THOSE WHO PROVED TO BE WISER THAN GOD

1. “TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, And lean not on your own understanding;
2. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
3. DO NOT BE WISE IN YOUR OWN EYES; Fear the LORD and depart from evil.”
   Proverbs 3:5-7 (NKJV)

• One of the reasons why people fail in life and ministry is because they tend to lean on their own understanding.
IF you are wise in your own eyes, God will allow you to use your wisdom.
GOD will only do whatever you allow Him to do in your life.

• Some have moved God out of their lives through worldly wisdom—craftiness (James 3:15).
  IF you proved that you are wise, God will allow you to continue in your way.

• Take note: If you like deceiving others, cutting corners, lying, cheating, manipulating things to favour you; you believe you are smart and clever—God will allow you to have your way.
THE truth is that doing such things, being wise in your own eyes and leaning on your own understanding, would not allow God to have His way in your life—He would not have a free hand to operate in your life.

• You cannot receive God’s blessings in the full by being deceptive (James 3:15).
  THERE are things that God would want or like to do in the affairs of your life, but you could through craftiness or worldly wisdom pushed Him aside in the matter.
  IF you try to help God in your matters, you may always have the consequences of sorrow to bear later in life.

• Sarah wanted to help God in bringing God’s promise of having a child to fulfilment, she enjoined her husband to sleep with her maid, to get what she wanted—baby. Butthe whole plan later worked against her (Genesis 16:1-4).
THE same maid began to deride her, looked her with contempt.
She had to drive the maid and her son away in frustration (Genesis 16:5,6; 21:9-10).
SHE brought the problem on herself and the whole world through her plan to help God.She wanted to be smart and help God.

• Jacob also deceived his brother to collect the birthright from him (Genesis 25:29-34).
HE used what he had, food, to manipulate his Brother, in order to collect the birthright from him.
HE took advantage of his brother’s need to collect what he had long coveted to get.

• Jacob also deceived his father, listened to his mother’s counsel, and collected the blessing meant for his brother, Esau (Genesis 27:5-29).
  HE ran away from his Brother, that he might not to kill him, but he met another person who is craftier than himself, Laban, who deceived him, enslaved him, and oppressed him.

1. "And you know that with all my might I have served your father.
2. "YET YOUR FATHER [Laban] HAS DECEIVED ME AND CHANGED MY WAGES TEN TIMES, but God did not allow him to hurt me."
   Genesis 31:6,7 (NKJV)

• Jacob lived with the consequences of all he did to his brother and father for the rest of his life.

• His children also deceived him, they consented to sell their brother, Joseph, into slavery and told him a lie that the boy had been devoured by a wild beast (Genesis 37:23-35).
  HE wept and mourned, and yet they did not tell him the truth (Genesis 37:34,35).
  HE was a fugitive, dodging his brother, he did not want to meet with him, because of the fear that he, Esau, might kill him (Genesis 32:9-12).
  HE lived in that fear and terror until he had an encounter with God (Genesis 32:22-31).

• If you always think you are wise and smart, you always want to prove that you are wise, outsmart other people; by doing this you can rule God out of your life.

• What Jacob used craftiness to collect was his by divine arrangement (Romans 9:11-13).

1. “(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, THAT THE PURPOSE OF GOD ACCORDING TO ELECTION MIGHT STAND, NOT OF WORKS BUT OF HIM WHO CALLS),
2. it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”
3. As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
   Romans 9:11-13 (NKJV)

• God had told their mother, Rebecca, that the older son will serve the younger (Genesis 25:23).
• Jacob should have allowed God to bring His Word to pass without using craftiness and deception to collect the birthright and the blessing.

• If you like using crafts and deceit to get things, know that you will move God out of your life.
IF you know how to get what you want, God may not bother to help you, He would allow you to use your deceptive wisdom.

• The counsel is, you should allow God in all your ways: trust in Him with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; always acknowledge God in all you want to do, and He will direct, make smooth or straight, your paths (Proverbs 3:5,6).

1. "Thus says the LORD:
   "LET NOT THE WISE MAN GLORY IN HIS WISDOM, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
2. BUT LET HIM WHO GLORIES GLORY IN THIS, THAT HE UNDERSTANDS AND KNOWS ME, THAT I AM THE LORD, exercising loving kindness, judgement [justice], and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD."
   Jeremiah 9:23,24 (NKJV)

• You will not fail in Jesus’ name.
Peace!