Divine wisdom versus the wisdom of man.

There is a longing in my spirit right now for Jesus to come again. For Him to come in power. For Him to bring justice! For Him to transform His church / to transform me! Accompanying this longing is a very profound sense of lack and emptiness, for without Him I am nothing.  I know in the deepest place in my being that this is a crossroads season. It is a season of exchange. Old wine for new wine. Old garments for new garments. It is the putting off of an old way for the receiving of and the embracing of a whole new way.  I feel it at a core level..

It is a deep deep surrender. 

The Lord is bringing the body of Christ into a deepening identification with the heart of the Father as we lay our head on His chest and listen to His heart. There is a weightiness and an urgency to this hour and a drawing into a place of travail with the Holy Spirit in bringing forth the new.

There is also an ever increasing darkness in the atmosphere. It feels to me like a swirling toxic smog intended to muffle, to choke and to cause confusion and blindness. 

There is a lot I want to say in this post and I am going to break it down into 2 parts.

(And please forgive me if this is a little bit all over the place:)

1. What is happening in the realm of the spirit?

2. The response of the church

1. What is happening in the realm of the spirit?

I had a dream last year about a tsunami wave that I knew came from hell. The Lord showed me that a principality called Leviathan was the satanic power behind this wave. The word of God tells us that Leviathan is a beast who lives in the sea: (Isaiah 27:1) Biblically, the sea is a metaphor for the ‘seething mass of humanity’ /  the wicked. (Isaiah 57:20 The word Leviathan in Hebrew is from root words meaning: wreath / wreathed / to join / to twine / to unite / folded / twisted / fleeing. Job 41 extensively describes this ‘creature’

I believe that Leviathan is working strategically to counter the work of the Holy Spirit in this time.

Friends look very closely at what is happening in the world because very often it is a direct attack against or a counterfeit of what the Lord is doing in the earth. 

1. The Lord is birthing revival and waking up His bride. He is moving in and through His beloved church to administer and execute Godly and righteous justice in the earth.

Leviathan is stirring and churning up the sea (humanity) so that it boils, and it is waking people up to a politically correct agenda. Woke culture is the counterfeit of the awakening bride and the coming world-wide revival. Political correctness is the counterfeit of the justice the Lord is going to bring to the earth through His remnant church.  Leviathan is the demonic churning power behind the twisted distortions, mis-representations and ‘spin’ of the media.

It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a glistening wake behind it; Job 41:31-32

2. The Lord is breathing life into dry bones (Ezekial 37:9)

Leviathan is shutting down breath and sending people to the grave. Covid 19 attacks the lungs and the airways and stops people breathing..(in one of my previous posts I quoted a man who, fighting Covid 19, said he felt like he was being strangled by the devil). The words George Ffloyd spoke, again and again as he was being suffocated by a knee on his neck, were ‘I can’t breath’! 

Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air (ruach) can pass between. Job 41:15-16

3. The Lord is bringing a refining, cleansing Holy fire to the earth. (This is both His love and his judgments).

Leviathan is breathing fire and smoke, creating a smog in the atmosphere, intended to pollute and choke and cause spiritual blindness and confusion, and to cause men to rise up against men with accusation and hatred (James 3:6)

Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. It’s breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth. Job 41:20-21

Satan and his cohorts have no authority of their own for ALL authority has been given to Jesus  (Matt 28:18) so from whom does Leviathian get its authority?

Job tells us that Leviathan is King over all the children of pride. Job 41:34

He gets authority and strength from the pride of man. 

In the Bible pride does not mean simple arrogance or ostentation. Instead it means hubris: preferring self-will to God's will. Preferring man’s wisdom to Godly wisdom.

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2.The response of the church:

What should the church's response be in this hour?

I had an encounter with the Lord in February where I experienced a ‘snapshot’ of where we are now.. For a week I felt surrounded by the same spiritual smog...Blurred edges / fogginess of Spirit / darkness in the spiritual atmosphere. The Lord led me to read the book of Ecclesiastes. (Which at the time didn't seem to be very encouraging.) 

The recurring theme throughout this book is ‘meaningless, meaningless’ everything is meaningless. 

