"There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord." Proverbs 21:30 You cannot win against God. A wicked man plans in himself how he is going to make his way, but once the Lord has determined the outcome, there is nothing that man can do to change it. He revels in his cleverness and devises the ways he will avoid bad results, but the one thing he cannot prevail against is the Lord God. Consider the evil men who once lived, Nero, Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, and multitudes upon multitudes more ...where are they now? What did they gain by their wisdom, their cleverness, their power? It's over for them. Finished. Now they have an eternity to spend in regret. Their proud counsel against God gained them nothing, only hell. And even in hell, every tongue will confess Jesus Christ as Lord. "...at the name of Jesus EVERY knee will bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:10-11 There are no atheists in hell. They are no longer atheists. Why did they rail against God in life? Did they give no thought to their future? Their eternity? Were they so drunk with their own pride that their mortality never concerned them? Were they so successful in their self-will that they were fearless? But oh - pride will always meet its fate. Their self-will and pride will come to an end. Isn't this tragic? You can't live for evil in life and then go with Jesus when you die. How awful. The end will reveal the depth of their foolishness. But for anyone who has willingly bowed their knee before Jesus Christ, their future will be secured and their joy beyond what anyone has ever imagined. These are they who realized their mortality and were aware that they needed to settle it. These are they who realized their sinfulness and sought pardon for their sins. These are they who realized the wisdom of God and the truth of God, who accepted and believed his Word and who were willing to surrender their lives to him. When they bowed before him, surrendering their pride, confessing their sin, asking for forgiveness, and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, their fate was eternally settled by him and what they have to look forward to is the glory of the life to come in heaven. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared ...for those who love him.” 1st Corinthians 2:9 If any wicked person is reading this, I pray you will come to understand that your pride is going to be your undoing. Your pride will be broken. You can choose to surrender it now, or else by force when you stand before Jesus Christ. Rail if you want, scoff if you want, hate if you want, but your fate will be sealed. Think very deeply before you decide to live in the enjoyment of sin in the present while ignoring your future in hell. Hell is real, the Word of God proclaims it, and there is no avoiding it for the unsaved. Jesus Christ holds out to you the offer of eternal life. He is willing to cleanse you with the blood he shed in atonement for your sin. He is willing, even inviting you, yes even you, to walk with him in this world, and live with him forever. He loves you. Perhaps he is the only one who has ever really loved you. Come to him, he holds out his hand to you. He will forgive your sins completely. But your pride has to be surrendered first. Bow your knee before him now while you can do it willingly, and change your eternal fate forever, while it is still possible. "Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation." 2nd Corinthians 6:2
"The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him..."
Psalm 25:1
People who have been walking with the Lord for years will tell you that his revelations to them through his Word are never ending, they are "new every morning." (Lamentations 3:23)
Ask any believer who has read God's Word daily and they will tell you that even after so many years they continuously "see" things they never saw before as the Lord opens up his Word to them in an ongoing and personal way. How many times does the believer proclaim to the Lord, "when ever did you put THAT in your Word, I've never 'seen' this before?!'" Gems of revelation, treasures of understanding, all these make the believer glad to pick up that Bible every day and read in God's Word.
But the Scripture says that the secrets of the Lord are not given to just anyone. The Bible is studied as history or literature in many universities, and when handled that way the student will get nothing out of it, a couple years later he probably won't remember much of what he studied in that class. But for the believer, the Bible is the Word of almighty God. It is alive and full of nuggets and treasures of truth. With it the Lord guides believers throughout their lives.
Not so the unbelievers. To them it's just another book like any other "religious" book.
Why is that?
Well, it's because only the born-again spirit can receive the Word of God. When read by an unbeliever, he can only retain historical facts and perhaps admire the literary content, but he is not ABLE to receive the revelation of God's Word.
"BUT THE NATURAL MAN DOES NOT RECEIVE
THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD,
for they are foolishness to him;
neither CAN he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned."
1st Corinthians 2:14
If you have found the Word of God boring, you might ask whether or not you're born again. Being raised in a Christian home does NOT make you born again. One is not born again through hearing ABOUT God all their growing up years. One is born again ONLY when he has a personal encounter with Jesus Christ through which he sees the truth about himself and falls before the Lord in repentance. When one has such an encounter, everything changes. His whole outlook on life changes. He sees with eyes that never saw before. He understands things that once were dull to him. There is no other way to be saved but to experience the born-again encounter with the Lord; it will transform him.
