God's Wisdom In A Nutshell

We are continuing to look at the story of Noah. This is a factual story, not a parable and the evidence of the Ark exists on the earth on the Mountains of Arat in Turkey.

“After 150 days, exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Two and half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible…Noah released a dove…but the dove could find no place to set it’s feet…so it returned to Noah in the ark…He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in it’s beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! (Gen 8:9-11)

Noah and his family were looking for visible evidence of what God told them would take place- that they would be spared death and return to dry ground. When the dove came back the first time without visible evidence of land, Noah could have become discouraged. A week later however, Noah tried again- he sent out the dove and waited in anticipation for the promise of God to be fulfilled. The Lord tells us in the book of John: “Blessed are they who have not seen and have obeyed.” (Jn 20:29) Not only did Noah build an ark without ever seeing rain, he believed that the ark would eventually settle on dry ground and his family would be safe and secure as the Lord promised.

We, on the other hand, have the Bible, a book preserved supernaturally through the hand of God. Simply picking up the Bible with a sincere heart will give our spirit evidence that there is power in it. God’s power and guidance is written in His Words and if heeded, will get us through our difficulties. Once we believe, we begin to trust and with our trust God provides visible miracles in our lives showing us that He really has a handle on this world we live in. We need to take a step of faith and believe the promises in the Bible-especially the ones that ignite a “knowing” that they pertain to our own life. Then if we follow the Lord wholeheartedly and wait with anticipation- that promise will become a reality.

God seems to use wild and far out examples in the Bible to show us just how powerful and limitless He is. For example, Sarah was ninety years old when she conceived Isaac.

” Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.”(Gen 21:1-3)

Another example includes the parting of the Red Sea when Moses heeded God’s instructions and lifted up his shepherds staff at the edge of the sea and it parted so that the Isrelites could walk through and escape the Egyptian army.

“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”(Ex 14:21-31)

These are supernatural happenings that can occur by the one who Created the laws of gravity, time and space. God can work outside of His laws and do absolutely anything! This is hard for our human brains to reconcile with our knowledge of science however if we think of a potter- we know that the one making the pot can reshap it to anything he/she desires- and the Lord can do the same. The clay holds it shape based on its components just like the world operates based on universal laws, but God the potter- can step in and change the shape so to speak of what is being created. When we cooperate with the Lord and follow His set plan, our life is largely free of pain and stress. We will encounter pain and stress but it is due to the sin happening in the world outside of our control. In our immediate family however, if we heed the Lord’s instructions and guidance and we teach our children to do the same- we will have a life that is pleasant, joyfilled and purposeful because we are heeding the system set up by our all knowing Creator and Heavenly Father.

Problems in our life will always occur when we think that we know better than God. When we think that things must change in the world and advance or evolve. But, “the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:8) and His ways are rock solid. Humans have used our intelligence to rationalize why things must evolve. But we – the created being- will never be smarter than the Creator. We must humble ourselves and realize that the One who created so many perfectly functioning and intricate things in this world, like the human cell and it’s DNA coding or the perfection with which the petals of  flowers are formed, to the perfection of our animal kingdom- He knew exactly what He was doing and it is simply arrogant to think that humans know better.

The best life we can live starts with humility. No matter what our I.Q., if we humble ourselves to seek out guidance from our omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent Heavenly Father, we will have taken the first step towards real intelligence.

Our King and Lord came to earth as a baby, walked the earth in humility rather than pomp and circumstance and lived and taught among sinners. He chose a horrific death, experiencing human pain and suffering in order to show that He would eventually overcome the evil people who killed Him. His death showed us that He is more powerful than death itself and if we follow Him, He can get us out of any negative life situation- a terminal illness, a dead end life, addictions, a handicapped body- simply anything! There is evidence in the world of healing miracles everywhere- as well as stories of people completely healed of addiction without withdrawal symptoms- after humbling themselves and giving their lives up to live for God.

It is simply us- with our human intelligence- that limit how much God can work in our lives. Noah listened to the Lord and built an Ark before He even knew what rain was. What would happen if we listened to the Lord and followed what He is trying to tell each one of us. What miraculous thing would He do through each of our lives?

Let’s all take the limits off of God. When we encounter what seems to be an impossible life situation, the Bible is the first place we should turn to for comfort and guidance. This is the only way we will ever find out what the next step of our lives should be.

Perhaps we should all place the Holy Bible on our wish list this Christmas.

All my best,

Lisa