The hebrew word for meaningless is hevel and literally means:

Breath, delusion, emptiness, fleeting, fraud, futile, idols, mere breath, useless, vain, vanity, vanity of vanities, vapor, worthless.

The Amplified bible says it like this:

Vapour of vapors and futility of futilities, says the Preacher. Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities! All is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and vainglory). Ecclesiastes 1:2

The ESV says this:

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:2

Ecclesiastes is a book exploring the wisdom of man. It presents the human way of life. It does not record divine truth but rather man’s point of view and man's way of evaluating things, (whether seeking pleasure or considering oppression and despair) and we see that at every turn man’s wisdom leads to nothing. It is futile and it is vanity and the root of man’s wisdom is PRIDE.

At the end of this week I had a very clear vision in my mind of sleeping beauty at the point where she is being woken up by her prince with a kiss. It so happened that on the same day in the evening I was at a Catch The Fire conference and in worship we were singing a beautiful song about fire.. We were inviting the fire of the Lord to come, and as I sang and mediated on the words, I knew that the sleeping beauty was the church, the Prince was Jesus and that He was about to awaken His beloved with a kiss of fire.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: Song of Songs 1:2

The Hebrew word for kiss is nawshak… and the roots of the word mean : to fasten together, to strengthen, to encourage, to become mighty, to fortify, to be attached to, to kindle, to burn and to be equipped with weapons!

The Lord is waking up his beloved! He is waking up His bride with the fire of His love so that she burns with passion for Him. The warrior bride, made ready to fight with her bridegroom King; to be a conduit of His poured out love and to administer justice in the earth.

However much of the bride is in a deep spiritual slumber. The church today has fallen under the same spell that bound the Galations. Paul spoke to the Galation church about this very issue, and he said ‘who has bewitched you!!!’ after starting out in the spirit are you now trying to earn your salvation by works of the flesh!  Galations 3:1

This is the spell of religion and it is doing it man's way in man’s strength by man’s wisdom. There is a very real spiritual force behind religion that will make us deaf and blind and asleep to the work of the Holy Spirit…it will make us think we are rich when we are pitiful, poor, blind, wretched and naked. It is the way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death.

The word for bewitched, used in Galations is baskaínō.  It literally means to cast an evil spell, to exercise evil power over someone, to wish injury and to captivate by APPEALING TO SOMEONE'S VANITY! (Isn’t that interesting!)

There is a stark contrast between the futile nothingness of Ecclesiastes and the passionate intimate jealous love between the Shulamite and her bridegroom King.

Solomon explored all that there was UNDER THE SUN and everywhere he looked in the earth he realised that man’s wisdom is vanity; it is worthless, mere breath, delusion, a vapour and that the conclusion of the matter is only found in 'fearing God and keeping His commandments.'

Man’s wisdom is based on sense and reason…that which seems solid, but actually has no substance whatsoever. Divine wisdom is the opposite… The realm of faith is unseen but it is SUBSTANCE!! (without which it is impossible to please God!). (The ways of the world are always upside down from the ways of the kingdom). Man’s wisdom creates a vacuum in the spirit realm where nothing of substance is. Is it any wonder Leviathan is filling the atmosphere with the smoke of his nostrils, for nature abhors a vacuum. 

Beloved church we must not be found in the arena of man’s wisdom in this hour. Its root is pride and it gives authority to darkness and to an agenda that is demonic and purposed to counterfeit and war against the work of the Holy Spirit.

As mentioned above one of the root meanings of Leviathan is wreath. The same word ‘livyah’ (wreath) is also found in proverbs, translated as ‘garland'.

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honour you. She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.” Proverbs 4:7-9:

Beloved church, which wreath / crown will we choose in these days? Will we wear a garland of grace, given by cherishing and embracing the wisdom of the Lord or will we wear Leviathan’s wreath - a garland of pride by walking in man’s wisdom?

It struck me that Ecclesiastes is positioned directly before Song of Songs in the bible. This is not a comment on chronology, simply that I know the Lord is appealing to His church to come out from under the yoke of man’s wisdom into a place of intimacy with Him; into receiving His kisses of fire! 

