Chapter 2

Hiding His Commandments

"My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;"

Proverbs 2:1-2

Here, the Holy Spirit calls the people of God individually "My son." It is also applicable to the women of God. In the sight of God, we are all masculine in nature. The Proverbs, a pool of wisdom, does not distinguish a man of God from a woman of God. It does not call any woman of God "My daughter." These days, a howl and cry is raised when a woman of God preaches a sermon in a church, by quoting the words of Paul. They were purely applicable to the Jewish women who were not obeying their husbands at home, but who were interested in preaching to men in the churches.

Then, the Holy Spirit did not address a group, but an individual child of God. These days, we are interested in preaching to the multitudes and not to individuals. Preachers want to address a big crowd and not individuals.

The words of counsel or instruction from God ought to be received individually. It is up to individuals to receive or reject the same. The Holy Spirit says "My words," "My commandments." The whole Bible gives us instructions on righteousness and on holy living. These are His words, or commandments. You should receive His words into your heart and hide His commandments with you. Hiding does not mean keeping them in your mind. It means loving and preserving them from adulteration, or leaven. The malady that lies with us is that we do not preserve the truth from adulteration, or leaven. If we possess a gold chain or a gold ring, we preserve it in our Almirah (safe) or in some place which is not accessible to robbers. But if we learn the truth from His word, we often allow the same to be diluted or adulterated with a dose of falsehood.

In this regard, I quote an instance to show how the word of truth was allowed to be adulterated with falsehood. God does baptize every child of God with His Spirit for a ministry after he or she has been washed through the Blood of Jesus Christ. This is the truth. But many preachers dilute this truth saying that until and unless we experience a particular emotional experience to be witnessed by others, we have not received the Holy Spirit baptism. The Pentecostal churches, over a period of time, which laid emphasis on the spiritual experience of the Holy Spirit baptism, have since replaced this truth with their own personal experiences. They have failed to hide His commandments with them.

The churches have failed to incline their ears unto wisdom, and apply their heart to understanding. When Pentecostal churches, while placing over-emphasis on this spiritual experience, have diluted this wonderful truth, the non-Pentecostal churches have denied this truth altogether. The preacher concerned failed to "incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding."

During 2005, I preached in a Pentecostal Church in Bangalore. In this church, the people of God were highly emotional and could not observe silence while worshipping. I gave them a message of how to worship God. This message hardly went into their heart. These people of God were taught to worship God in a mechanical manner and not in truth (John 4:23). We should incline our ears unto wisdom and should know what we do in the presence of God. We worship a holy God. We shout at Him with a life full of unholiness or uncleanliness. We approach His throne of grace with sin in our life. We do not fall before His presence in repentance.

There are many non-Pentecostal churches who deny the presence of Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is an irony that most of the churches--be it Pentecostal or non-Pentecostal in our midst--do not recognize the ministry of apostles and of prophets.

Today, the Wisdom shouts at the streets, in the chief place of concourse, and in the openings of the gates. But we do not listen to Him. The Wisdom speaks to us from His written Word. But we incline our ears unto the false teachers in our midst. Today, the Wisdom exhorts us, individually, to incline our ears unto Him and to apply our hearts to understanding. We should meditate on His word and should search His Scriptures to see what we do today is based on His words of wisdom and understanding. We do not use our faculty of thinking if we do not understand His commandments. God's commandments are righteous and based on equity and justice. You can easily understand them.

We are supposed to preserve and guard the truth against adulterations likened to the fiction, The Da Vinci Code. We should hide the same in our hearts. If you incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding, you can easily discern the truth from the error. When Leonardo Da Vinci painted the pictures of Jesus in the 15th century, the Church did sleep and the enemy sowed this great lie. The Church should have awakened and warned the people of God against decorating their walls with these pictures. We should be very watchful these days when many false prophets twist the gospels and the epistles of apostles to suit their own doctrines.

Knowledge and Understanding

"Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God."

