Greetings,
All of us find ourselves in various levels of responsibility in life. What has been given to us in this world is a result of what has been and it is directly connected to all that will be. We are the culmination of what has been before us and the foundation for all follows our lives. It takes God’s grace to truly fulfill our role for God’s glory in this world. A New Covenant reality of God’s grace is that we can hear God today, we can remember what He has said, and we can be empowered to walk in what He is revealing in the earth. It is a continual process of foundations and increase for His glory.
Revelation 1:1 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
This verse in Revelation chapter one was relevant from the moment the revelation of the New Covenant given to us in Christ. John saw this revelation of Jesus Christ and revealed a mystery of the progressing generations in Christ. The revelation given to John was not one of doom, gloom, and judgment. It was a revelation of Jesus Christ and an unveiling of increasing glories in the earth.
We are part of something new, yet ancient. All that we walk in is a testimony to the foundations of our past. The foundation of the New Testament church was built upon the ceiling of the Old Testament prophets. The foundation of the New Testament apostles established a firstfruit ceiling for all that would follow in the New Covenant. The ceiling of each generation is meant to be the floor for the generation that follows. Everything is connected!
Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Accepting responsibility today means that we accept responsibility for tomorrow. We must acknowledge that we are the head of something and we must become a place that opens the door to things new and things old. We have a responsibility of allowing the Holy Spirit to draw into our house a treasure of things that have never been seen, heard, or thought before as well as a full testimony of destiny to things that are even antique before our time. We must allow the Holy Spirit to give meaning to the testimony of our family name. God wants for us to have a name that gives glory to Him and it is meant to be a name the reveals our days to be long in the earth.
Matthew 13:52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”
Our path in life is connected to who we are in life and who we are is connected to who others have been before us. The will of God doesn’t come from what we want to do or what we think God wants us to do. It is found in the continuity of our lives. Wisdom, the direction to the future, is connected to who we are. We are the will of God and the things we do in life are connected to who we have become because of the foundations and the ceilings of the past. Our lives are like a highway and they are meant to go somewhere in God.
Proverbs 1:20, 21 Wisdom calls aloud outside; she raises her voice in the open squares. 21 She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city she speaks her words…
The New American Standard Bible uses the word street for outside. In these verses we see that wisdom is found in the street, in the open squares, in the chief concourses, and in the gates of the city. To understand these four things we must compare them to four small creatures described by Solomon in Proverbs chapter 30.
Proverbs 30:24-28 There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer; The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags; The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks; The spider (or lizard) skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings’ palaces.
Wisdom is in the street; it is like an ant. The ant knows what season it is; it knows where it is in life by where it is in the journey of life. Is it winter? Is it summer? It doesn’t need to be told by a commander, it knows where it is in the journey of life. What time is it? What is necessary today? There will be more to do tomorrow, but what is the present season of life? The things that are necessary today are connected to the things that have led to this moment from the past. The things that are necessary today are also connected to the things that will be for the sake of others tomorrow.
Wisdom raises here voice in the open squares; it is like a rock badger in its quest to live. Though the rock badger is small and not considerably strong, it uses its natural environment to get its foods. It builds its home in the crags of the rocks and uses its house as a place of protection and a way of surprising its prey to sustain itself in life. What in the open squares of my life leads to the destiny of God’s glory? What is obviously around me and can serve me in my role in the destiny of life? Some of the obvious things are the things that have been established in our surroundings by the work of others.
Wisdom cries out in the chief concourses; it is like the locust. The locust realizes that if it lives in close relationship with other locusts it can do impossible things. What relationships are in my life? How do those relationships serve the purpose of who I am. Who am I joined to? My direction forward is connected to the relationships given to me in life. My relationships in life are part of my inheritance in life. Those relationships are meant to lead to others even as Paul told Timothy to find faithful men who would be able to teach others also.
2 Timothy 2:1, 2 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
God is a multigenerational God. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Israel. He is the God of Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also. Everything in life is connected to others.
Wisdom speaks at the gates in the city; it is like a spider or a lizard. The spider or lizard are small, but they are faithful with what they can grasp hold of and they end up in influential places. Their influence in the city comes from their personal abilities. Those abilities are part of who they are and they are merely faithful with what is in front of them. What are my abilities and how am I being faithful today with what is directly in front of me. This will lead to my journey of influence in life. My abilities were given to me for advancing God’s glory in the earth!
God is not scattered in His strategies. Wisdom is found in the street. It is found in the continuity of the path that God has been leading what has been given to me in life. Wisdom is found in the environment I am suited for. That is the environment that has been entrusted to me by God. It is found in the place that I have been given to live. It is in the open square. Wisdom is found in relationships, my journey in life is connected to others. Those others are not just the friendships of my life, but they are the relationships of inheritance from the past and those connecting to the future. I am not to be alone. Wisdom is found through my abilities. It is not in something I am not created or equipped to do. It is found in the place of the responsibility given to me today.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
