Seeking God in Coming to His word to receive Wisdom from God through Contacting God

The book of Proverbs is a collection of the words of the wise, stressing the wisdom that man receives of God through his contacting of God; the kind of book Proverbs is to us depends on the kind of person we are and in what way we take it.

This week in our deeper study of the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, we come to the second week on the book of Proverbs, and the crystal we focus on is Reading the Book of Proverbs with a Praying Spirit So That It Will Render Us Nuggets and Gems to Strengthen Our Life of Pursuing Christ for the Fulfillment of God’s Economy.

Many of us know that the book of Proverbs is a collection of the words of the wise, and some of these are quite useful and helpful, in a very good sense, and they are very attractive and very edifying.

The proverbs recorded in this book have to do with our relationship with one another, our relationship in the marriage life, how to deal with children, how to deal with the neighbours, etc.

There are many gems and nuggets in this book.

We need the Lord’s mercy to be under the shining of the Spirit through the exercise of our spirit when we come to this book so that we may realize that the focus is not the improvement of our character but God’s economy.

Although the book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom, teaching us how we should live and behave, and even how we can build up our character in our human life, all these things would be misaiming God’s economy if we don’t contact God and receive God when we come to these words.

The way we should come to this book is prayer; we need to read the book of Proverbs in a prayerful manner.

The nuggets and gems in this book are not here to help us build up our natural man to make us like Job, good men, righteous men, upright me, or men of integrity; they are for us to pray over and contact the Lord with.

If we merely take the proverbs in this book as good teachings and helpful instructions to build up our human character, we have misaimed.

We are not here to build up ourselves or build up our outer man; rather, we realize that the outer man is good for decaying, being consumed, being dismantled, being stripped and even being destroyed.

God’s economy is NOT to build up the old man from Adam but to regenerate us and make us a new man, and then to build up this new man according to Himself.

Hallelujah, we are in Christ – we are a new creation, and we are not for the reforming of the old man but for the building up of the new man!

In this sense, the book of Proverbs actually helps us in the building up of the new man; we are not here for human perfection, but we need to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (as the Lord told us in the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, see Matt. 5).

How can we be perfect? Should we perfect ourselves or should not be perfect?

Our Father is perfect, but we’re not here to strive to build up the human perfection in ourselves according to our natural life.

Rather, we are here to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect – we are here to be perfect according to God, that is, be perfect by the Father’s life which was imparted into us!

This perfection is for the new man, for the inner man, the regenerated man.

Proverbs is a Collection of the Words of the Wise, Stressing the Wisdom that Man Receives of God through his Contacting of God

The book of Proverbs is a collection of the words of the wise; if you read Prov. 1:1-7 you will see that Solomon collected or uttered many of these proverbs, and these are for knowing wisdom and instruction, for discerning words of understanding.

The proverbs are for receiving instruction in wise conduct, righteousness, justice, and equity; they are for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and direction to the young man.

The proverbs are so that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, and that he who has understanding may acquire sound counsel.

They are for understanding proverb and figure, the words of the wise and the difficult sayings. This is wonderful, isn’t it?

It is easy, however, to focus on these proverbs apart from contacting God; it is easy to be mentally drawn to them and receive them into us as mere knowledge.

But praise the Lord for the ministry of the age which helps us that this book stresses the wisdom that man receives from God through his contacting of God.

We receive wisdom from God not merely as human wisdom but Christ as the wisdom of God.

And the wisdom we receive of God is through our contacting of God; we have wisdom only by our living contact with God.

We do not have wisdom merely by reading the Bible or studying the Bible to know the Bible; we get wisdom by our contacting of God to receive the wisdom that comes from God.

In the Bible there is wisdom and understanding and knowledge; in the Bible, there is much divine truth.

But the most important thing is that we receive the truth, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge not apart from God but by contacting God so that all the matters in the Bible become Spirit and life to us to supply us and enlighten us.

When we exercise our spirit to contact God in His word as we read the book of Proverbs, we are supplied, enlightened, nourished, strengthened, and we can live in a certain way according to these words so that we may express God.

The book of Proverbs teaches man how to behave; we should not be barbarian but study prayerfully the word of God to receive the wisdom that comes from God through our contacting of God.

God is not merely after the improvement of our character so that we may have better behaviour in ourselves; rather, even though the Bible and the book of Proverbs, in particular, seems to be teaching us how to behave, we need to contact God when we read the word to receive Spirit and life.

The proverbs were collected mainly by two kings (Solomon and Hezekiah) in the age of the law; therefore, the book of Proverbs may be considered a subsidiary of the law.

The law given by God to Moses is a portrait of God, showing us who God is and demanding that God’s people keep it so that they may be made copies of God for His expression and glorification.

The law is a photograph of God; however, God’s people are not meant to try to keep the law in themselves but rather, admit that they can’t keep it and that they need God, the very One who can fulfil the law in them and through them.

Proverbs, as a subsidiary to the law, instructs people how to behave and how to build themselves up according to God’s attributes, that is, according to what God is.

This book is filled with instructions, all manners of instructions concerning many aspects of human life; it teaches us how we ought to behave and how to build up ourselves to God’s attributes.

But we need to contact God and receive the wisdom from God embodied in the word of God so that we would not build up ourselves in reading this book but rather, build up the new man to be renewed according to God.