I believe the church at the moment is positioned in Ecclesiastes 12:11-14 She stands at a fork in the road between the futility of man's wisdom and the delight and beauty and passion of intimacy with her bridegroom king. 

The words of the wise are like prodding goads, and firmly fixed [in the mind] like nails are the collected sayings which are given [as proceeding] from one Shepherd. All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good or evil. Ecc. 11-14

The Word of God is sharp!! It is a goad that prods and pricks, that we might go the right way, that we might choose the right path!  The Word convicts us of sin and lays open the wickedness of our hearts, leading us into repentance and the fear of the Lord; the fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of Godly wisdom and the END of man’s wisdom. The fear of the Lord will lead us out of the futility of man’s wisdom into the SUBSTANCE of divine wisdom. 

John Wimber said "The ability to hear what God is saying, to see what God is doing, and to move in the realm of the miraculous comes as an individual develops the same intimacy with and dependence upon the Father [as Jesus had]."

Walking in Godly wisdom positions us FOR intimacy with the Lord and Godly wisdom flows FROM a place of  intimacy with the Lord. Divine wisdom is not revealed through casual acquaintance, but through intimate relationship. Why? because it is mysterious, hidden and deep and because the Lord reveals his secret counsel to those who fear him...

The secret counsel of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he reveals his covenant to them. Psalm 25:14

Another translation says this:

Adonai relates intimately with those who fear him; he makes them know his covenant. Psalm 25:14

My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of man’s wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. 1 Corinthians 2:7

This is where we are beloved church… the Word is going out from the Holy Spirit and through the mouths of the prophets like a goad, so that men may be brought to a right understanding of the wickedness of their hearts and moved to repentance / a putting off of the carnal nature, a dying to the desires of the flesh, and a humbling of oneself before the great and mighty hand of God, for this is the WISDOM of the cross and it is through the wisdom of the cross that justice comes to the earth.

True justice will not come to the earth outside of Godly wisdom!!!

In finishing.. The fairy tale tells that sleeping beauty had been asleep, bewitched under an evil spell for a100 years. I asked the Lord if 100 years was relevant .. Ha! Oh the Lord wastes nothing!! Literally just last week I was reminded of a prophecy given by William Seymour in the early decades of the 20th century. William Seymour was a black man, born to emancipated slaves and raised in extreme poverty, who initiated the Azusa street revival, today considered by historians to be the primary catalyst for the spread of Pentecostalism in the 20th century. He prophesied that in 100 years there would be a fresh outpouring of the Spirit and the Shekinah Glory of the Lord that would be unlike anything that has gone before. 

William Seymour may have been a one eyed impoverished black man born to ex slaves, unimportant in the eyes of the world but he mattered to the heart of God and I believe he was one of the most significant and influential men of the last century from the perspective of the Kingdom. 

The world would say you have to have money, power, position, the right look and the right branding to influence on a large scale. The world would say you have to get noisy, join a march, wave a placard and get political to effect change in the earth. This is man’s wisdom. 

I’m not talking about lobbying governments to effect change and to address injustice (for some this is their God-ordained mandate) and I'm not talking about righteous anger or PEACEFUL political protest, there is a place for this!! I’m talking about a positioning and an aligning of our HEARTS… so that on a heart level, we walk in agreement with the values and truths of the Kingdom, not the ‘truths’ of this present world.

William Seymour turned the world upside down by petitioning the throne of God again and again until he was visited in power by the Holy Ghost and he did it by spending hours and days with his head in a wooden box, hidden from the world and from his congregants, seeking the face of the Lord with all his might. And he shifted atmospheres and displaced darkness and birthed one of the most significant revivals in the history of the church… This is divine wisdom! It is The wisdom of the cross and it is foolishness to those who are perishing.

Our God is a God of justice!!! and He IS bringing justice to the earth in these days  but it will not come through a political agenda that comes out of hell and is fuelled by man’s pride and man’s wisdom, manifesting in rage and lawlessness. Justice is coming through those who are positioned in intimacy with the Lord, who are hidden away with Him and walking in step with His decrees and his agenda. It will

come through those who walk in humility before their God (which is the proper attribute of true wisdom).

Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [unobtrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth. This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demoniacal). For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity). And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God’s will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts]. James 3:13-18