Proverbs chapter 22
Today we are walking in: Know Your Resources
Job 21:14
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge H1847 of thy ways.
KNOWLEDGE
Today we look to the word-KNOWLEDGE- H847 da'ath--knowledge, perception, skill, discernment
The Torah testifies.....................
Genesis 2:9
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Exodus 31:3
And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom,and in understanding, and in knowledge, H1847 andin all manner of workmanship,
Leviticus 4:8
Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.
The prophets proclaim..................
Nehemiah 10:28
And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;
Isaiah 33:6
And wisdom and knowledge H1847 shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
Jeremiah 3:15
And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
The writings bear witness.............
Job 34:2
Hear my words, O ye wise men; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge.
Psalm 119:66
Teach me good judgment and knowledge: H1847 for I have believed thy commandments.
Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Know Your Resources
You can never change the world by being controlled by the earth. All resources should lead to Yah, their ultimate Source.
Most of us at some point in our lives have wished that we had more resources than we actually have. We have looked at another person’s resources and envied them, bemoaning our apparent poverty. This attitude is a stumbling block to releasing our full potential because Yah’s view of poverty and wealth is very different from ours. He is more concerned with what we do with what we have, than with how much we have.
POVERTY AND WEALTH—BIBLICAL VIEWPOINT
Many people believe that Yah favors the rich and keeps things from the poor, but that is not what the Bible teaches. Yah loves and cares for all people, rich or poor:
The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The Most High gives sight to the eyes of both (Proverbs 29:13).
Rich and poor have this in common: The Most High is the Maker of them all
(Proverbs 22:2).
Therefore, it is not that Yah makes rich people and poor people. Rather Yah makes all people—some who become rich and some who become poor. The key is what you do with the resources Yah gives you.
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth (Proverbs 10:4).
He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment (Proverbs 12:11).
Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare (Proverbs 20:13).
Poverty is a not a gift from Yah but the result of your actions. The degree of wealth or poverty in which you find yourself is to a large extent related to the way you are using what you have. A hardworking person becomes rich, while a lazy person becomes poor. Your success is not determined by what you have, but by what you do with what you have.
Your success is not determined by what you have, but by what you do with what you have.
It doesn’t matter what your family is like economically. You can decide that you aren’t going to stay where your family is. You can resolve to try new things and to work hard. Yah wants energetic, diligent people. He’s always searching for men and women who will look beyond their circumstances to their possibilities.
Yah’S PROVISIONS FOR ALL
Yah created a potent man and supplied him with resources with unlimited potential. Nothing we have today was added to or subtracted from Yah’s original provisions in the garden. But those resources are not equally divided among the peoples of our world. Hardworking, diligent people got their hands on most of the wealth, while lazy, sluggard people watched them take it. Thus, our world knows the rich, the poor, and those who are in transit—some gaining wealth and others losing it.
THE EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES
When Yah gives you resources, He wants you to care for them, cultivate them, and work them. All of these require effort. An inventor is a thinker who takes his idea and makes it visible. He doesn’t create anything new, he just uses his potential to imagine, plan, and work so you can see what you were looking at that you didn’t know was there. Thus, the people who get ahead in life are those who have learned to understand and use their resources.
Understand Your Resources
Everything has a purpose. Whether or not you work to discover the purpose of your resources determines how effectively or ineffectively you will use them, because understanding must precede use. Use with understanding releases potential. Use without understanding kills potential. In other words, the proper use of resources maximizes potential, and the abnormal use (abuse) of resources destroys potential.
The proper use of resources maximizes potential, and the abuse of resources destroys potential.
Thus, the release of your potential hinges directly on your ability to know the purpose of your resources, to understand their properties, to obey the laws governing them, and to open yourself to their limitless potential. If you learn what your resources are and how they were designed to operate, you will have limitless potential. But if you use them in an abnormal way, you will destroy your potential.
Cocaine, for example, is used in hospitals to bring healing. But if you misuse it, your thinking will be distorted and you’ll end up losing many of the things that are dear to you. Or consider drugs like aspirin and Tylenol, which relieve pain. If you use these drugs according to the directions on the bottle, they have a positive influence. But if you disregard the warning to limit their use, you can kill yourself or make yourself very ill.
Use Your Resources
One of the greatest problems facing us is not the lack of resources but the lack of use of resources. Every resource Yah gave to Adam is available to us. But we don’t use all those resources. Instead of seeing the possibilities in everything Yah has given us, we categorize our resources and refuse to use some of them because we are threatened by the world’s use of them.