Lord Jesus, we come to You in Your word to not only receive knowledge and understanding but receive the element of God as Spirit and life! Amen, Lord, we want to receive the wisdom of God through our contacting of God so that we may build up the new man! Save us from building up our old man in ourselves and by ourselves according to the excellent instructions and teachings in Your word. Save us from misaiming when we come to Your word. We want not just to read the Bible or study it; we want to contact God in His word to receive the wisdom of God in spirit! Amen, Lord, may Your word be Spirit and life to us as we prayerfully read it! We come to Your word to enjoy Your divine supply, enlightening, nourishing, and strengthening, so that we may express God by having Him wrought into us to be lived out of us!

Being those who Love God and Contact God in His Word to Gain God for the Expression of God when we come to His Word

The book of Proverbs has a particular character – it presents to us the words of wisdom by many ancient wise men; this book is unanimously considered good by all the people who read it.

However, we need to realize that what the book of Proverbs is to us depends upon what kind of persons we are and by what way we take it.

We want to be those who contact God and love God in His word so that we may gain God for the expression of God when we come to His word.

When we read the book of Proverbs, we may really appreciate the morality and ethics contained in this book, for the wisdom expressed in these proverbs matches what we consider as wisdom even in our natural, national, and ethical background.

It is important, therefore, to be the right kind of person and have the proper attitude when we come to the word of God, in particular, that we would be those who love God and contact Him in His word.

If we are ethical persons with a strong mind and have a desire to be perfect as genuine moral persons, surely this book would help us to make a success in our pursuit of perfection.

However, such pursuit of perfection would not help us to be persons who live in our spirit according to the Spirit of God (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 1:9; 2:29; 7:6; 8:4-6, 9-11, 16; 1 Cor. 16:18; 2 Cor. 2:13-14; Phil. 3:3; Gal. 5:15-17, 22-25; 6:18; Eph. 5:18; 6:18).

There are many nuggets in this book such as the fact that the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, and there are many genuinely helpful proverbs related to our human living, our relationships with others, our marriage life, and dealing with others.

If we take this book and try to apply it with our strong mind and desire to be perfect as genuine moral persons, this book helps us to make a success in our pursuit of perfection.

But this misaims the goal of God’s economy, for we are not here to seek to be perfect in and of ourselves, by our own striving and effort, as Job did.

Rather, we are here to receive the wisdom of God through His word in our contacting of God; we are lovers of God and seekers of God, and we come to His word to seek Him and love Him, even to be infused with Him.

In the Old Testament, we see Job, who was satisfied with his integrity, with his pursuit of human perfection; but this is not what God wanted of him – rather, such pursuit of human perfection replaced what God wanted of him and frustrated Job as a man created by God to fulfil His purpose.

Our endeavour to develop our human integrity by our natural man becomes a frustration to God’s work in us to such an extent that we are constituted an enemy of God.

Wow, we may be able to build up some sort of human integrity and perfection, but this is a great frustration to God!

So God has to allow certain things to happen to such a person, as it happened to Job, to dismantle, tear down, consume and destroy such things, so that we may gain God, see God, and seek after God.

The purpose of God is that we would gain Him for His glorification, His expression; the highest service we can render to God is not for us to seek human perfection but for us to gain God to the uttermost, be filled with God, so that we may express Him for His glory (Phil. 3:7-8, 12; Isa. 43:7; 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31; cf. John 17:1). Amen!

We are created by God so that we may gain God and be filled with God to be His expression; we are not created for us to be an expression of human perfection.

Even if we had some success in building up our human perfection and integrity – as Job did in the Old Testament – God will come in to tear down and smash it, for He wants to be the only One that we pursue and gain and express!

We all need a change, a revolution, and a redirection in our way we live and in the way we come to the word of God; we need to have a change from trying to be successful in our human perfection to gain Christ!

We want to be those who love God, seek God, and gain God so that we may live and express Christ.

Save us, Lord, from being satisfied with our integrity or with our pursuit of human perfection. May we realize that we are created by God in His image so that we may be filled with God, gain God, and express God for His glory! Amen, Lord, we come to Your word as Your loving seekers to be infused with Yourself as Spirit and life; we come not to gain more knowledge but to gain more of God! Save us from trying to improve ourselves, better ourselves, or build up our own human perfection and integrity by our own efforts. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to gain God and be filled with God to be the expression of God! Have Your way in us, dear Lord, to turn us from seeking to be successful in our human perfection to gaining Christ, pursuing Christ, and living Christ to express Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Proverbs, msg. 1, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 9, Reading the Book of Proverbs with a Praying Spirit So That It Will Render Us Nuggets and Gems to Strengthen Our Life of Pursuing Christ for the Fulfillment of God’s Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thou in the Word art the Spirit and life, / Thus by the Word I may feed upon Thee; / Thou dost as Spirit in my spirit live, / Thus I may drink in the spirit of Thee. (Hymns #811)
  – Each time, Lord, when reading in Thy holy Word, / I pray that Thy glory may shine on each line, / That clearly I’ll see what a Savior I have / And how great salvation that Thou hast made mine. (Hymns #389)
  – I long to have such fellowship / To read and pray and blend with Thee; / I long that Thou wouldst saturate / Till Thou may overflow from me. (Hymns #813)