Defining

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The great teacher Derek Prince once did a series of sermons he called "Agreeing With God."
It's stayed with me over 40 years.

His point was, as scripture says, that none of us can walk with God, except we agree with God
(Amos 3:3).

Agree, first of all, in His Authority to choose the path.  Which is where we all first stumble, and
in different ways and forms, keep stumbling.

His sermons talked about how to get past that: and they all came down to thinking as God thinks.

One sermon I remember was about thinking in God's categories.  But the one that most shaped
my thinking to this day was about thinking in God's definitions: latching on to the certainty (as I
always put it) that "what God says anything is, it absolutely is."

We've all had the frustration of talking with someone at seeming cross-purposes, to eventually
discover what they meant by (for example) "mercy" was entirely different than what we meant
by that word.

If we don't want to talk at cross-purposes with God, we have to adapt His...not our own, not our
nation's, not our faction's...meanings.  Disciplining our thinking in that way is why we read the
Bible: that's where God tells us His definitions.

Some are straight equivalencies.  Because God made truth a central part of my thinking, I have
worked to train my mind in Jesus' affirmation that "...I AM...the truth" (John 14:6).  There couldn't
be a more absolute statement of what...of Who...truth is.  It's seldom I hear the word "truth," in
any context, without reflexively thinking "Jesus."

I John 3:4 is just as clear in defining sin: "...sin is lawlessness."  That's one I'm still working to
make my automatic and immediate definition.  And that process, I should say, convinces me that
knowing God's definitions doesn't end our thinking about a matter so much as it focuses and
greatly deepens our understanding of what God's saying.

But not all the Bible's definitions are presented in straight equivalences.  Reading with a desire
to know His definitions, God shows them to us in various ways.

One I'd call inferential.  It takes a little meditation, for example, to understand that Isaiah 53:6a
is a definition of sin: "All we like sheep have gone astray, Each of us turned to his own way..."
But if we consider that "gone astray" is a common Biblical trope for sin, we can readily see that
God says sin is "turning to our own way."

The bonus-points for working through this verse to God's definition is that it underlies His prophecy
of Christ, His remedy for sin.  And Isaiah broadens and deepens our understanding of how"lawless-
ness" operates in our own lives, by our choice to "turn to our own way."

I recently came across another of God's definitions: one I've read hundreds of times, and didn't "see"
as a definition.

"Wisdom" is another of those key concepts God's impressed on my mind over the years.  I can still
remember the Sunday afternoon I was laying on my bed, reading James 1, when the reality of verse 5
smacked me HARD: "...if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and
without reproach, and it will be given to him."

I remember the excitement of knowing that verse applied to ME...and that God guaranteed He'd
give me wisdom...and all I had to do was ask.  So I did.

The years since, I've had to come to a working definition of "wisdom"...how else would I recognize
it to thank God for it ?  With apologies to Spike Lee, I settled on "wisdom is knowing how to do
the right thing."

Close.  But scripture's definition is better, once I saw it in Ephesians 5:15-17:

" Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time,
because the days are evil.  So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

Wise men show wisdom by making the most of their time.  The most we can ever do is please God:
and we please Him when we do righteousness ("the right thing").  We are foolish, and our lives are 
futile, if we do not"understand what the will of the Lord is."  Wisdom is understanding God's will.

I'm sure God has more to say about what wisdom is.  If I pay attention, I can look forward to learning
more of His counsel.  Meanwhile He's working this portion of His meaning into my operative under-
standing, so I can better, more deliberately and with less stumbling, walk with Him.

I agree with God that that's what we both want.  Amen !