Proverbs 2:3-5

We should seek knowledge and understanding. Crying after knowledge means seeking it fervently and wholeheartedly.

We need knowledge of the Word of God, Church history, biographies of the apostles and prophets-- especially those who wrote the gospels and other New Testament books, etc. When the Holy Spirit led me to examine the contents of the book titled The Da Vinci Code, I found that this book was based on a distorted version of the church history. It said that King Constantine deliberately manipulated and tampered with the original gospels. But the Church history disproved this erroneous view of the author of this book.

We should lift up our voice for understanding the Holy Scriptures. We should understand the Word of God at any cost. If you do not understand any particular passage of the Bible which is very important from the doctrinal point of view, you should refer to the other Bible versions, the concordance, and the Bible in your own language. You should also approach the elders for understanding. We should pay a price for understanding the Word of God.

We should seek knowledge and understanding as silver and search for the same as for hid treasures. These days, we despise knowledge and understanding in regard to spiritual matters, whereas the children of the world seek knowledge and understanding in regard to science and technlogy. We do not consider the same as silver and as hid treasures. We do seek material prosperity as silver and as hid treasures, whereas we throw to wind knowledge and understanding pertaining to God's Kingdom. We do not search the Scriptures for knowledge and understanding. Paul and Silas preached the word of God in Berea. The people in Berea who had heard the Word of God became more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:10-11). These people did not accept the message preached by Paul and Silas, but "searched the Scriptures daily" to ensure that the message of Paul and Silas confomed to the Scriptures. Those days, the people had no written Bibles with them. They would have read the same in the synogogues only. But they searched the Scriptures to understand them. They sought knowledge and understanding as silver. They considered knowledge and understanding as hid treasures. Today, if a popular evangelist gives a message, we accept it without searching the Scriptures, though we have in our hands the written Bibles. We would become more noble than any Christian in this world if we search the Scriptures daily for knowledge and understanding. If we seek knowledge and understanding by searching the Scriptures, the Lord will give us the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places (Isaiah 45:3).

If we seek knowledge and understanding, we will truly understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Unless we seek it, we will not understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

The fear of the Lord comes only when we seek knowledge and understanding. We will know the truth only after seeking knowledge and understanding of the Word. We do not understand the fear of the Lord because we do not know the truth regarding His judgment-character. We do not see Him as our Judge. We despise His justice and judgment. We covet only His mercy and grace. The people of God do not find the knowledge of God because they do not seek knowledge and understanding. The knowledge of God comes only after we know the truth. You will never get the knowledge of God if you believe in the lies being propagated by false teachers like Dan Brown, etc. The truth is the key to the knowledge of God.

"And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, [and] strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD [is] his treasure." (Isa.33:6)

Wisdom Versus Knowledge and Understanding

"For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding."

Proverbs 2:6

The Lord gives us wisdom. We have to ask Him for this by faith. God gives you His wisdom so that you can give His guidance to those who need it. God gives you His wisdom so that you can reveal His will to those who need it. When you are filled with His wisdom, nobody can stand before you or challenge your God-given authority. Words of wisdom proceed out of your mouth. You need not learn it.

In the year 1982, when I was reading about the wisdom given by God to Solomon, I simply wrote in my Bible, "God, gives me the wisdom of Solomon," in reference to I Kings 3:9,12. Solomon prayed, "Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?" God answered the prayer of Solomon, "Behold, I have done according to thy words; lo, I have given thee a wise and an undearstanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee...." At that time, like a child, I asked the Lord for giving me wisdom like that of Solomon. I did not realize what I was asking Him for. At that time, I did not know many of His promises in the Bible. I was a babe in Christ Jesus when I was 31 years old. With all my humility, I accepted and appropriated the above promise of God for me. Then I started interpreting the whole book of the Song of Solomon and finished it in the year 2001. It was through God's wisdom I was able to interpret the whole book written by Solomon. Again, the Lord asked me to interpret the whole book of Proverbs in 2005. I completed interpreting it in November 2019.

