command in Egypt.
What is interesting is that Potiphar was captain of the guard and then Joseph ended up being higher in rank than Potiphar. (Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there Genesis 39:1) (Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. Genesis 37:36)
You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you. So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt." Genesis 41:40-41
I find if I ask God questions about my life like it says “Mary pondered it in her heart” the answer comes eventually. Some answers have not come to me in four years, some it took over 40 years to receive. Even the secular world understands this. My Cobol professor (computer programming) said that whenever he had a difficult coding problem that he would go to bed and sleep on it and the answer would come to him in his mind the next day while he was shaving. It was like a “light bulb” went off in his brain. I’ve tested this with my college classes when I had a difficult computer coding problem, and I’ve tested it with God’s word and I find that yes for some reason my subconscious mind goes to work at night to help me solve riddles in life and I wake up and the answer is there in the morning. Christians have not tapped into their subconscious minds or the voice of their spirit.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19
Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. Luke 2:51
We can exercise our brains, like we exercise our muscles too. We can exercise our mind like in a gym. My husband read the newspaper every day and so did my parents. My son reads the newspaper and he asked many questions in growing up. I would rate my son has an above-average intelligence and above-average in communication skills, because of his inquisitive mind. My parents overkilled on television news when I was growing up. News in the morning, the lunch news, the six o’clock news, the 11:00 p.m. news, and then my dad installed the first satellite dish ever and they had C-span on 24/7. I was “news out” as far as an overkill so the pendulum in my life swang the other direction where I wanted to get away from television news which can be extremely negative. I realized in my political science class in college, how much I did not understand government, and how much I shut down my mind and life from the rest of the world as a Christian. You have your activist then you have the non-activist. It’s your Christian society of political drop-outs. That college class showed me that I needed to be more informed.
It’s an active learning process rather than a passive learning process of watching and listening to television. Usually books are one way to actively learn because you have to visualize what you read when television does the visualization for you. Most of the CEOs I have worked for listen to books on CDs in their car. Now there are books we can read on our computer or listen to on an IPod.
Besides have an active mind there is an activity in the spiritual realm. We see examples in the Bible where God spoke to Pharaoh, Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, Mary’s Joseph, and Pilate’s wife in dreams. We also have examples of how God spoke to people in visions:
While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. Daniel 8:15, 8:1, 7:13
During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Acts 16:9
Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. Acts 9:10
One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!" Acts 10:3 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. Acts 10:19
Peter, Paul, Cornelius, Anias, Saul, Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Elijah, several prophets had visions. The Revelation was written by the apostle John in A.D. 96 while he was on the isle of Patmos. Many Christians don’t understand the voice of God in their lives, because they never ask for it. Like Samuel said, we can say, “Speak Lord your servant is listening. 1 Samuel 3:9”
Better yet, “God please get the cotton out of my ears that is stuffed in there from this world so I can hear you.” There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don't seem to listen. Hebrews 5:11
It says that in the last days (the latter rain) that God is going to speak in dreams, vision and prophesy on “all people.” In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:17
In seeking to better hear the voice of God, I don’t want to listen to a counterfeit. The enemy comes in the back door of our lives at times. I’m always telling my children, if you leave the back door unlocked to our home, you are inviting a thief in our house. Opening the back door in our life to the enemy can be some yoga chants. Yoga that is used for exercise is one thing, but as a Christian if you doing kinndli yoga where you are making chants to other gods, it can bring oppression on you. Next, Christians wonder why they have headaches or back pain. I quiet my mind by praying and many times it’s been listening to the word at night before I go to bed. I find it “stirs” up the word of God inside of me, reminds me of stirring the ingredients of a cake or fanning the flames in my fireplace.
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame (stir up) the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 2 Timothy 1:6
But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:2
But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:2
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