Daily Huddle - Tue May 14, 2019 A Wise Son

Love you all, praying for you.   
 
God invited me yesterday…  Proverbs 13:1  A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a mocker does not listen to rebuke.  To heed is to listen intelligently with a predisposed heart to obey.  Not listening is a mocker, one with disdain for authority and His Word – it’s of little value to him.  Not heeding makes you a mocker.  So why do mockers not heed?  I’m sure while some hear and reject what God says, perhaps most don’t heed because they don’t hear.  They are not paying attention. They never pause to consider, or ask, or seek, they are too preoccupied pursuing their foolish self-serving path (even busy doing “good things”) They aren’t predisposed to obey, they are pre-disposed to ignore.  Ignore enough and you won’t even know you are ignoring.  One choice to not obey is an easier choice next time.  Make obedience a habit.   If nothing else, to sharpen your ears.  The wise son not only is disposed in his heart to obey (put there by his own mouth) but he obeys as a habit, and He is constantly looking for, seeking,  the next instruction from His Father – so he will never – “not listen or not hear.”  Ask and you will receive.  You don’t even have to wait for God to come and instruct you.  Just ask for instruction right now.  Get His current instruction, and Do It right now!   To heed – listen intelligently with a pre-disposed heart to obey – is a mindset and a heart set that you have to maintain.  PRISM will help you do this.  PiVAT before dinner will help you do this – especially check in with Him throughout the day – every change of activity – Praise Him – and double check that you are still on track.  He loves the close communication.  A wise son – makes heeding a habit – before He needs it! 
 
Be careful – Heeding is not permanent – it must be pursued.  Just cause you did, doesn’t mean you will.  II Chronicles 14-16 tells an incredible story of starting strong but falling away.  Asa King of Judah – served God with his whole heart.  He broke down the foreign altars in the land, removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones.  He even deposed his own grandmother for building an Asherah pole.  He basically made Judah covenant with God to follow His ways.  When the Cushites came against him with an overwhelming army, this is what Asa prayed.  “LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty.  Help us, O LORD or God, for we rely on you, and in your Name we have come against this vast army.  O LORD, you are our God, do not let man prevail against you.”  God answered by utterly destroying the enemy that came against him.  God was pleased and encouraged Asa,  “Be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”   How do you make heeding your Father’s Instruction permanent?  Don’t give up seeking Him, always stay close –  so you get the instruction from your Father that others don’t – cause they’re not around!  Seek His instruction right now. 
 
There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.”  Think about that - God gave them peace – 20 plus years!  Then in the 35th year of Asa’s reign -  Baasha King of Israel comes against him.  And the next verse was mind-numbing…  I Chron 16:2 Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram… Let there be a treaty between me and you, he said… break your treaty with Baasha King of Israel so he will withdraw from me. “  Are you kidding me?  You’re giving God’s gold to a foreign king to help you?   The Word of the LORD came to Asa -   v7  “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.  Were not the Cushities and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen?  Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand…  You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”  Asa got so angry he put the prophet in prison.  Then in the 39th year of his reign he was afflicted with a disease in his feet.  V12 says.  “Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from physicians.”    
 
What happened to this guy?  One day He is trusting God fully against overwhelming odds, and just a few years later he falls off the wagon.  What happened?  He lost the habit of heeding his Father’s Instruction – He lost the habit of seeking Him for the next instruction that God had for him.  A king once wise – became foolish.  A wise son heeds his Father’s Instruction – because He stays near His Father’s Instruction – He stays near His Father.   If there is no great crisis in your life right now – now is the time to heed – before you need it.  Now is the time to seek before you need it!  So when the day comes – God’s power is displayed even greater than before.  He will take you from glory to glory.
 
Praying for you that heeding will become a habit – because seeking is your habit.  Praying that PiVAT will direct you in His Instruction for you – that PRISM will reveal His heart for you, and His wisdom for you.  Seek Him today – Ask for His Instruction – you’ll make heeding a habit, like wise sons do - so His blessing will come on you - for life! 
 
Love you all,
dad