During my childhood days, I was not an intelligent person at all. I could not understand anything very easily. When He gave me wisdom, I was able to interpret any passage from the Bible. With this wisdom, I was able to discharge my official duties on my secular job in an intelligent and efficient manner.

Out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. "All things were made by Him." (John 1:3). God created knowledge and understanding as it came out of His mouth only. Even knowledge on any animate or inanimate thing came out of His mouth only. The great discoveries made by men came only out of His mouth. There are two types of knowledge and understanding. One type pertains to the Kingdom of God and the other to the world. God spoke His words through His mouth which were heard by the holy prophets. Moved by the Holy Ghost, the holy prophets gave us His word, i.e. the Bible. "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Pet.1:21). The Bible is nothing but knowledge and understanding pertaining to God and His Kingdom.

There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge and understanding. We receive wisdom from God by faith, whereas we acquire knowledge and understanding through wisdom by meditating on His word. Wisdom is the key to knowledge and understanding. Similarly, we acquire knowledge and understanding pertaining to the world by pursuing academic courses. Wisdom is entirely different from knowledge. A Harvard student may have wonderful knowledge pertaining to the world because he or she has learned it. But if he or she does not possess Christ, Wisdom, in his or her life, in the eyes of God, he or she is a very big zero. Similarly, a nuclear scientist may have wonderful knowledge concerning nuclear science but if he does not possess Christ, he is merely a repository of knowledge. Without wisdom, one can acquire knowledge and understanding which is very dangerous. One can acquire merely Bible knowledge through learning without possessing Christ. Many people have acquired this type of knowledge. "For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." First of all, one should get wisdom from God by possessing Christ. Then he or she should acquire knowledge and understanding, either pertaining to God and His Kingdom or to this world. One gets knowledge and understanding which came from the mouth of God by the process of learning. God does not give His wisdom to some one who asks for it. The person who asks for wisdom from God has to accept His Son Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Without accepting His Son, the person concerned cannot approach the throne of God just to ask for wisdom. Christ is the Wisdom of God.

Sound Wisdom

"He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly." Proverbs 2:7

Sound wisdom is different from ordinary wisdom. Sound wisdom is reserved for the righteous whereas wisdom is reserved for all who seek it. The righteous people are those who are made righteous through the Blood of Jesus Christ and who excel the Pharisees and the scribes in righteousness (Matt.5:20). The more righteous we are, the sounder wisdom we get. A child of God can get wisdom as he seeks it. But sound wisdom is meant for a child of God who walks uprightly.

The Lord is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. If we do not walk uprightly according to the standards of righteousness as expected of us from our Lord, we cannot get deliverance from the evil one. These days, many people of God think that they can get deliverance from their diseases, if they simply believe in the Blood of Jesus Christ without walking uprightly. The Blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness if we confess our sins after true repentance and then decide to walk uprightly. The Blood of Jesus Christ cannot be invoked as a magic formula as in the Arabic fable of the Alladin Lamb when you continue to live in sin. The Lord cannot protect you from the attacks of any terrorist if you do not walk uprightly. The Lord cannot protect you from any accident if you do not walk uprightly.

We need sound wisdom to be a witness in the midst of the ungodly nations. Sound wisdom makes us a different and peculiar nation. The key to the sound wisdom is righteoueness. You cannot get sound wisdom by memorizing the whole Bible. Of course, you will gain sound knowledge of the Bible. However, you will get sound wisdom only if you walk uprightly or righteously according to the counsels of God. These days, we have very good Bible colleges to impart us merely Biblical knowledge but the Bible teachers do not practically teach us on righteousness through their own lives. Jesus taught His disciples through His own life as He stayed with them. His disciples learnt to walk uprightly from the life of Jesus Christ. According to the Gurukul system of teaching in India, the student as a disciple has to stay with his teacher, guru, and to learn from the latter's life. It is the desire of my heart and also in accordance with the vision given to us by the Holy Spirit that we strive to establish prophetic schools all over the world. The teachers of these schools would stay with their students to teach on righteousness through their personal lives.

