Silas
Beloved of All
Your desire to enter with confidence into the very presence of God through the blood of Jesus is exactly what the Lord invites you to do. Hebrews 10:19 tells us that by that blood the veil has been opened and we have bold access, not because of anything we have earned, but because Jesus as our sympathetic High Priest lives forever to bring us to the Father. Hebrews 4:15 and 16 says we can come freely to receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need, like a branch receiving life from the vine without striving, simply abiding in John 15.
We join you in thanking God that the sprinkling of that blood cleanses the conscience from dead works so we can serve the living God, as Hebrews 9:13 and 14 teaches, and that through His death and resurrection and ascension He has poured out His inheritance through the promised Holy Spirit spoken of by Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel and fulfilled in John 14, John 15, Acts 1 and 2, Ephesians 1 and Galatians 3.
Your prayer for wisdom and understanding is central to what God wants to give. Scripture says wisdom is the principal thing, so get wisdom and with all your getting get understanding. Knowledge alone is not enough, wisdom knows how to use knowledge rightly. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, a reverent hatred of evil and love for what is right. When you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, keeping His words and treasuring His commandments and writing them on the table of your heart, you are calling wisdom your sister and understanding your close kin. That wisdom is more precious than rubies and nothing you could desire compares to it. In her right hand is length of days, in her left hand riches and honor, her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace. By wisdom the Lord founded the earth and by understanding He established the heavens.
Christ Himself is the heart of that wisdom. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The wisdom of this world, with its clever speech and persuasive arguments, could not know God and is counted as foolishness with Him. Paul determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, so that faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God. What we speak is not in words taught by human wisdom but as the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The Spirit of wisdom and revelation is poured out to help you know God better and to understand His Word from cover to cover, so you can handle it accurately and not misrepresent Him, and so your teaching will lead to love from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith as 1 Timothy 1:5 says.
God does not require you to go to a special place to find His presence. He is with you wherever you are. What is needed is to become aware of His presence by turning your heart toward Him. As James 4:8 promises, if you draw near to God He will draw near to you. That nearness restores first love, gives simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, and brings clarity and order where there has been confusion, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace as 1 Corinthians 14:33 says.
True wisdom from above shows itself not in bitter envy and strife but in a life of good works done in meekness. It brings peace with God and peace with others, while earthly wisdom brings turmoil and war within. Do not despise the Lord's correction, for whom the Lord loves He corrects, and happy is the one who finds wisdom and gains understanding. He will train you as a father trains a child he loves.
We pray with you for that strength in the inner man by the Spirit to grasp the breadth and depth of Christ's love, for wisdom to know God's will fully and to walk in a manner worthy of Him, for understanding to make and carry out the plans He has for you according to Titus 3:14, and for fruit that remains to the glory of the Father. We ask for grace for daily duties, for fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and with His people, for angelic protection as Psalm 91 promises, and for protection from temptation and the evil one, from stumbling blocks, from fear and lies and deception, and from every form of sin, as you asked in Matthew 6:13, Romans 14:13, 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, and John 17:15. May you continue to proclaim repentance and forgiveness in His name and see joy restored and sinners turned to Him.
We thank God that there is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, our Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and in His name we ask these things for you.
We join you in thanking God that the sprinkling of that blood cleanses the conscience from dead works so we can serve the living God, as Hebrews 9:13 and 14 teaches, and that through His death and resurrection and ascension He has poured out His inheritance through the promised Holy Spirit spoken of by Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel and fulfilled in John 14, John 15, Acts 1 and 2, Ephesians 1 and Galatians 3.
Your prayer for wisdom and understanding is central to what God wants to give. Scripture says wisdom is the principal thing, so get wisdom and with all your getting get understanding. Knowledge alone is not enough, wisdom knows how to use knowledge rightly. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, a reverent hatred of evil and love for what is right. When you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, keeping His words and treasuring His commandments and writing them on the table of your heart, you are calling wisdom your sister and understanding your close kin. That wisdom is more precious than rubies and nothing you could desire compares to it. In her right hand is length of days, in her left hand riches and honor, her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace. By wisdom the Lord founded the earth and by understanding He established the heavens.
Christ Himself is the heart of that wisdom. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The wisdom of this world, with its clever speech and persuasive arguments, could not know God and is counted as foolishness with Him. Paul determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, so that faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God. What we speak is not in words taught by human wisdom but as the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The Spirit of wisdom and revelation is poured out to help you know God better and to understand His Word from cover to cover, so you can handle it accurately and not misrepresent Him, and so your teaching will lead to love from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith as 1 Timothy 1:5 says.
God does not require you to go to a special place to find His presence. He is with you wherever you are. What is needed is to become aware of His presence by turning your heart toward Him. As James 4:8 promises, if you draw near to God He will draw near to you. That nearness restores first love, gives simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ, and brings clarity and order where there has been confusion, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace as 1 Corinthians 14:33 says.
True wisdom from above shows itself not in bitter envy and strife but in a life of good works done in meekness. It brings peace with God and peace with others, while earthly wisdom brings turmoil and war within. Do not despise the Lord's correction, for whom the Lord loves He corrects, and happy is the one who finds wisdom and gains understanding. He will train you as a father trains a child he loves.
We pray with you for that strength in the inner man by the Spirit to grasp the breadth and depth of Christ's love, for wisdom to know God's will fully and to walk in a manner worthy of Him, for understanding to make and carry out the plans He has for you according to Titus 3:14, and for fruit that remains to the glory of the Father. We ask for grace for daily duties, for fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and with His people, for angelic protection as Psalm 91 promises, and for protection from temptation and the evil one, from stumbling blocks, from fear and lies and deception, and from every form of sin, as you asked in Matthew 6:13, Romans 14:13, 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, and John 17:15. May you continue to proclaim repentance and forgiveness in His name and see joy restored and sinners turned to Him.
We thank God that there is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, our Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and in His name we ask these things for you.
