Dearest Ones,
How I long to be with you personally and teach you one-on-one all about the message of my soon coming Kingdom. But as you continue to clear away the rubbish in your lives that stands in the way of clarity of mind and openness of spirit between us, my truths can be more easily comprehended. Thank you for being willing to go through this cleansing process so that the latter rain can fall upon you and give you understanding concerning the truths that must be preached to this final generation.
Now for the topic of the day. I am thinking today of your need for wisdom. I am pouring out much new light, knowledge, and understanding, but even these are not sufficient to open the minds and hearts of people if wisdom is missing. Wisdom means the ability to utilize knowledge and understanding appropriately, and for the highest good. Remember how the wisest man, Solomon, says that wisdom is a shelter [Eccl. 7:12], and advises all to seek wisdom above all things. This is because knowledge can be used inappropriately if it is not combined with wisdom.
For example, sometimes when people first learn the Adventist truth, in their exuberance and excitement they try to push the whole message upon their friends, family, and others, when they are not ready to hear the new light at that time. Wisdom would live the truth winsomely and effectively before them until they see the fruits of the truth displayed in the life, and as their hearts are being softened by love, it gives an entryway for my Spirit to work upon their hearts to prepare them so that I can water the seeds of truth that have been sown, and cause them to spring up unto eternal life. The more heaven-inspired wisdom that is used in all of your interactions with each other, and in your witnessing, the more sheaves that will be gathered into my fold.
Now I want to talk about wisdom in dealing with close family and friend relationships. I have modeled this for you in the way I relate to you each day. Remember that the over-arching foundational principle is love. But because of sin people do not understand the practical aspects of love. Number one is freedom of choice. If you love someone you will never try to coerce them to do things your way through force or argumentation or winning a power struggle between you. You will never belittle them or their ideas in order to win and prove your case. If I used those ways of winning people to my side, they would serve me from fear, and their minds would be shut off from learning, which is exactly the opposite of wisdom. Fear shuts down the mind from being open to learning wisdom, for it takes freedom of thought to produce the right soil for wisdom to develop.
For example, in rearing children, you must help them to reason from cause to effect. The more strict and unreasonable the discipline, the more the brain resorts to fear and self-protection. Rote obedience without understanding which is appropriate for the age level, reduces the capability of the brain to develop the wisdom which is needed for reasoning from cause to effect on higher levels of thinking and understanding. Simply using fear of punishment as a motivational tool reduces the possibility of learning the wisdom that comes from understanding cause and effect. That is why it is so important for my followers to understand and comprehend the higher levels of reasoning for obedience to my laws.
You would be surprised at the percentage of Christians who follow me from the motivation of escaping from punishment. That is why the devil has invented the doctrine of ever-burning hell. First of all, it presents the accusation that he has made about me from the beginning - that I am a tyrant who is angry and punitive if anyone disobeys me. And second, it produces people who either accept me out of fear, or reject me because they cannot accept a god with that kind of character. And all the time it is a lie invented by the devil from the beginning! This is how he pictured me from the beginning of his defection, in order to plant the spirit of fear in the other angels instead of love.
I have given every being freedom of choice - freedom to love me and appreciate my character, and freedom to rebel and disobey my precepts. Satan has always depicted me as having two sides to my character - one of love and approval and blessings if you obey me, and the other a wrathful, punitive and rejecting despot if you disobey me. This is a figment of his deranged thinking as a result of trying to find an excuse for his pride, rebellion, and defection from the position of covering cherub that I gave him from the beginning. That is why it says in Eze. 28:17: "Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom." Corrupted wisdom means wisdom that is turned inward to oneself and is receiving ideas and thoughts from your own unsanctified heart.
True wisdom comes only from God. He is the source of all wisdom and true knowledge and understanding. From Him flows a never-ending fountain of love and wisdom which is healing to the mind and body. All have fallen short of this wisdom, for all have received the legacy of the corrupted, fallen nature and concepts that come from fallen parents, most of whom have resorted to some type of fear and control-based discipline. To the extent that you have experienced and suffered from this, to that extent you will interpret life, yourself, your environment, and your relationship with me. This must be healed by not only Scriptural truth, but also a personal relationship with me. While I never will condone sin, I will preserve your dignity, your personhood, and your power of choice without fear of a negative reaction and retribution from me.
I set before you the way of life and the way of death. The final choice is up to you. But as long as you choose to be a child of mine, I will never discipline you in anger, or do anything to make you feel afraid or rejected. And as I have promised, I will never leave you nor forsake you. If you feel these negative feelings, it is never from me, but from the enemy of your souls who wants to make you like himself who lives constantly with the fear and rejection that he brought upon himself and wants to project that upon you. Don't believe him! Don't listen to his voice of darkness and despair! I am not the origin of these thoughts and feelings! Listen to the thoughts and feelings and wisdom of the Holy Spirit who brings you the water of life for your soul! He will teach you wisdom in the inmost parts of your mind [Ps. 51:6] that will heal your fears and brokenness.
As the Bible says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Prov. 9:10. The fear mentioned here means profound respect and an openness of heart to hear my words and seek for the highest levels of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that I have available to give you. Without this attitude of respect, your heart will ever be closed to my counsel, and even if I endeavored to give it to you, you would turn away from it and choose to follow the seemingly more pleasant ways of the broad road to destruction. While worldly fear produces an attitude that closes off communication with me, godly fear produces a healthy openness and eagerness to hear, understand, and accept the wisdom that comes from a relationship with me that will grow throughout eternity and never end.
Does that sound appealing to you? Those of you who are receiving and understanding the increasing light of the latter rain are doing so because of the increase of your love for me and your trust in me and the openness of your hearts to the increasing wisdom that I am sharing with you. "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables." Luke 8:10. "It is contrition and faith and love that enable the soul to receive wisdom from heaven. Faith working by love is the key of knowledge, and everyone that loveth knoweth God.' 1 John 4:7." DA 139.
So drink deeply at my fountain of love, and the gift of ever-expanding wisdom will be yours. Go now to the activities of your day, but keep your mind open for my thoughts, for I will guide you and give you wisdom to accomplish everything that is on my list for you today and every day. And in addition, you will have the joy of our fellowship together. Lovingly, Jesus.