What the world is doing or building is not the problem. Worldly people don’t have any more resources than those they are currently using to solve the world’s problems. This is not true for us. We are not solving the world’s problems because we misunderstand the resources that are available to us.
The Bible affirms that all things were made by Yah, and “without Him nothing was made that has been made” (see John 1:3). That means everything belongs to Yah. The Bible also affirms that “Yah saw all that He had made, and it was very good” (see Genesis 1:31). That means every resource Yah has given man is good.
The Scriptures are clear that Yah is the Creator and HaSatan is a perverter. HaSatan cannot create anything. He can only pervert what Yah created. Therein lies the source of our problem. Counterfeits abound in our world. They are the result of HaSatan's misuse and abuse of Yah’s resources.
Yah gives you resources so you can accomplish what He put you here to do. He gives them to you to live on, not for. When you start living for money you’re in trouble. When your job becomes the most important thing in your life, you’re in for hard times. Whenever a resource becomes more important than the purpose for which Yah gave it, you have crossed the line between using it and abusing it.
Yah gives you resources so you can accomplish what He put you here to do.
YOUR AVAILABLE RESOURCES
There are five types of resources you must understand and control if you are going to become a successful person.
Spiritual Resources
First, Yah has given you spiritual resources. Because Yah created you in His own image, He gave you the ability to tap into Him.
Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of Yah (Matthew 4:4).
This spiritual food is available to you in a variety of forms. First and foremost, you must feed your spirit from the Word of Yah:
Blessed are those who hear the word of Yah and obey it (Luke 11:28).
Stay in a good place where they teach the Word of Yah. Keep staying there until you get what they are feeding you. You may fall as you learn to walk according to the Spirit, but that’s okay. Just pick yourself up and try again. As long as you’re feeding yourself spiritual food, you’re growing, changing, and getting stronger. You may not see that growth, but it’s happening whether you see it or not.
The gifts of the Spirit are also resources to feed you:
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good
(1 Corinthians 12:7).
These resources include the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, miracles, healings, and prophecy. Yah gave these wonderful gifts to build up all of us. If you have accepted Yahusha as your Most High and Savior, they are available to you.
Yah also provides His armor to protect you:
Therefore put on the full armor of Yah, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of Yah. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of praying and requests (Ephesians 6:13-18a).
Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, prayer. What wealth! Add to them fasting, giving, and forgiving. If your spirit and Yah’s Spirit are in touch, each is yours to use. They can make the difference between a good day and a bad day, between a dismal life and a successful life. Your circumstances may not change as quickly as you’d like, but I guarantee you that your attitudes will.
Physical Resources
Second, Yah’s provisions include physical resources. When Yah created you, He created your spirit and put it into your body. Because of Yah’s gift of life, your wonderful, physical machine can breathe, move, eat, and heal itself. Many of the pleasures you enjoy in life are yours because Yah took the dust of the ground and fashioned your body. You can see the beauty of flowers, a sunset or a rainbow. You can taste the sweetness of honey or of fruit fresh from the tree. You can feel the love of your children as their little arms encircle your neck and your ears hear those sweetest of words: I love you Mommy. I love you Daddy.
As wondrous as your body is, you may not use it however you desire. Choose carefully the kind of fuel you give your body. Be aware that your body is for food, and food is for your body. Like any of Yah’s resources, improper care and inappropriate attitudes toward your body can result in misuse and abuse:
“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial.
“Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but Yah will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Most High, and the Most High for the body.... Do you not know that your bodies are members of Hamachiach Himself?
(1 Corinthians 6:12-13,15a)
Material Resources
The third kind of resource Yah has given you is material resources. Yah’s conversation with Adam in the Garden of Eden shows that Yah provided well for Adam’s needs:
Then Yah said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Genesis 1:29).
The following verses reveal that Yah also provided gold, aromatic resin, onyx, and a river for watering the earth. Indeed, the vast geological and geographical resources of this earth are all part of Yah’s gracious provision for your life.
The Resources of Soul
Fourth, Yah has supplied you with resources of the soul. Genesis 2:7 tells us that “Yah formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ” You are spirit and you have a soul. The assistance you receive from your mind, your will, and your feelings are the resources of the soul that Yah has given you.
Think what life would be like without these resources. They are the primary means by which you express who you are. Your spirit depends on your soul, as does your body. The Scriptures recognize the importance of the soul:
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26).