Paths of Judgment

"He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path." Proverbs 2:8-9

Our God is a God of judgment. He keeps the paths of judgment. He knows how and when to judge a nation or an individual. Judgment is reserved for God and His Son. God is sovereign in His judgment. Judgment begins at the house of God. Even under the New Covenant, God judges His people. Ananias and his wife Sapphira were judged by God instantaneously when they lied to the Holy Spirit. "Justice and judgement are the habitation of thy throne....." (Ps.89:14). The devil has no power to judge but to destroy. God preserves the way of His saints. He guards or protects the way of His saints. He knows the way of His saints and guards them. The ways of His saints are not hidden from Him. He knows what is the best for His saints whereas the people of this world cannot foresee what God has in store for His saints. The career, the business or the education of His saints are in His hands because He preserves their way in this world.

The way of His people in this world is, of course, bristled with briers and thorns but God removes these briers and thorns the moment His saint takes a step by faith and treads on it. Dearly beloved in Christ, do you find your way full of thorns? As you go ahead and tread on it, these thorns will disappear because it is God who keeps the paths of judgment and preserves your way. God does judge those who hate you in your office or in your work place. To preserve your way, He would judge those who have harassed or persecuted you. Do not think that God does not judge and that you will not get your justice? This worldly system of justice may deny you justice but God judges and preserves your way. God's judgment only tarries because of His character of long-suffering but it will be revealed one day, though belatedly.

When God judges and preserves your way, you will understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity. We understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity because God preserves the way of His saints after judgment. We understand righteousness to the extent God loved us because God's righteousness demanded the death of His only Son to save us from the sin. We understand judgment to the extent God loved us because God judged His own Son for us. We understand equity to the extent God loved us because God's equity brought His Son to the altar of Calvary for us. We understand the good path for us only when our eyes are opened. At times, we do not know how God leads us. God even leads us through failures to the destination of success. We cannot foresee what good things since the beginning of the world God has prepared for His people that wait for Him (Is.64:4). All the acts of God result in "every good path" for us. It may begin with His path of judgment but will result in a good path for us. In every act of God, we should get a revelation of His righteousness, and judgment, and equity. In our life, we should apply the divine principles of righteousness, and judgment, and equity. Our righteousness should shine as a candle before the eyes of the people of this world. Our judgment should be fair and without respect to persons. Our equity should be transparent and without any element of favouritism. We should not practice double standards. Our ministries and churches throw to wind these divine laws. Prophet Isaiah cries, "And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." (Isa.59:14)

Importance of wisdom and knowledge

"When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:"

"To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;"

" Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;"

"Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:" Proverbs 2:10-15

"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that [is] on the sea shore." (I Ki.4:29)

"And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart." (I Ki.10:24)

For his God doth instruct him to discretion, [and] doth teach him." (Isa. 28:26)

God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much. When wisdom enters into your heart, you become a peculiar person in the eyes of this world. My son who was studying an engineering course was preparing for a campus selection. Many companies of repute visited the college campus for selection. I kept telling him that God would give him the best placement only at the last and cited the marriage of Cana when God reserved the best wine at the last. When he was rejected by some companies in the beginning, he was very much disappointed and wept. But a particular company about which we had not heard earlier visited the campus for selection. Unlike the other companies which had visited earlier, there was a very rigorous drill of selection. This was the company which the Lord wanted my son to join. Later we came to understand that this company was the best one for my son. God did close the doors of the earlier companies and opened the door of this company for my son. This company subjected the candidates to a five-fold selection process i.e. aptitude test, essay writing, group discussion, technical interview and HR interview. After clearing the aptitude test, God gave my son such wonderful wisdom at the time of group discussion so that the interviewers were stunned. He was one of the 21 candidates selected out of about 400 candidates. "For his God doth instruct him to discretion, [and] doth teach him." (Isa. 28:26). This is how God gives wisdom to His people.