If you have not been born again, or if you're not sure about it, pray with me:
Father God, I've heard about you but I don't know you personally. I have never had an encounter with you that has radically transformed me - I'll admit that I've even laughed at people who have. But your Holy Spirit is wooing me, I feel the drawing in my heart. Please lead me into that encounter with you that will transform me, so that I can know you for myself and begin seeing in your Word things I never was able to see before. Lead me in repentance. Pour that overwhelming conviction upon me that needs to come first. I know that the most important thing in life is coming to know you in that personal encounter that one must experience which Jesus called being "born again." I stand before you empty and willing to surrender all to you because there is nothing more important in life than being born again, as Jesus said. I surrender Lord, and stand ready to receive you as my savior, and my LORD. Please receive me.
"...the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out."
John 6:37
You MUST be born again:
"Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God...'
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You MUST be born again.’"
John 3:3, 7
More:
"Born Again" - what does that mean?
"Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me in a smooth path,
...because of my enemies."
Psalm 27:11
"Because of my enemies…"
"Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil
walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he MAY devour."
1st Peter 5:8
In the book of Numbers chapters 22-25, a prophet was hired by the king of Moab, to curse the Jews. Balaam the prophet tried to, but couldn't. He told the king that all he could get from God was blessing for Israel. The king was very angry and pressed the prophet to ask again, and of course he got the same answer. The king was enraged. Finally, Balaam told the king that there's only one way to overcome Israel, and that is to get her to sin. Send foreign women to seduce the men of Israel into sin, and then they will come under a curse and you will be able to overcome them.
Your adversary seeks whom he MAY devour…
In the psalm quoted above, David prays that God TEACH him, and LEAD him, because otherwise THE ENEMY WILL FIND A WAY to cause him to fall.
Look at the heartaches in your life. Examine them and seek to understand whether sin brought them on. Sometimes it's not a matter of sin. But when it is, it has to be dealt with before restoration will come.
"But every man is tempted,
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin;
and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death."
James 1:14-15
When I first came to the Lord a totally broken person, as I cried out to him for mercy and for healing, he gently and lovingly showed me time after time where I had opened a door to Satan by falling into sin, and that those sins had to be dealt with and those doors had to be closed before restoration could come.
It is very often necessary to deal with sin before restoration can come. The believer must come to the Lord in true, heart-felt repentance. He must confess as sin the things he did that opened the doors to destruction, no matter what the extenuating circumstance were. He must not justify or excuse himself. As long as a person dwells on the reason they sinned, restoration can't begin. He has to acknowledge the sin for what it is regardless of why it happened. Hatred, even with a cause is sin. Rebellion, even toward an unjust parent is sin. Hatred, rebellion, self-will, self-justification, denial, deception, raging anger, pride, all these are sin in and of themselves.
God is the God of mercy and great love. He stands to heal your broken life. But to get there, one oftentimes has to go the way of humility and repentance. It's hard at first, because we want to blame people or circumstances. It could be very true that people and circumstances led you into sin. But God doesn't accept blaming others or justifying one's self. When it comes to restoration, it doesn't matter who or what led you into sin, it's the sin that needs to be dealt with. Break free from justifying it. Humble yourself and acknowledge it.
If a man kills another man in a fit of jealous rage, he may always say that the other man sinned with his wife, and wouldn't anyone react the same way? If a parent was brutal, angry, and unfair in one's upbringing wouldn't anyone react in anger and hatred? Perhaps, but that's not where restoration can begin. Even if sin was committed in a jealous rage, or in hatred of a parent, the sin remains a sin in itself and it has to be dealt with as such. One may think that unfair - it's not unfair, it's acknowledging that sin remains sin no matter what brought it about. Once a person gets to that point, healing can begin.
We aren't told to deny things in life that caused us to react in hate, or jealousy, or in any other natural reaction. They will stand before God and answer to him. Leave it between them and a righteous God who understands completely your natural reactions. Leave it there. And go on.
It takes great humility - it hurts deeply to let go of putting blame somewhere else. Perhaps one needs the grace of God even to do that. Ask, therefore, for that grace, that ability to take responsibility for your own sin, so that you might receive the healing of your broken life and the joy of restoration that will surely come if you do it God's way.