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul (1 Peter 2:11).
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well (3 John 1:2).
Yahusha came after the soul because the spirit is easy. It is through your will, your feelings, and your mind that HaSatan seeks to attack you. If you guard your soul, your spirit and your body will be well. Their condition depends on the state of your soul. This is clearly revealed in the Bible:
For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7a KJV).
Belief takes place in the spirit, but thinking takes places in the soul. You can believe one thing and think something completely different. What you think is what you become, not what you believe. That’s why Yahusha came preaching teshuvah. He knew that our thoughts influence us much more than our beliefs.
“The time has come,” [Yahusha] said. “The kingdom of Yah is near. Teshuvah [change your thinking] and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)
The apostle Paul explains this further:
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of Yah, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done (Romans 1:28).
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Yah’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).
For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind (1 Corinthians 14:13-15a).
The resources of your soul are not available to you unless you allow Yah to transform your mind.
The Resource of Time
The fifth resource Yah has given you is time. Time is a temporary interruption in eternity. It is a commodity that can be neither bought nor sold. The only thing you can do with time is use it. If you don’t use it, you lose it. The apostle Paul encouraged members of the early Church to “[redeem] the time (Ephesians 5:16 KJV) or “[make] the most of every opportunity” (NIV).
I have discovered that sin is a waste of time. Imagine what you could have done with the hours you spent watching a pornographic video tape, sitting on a bar stool, or sniffing that cocaine. You were destroying your mind while you could have been doing something that would teach you or in some way enable you to improve your life.
The only time you have is now. Get busy and use it wisely. Say, “Yah, I am going to use every minute of my day constructively, effectively, and efficiently.” Time is Yah’s gift—one of His precious resources. Refuse to be one of those who waste time and then complain because they don’t have enough time. Make the hours of your day count.
The only time you have is now.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH WHAT YOU HAVE?
Yah provides many resources beyond those of spirit, body, material things, soul, and time to challenge your potential. How are you using these resources? Or are you even aware that you have these assets?
Perhaps you have a home filled with things that you have worked hard to buy. Do you reserve that house as shelter for your family alone, or do you welcome strangers into its warmth? Do you value the insights of your parents and of others who have lived more years than you? Do you give thanks for your spouse, the helpmeet Yah has graciously given to you? Or if you are single, do you take advantage of the freedom singleness gives to serve the Most High effectively and wholeheartedly? Are you thankful for your job and the fulfillment and material blessings it affords? Do you recognize that all you own is a blessing from the hand of Yah, who gives you the means to earn the money to buy the things? Do you willingly share from your resources to meet the needs of others?
The wealth of your resources is limitless if you will allow Yah to open your eyes to their possibilities. Give from your abundance. Choose wisely when you buy something. View your resources as gifts to be used in Yah’s service instead of property to be hoarded for your benefit and ease. Teshuvah (change your thinking) from the “I need more” mentality and use what you already have.
Yah wants to enlarge your vision of what you have. He wants you to see the storehouses of blessing that presently surround you. Use the anointing Yah has poured. Move beyond your shame and let them minister to your needs. Spend time reading Yah’s Word until the Bible becomes for you a treasure of knowledge and inspiration. Go to the library and use the wealth of knowledge accumulated there. Ask questions of your teachers and those who have studied those things you want to know. Read your constitution and take advantage of the freedoms your country offers. Spend time with your children, instilling in them the values you want them to live by and gaining from them a fresh insight into the wonders of life.
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR RESOURCES
No matter how rich or poor you are financially, you are accountable to Yah for the wealth of your resources. You have the responsibility to discover, enhance, and cultivate the precious gifts you have received from Yah’s hand. The accomplishment of that task begins with the recognition that you are indeed wealthy—perhaps not by this world’s standards, but certainly by Yah’s standards. He carefully scrutinizes your attitudes and anxiously watches your use (or abuse) of the resources He has given you.
Determine now to use to the fullest all that Yah has given you. Refuse to allow the standards and attitudes of this world to influence your efforts to use wisely and effectively the wealth of resources you now own.
For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him (Matthew 25:29).
PRINCIPLES
1. Yah makes and provides for all people. Some become rich and some become poor.
2. Wealth and poverty are primarily based on what you do with what you have.
3. Yah gives you resources to live on, not for.
4. The proper use of resources releases potential.
5. The improper use (abuse) of resources kills potential.
6. You have many resources that you aren’t presently using.
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