When wisdom enters into your heart, knowledge also accompanies it. The knowledge is pleasant unto your soul. The knowledge which could not enter your heart earlier now comes to your heart and pleases your soul. If your children are deficient in the faculty of intelligence, you should ask God to give them wisdom. When wisdom enters their heart, their intelligence level will increase and they will understand any lesson which they could not understand earlier. For them, then the study will be a pleasant thing. They will love to study their lessons.

Discretion follows wisdom and knowledge. Discretion is the fruit of wisdom and knowledge. Discretion is seen in the acts of the person who has received wisdom and knowledge. Discretion is manifested through the acts. For example, a child of God is filled with wisdom and he possesses wonderful knowledge. Then he invents or produces something wonderful which is seen by others. Discretion is thus ultimately seen. The wisdom of a child of God will definitely result in discretion. This discretion will thus preserve him from the animosity or the machinations of his enemies. Understanding will keep him in good stead. He will excel in his career, education or any field of science and technology. When you are filled with wisdom and knowledge, you will be delivered from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things (Proverbs 2:12). The Hebrew word for "froward" means "twisted, distorted, perverted, perverse." Your enemies leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness and they rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked. Their ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths.

Let them speak ill of you and all kinds of froward things against you. Ultimately, they cannot prevail against you. The discretion to be manifested through you will preserve you. Your enemies cannot stand before you when you are filled with wisdom and knowledge. "And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end [shall be]: for they [are] a very froward generation, children in whom [is] no faith." (Deut.32:20)

Escape from the way of death

"To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God." "For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life."

"That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous."

"For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it."

"But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it." Proverbs 2:16-22

Wisdom delivers you from the strange woman. Through wisdom, every man of God has to deliver himself from the strange woman. The strange woman shall cross over the life of any man of God. She is allowed of God to tempt you. But you have to deliver yourself from her. She is not referred to as "a strange woman" but "the strange woman". This means that encounter with this stranger is inevitable. When a man of God goes up the spiritual ladder, God allows the tempter to tempt him with the strange woman. She entices you with her words of flattery. These days, many servants of God fall into this snare during their ministry. Married men fall a prey to this temptation with the result that they divorce their wives on some grounds and then remarry "the strange woman".

Who is this strange woman? She is one who forsakes the guide of her youth. Every woman has the guide of her youth. It is not a companion or guide in her youth. This guide is her conscience. Her conscience speaks to her when she entices a married man through her tongue. If she does not listen to her conscience and stifles its voice, then she becomes hard-heartened and the guide of her youth dies a natural death.

What is the covenant of her God? According to the covenant of her God, she (unmarried or a widow) has to marry a man who is not married or a divorcee with the living spouse. By enticing a married man/a divorcee, she forgets the covenant of her God. Her house leads to the spiritual death and her paths to the dead. Any man going into her house will never come back spiritually alive. They lose the paths of life for ever unless they repent and return to God through the atoning Blood of Jesus Christ. Legal divorce cannot give her an excuse for enticing another man. Remarriage after divorce is nothing but "adultery" in the eyes of God. Divorce through a court of law cannot be a cover for entering into an adulterous relationship. Let every man of God be careful about this abominable sin!

If you deliver yourself from the way of death through the strange woman, you shall walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous (2:20). The upright is the one who saves himself from the strange woman. He will be counted amonst the good men who keep the paths of the righteous. He shall dwell in the Promised Land and he will become perfect so as to remain in it. But the wicked, i.e. those who are entangled in the snare of the strange woman shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of. They will be counted amongst the transgressors so as to be rooted out of the earth (2:21-22). This is the judgment of God against those who could not save themselves from the way of death. Almost all the New Testament Epistles speak against adultery and fornication (Rom 13:12-14; 1 Cor 6:13-20; 2 Cor 12:21; Gal 5:19-21; Eph 4:17-24; Col 3:1-7; 1 Thess 4:3-7; 2 Tim 2:21,22; 1 Pet 2:9-11; 4:1-3; 2 Pet 2:9,10).

Next.....Chapter 3